Bit of an odd question, I just want to know if anyone has any experience using www.suruga-ya.jp to purchase second-hand items from Japan? They have quite a lot of rare items catalogued, even more than Amazon.jp. Of course most of the items are out of stock. I can add to wish list, but: 1. I don't know if you can or how to set up e-mail alerts in the setting so that I am notified when items do come back in stock. 2. I would use a proxy service but obviously the item needs to be in stock before purchase. Give me a shout it you can help!
I used them ages ago... but from Japan, and generally as a proxy. They are pretty reputable and easy to deal with, so you've got that. I don't recall an email alert system, and going by how awful most Japanese websites are, I would not expect one.
They are a good shop to deal with. I ordered from them about a dozen times and was happy with everything that I got.
I've ordered quite a bit from them before, make sure you double check the name and everything before you order though sometimes the name is different from the picture and you won't get what you think you are getting.
Hello, I use with regularity using buyee as intermediate. I encunter lot of rare stuff with cheap price, but you need patience and check each week for your products.
It's just kind of a fun place to buy from, especially when they have something you want. They used to have a good selection of games for obscure systems like the PasoGo, Bandai Intellivision, SuperCassette Vision, stuff like that. Ordering was easy which was usually the pain in the ass with other sites.
Surugaya is my favorite site for finding rare stuff. I've found super-rare "holy grail" items there for so cheap that I was in disbelief. They have such an awesome collection of anything game-related, including very obscure doujinshi. Most of the time their prices are at least as good as Yahoo Auctions, if not even cheaper. I also like that you can browse the out-of-stock items, which serves as a cool catalogue of some things that aren't documented anywhere else.
Suruga-Ya is really hit or miss. They're a bit like Lukiegames in that they use stock photos rather than taking photos of the actual item they have for sale, most of the time. Sometimes you'll see a great price on a CIB game, buy it, and then have it show up as just a cartridge/disk/disc without a manual or box. Other times you'll see a listing for an item that has a photo of a disc in a sleeve, and then it shows up and it's a brand new sealed copy of the game. Because of their policies, generally you can't get a refund if it shows up and isn't how it is in the photo, but there have been instances where things have shown up and been the completely wrong item. I ordered an orange Xbox Live memory card recently, and it showed up as a regular black one. Since I'm not living in Tokyo anymore, I couldn't be bothered to go through the whole refund and return process just to get 1500 yen back, but when I told them about it they said they didn't have any orange memory cards at all; makes you wonder if they knew that orange ones were more desirable and used that knowledge to abuse their stock photo policy. Another time though, this worked out to my benefit. A friend of mine (known here as @RyanUKAus) asked me to send him some stuff from Suruga-Ya while I was living in Tokyo, and the white PS1 controller and memory card he ordered showed up as an SCPH-1110 Dual Analog controller and a regular grey memory card. Ryan didn't want either, so I refunded him his money, kept the dual analog (since it was only around 1500 yen if I recall correctly), and returned the memory card to Suruga-Ya. So like I said, Suruga-Ya is really hit or miss. In general, the instances of things going bad have been outweighed by things going better than expected, but that's just my luck I guess. I can't really recommend them unless you live in Japan and you're okay with having to return things sometimes. Oh, and about the email alert system: yes, they have one, and it seems to work well. I setup an alert 4 years ago for an item I couldn't find anywhere else, and an alert email arrived a month ago telling me it was in stock.
