Joko Re-Introduction, YAJ/Akiba Shopping Service Offer (CLOSED as of 8/21/23)

[djsheep]

Invited me to step inside.

My mate stepped in without taking his shoes off. Homeboy lost it… gaijins man!

That guy’s cool though. I could imagine him sizing people up on camera. It’s one of those places you have to pretty much ask what you want. I was carrying a wants list last time I went. Helped me not only find what I wanted, but also gave store owners a point of reference to recommend similar things or tell me other stores to check. The two guys at MAK are the friendliest of the bunch in Akiba.

G-Front has so much good stuff stashed in the back, arts, posters, etc. btw.

I dealt with TRY but I had to call them, place the order, arrange the perfect money in cash and only then was I let in. That place is worth going to for sure, it’s one of the craziest collections of PCBs I have ever seen.

 

[Joko3]

Who’s got deep pockets?

 

[Joko3]

The first three orders have been shipped out. A service fee now applies.

Is it possible to move this thread to a more appropriate place, or should I start a new one?

 

[djsheep]

@Darksoft — perhaps it’s worth moving/pinning this at the top of the sales forum. We can’t get better here than our own personal proxy service in Japan!

 

[Joko3]

During my winter break (starting December 24) I will be making a Google Sheet that has the inventories of several popular stores translated into English. For example, MAK will get updated every Friday when the new PDF is released. Beep! will get updated several times a week. I'll keep them as fresh as I can.

 

[Darksoft]

I can pin this thread, but will have to move it to the sales sections, I guess. Let me check with @Mitsurugi-w @brizzo

 

[kazuo]

Yeah I think this has veered far off into being a sales thread and should probably be moved or split out (if that's possible).

BTW @Kavas, I think you may be thinking of "Friends", and not an Arcade PCB shop. G-Front used to be in the same building as Friends (or right next door), so I can see how the confusion might've happened. Friends is well-known to have staff (notably the old lady's son) who are pretty rude to foreigners. The old lady is quite friendly in my experience though. I personally haven't had any trouble with the son, but YMMV and your experience will probably be worse if you don't know Japanese.

Anyway, back on topic - what are the fees for online purchases?

 

[Joko3]

Yeah I think this has veered far off into being a sales thread and should probably be moved or split out (if that's possible).

BTW @Kavas, I think you may be thinking of "Friends", and not an Arcade PCB shop. G-Front used to be in the same building as Friends (or right next door), so I can see how the confusion might've happened. Friends is well-known to have staff (notably the old lady's son) who are pretty rude to foreigners. The old lady is quite friendly in my experience though. I personally haven't had any trouble with the son, but YMMV and your experience will probably be worse if you don't know Japanese.

Anyway, back on topic - what are the fees for online purchases?

3400 yen (2 hours at 1700 per hour) for most purchases. This includes ordering, inspection, gathering shipping supplies, repacking, and going down to the post office.

Something stupidly expensive like a Cave board will require a lot of Japanese banking as a foreigner fun, so the fee will be higher.

Detailed terms and conditions coming soon.

 

[thomas3184]

Was looking for an aes with two sticks. After talking, we set a budget of $400 and $150 for shipping.

He picked up a console and a spare stick. After testing, he showed me there was noise over rgb. He attempted to return it though the shop refused as composite looked fine.

Since that was the case, he offerred to reflow solder or perform rgb fix on it and warned me that I might lose composite which I was fine with. As backup, he had his personal aes he offered to sell me if it went south but was pretty confident he would be able to fix it.

In the end, he fixed the problem and cleaned the console since he already had it open for good measure. We stayed in budget even after train fare. Packaging was great, essentially double boxed and individually bubble wrapped.

Additionally, he provided some seimitsu balls to replace the cracked ones as they are all cracked. Recommended a cheap aes cartridge, ended up getting samsho for $25, and provided additional information on rgb cables, cleaning, and psu upgrade for future reference.

It really just felt like my buddy was picking stuff up for me while he was at the store. I trusted his judgment and pricing, but he provided itemized receipt with scans of actual purchase receipts if you are in doubt. Lots of pictures and videos as well.

Being one of his first customers, he waived his service fees which came out to about $40, but I gladly paid it anyways.

 

[TodoRojo]

Just coming by to say thank you. This is such a kind service for you to offer!

 

[nem]

I needed some arcade hardware. I found it on Suruga-ya for a decent price. I contacted Joko3 if he could order it for me. He told me he can.

He made the order, sent me pics of it when it arrived, quoted me different postage options, repackaged it to better survive the trip from Japan to Finland, and then took it to the post office. Very good communications throughout the deal and he made me a detailed breakdown of the costs and fees involved including scans of receipts.

I received the package today and I have the hardware already in use here. Very happy with the deal and will definitely use Joko3's services again when I need something from Japan.

Many thanks!

 

[Darksoft]

Good info. Thanks @nem

 

[doozer]

Just received my first package from @Joko3. It was packed with care, with everything individually bubble wrapped and the non-essential items discarded as per my instructions (wooden mounting panel).

Great communication through out the entire process. Highly recommend!

 

[Joko3]

Thank you everyone for the feedback so far.

The country will be essentially shut down for new years so I won't be taking any orders until January 10. @djsheep order will be the last to go out until then. I'm almost done writing the terms and conditions based on my experiences so far. People I've actually shipped to have been very polite and easy to deal with, a couple of other people not so much. I won't mention names, so please don't ask.

FYI, I have my first Yahoo Japan Auctions black list seller. The user name is "omotyamicke". Story below.

Spoiler

This was for an item that I was buying for my personal use. This seller canceled my bid after the auction ended within 48 hours and attempted to give me negative feedback. The auction ended on Christmas Eve in the middle of the night, and I had family stuff to do on Christmas Day. I attempted to pay the morning of the 26th and couldn't do so, because the seller canceled the transaction, stating only "seller convenience". My guess is that he was 1) not happy that the auction ended cheap and 2) not happy he didn't get paid instantly after the auction ended. The auction clearly stated that there was a 72-hour deadline to start the payment process, and then one week to pay after that process is started. I was paying by credit card so it would have been paid right away the morning of the 26th. The guy has multiple negative feedbacks stating similar stories, some bids canceled within 24 hours. Guess this guy hasn't heard of the concept of putting your minimum price as the auction start price. Anyway, I won't buy from this guy. The fact that he didn't message me and instantly tried to give me negative feedback for no reason lands him on my black list.

 

[Lswanson1049]

Another +1 to Joko's services.

Great communication each step of the way, got a prompt refund when I initially lost my first auction without having to ask. He had attempted to alert me of a bid snipe in the last half hour, but the auction ended at 2 am for me and was already asleep. When we did end up winning the 2nd auction, it came promptly, and well packaged (double packaged). I love the tape this man uses, comes off so cleanly and its more soothing than bubble wrap popping.

Even if you manage to find a reseller or proxy service in Japan that will actually put in the same effort he does, Joko often offers offers a unique perspective on median prices and what to expect vs the english online marketplace/japanese stores/yaj for some of the more commonly requested items.

Will be back for multiple items.

 

[SNK-NEO-GEO]

I don’t know how I missed this tread..but following

 

[Joko3]

Example of how I pack. This Death Smiles set was bubble wrapped again in pink bubble wrap (over the clear wrap) and placed back in the shipping box. The artwork was the double bubble wrapped and placed on top. Shipping box sealed. Then, the additional item (a 68000 add on) was placed on top and everything was bubble wrapped again. An extra two layers was placed over the 68000 item. All of this will now go into an external box I will locate tomorrow. Any extra space will be filled with Japanese newspaper so the recipient can catch up on their horse racing results.

Edit: please see third picture to see that the bubbled artwork is setting on top the bubble wrapped box. I want that collectors box to arrive cherry!

 

[Joko3]

CPS2 prepped for shipping. First I made a nice pocket of pink bubble wrap for it to slip into. I then put a thicker bubble sheet on the flat part of the board, and then wrapped it two more times in pink bubble wrap. It then went into the box that had two thicker sheets of bubble wrap at the bottom. The sides were packed with some air cushions and Japanese newspaper. The Beep! shopping bag and promo calendar was then bubble wrapped and placed on top. Box sealed.

 

[Miaomiao]

Could you let me know how to ship candy cabs from Japan when you find it out?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Joko3]

Could you let me know how to ship candy cabs from Japan when you find it out?

Thanks a lot!

I probably won't be doing that for about another year. I want to obtain a second-hand goods dealer license and have everything official before I even think about dealing with stuff that big/expensive. At that point, you can't really claim you're just sending stuff to friends anymore.