Sorry if I'm posting this to the wrong subforum. I searched and couldn't find any mention of it other than that the site existed on here. I noticed that Rakuten is promoting that many of their stores now ship to the US. I know they've been doing this for at least a few months. They also have an auction portion but this is not included in the automatic machine translation, so I'm not sure if they also have a policy about shipping internationally.
I just got paid so I'm doing a test order from a seller on there. I got about 14 Famicom and Disk system games (about half and half) for about $100 including shipping. Took about 2 hours to get a shipping notification. Only about 2000 yen for EMS shipping for everything. The shipping price does vary by seller, so make sure you check which seller you use.
Anyway, I'm going to let you guys know when I receive my order how the complete experience was. You can find their US site here: http://global.rakuten.com/us/ (http://global.rakuten.com/us/) if you're interested in browsing around. They also have several localized versions for other countries at the bottom. The only difficulty I could foresee someone having is that when you go through their "Quick Checkout" it doesn't automatically assume from your address that you are an international customer. Make sure you select International shipping. Otherwise the experience was smooth. Another thing you'll want to pay attention to is that different stores accept different methods of payment. Most seem to accept VISA/Mastercard/Etc. or Paypal, though.
The main thing is that it's just nice to be able to order from a Japanese site without a middleman.
So, I received my order from the Rakuten store "gamepara." If you search for famicom stuff, you will find results from them almost guaranteed. They are one of the bigger retro gaming stores on there. As I have more experiences with other stores on this site, I'll continue to update this thread. Eventually I hope to make a full review on my blog that consists of these posts.
As far as I'm concerned at this point, I will definitely buy from gamepara again. One thing you will need to note when buying from Rakuten: shipping is not included on the initial invoice when you pay for your shopping cart. After selecting international shipping, you can review the specific store's policy (it may be in Japanese) to get a general idea what you'll be paying. The shipping will be added on and charged to your credit card with the total amount of goods once the store has prepared the order. When you order from gamepara, you have only one option for shipping if you live outside of Japan, which is EMS (Global Express).
One nice thing about gamepara is that their shipping gets cheaper the more you purchase. It starts at about ¥2500 and every ¥5000 you spend it gets ¥500 cheaper, until eventually shipping is free. So, if you've got a lot to buy, it's better to buy it all together. They shipped the package within hours of my order. They communicated with me every step of the way, mostly with automated replies as steps were completed in Japanese, though they did send a personal message in English when the item shipped. With the Japanese emails, Google or Bing's translate tool helped me enough to know what was going on.
It came in a cardboard box (much better than the manila envelopes I've gotten from other places.) Everything came wrapped in bubble wrap. Everything is clean, and most of the disk game cases are in pretty good shape. It also came with a notice in Japanese that basically showed how to clean your famicom cartridges... with Japanese brand products of course. A few of the disks are in immaculate condition. Doki Doki Panic has no save game on it.. Everything seems to be what it says it is (knock on wood, I haven't tested everything.) I didn't order any Famicom game that included a box, but some games with boxes are available.
So, I had a great experience. I picked up a bunch of games that I wanted to get in one fell swoop rather than piece by piece over Ebay. Things were much cheaper on Rakuten overall versus their US counterparts. I don't think any game I picked up was much more than ¥1000. The only place that I've ever found Famicom games cheaper is Rising Stuff.
Unfortunately, I can imagine that there would be a few problems for some people. It may be hard and expensive to arrange for returns (and therefore pointless to do them) if you get a misshipped item or if you get a disk that's been copied over. Rakuten itself uses google translate to translate the auctions into English, so sometimes the meaning of a phrase can be shrouded in mystery. If I was a collector who wanted games that had been graded, I would stay away from Rakuten. Rakuten seems more geared towards people who want to play games rather than collect them. There is no grading on the product, and there aren't that many games on any Rakuten store that I saw that include the box and manual. If the box is included, they tend to show a picture of the box instead of a picture of the cartridge. Still, you may find the odd hidden gem. I do like that they're more geared towards the gamer than the collector and I hope it stays that way. It's nice to have an option over buying the $40 A+ perfect condition version of a game you'd just like to play.Also, if you live in the US, the conversion rate favors the yen, not the dollar at the moment. These are all just warnings. I had no problems with my order whatsoever. I do recommend people use them as an option.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/xp37k4.jpg)
(Bigger version here http://i54.tinypic.com/30cc0hc.jpg (http://i54.tinypic.com/30cc0hc.jpg))
Thanks for all the info on this site. I'm going to check it out now. Dunno that I'll be buying anything tho, since I tend to do most of my shopping from Rising Stuff or a couple of Ebay sellers, and if it's games for me I tend to want boxes at least. Always nice to see more places to buy Japanese items from tho. Wonder how they're dealing with the new announcement regarding shipping to the US tho? I guess your purchase wouldn't matter since EMS under a pound is fine, but anything over that is unshippable.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 18, 2010, 09:45:30 am
Thanks for all the info on this site. I'm going to check it out now. Dunno that I'll be buying anything tho, since I tend to do most of my shopping from Rising Stuff or a couple of Ebay sellers, and if it's games for me I tend to want boxes at least. Always nice to see more places to buy Japanese items from tho. Wonder how they're dealing with the new announcement regarding shipping to the US tho? I guess your purchase wouldn't matter since EMS under a pound is fine, but anything over that is unshippable.
Hey, I'm glad you liked it. That's why I put the warning that people who want the box would be less likely to find something here. What announcement are you talking about? I haven't seen anything. I actually just received a Twin Famicom a couple of weeks ago via EMS from Japan and it was I'm sure over a pound.
Japan is restricting packages to the US to be under a certain weight (less than a Famicom) due to recent terror attempts via airmail. It went into effect as of November 17th as far as I know.
Quote from: nintendodork on November 18, 2010, 12:33:33 pm
Japan is restricting packages to the US to be under a certain weight (less than a Famicom) due to recent terror attempts via airmail. It went into effect as of November 17th as far as I know.
Oh, thanks. I looked it up and apparently anyone with an account with Japan Post is unaffected by this. So, basically it won't affect some stores that do mail order as long as they have a Japan Post account. Individuals who ship will have issues.. Rakuten's stores as far as I know are actual stores, so I wonder if they will be affected. If someone were to order from an auction that shipped internationally and not use a middleman service that had a Japan Post account, there's an issue. Also, if you had a friend in Japan who shipped you things, again, there would probably be a problem.
From http://www.majiroxnews.com/2010/11/13/japan-post-to-stop-parcels-to-us/ (http://www.majiroxnews.com/2010/11/13/japan-post-to-stop-parcels-to-us/):
"Private consumers will be affected by this ban, however individuals and businesses with JPO commercial accounts will not be affected."
Thanks again for the heads up. It's good to know! Hopefully this ban is just temporary. This is sort of stupid. It's basically saying "Yeah, the terrorists win. We'll stop all mail over a pound just on the slim possibility that something happens and comes from Japan of all places." Like DRM, it's going to do nothing to hurt the people who want to do harm, only make the lives of the people who actually need the service harder.
Man those carts look so good! I'm putting in an order tonight! (if I can smooth talk my gf to borrow me her credit card ::) )
Oh, and thanks for the very detailed and informative post botulismo. I'm not ever really comfortable to shop online unless I know of some one who has done it before and has had no problems :)
You're very welcome Kiddo. I realized I could just put a link to the specific store I bought from on here. http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=gamepara&l=en&vm=2 (http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=gamepara&l=en&vm=2) There you go. Of course there are other stores, but if you are going to buy from the same one I did there you go. Make sure you sign up for an account. I hope you have as good of luck as I do. Also, I'm sure people would like to hear about your experiences too.
Another thing I should have mentioned is that everything came wrapped in cellophane. It was definitely a nice touch and something I'm not used to.
I am composing a buy order from Rakuten as we speak :D
One question: When buying Famicom games from Japan. Isn't there a 100% chance that they will be in japanese?
I was thinking about buying Final fantasy 1 & 2. But then I thought that if they are in japanese I would have no use for them since they are very story driven.
EDIT: I am talking about this game http://en.item.rakuten.com/gamepara/4961012931019/
Wow ... thank you very much for letting us know about these shops! I was near pulling my hair out trying to find ways to avoid paying so much for stuff on Yahoo Japan auctions (shipping + middleman fees... ughhhhh!!)
I'm looking at Gamepara's stuff as I'm typing this... maybe will place an order tonight! :D
Final fantasy will be in japanese yes so i wouldnt bother,most famicom games and many other retro games can be played fine with no knowledge of japanese becouse the games are so simple and not text heavy.
Post Merge: November 19, 2010, 04:13:58 pm
Thanks a lot for introducing the site,i may place an order before christmas,some things look pretty cheap!
Holy shit... I just spent 5 hours on the gamepara site and I put in an order for over 60 games 8)
That's great that you guys are all finding what you're looking for!
Also, some Japanese Nintendo games still have English text for some reason. Of course, these are often the games that really wouldn't matter if they had English or Japanese. Like the Japanese Super Mario Brothers 1+2 both have all English text, even when you get to the Princess and she speaks.
I think this may be because they are releases of arcade games. Not sure though. It seems to correspond pretty well though.
I would say avoid RPGs, consider everything else. A more action adventure than RPG game like Zelda you can get through with just a guide or just trial and error.
Just leave some games for me :D haha
QuoteOne nice thing about gamepara is that their shipping gets cheaper the more you purchase. It starts at about ¥2500 and every ¥5000 you spend it gets ¥500 cheaper, until eventually shipping is free. So, if you've got a lot to buy, it's better to buy it all together.
So... *quickly calculates* ... does that mean that the minimum order amount would have to be about ¥25,000 in order to get free shipping? :o
Or am I wrong? :D
But hey, ¥2500 for shipping isn't as bad as what I had to pay for other things I got from Japan!
Quote from: Yukima on November 19, 2010, 09:45:36 pm
QuoteOne nice thing about gamepara is that their shipping gets cheaper the more you purchase. It starts at about ¥2500 and every ¥5000 you spend it gets ¥500 cheaper, until eventually shipping is free. So, if you've got a lot to buy, it's better to buy it all together.
So... *quickly calculates* ... does that mean that the minimum order amount would have to be about ¥25,000 in order to get free shipping? :o
Or am I wrong? :D
But hey, ¥2500 for shipping isn't as bad as what I had to pay for other things I got from Japan!
Actually, I just noticed, it goes from 990 yen for shipping below 20000 yen to free anywhere above. Here's their shipping price guide:
(http://gyazo.com/b03c9fc9e1b77f24663add7ab131c4c8.png)
Top is order total. Second line is cost for shipping. From what I can understand of their (Japanese) policies, the only time this doesn't apply is in the case of multiple destinations. Also, if it says Free shipping, it doesn't mean free shipping unless you're in Japan.
Just out of curiosity, I haven't made an order since the restriction was put in place, so I have a question. I just barely missed the new shipping restriction with my second (smaller) order to another seller who I'll bring up as soon as I receive my order. Anyway, does anyone happen to know about how much a Famicom game weighs and how much a disk system game (with the plastic case) weighs? Just trying to figure out how much a pound of games is.
Also, other sellers may use the default Rakuten shipping policy which seems better for small orders but gamepara's system works better for larger orders. If anyone's interested in seeing the charge for this (all EMS) check #4 at http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/ (http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/).
QuoteActually, I just noticed, it goes from 990 yen for shipping below 20000 yen to free anywhere above. Here's their shipping price guide:
(http://gyazo.com/b03c9fc9e1b77f24663add7ab131c4c8.png)
Top is order total. Second line is cost for shipping. From what I can understand of their (Japanese) policies, the only time this doesn't apply is in the case of multiple destinations. Also, if it says Free shipping, it doesn't mean free shipping unless you're in Japan.
So, wait - does that mean that the shipping reductions don't apply for international shipping? Is shipping to the US only possible via EMS (assuming the recent restriction doesn't apply)? I'm confused. ???
Thanks for telling me about this site, it looks way more efficient over what I was using before. I'll definately be using this now and If you have an affiliate link I'd be very willing to contribute towards it
Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.
I'm going to reserve this post for answering questions.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 20, 2010, 11:01:22 pm
Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.
Stickers? Well. That's something I would wonder too. Obviously if you can't read the language, it's something you will have to chance. However, I have noticed that there are two versions on gamepara's store on occasion. One with the box pictured and one without. I imagine that they correspond, but I can't guarantee.
Quote from: inergy on November 20, 2010, 08:30:06 am
Thanks for telling me about this site, it looks way more efficient over what I was using before. I'll definately be using this now and If you have an affiliate link I'd be very willing to contribute towards it
Apparently they do have an affiliate system, but it's all in Japanese, so I wouldn't know the first place to set stuff up. I just wanted to let you guys know about a good thing.
Quote from: Yukima on November 20, 2010, 05:39:35 am
So, wait - does that mean that the shipping reductions don't apply for international shipping? Is shipping to the US only possible via EMS (assuming the recent restriction doesn't apply)? I'm confused. ???
This is for all International shipping. Sorry, I just mean that if the item itself says something like "Famicom - FREE SHIPPING" you will not get the free shipping. The reductions happen like they do on the chart for all international shipping. EMS goes to everywhere that takes EMS.
Quote from: Kiddo on November 19, 2010, 06:02:16 pm
Holy shit... I just spent 5 hours on the gamepara site and I put in an order for over 60 games 8)
Wow! That's quite a few. I have to ask, did it start with "I'll find these certain 5 or 10 games" and then balloon up? What's the one thing you bought that you want the most? :D I'd like to see your order when it arrives.
------
Also, I got my stuff from Auc-egames (store here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en (http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en)). I'll do a blurb about them later.
Quote from: botulismo on November 21, 2010, 01:15:48 am
Quote from: Kiddo on November 19, 2010, 06:02:16 pm
Holy shit... I just spent 5 hours on the gamepara site and I put in an order for over 60 games 8)
Wow! That's quite a few. I have to ask, did it start with "I'll find these certain 5 or 10 games" and then balloon up? What's the one thing you bought that you want the most? :D I'd like to see your order when it arrives.
------
Also, I got my stuff from Auc-egames (store here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en (http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en)). I'll do a blurb about them later.
Well, at first I was going to get Megaman 1-6, Zelda 1 and Super mario bros 2 & 3. After those were already in my cart I started browsing and found so many games I remembered from my childhood that I also wanted. Like North & South, Lolo and Double Dragon. I also found sooo many games that cost under a dollar. If I had the slightest interest in it and it was cheap I added it to the cart, hehe. Also I got Akira just because I like the comic book so much but I have no idea what it plays like and on a similar note I got Desert Fox just because the game has a picture of Erwin Rommel on the front :D
I'll let you guys have the complete list when the games arrive, cause frankly I don't remember all the games I ordered and the list they sent me in E-mail is in jibberish, cause my email provider doesn't insert japanese characters so he inserts random letters making the mail untranslateable. I'll be sure to put up some pics as well.
Quote from: botulismo on November 21, 2010, 01:15:48 am
I'm going to reserve this post for answering questions.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 20, 2010, 11:01:22 pm
Did the pictures of those Famicom games you bought show that they had those stickers over them? I'm wondering how accurate the pictures are, and if I can even trust that a game that shows it has the manual or front of box will have that. I'm looking over stuff from some sellers on there and there's some games that are less than a buck. LOL If those aren't disc only that's a heckuva deal.
Stickers? Well. That's something I would wonder too. Obviously if you can't read the language, it's something you will have to chance. However, I have noticed that there are two versions on gamepara's store on occasion. One with the box pictured and one without. I imagine that they correspond, but I can't guarantee.
Yup, like Daiva has a bit one over it's front label. I wouldn't be happy w/ that unless the stickers peeled off easily.
I'm actually interested in buying stuff from Surugaya-a-too. That store seems to have a TON of stuff and some pretty cheap prices on certain games (and rare stuff too). I tried to use a machine translation of the original Japanese page for some of the items, but I'm still confused about condition. LOL I emailed the seller so we'll see if he responds or not. I might just chance it tho, since some of that stuff even as disc only if it's less than a buck +shipping would be a great deal.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 21, 2010, 11:29:02 am
Yup, like Daiva has a bit one over it's front label. I wouldn't be happy w/ that unless the stickers peeled off easily.
I'm actually interested in buying stuff from Surugaya-a-too. That store seems to have a TON of stuff and some pretty cheap prices on certain games (and rare stuff too). I tried to use a machine translation of the original Japanese page for some of the items, but I'm still confused about condition. LOL I emailed the seller so we'll see if he responds or not. I might just chance it tho, since some of that stuff even as disc only if it's less than a buck +shipping would be a great deal.
OH, I see what you mean. Haha, those stickers are on the cellophane wrapped around the cartridges, not on the cartridges themselves. I think it's for their inventory system. I took the picture before I'd unwrapped everything.
Quote from: Kiddo on November 21, 2010, 07:06:34 am
Well, at first I was going to get Megaman 1-6, Zelda 1 and Super mario bros 2 & 3. After those were already in my cart I started browsing and found so many games I remembered from my childhood that I also wanted. Like North & South, Lolo and Double Dragon. I also found sooo many games that cost under a dollar. If I had the slightest interest in it and it was cheap I added it to the cart, hehe. Also I got Akira just because I like the comic book so much but I have no idea what it plays like and on a similar note I got Desert Fox just because the game has a picture of Erwin Rommel on the front :D
Wow! That's quite a lot of fun you've got coming there. I still have yet to play a few of the games that I got. I tested everything out though. I had an error on one of my disk system games, fortunately it was one that I had spent only a dollar or two on and had only bought just because it was there.
I'm going to make a seperate post for the Auc-egames pictures and stuff. I know I should combine posts, but all these questions don't really fit in with it. I'll be making it later tonight or tomorrow though, so hopefully it'll be after someone's reply.
Post Merge: November 22, 2010, 07:53:48 pm
LOOKS LIKE THIS WAS FORCIBLY MERGED, MAKING ONE HUGE GIGANTIC POST. I wish it hadn't done that, because now people are going to think "This is long, I don't want to read it." Can a mod please undo this automerge? I understand why most posts should be combined, but the previous post was about answering questions. This subsequent post is only loosely related.
So, I got my stuff from Auc-egames. You will find their store available here http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en&vm=2 (http://search.borderless.rakuten.com/borderless/search.action?sid=auc-egames&l=en&vm=2). While their service was excellent, their prices are higher than gamepara. The only reason I would imagine that you would buy from Auc-egames over gamepara are if you either wanted something from them that another store didn't have (I bought from them to get Akumajou Dracula II) or if you were buying only one or two things. You may be able to save on shipping in this case because this store uses the standard weight-based pricing system Rakuten has listed on their site http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/#04 (http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/#04) here.
Everything arrived more or less in similar condition as they did with gamepara. Everything was wrapped nicely in cellophane. It came in a standard EMS cardboard envelope instead of a box as it did from gamepara, but that's okay. The only disappointment here was that Akumajou Dracula II was lacking the picture insert in the floppy disk holder. Otherwise everything works and I am happy. I got the game to play it, and that it works is far more important to me, so it's not a huge deal at this point.
Basically, there's few differences in my experience between them and gamepara. Gamepara's prices seem to be better overall, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy anything from Auc-egames if they had what I wanted for the same price or less. They do have some games that gamepara does not carry, so you may find yourself using them if you use Rakuten regularly.
Here's what I got. This order cost about $80 in total, including shipping. Keep in mind that everything is wrapped in cellophane:
(http://i56.tinypic.com/v43w50.jpg)
Larger version here: http://i51.tinypic.com/5leb6b.jpg (http://i51.tinypic.com/5leb6b.jpg)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9011.jpg?t=1290532679)
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Will post more pics and details about my experience soon. For now I have some games to test :D
:o
Holy crud...
I'd love to know how much all that cost... or maybe I don't... :-\
First of all I'd like to say that Rakuten/Gamepara shipping is SUPER fast. I tracked the shipment online and the package was at the custom office in Iceland about 72 hours after I placed the online order. For those that don't know Japan and Iceland are on the opposite sides of the planet. The shipping there for gets an A+ stamp from me.
On how I went about buying them. I was actually only going to buy a few select carts. Those being all the Rockman games, Zelda 1, Lolo, Battletoads, Double Dragon and Super Marion 1 & 2. After those were in my cart I put up a search for Famicom related items worth 1-500 ISK. 177 pages appeared! I browsed through most of them and took what I liked, adding around 55 extra carts to my shopping cart! But those carts were actually just 50% of the total price since I payed a lot more for the ones I went there to get.
So that is why I ordered so many of them :D
The carts came in a cardboard box. All the carts were individually sealed in plastic and then placed in two bubblewrap bags for extra protection.
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9007.jpg?t=1290556139)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9008.jpg?t=1290556139)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9009.jpg?t=1290556139)
Condition of the carts varies. Very few have torn stickers. Some have extra stickers on the back, perhaps from an old video rental store but I can't be sure. A lot of them though have been marked by a marker but there has obviously been some attempt to clean the marker off on most of them.
On the scale of 1-10 I'd say none of them reach below 5 although none of them could count as a 10. Overall the condition is very good and i'd say the average condition is about 8,5.
So I've tested all the games, each for about 1-10 minutes to check if they work.
Out of the 67 games I ordered I have come to this conclusion:
:( 3 are broken and won't work. (Show below)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9016.jpg?t=1290556139)
:-\ 7 require extensive knowledge of the japanese language in order to be played. (Shown below)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9012.jpg?t=1290556139)
:P 5 require some knowledge of japanese to play properly, although they can be played by guessing and/or forgoing the storyline. (Shown below)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9014.jpg?t=1290556139)
:) 52 are not broken and don't require any knowledge in a foreign language to play. (although two of those games did show some glitches and a tendency to freeze, this might be fixed with cleaning them. Shown below)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9017.jpg?t=1290556139)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9018.jpg?t=1290556139)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9019.jpg?t=1290556139)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9020.jpg?t=1290556238)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9021.jpg?t=1290556238)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9022.jpg?t=1290556238)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9023.jpg?t=1290556238)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9024.jpg?t=1290556238)
(http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc508/kristinn_olafur/PICT9025.jpg?t=1290556238)
I only have a problem with the 3 broken ones though since I could have avoided buying games that require knowledge of japanese if I had conducted a more thorough research before buying those games. So that part is on me. The 3 broken games were all if, I remember correctly, priced at 40 yen (the cheapest kind they sell). So I don't feel like I've lost a lot of money but on the other hand I feel the store should check if all games are working before shipping just in case.
Quote from: Yukima on November 23, 2010, 02:34:47 pm
:o
Holy crud...
I'd love to know how much all that cost... or maybe I don't... :-\
All the carts + shipping came down to around 26000 ISK and then when it arrived here the customs office added an extra processing fee and tax for 10000 ISK. So total cost was around 36000 ISK, in USD that is around 300$.
All in all I'm pretty satisfied. I won't be placing an order any time soon since now I have enough to play with but I wouldn't hesitate doing business with Gamepara again :)
Now off to play some Zelda!
I love Lolo! Have fun with your new famicom games!
Some great new games to get (if you ever get tired of those)
would be Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, and Solstice if you can find it!
Can I ask how much shipping was on everyone's orders? I'm planning on making a pretty big purchase, and Im wondering how much I can expect to pay (roughly).
Quote from: cubelmariomadness on November 23, 2010, 04:56:06 pm
I love Lolo! Have fun with your new famicom games!
Some great new games to get (if you ever get tired of those)
would be Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, and Solstice if you can find it!
Thanks! I was looking to get Bubble Bobble, Ice climber and Lolo 2 but the prices on those games were a bit higher then what I am willing to pay for those games. Bubble Bobble was over 10.000 yen, Lolo 2 around 5000 and Ice climber about 3000 if I remember correctly. I've never heard of solstice though might have to check that out later.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 23, 2010, 10:28:50 pm
Can I ask how much shipping was on everyone's orders? I'm planning on making a pretty big purchase, and Im wondering how much I can expect to pay (roughly).
Shipping prices are exactly as botulismo describes above. My order was about 18700 yen so Ipayed 999 yen for shipping. In retrospect I should have just spent extra 1300 yen on more random games for the free shipping. It would only have been extra 300 yen for the total price.
Wowow! Kiddo you got a goldmine of games. You got an amazing lot of stuff from them! I loved looking at everything. Looks like you're back in the Famicom game. Once I get my paycheck in an hour or two maybe I'm going to have to put in a more daring order. :D I would definitely clean the games that are broken or have errors.
Mobius, as long as you buy from gamepara, you will never pay more than 2500 yen for shipping. That's basically what it boils down to. Most other stores seem to use the weight guide for shipping.
THey have some pretty amazing stuff there, that's for shit sure. I saw a Game Boy game that I paid $100 to someone just to complete my collection after spending almost a year looking on Ebay with no results, so I had to contact someone at cheapassgamer to get the game. Now, I see the game at Rakuten for just $10 :o :o. What game? Pokonyan for the Game Boy... i needed it to complete my SGB musics collection. I hope to buy this copy soon, also.
How much is it normally worth?...
Quote from: botulismo on November 24, 2010, 02:08:53 pm
Mobius, as long as you buy from gamepara, you will never pay more than 2500 yen for shipping. That's basically what it boils down to. Most other stores seem to use the weight guide for shipping.
I kind of had to use the store I did b/c I was looking for a special order for a customer (Shining Force 3 scenario 2) and I found them at that particular shop. Weird thing is, the search engine doesn't seem to work too well b/c I don't get ANY results when typing in Shining Force even tho there are a lot of listings for the various SF games. I've found that w/ many games I'm looking for. Not sure if there's any work around for it either.
Quote from: nintendodork on November 24, 2010, 05:22:04 pm
How much is it normally worth?...
Not a clue. It is rare in line with Nekketsu Beach volleyball.
Quote from: mobiusclimber on November 24, 2010, 09:26:01 pm
I kind of had to use the store I did b/c I was looking for a special order for a customer (Shining Force 3 scenario 2) and I found them at that particular shop. Weird thing is, the search engine doesn't seem to work too well b/c I don't get ANY results when typing in Shining Force even tho there are a lot of listings for the various SF games. I've found that w/ many games I'm looking for. Not sure if there's any work around for it either.
Try typing in the names of the games in kanji/hiragana/katakana. You're more likely to get exact results that way even though the site's in English, weirdly enough... I actually look up the wikipedia articles on the games I'm looking for and/or Google them, and then copy/paste the kanji into the Rakuten search (since I can't figure out how to type any Japanese at all)
Yeah, I've found that 99% of the time if you use hiragana or katakana or kanji, you can get what you're looking for. Do exactly what Yukima said. It didn't work on doki doki panic. Thankfully, typing in famicom disk finds all the famicom disk system games. Even typing out the romanized version of the japanese game is likely to work too!
One thing I have noticed is that the translation often times automatically translates game titles into the actual American release title. Akumajou Dorakyura? No. Castlevania. Dragon Quest? No. Dragon Warrior! Even Famicom becomes NES.
This site is an amazing find, in my opinion. So much awesome stuff that you often can't find on Ebay. Maybe we should keep it a secret,... or else they might run out of games or raise prices. ::)
Quote from: botulismo on November 24, 2010, 11:39:07 pm
One thing I have noticed is that the translation often times automatically translates game titles into the actual American release title. Akumajou Dorakyura? No. Castlevania. Dragon Quest? No. Dragon Warrior! Even Famicom becomes NES.
I think that's b/c they use Google translate, which gets "better" as more people suggest "proper" translations for things, to the point where games get the Americanized version of their names. (Noticed this when using it to navigate a pirate Famicom game list, it would translate into the American title instead of an actual translation of the words, 9 times out of 10. Only a couple weren't exact and that's probably b/c of pirate game company mistranslation.)
I just got a message from gamepara. Apparently the restriction does affect their shipment to the USA, unfortunately.
This is a sad sad day. :'(
*headdesk*
So... how many Famicom carts does 16 ounces add up to? :'(
Quote from: Yukima on November 25, 2010, 09:31:24 am
*headdesk*
So... how many Famicom carts does 16 ounces add up to? :'(
Not sure how much an ounce is but I weighed my pirates before ordering and came to the conclusion that the average famicom cart weight is around 50 grams. But then some carts are more heavier than others, especially if they have internal batteries to support a save mode and such.
They can always break your order up into smaller shipments.
I made an order and am attempting to get them to ship via Seamail. They initially said they were cancelling my order but I sent a request for seamail and they said they are looking into it. They will still ship things under 454 grams via EMS, too. This is just to the US, so don't be afraid if you live anywhere else. We shall see how this proceeds.
It sort of sucks that Rakuten doesn't allow for shipment to a third party. I would ship it to a friend in Canada if I could.
A small update on the batch I bought a few weeks ago.
I reported that 3 of the games came broken and unplayable. After cleaning them with an alcahol solution and q-tips, 2 of them started working! Those were Astro Boy and Arkanoid II, but I get no signal from the third one, not even glitches.
Also my SMB3 game seems to be a little glitchy and tends to freeze up. Which is too bad cause it was one of the more "expensive" carts I bought and also because it's the only game (so far) that I've gotten my girlfriend to play with me.
Just wanted to add this to the thread in case some one will use it as a guide to shop from Rakuten.
The store I put in (two!) orders with is having problems billing my credit card. I'm going to have to go to the bank and see if I can figure out what's going on. I'm getting 35~40 for a little over $200 shipped. I'll let you guys know how it goes. :)
Quote from: mobiusclimber on December 07, 2010, 02:09:41 pm
The store I put in (two!) orders with is having problems billing my credit card. I'm going to have to go to the bank and see if I can figure out what's going on. I'm getting 35~40 for a little over $200 shipped. I'll let you guys know how it goes. :)
I had a somewhat similar experience recently when I put in an order from a Rakuten shop (first time order!) using my debit card... and ended up with a call from my bank saying that my card was charged twice. :o Seems that Rakuten shops charge debit cards twice in order to check for the card's validity, and the second charge ends up getting dropped after a few days/weeks. I don't know if the same thing happens with credit cards... but in my case, I think I'll stick with using PayPal the next time I buy something from Rakuten shops... ::)
I'll buy SM USA
I didn't know you could use Paypal or that's what I would have used. LOL I didn't have a problem w/ two charges, but I got a penny charge from an out-of-state store. I can't see that this would be related to the Rakuten store, since the charge came from the US, but I could be wrong. At any rate, I had to get a new debit card from my bank over it. XD The order went thru at least.
Ah, I'm running into so many walls trying to get some awesome Famicom games from gamepara
First there was the can't ship EMS issue when I tried to order last month.
Then he gets back to me saying ok order again we can ship EMS to the US now
So I make a new larger order with some good carts like Adventure Island IV, Goonies, Lagrange Point, Dig Dug, Downtown Special, Splatterhouse, etc and a bunch of cheap carts... over 10000 Yen worth total
Ended up being $148 . Great
Then my bank calls about Fraud Detection. I say no, it's fine, it was me that ordered
But still they won't be able to process it til I call them again on Monday
Sucks
I really don't want to have to scroll through the giant inventory and place another order... I'm sure even more things I want will be missing
Oh yeah, I've noticed that they do that. They make a charge first, then it disappears, then reappears. Make sure you record how much it was if you don't balance your checking account by hand, or else you might think you're richer than you are. ;D
Also, just so you guys know, apparently that restriction on EMS and airmail packages to the US from Japan has been lifted, but there "may be delays."
The Rakuten store shouldn't have access to your credit card information. It says so in the Rakuten user guide that Rakuten processes transactions for the stores without giving the credit card information to the store, sort of like Yahoo! (The US one) does with its stores.
I may be making another Rakuten purchase soon. I'm looking for a Pokefami and it seems like they're the best option.
My order came in today! Here's a list of what all I got for around $220 shipped:
Famicom:
Samurai Pizza Cats (cart only)
Splatterhouse Wanpaku Grafitti (cart only)
Final Fantasy II (w/ manual)
SFC:
Front Mission (cib)
Yuu Yuu Hakusho 2 (cib)
Gundam F91 (cib)
Elfaria (cib)
Bastard! (w/ manual)
Super Robot Taisen Ex (cart only) X2 (dunno how that happened, lol)
3X3 Eyes (cart only)
Battle Robot Retsuden (cart only)
Saturn:
Shining Force 3 Scenario 2
Super Robot Wars F
Super Robot Wars F Final
Sakura Taisen
Sakura Taisen 2 LE
Grandia
SMT: Devil Summoner Soul Hackers
Dreamcast:
Sunrise Eiyuutan (new)
Biohazard Code Veronica (red slip cover version)
Eldorado Gate v. 1
PC Engine CD:
Tanjou Debut
Babel
Playstation:
SaGa Frontier ~ Square Millennium Collection
Final Fantasy Tactics ~ Square Millennium Collection
Love Hina
T: Kara Hajimaru Monogatari (new)
WonderSwan:
Engacho
One Piece Treasure Hunt
Gundam MSVS
Digimon Adventure Anode Tamer
Digimon Tamers Battle Spirits
GBC:
Grandia Parallel Trippers
DS:
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan 2 LE
Great stuff sir. I am saving up some money to order a big chunk of their site hopefully soon !