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Musical Discussions
Topic: Buying cds and records in USA and Japan

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Posted by oxric on 01-31-2016
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I was in the process of ordering some cds on Amazon US and Tower store in Japan and just realised that some of these will not be delivered to my address in the UK or France.
I can pay for the items (inclusive of shipping to a US address) using my Amazon account and maybe paypal to Tower inc.
As there are quite a few cds that I am interested in, and there will be more over time, I wanted to know if anyone might be interested in relaying these to me from their home addresses in the US and Japan, and I would reciprocate the favour.
The idea is that someone else who has the same difficulty (who would like to order items available only for shipping in the UK or France) might be willing to help me out and I would reciprocate likewise by relaying items sourced from sellers shipping to UK/France.
I know it is a long shot but  thought my predicament can't be that unique...
My email address (which I think is in my profile as well) is rakeshpoorun(at)gmail.com
Drop me a line if you think you can help.
Note: Romy, please feel free to discard this message if it somehow does not quite fit on this forum.

Posted by yoshi on 01-31-2016
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Try HMV Japan.
http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/

Posted by oxric on 01-31-2016
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Hi Yoshi 
Thanks. I had a look at HMV JP; they do not have the rare 1940s OOP recording I have seen on Tower.
I have two other recordings of that performance with Szell and Walter so that performance would have been the icing on the cake so to speak.
But Tower suggest using www.tenso.com to overseas buyers as they are limited to shipping in Japan. Tensorhowever charge a hefty transaction fee.
The UK distributor of Arbiter has told me that he will try to get the recording revived/reissued but I am not holding my breath for that to happen...
Rgds Rakesh

Posted by scooter on 01-31-2016
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Rakesh,

I have purchased books and software over the years from a Japanese company called White Rabbit Press; delivery to the US was prompt and painless. They publish some Japanese language books and sell a wide variety of books from other publishers.

They also have a service which will deliver Japanese items to Europe and the US, charging about 12.5% fees, but you can see their fee estimates online. I have not used this service but would:

https://www.whiterabbitexpress.com/



Posted by oxric on 02-01-2016
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Hi Scooter,
Thanks. I am trying to use White Rabbit's service to see how it works out.

Ship-To Country: UNITED KINGDOMRequested: 01 Feb 16 (3 minutes ago)Line Item Total: $17.91Per Shop Fee (1 @ $4.00): $4.00Per Item Fee (1 @ $1.00): $1.00Service Fee (12.5%) $2.24Order total:$25.15


For anyone interested, this is what it looks like so far. They will add shipping cost to my UK address. I do not know how much this will be as yet.
regards
Rakesh






Posted by scooter on 02-01-2016
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With the Japanese Yen devaluation, stuff in Japan has gotten very cheap. Like 50%+ cheaper vs. USD in the past few years. This, combined with the fact that shipping charges generally drop rapidly for heavier packages would make me look at potentially loading up the package with stuff.

Japanese stores also have a lot of music that is tough to source in the west, both in new and used formats (out of print and Japan-only special releases). Maybe Max from White Rabbit (or Yoshi) can recommend some other places where you can browse inventory of Japanese stores on-line. But I suspect finding used music online for export (outside yahoo auctions) might be difficult.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a lot of music, I would just jump on a cheap winter flight to Tokyo. That will give you a chance to browse the used CD stores and also see the staggering amount of audio equipment on display in Akihabara. Not sure how much longer those stores will be in business. Regardless, Tokyo is a great city to visit and quite safe.

Posted by xandcg on 02-01-2016
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You may also use a "Mail Forwarding Service".  You have to look for a reliable one, I suppose there are scam ones.
There are tons of those services in USA, but in Japan I do not have idea.

Just an example, I never had used it: https://www.usa2me.com

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