I had a neat thing happen last night, and just feel like talking about it. Don’t worry, it’s Yo-kai-related.
It’s a long piece, so if you’re interested, check it out after the break. It also contains a little tutorial on finding Japanese medals!
Spoiler: There is a picture of a Yo-kai medal from Yo-kai Watch 3. It does not spoil the game’s plot but does show a new Legendary Yo-kai.
I probably should have spoilered those Treasure medals, looking back on it now ...
Last night, a friend of mine asked me if I could help him find a specific Japanese Yo-kai Medal: Speech-hime. I thought this medal would be very rare and very expensive.
My first thought was to try Amazon Japan. I’ve used it in the past to get Japanese medals like Sushijiba and Tenkoma, along with some of my Hanako-san items in my collection. Usually, searching for “Youkai Watch” (妖怪ウォッチ) and the Yo-kai’s name in Japanese (which can be found via Google usually) brings up their medal or trading/game cards.
We found the medal in this case for about $5.00 converted from yen to USD, but shipping was a good few bucks more than I would have liked. With Amazon Japan, there’s always the chance that a lot of items won’t ship outside of the country because Japanese toys aren’t meant to be sold outside of the country. Fortunately, this medal could be sent to America, but there was the hassle of broken English and sometimes just guessing on making sure your shipping information is correct. Amazon Japan has an English option, but it’s not perfect.
(It’s relatively easy with tutorials, mind. I just wanted to find my friend the best deal possible.)
When an item won’t ship straight from Amazon or there’s too much Japanese involved, I usually hit up ShoppingMallJapan. They’re not ridiculous in their percentage for buying/mailing an item and they have English-speaking customer service. That latter reason is one of the bigger reasons I recommend them: no language barrier.
Anywho, I wanted to avoid them for right then because I didn’t want my friend to have to spend more money than he needed to by having to pay an extra cut to the website.
For some Yo-kai medals, you can try America’s version of Amazon. Just search for “Yokai medal Japan” and you’ll get a huge selection of medals, ranging from original gray to gashapon to recent medals like Dream medals if you’re lucky enough. The only problem with doing that is medals are usually expensive--my Hanako-san Busters medal was $15.00, and my Whisper medal was $28.00. Medals usually go in that price range depending on age, rarity, and Yo-kai popularity.
Since all else failed, I checked one of my last resorts: eBay.
I don’t like to use eBay for Japanese items, mainly because they usually have stock images of items instead of actual camera-taken photos. If the listing says an item comes from Japan and the description specifically states it, you’re usually safe--if not, just tell eBay it was a bootleg item and you’ll get help. However, Japan cracked down on fake Yo-kai medals years ago, so I don’t think you’ll see them very often, if at all, and if you do it’s usually incredibly obvious.
(These are Chinese bootlegs, and I see them all over eBay. Hopefully, it would be obvious, but for some parents who are just trying to find a cheap watch, I hope you see this!)
Normally, finding Japanese Yo-kai items on eBay is a massive headache. Some sellers use different names for the series: Yokai Watch, Specter Watch, Yo-kai Watch, Youkai Watch, etc., and using each name gives wildly different results. In this case, I went as basic as possible: “Yokai medal Japan speech” and happened to find the medal for less than $8 with FREE SHIPPING!
That’s probably the best deal I’ve found for Yo-kai medals in years, add in the fact that it’s from eBay so there’s no Japanese text to worry about. If there’s a Yo-kai medal that you’re really looking for and can’t find, feel free to ask! If I can get your message in time, I’ll reply and help you as soon as I can! You might need to wait a few days though, I don’t check Tumblr often.
However, please note the following:
I will not purchase the medal for you and/or ship it to you.
I can not guarantee the seller will have English-language listings, nor can I guarantee the medal will be for a reasonable price. Some of them are ridiculously overpriced.
(Wow, now that’s a low price!)
I can not guarantee the seller will ship to your country. If that’s the case, I’ll direct you to a middleman site. I am not in any way connected to middleman websites. They are not asking me to promote them in any way, nor am I in contact with any of these websites. I just want to help your medal search go as smoothly as possible.
Some medals are so old or rare that they’re just not online. I do not guarantee I can find an older green Z medal, a recent rare medal, or a medal that was event-only, for example. If I can’t find it, I just can’t. My apologies.
I have no control over your experience with foreign sellers or any sellers for that matter. I’m just sending you in a direction to buy it, anything else after that is your business, not mine. Whether or not you choose to purchase the item or contact the seller has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with me.
Good luck, medal collectors! If you find something cool, show me! I’d love to see what deals you come across!
