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  #1  
Old Sep 20, 2022, 05:12 PM
Zorbfish Zorbfish is offline
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Default Buying from Amazon Japan

Has anyone outside of Japan noticed that more and more albums are not available for purchase? I'm not talking about 3rd party sellers, I am talking about products directly sold from Amazon.co.jp that are pretty recent (released within the last 5 years or so).

For example if I visit the site without logging into my account I can find the item as available in stock directly from Amazon.jp. Add it to my cart and then log in. Then the item is immediately removed from my cart and if I visit the product page it's marked as either discontinued or out of stock and only offers a few 3rd party seller options (usually highly marked up used copies).

Seems to happen a lot more to anime albums than game music. Now I have to order through a proxy despite the ability to order from them directly myself just to hide my real overseas address.
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  #2  
Old Sep 20, 2022, 09:03 PM
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Jedi QuestMaster Jedi QuestMaster is offline
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Interesting. Ever since Amazon.jp has done overseas shipping, I find it annoying when using a proxy: Zenmarket only lists basic info, so I'd click the link to go directly to Amazon.jp and I wouldn't be able to see more info because "the seller doesn't ship to your address."
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  #3  
Old Sep 20, 2022, 10:18 PM
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ilef ilef is offline
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Also noticed this, damn pain in the ass. I don't like bugging my friend, still, thank God I can rely on her.
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  #4  
Old Sep 29, 2022, 03:58 PM
Rrolack Rrolack is offline
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I’ve noticed that some items will not ship overseas. I have a forwarding address in Japan (through Tenso) which I use to get around this.
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  #5  
Old Oct 2, 2022, 10:18 AM
Zorbfish Zorbfish is offline
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Glad to hear I wasn't going crazy. For a couple items I was interested in that were sold directly from Amazon.co.jp on the product page, I messed around with the country delivery drop down and saw varying levels of restriction. USA and China seemed heavily blocked on everything. I guess given the state of importing from Japan getting so bad (everyone and their dog being a drop-shipper or scalper nowadays) I guess it's to be expected.

I found it surprising that Amazon was doing it for their in stock inventory. Normally I wouldn't think Amazon gives a crap who buys something as long as they get paid. The PS5 debacle worldwide was a shining example
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  #6  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 08:55 AM
sechsterangriff sechsterangriff is offline
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This is definitely happening with all new Square-Enix Music releases. Everything is "temporarily out of stock."



I use amazon.co.jp a lot because with them the process of going through customs is essentially painless, so this is a huge bummer.
I imagine S-E want people to use its own western stores, but my experience with the EU shop at least is that their shipping sucks. I always get cracked CD cases with them.
I guess I'll have to fall back to play-asia (they also have pre-paid customs), cdjapan and proxy services....

Last edited by sechsterangriff; Oct 15, 2022 at 09:51 AM.
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  #7  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 09:32 AM
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Phonograph Phonograph is offline
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maybe coz it's out in 1 month 1/2, so logically they don't have in their stock
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  #8  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 09:40 AM
sechsterangriff sechsterangriff is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phonograph View Post
maybe coz it's out in 1 month 1/2, so logically they don't have in their stock
This is just one example, check their other recent releases. Also, pre-orders were no issue until now.
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  #9  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 09:57 AM
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only the Amazon.co.jp限定 links are unavailable, the rest is available
no idea why it's labelled amazon jp limited tho

example: https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=Romanci...undtrack+vol.2
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  #10  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 10:25 AM
sechsterangriff sechsterangriff is offline
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Check the more recent releases starting of the LIVE A LIVE HD-2D Remake Original Soundtrack.
Amazon.co.jp限定 usually means it includes some exclusive freebie such as a different cover or clear profile. These tend to sell out first leaving only the regular version available.
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  #11  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 11:33 AM
Zorbfish Zorbfish is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phonograph View Post
only the Amazon.co.jp限定 links are unavailable, the rest is available
no idea why it's labelled amazon jp limited tho

example: https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=Romanci...undtrack+vol.2
But he's talking about regular retail not Amazon exclusives. So let's look at your example

Re-universe vol 2 CD product page

Flip the delivery country between Canada and the US. US shows it as out of stock, Canada shows as available with 10 in stock (at the time I pulled the link).

Honestly I wouldn't care since Amazon is trash but they usually have more in stock than playasia or cdjapan
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  #12  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 11:42 AM
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playasia is worse, you could want a product and after ordering they email you to say it's out of stock (coz their site isn't updated)
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  #13  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 11:48 AM
Zorbfish Zorbfish is offline
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True, and playasia has it's problems too. I've seen them drop product pages only to be re-enabled later: but at a higher price.

Never had a problem with cdjapan/neowing
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  #14  
Old Oct 15, 2022, 07:54 PM
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LuxKiller65 LuxKiller65 is offline
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Play-Asia have been playing around with prices for several years. Lots of their stuff, especially the 2nd hand items, fluctuate (usually going up, never down). One of the reasons I stopped buying from them. They used to deal with new releases only, but at one point they started playing with used stuff, reselling some higher priced old items, which is fine, but not what I was using them for.

Also for what it's worth they have a physical partner store in Hong Kong where they have some high-priced older items, it's quite random. They've become a bit of a mess of a website since they started paying attention to market prices for older stuff.

They still have pre-orders for new things though so I can't really complain. They're just not what they used to be 15 years ago.
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  #15  
Old Oct 16, 2022, 04:05 AM
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TerraEpon TerraEpon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phonograph View Post
playasia is worse, you could want a product and after ordering they email you to say it's out of stock (coz their site isn't updated)
Stupidest thing is I managed to get something from CDJapan like a year after P-A cancelled something of mine for being "oop".
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  #16  
Old Oct 16, 2022, 09:34 AM
Zorbfish Zorbfish is offline
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Ok, I think I see what's happening in the US. Out of curiosity I looked up re-universe 2 on Amazon.com. They seem to be blocking traffic on the Japan site to push it to the American site where you can find the same product page listed and it says the seller is Amazon Japan. Then they jack up the price (basically ignoring the exchange rate). Pretty scummy for saavy buyers but I do understand it probably looks amazing to a casual buyer who doesn't want to do their own homework.
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