chockie’s exhaustive guide to the merch-buying mercari jp rabbit hole
(this is a much more extended + standalone post version of a reblog i wrote a couple months ago! includes a step by step guide for dummies with explanation of paying, shipping, glossary of search terms in japanese etc)
as someone who has just god awful terminal karamatsu merch hoarding disease i am often asked how the hell i have just so much merch and that i surely must be very rich to afford it. nah i just budget really carefully and hunt for great value bulk deals on the GODSEND that is…. secondhand japanese sites like mercari jp (this post will focus on that), yahoo auctions, etc.
i am down abysmal for mercari jp. it’s a few more hoops to jump through compared to buying from international english merch platforms like goodrespublic, but you save SO MUCH MONEY in comparison. THE PRICES ARE NUTS.
for context, this is the last haul of stuff i received in one order just a couple months ago. total value was 17,370 yen ($142 USD) not including shipping which was ouchy… but still worth it af.
i bought mostly bulk sets that were basically all sub 1000 yen (~$8.20 USD) each. the single most expensive thing was that kabedon towel which is kinda hard to come by at 3400~ yen. here is a terrifying collage of all the merch i’ve hoarded so far since nov 2020 to aug 2021 and no exaggeration like 90% of it is from mercari jp.
mercari is a secondhand sales platform, and mercari jp (not to be confused with mercari.com, which is for international sellers) is pretty much one of the biggest ones used in japan! the great thing is that japanese secondhand sales are (generally) a walk in the park, at least compared to buying secondhand locally where i am. they take good ass care of their stuff and most of it isn’t even truly “used” as we understand it bc a lot of the time they straight up left the stuff in its original packaging, maybe just a little dusty. and mercari sellers will include adorable handwritten notes thanking you. you might even get a drawing if you’re lucky! it’s amazing
the thing is that sites like goodrepublic and surugaya that are selling secondhand merch are literally just listing listings from sites like mercari or yahoo auctions jp but at a crazy markup. don’t even get me started on the scalping on ebay. it’s kinda reminiscent of what sites like devilinspired do with lolita fashion, like a 200%-400% markup. you’ll need a shopping/proxy service to buy from mercari jp if you’re not based in japan, but do not be scared because the savings are SO MUCH BETTER. here is a comparison of a listing for the exact same product on mercari jp that i bought vs listed on goodsrepublic. 700 yen is $5.74 USD. marked up to $25.29. that’s deadass a 5x markup. and the goodsrepublic listing doesn’t even have a real photo of the thing so you can’t check the quality yourself lmao or the reputation of the individual seller. nvm them charging absurd prices like $10-20 for a single keychain. you guys deserve better than this. THERE ARE BETTER OPTIONS OUT THERE GUYS AND THEY’RE ALL ON MERCARI
some notes on shopping services:
DO NOT use the shopping service built in to mercari jp (buyee). they charge absurd extra fees for doing stuff that is typically expected of SSes like checking you even received your items period or packing them into 1 package to ship to you. even though they give you mega discounts on your first order, it STILL ends up being way more expensive than using a different SS. do not recommend.
my go-to japanese SS is jpshopping.jp. you can use them to buy from mercari as well as literally any other japanese site that sells stuff (e.g. i bought my kara season 3 varsity jacket new from rakuten through there). their site is a little jank, but all you really need is just order > online shop and then fill the form accordingly. you basically just copy paste the link to the thing(s) you want, type the price in, then pay for it, they buy all the stuff for you, get it shipped to their warehouse, and then ship all of it in 1 phat packidjge to send to you internationally. they only accept payment via paypal! other proxies may provide other options; this is what i use the most tho and will be the basis of the tutorials in this guide
(at least with jpshopping) you’re responsible for declaring duties and taxes on your stuff yourself. for legal reasons, this is definitely not a suggestion to commit tax evasion, because that is illegal! just because you have the ability to declare the value of the items in your order yourself as low as you like which in turn will determine how much you pay in custom fees and import taxes, and all mercari items are used/secondhand which means that there’s no way for customs officers to really determine their true value since it’s all weeb stuff that looks like junk toys to them anyway, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD COMMIT TAX EVASION! you’re welcome to dm if you need more information on how you should Definitely Not Do This
if you’re using an SS like jpshopping, you can literally ignore the “sorry! this item is only available in japan” thing bc the SS is based in japan. that’s a buyee problem. that’s not your problem anymore. you are free. just order it through the order form like you would anything else. the world is your oyster
jpshopping (and most proxy services) will require payment in whatever currency works for them, which is often JPY (or if it’s based in china for example, CNY or HKD or whatever). so keep the currency conversion in mind as well as the currency conversion fee that paypal charges you.
some proxy services like jpshopping will actually have a built in mercari browser as an option on their own site. it’s up to you if you want to use this. personally, i prefer browsing on the mercari site itself and just copying/pasting the links into the order form
understanding the layout of mercari and jpshopping:
here’s a quick guide to the layout of mercari jp and how to browse it. it’s that simple! and yeah, THOSE ARE THE REAL PRICES. remember to convert from JPY to whatever currency is relevant to you. here’s a quick guide on the order form at jpshopping
a step by step detailed breakdown of how to place an order:
search for whatever you want on mercari.com/jp/ in japanese and find the listings you want to buy. make sure to google translate the page to check the listing title and description. i have made a glossary list of common search terms down below!
copy and paste the link to that listing into the URL box of the jpshopping order form at jpshopping.jp/chkoutoss. if you have more than 1 item you wanna order in one go (recommend this- i call it mercari HAULS bc economically makes most sense to ship stuff in bulk rather than just a single small item. the first kg of your haul hurts to ship the most), you can click the dropdown next to number of items. jpshopping lets you order 10 things at a time. if you want more than 10 listings, you’ll have to do a new order form and when everything’s arrived, choose to merge these orders into one package later. if you wanna do something like split or take a specific thing from a big bundle, write that out in the enquiry/item comments section
write the exact price of the item as listed on mercari in yen in the item value box. this is the price the system will charge you when you place your order, so if you mess this up, they’ll have to refund the difference (or you pay the difference, depending on how u mess up). not a big deal, but kinda annoying to deal with
(can leave all this as default usually)
- select shipping method: i recommend the default option, “select after jss receives item”, especially if you’re ordering a buncha stuff in a haul.
- also recommend default packing option for the same reason.
- if it’s something you think might be bought up REALLY quick (like those cute new retro pop things, listings get bought up within hours) or hotly bidded on as an auction, choose the “buy it now” option for jpshopping to buy it instantly with the system. otherwise, generally recommend “buy during business hours” so that an actual human working at jpshopping will manually buy it themselves. especially needed if you want to split up a bundle or something.
it will show you a page confirming all your items, prices, and options, and importantly, the total item costs at the bottom plus the commission fee they charge. you can see a detailed breakdown on JSS’s site here but basically, if the total cost of all items is less than 3000 yen, there’s a flat 300 yen commission fee. more than 3k yen, and the charge becomes based on percentage (10%, down to 5% if you get 10k, 20k yen worth of stuff). make sure everything looks good to you
click the paypal checkout button, pay via paypal. afaik, jpshopping only lets you pay via paypal (so paypal balance, credit/debit linked via pp, or direct bank transfer via pp). other proxy shopping services may have other options available, but otherwise, this is what you got
the waiting game: ~1-2 weeks or less usually. less if you have fewer items, longer if you have a lot of items
- you will first receive an email with an order confirmation and another confirming your first payment.
- when they officially purchase whatever listings you requested (~1 business day or less), you will receive an update email telling you what they purchased. sometimes due to individual mercari seller issues (or if you wanna split bundles, etc) they may have to speak with them which can delay this email. ordering outside of business hours with the “buy during business hours” will also delay it. so, keep in mind it’s a possibility another person might buy the listing before JSS gets to it. (that’s what the buy it now automatically option is for)
- you will receive an update email when the mercari seller ships out the item to JSS domestically within japan (1-7 business days).
- you will receive an update email when JSS receives the item. these usually get staggered out over time since that’s how mail works and diff sellers send at diff times/speeds. they will hold the items for you for free for a while but will charge a storage fee if you leave them too long. see their site for more info
- when all the items in your order have arrived or otherwise been accounted for (e.g. if it gets bought up/deleted before JSS gets to it, they cancel it from the order and refund you accordingly), you will receive a “select shipping/packing option” email. this means that JSS is ready to put everything into 1 big box and send it to you internationally
you can now log in to jpshopping and click “select and pack” either on the homepage or in your order history tab. this will take you to a page where you can check boxes for which orders you wanna merge into 1 box that gets shipped to you. if you only have 1 order of stuff, then just check that. i love JSS cuz unlike buyee etc they don’t charge you for doing this pretty basic thing (or confirming that they even received everything lol)
declare your items for customs/border control. there will be an area on the page where you’ll have to write an itemized list of what exactly each item is, quantities, and how much it’s worth. the description of what the items are should be very specific (e.g. “used anime PVC statue”, “secondhand cotton polyester tshirt”. “used aluminum anime pin badge”) and list the fact that it’s used, the material, and a clear description of what it is. a criminal might commit tax evasion by entering item costs as lower than they actually paid for it because it’s so hard to accurately judge the value of a secondhand toy, resulting in a reduced amount to pay for duties/import tax, possibly even so that the total value of all the items in a haul is below their country’s item import tax threshold ($100 in the US, CAD$60 in canada, google your own country’s) to be considered a “gift” and thus bypassing the need to pay duties/import tax entirely. so, make sure not to do this! everything on mercari counts as used/secondhand, however if you buy something new from a different site in your order then you actually should list the actual cost just in case.
choose your shipping option and click “calculate” for shipping cost. as of 2022, the options available to you are dependent on your country and what restrictions japan postal service has shipping to it. for example, if you’re based in canada like me, fuck you absolutely no options available to you except fedex which is absurdly expensive and also awful :’) but other countries may have different options! you can read more about the specific options available to you either on the page you’re on or here. JSS will also be able to tell you how much shipping will cost you depending on the option you pick, which is 99% of the time calculated based on weight usually with a flat base cost for the first kg or less (for fedex, it’s volumetric weight). that’s what makes it wiser to do hauls rather than buy single items. personally, pre-covid i recommended EMS as the best value for the price shipping (fast, 2 weeks ish or less, tracked, safe) but EMS prices have skyrocketed since covid :( so use your best judgment
pay for shipping via paypal! you will now receive a confirmation email of your payment going through, and then when they ship your pakijj to you, an email notifying you your box has shipped out with tracking number if applicable.
the waiting game 2: electric boogaloo, and paying duties/import taxes if applicable. if the total cost of your haul is above the import tax gift limit, you may have to pay import taxes depending on your shipping method. private couriers like fedex or DHL will pretty much ding you and make you pay, guaranteed (as well as awful extra fees for even using them on top of everything else), and you’ll receive an email and a snail mail letter with an invoice of how much you owe your gubmint in taxes. they’ll have a way for you to pay online by card usually.
receive pakijj and simp! you did it!
some helpful search terms in japanese for you to copy/paste!
osomatsu san おそ松さん | osomatsu おそ松 | karamatsu カラ松 | choromatsu チョロ松 | ichimatsu 一松 | jyushimatsu 十四松 | todomatsu トド松 | dog: 犬
figure: フィギュア (nendoroid)（ねんどろいど）
plushie/stuffed toy: ぬいぐるみ
acrylic keychain: アクリルキーホルダー (acrylic keychain (short form))（アクキー）
acrylic stand: アクリルスタンド (stand (short form)（アクスタ）
plastic file/folder: クリアファイル (file)（ファイル）
dakimakura/body pillow cover: 抱き枕 カバー
bag: バッグ or カバン tote bag: トートバッグ
i hope this helps! i’ve dragged so many people into the mercari rabbit hole. may this bring even more into the fold. jpshopping and most other SSes will have easy ways to communicate with them directly like email or chat clients, so don’t be afraid to contact them with questions about items before you buy or about your order after it’s been placed. and if you have questions or need help with this stuff my DMs and asks are open anytime!!
SEPT. 3 2022 EDIT: some additional FAQ/issues
it’s actually been bugging me for a while that i forgot to include these in this tutorial, so i’m doing a quick edit to it now!
i placed my order, but haven’t received any emails yet?
you should get an automatic confirmation of payment email literally immediately after you place your order, so if you haven’t gotten that, please check your spam inbox and whitelist/allow emails from jpshopping, because the email updates are important and will tell you when they’ve received your stuff/when it’s ready to go out! you get emails in this order:
1. automatic email right after you’ve paid and placed your order
2. email after the people at jpshopping have bought your item. this is usually manual and won’t be immediate bc they’ll buy it during their work hours, unless you chose the “buy it now”/automatically option in which case it comes immediately.
3. email after jpshopping receives the order at their warehouse in japan
4. email after everything in your order (assuming you got multiple things at one go like i suggested) has arrived and you can now choose to combine packages/orders into one big thing to ship to you and pay for shipping.
5. automatic email confirming you’ve paid for shipping
6. email after jpshopping has shipped out your big package to you!
but do they ship to my location?
the good thing about using proxy/shopping services like jpshopping is that their whole thing is shipping stuff from japan worldwide. so yeah, whether you’re in europe or south america or southeast asia, they’ll ship to you. the question is what shipping options are available to your country from japan. in the absolute worst case scenario, all standard national post services are NOT delivering from japan to you, because fuck you lmao (full disclosure, as someone usually based in canada, this is the boat i’m in :’) i don’t know why we are still stuck like this when our neighbors down south got it back last year but oh well). in this case, ABSOLUTE worst case scenario, you will still have private couriers such as fedex and/or DHL (depending on the SS. jpshopping only offers fedex i think). the cost will hurt because this is both the fastest but also the VASTLY more costly option…. but at least it delivers no matter where you are in the world?
if you are lucky, then you may have some other options to try! yamato, EMS, surface, etc. they’ll all be cheaper than fedex and have their pros/cons like being slower, or no tracking number, or there’s a weight/size limit. it’s up to you. EMS tends to be the best value for your buck, if that’s available to you. otherwise jpshopping will give you a breakdown on the details.
