Game of Japan Prices Rant

[MotherGunner]

I just went over to check out some prices because I really want to eventually buy Coryoon/Coryun.

WTF is up with the high prices on there now?  It's seems like most prices have doubled for some of the lower end titles.

Since they have an Ebay store, have they finally figured out how to gouge like their American counterparts?

/end rant

[PunkCryborg]

That's actually the cheapest Coryoon I've seen for sale, even the ones on YJA are $200+

[MotherGunner]

I remember as of two years ago it was still in the 70-120 range.  Then it pulled a freaking Chu Man Fu on us!  I hope like Chu Man Fu, the price comes down...but doubt it.  They realized us dumb Americans are willing to pay too much.  =/

[Nando]

It's the economy, both ours and JP's and it's only going to get more expensive as time goes by. Best get your imports now-ish.

[Bernie]

I dunno man, I find his prices somewhat decent.  I always compare them to his eBay store tho.  Sometimes one or the other is always cheaper.

[Opethian]

game of japan is a retail store ebay is a buy it now or offer venture. Apparently both entities dont communicate with each other nor do they share any kind of stock.
I have purchased from both but the availability from GoJ is sketchy at best. Ebay, if its listed it is for sale.

[tpivette]

The Game of Japan/Hit-Japan relationship is kind of confusing...

Game of Japan had an Arcade PRO card for $40.

Hit-Japan had one for $80 BIN or make offer.

I sent a message to Hit-Japan asking about the relationship, and that I saw the card on the GoJ website for $40, but I wanted to buy it from Hit for the same price as I was buying other games from him at the time and would save on shipping. He responded back that GoJ and Hit were no longer tied together and rejected my offer of $40. Weird, cause the GoJ website specifically says "powered by Hit-Japan" at the top of the page???

[sirhcman]

The Game of Japan/Hit-Japan relationship is kind of confusing...

I sent a message to Hit-Japan asking about the relationship, and that I saw the card on the GoJ website for $40, but I wanted to buy it from Hit for the same price as I was buying other games from him at the time and would save on shipping. He responded back that GoJ and Hit were no longer tied together and rejected my offer of $40. Weird, cause the GoJ website specifically says "powered by Hit-Japan" at the top of the page???

Thats weird because when I emailed GOJ about supergrafx systems (if they had any in stock) they linked me to hitjapan on ebay..

My email to goj:

gameofjapan.com
Oct 31 (9 days ago)

to me
Hello.

We have these systems in stock.please check it this page.

http://stores.ebay.com/Hit-Japan-Video-Games-and-Anime/_i.html?_nkw=super+grafx+console&submit=Search&_sid=35910635

moz
thank you.



(2012/10/31 4:45), Chris wrote:
Do you have any SuperGrafx systems in stock?

Chris

[bartre]

Sometimes one or the other is always cheaper.

lol.

but seriously, i have no idea what happened here.
it does seem like hit-japan is going a little bananars to me.
I've seen multiple games listed on gameofjapan's website for more than double what they'd cost on YJA or Rakuten.

[MotherGunner]

Can US people buy from Rakuten? Link?

[bartre]

http://global.rakuten.com/en/

fair warning, it can be a total pain in the ass sometimes.

[Opethian]

rakuten is just a proxy you actually dont buy anything from "rakuten"

[bartre]

yeah, it works similarly to ebay, stores are set up, and just sell through rakuten.
at least that's my understanding.

[Ji-L87]

yeah, it works similarly to ebay, stores are set up, and just sell through rakuten.
at least that's my understanding.

It's also similar to Amazon, in the same sense.
Rakuten itself doesn't sell you stuff - they just keep track on your points and account information. There are a number of different stores which focus on different things like, clothing, music & movies, gaming & anime/manga and so on so forth.
You CAN find things for very cheap, but keep in mind that these deals might very well get nullified by the shipping costs. I've only done business with a store called Suruagaya and while they ship international, they use EMS and you won't know the final sum (including shipping) until they've calculated everything out and sent you a mail asking for your purchase confirmation.

So, using the EMS price chart and keeping en eye on how much a number of CDs/jewelcases and so on weighs will help in understanding what the shipping costs will be like. Of course, once you start adding books & posters etc it becomes rather impossible. Packaging also weighs a bit and you don't know how much bubblewrap they will use (everything has been very well packaged though). I've taken notes a few times when doing business with them and depending on what I bought the packaging weighed from 400g - 1000g. The last one was a shipment of 8 LDs so they packaged that shit pretty tight.
From my notes (which might not be totally correct) 1 CD in it's case (music or game) is about 120-130g while 1 LD can range from 360g to 515g depending on what exactly is in there. Insert sheets, bonus material and so on.

Still, I've found some really cool thing there. Game systems tend to be expensive but some games, books, posters, music and laserdiscs can be had for a steal.

[Bernie]

Sometimes one or the other is always cheaper.

lol.

Whats to lol about?   : :

[Frank_fjs]

Game of Japan and Hit-Japan are definitely two separate entities. I do believe that Game of Japan still source some (if not all) of their stock from Hit-Japan though.

I've also noticed prices doubling on some titles at Game of Japan and in a very short time frame. Another strange thing I've observed is that I've purchased a game at let's say $20 and received it fine etc, but when I go back to the same product listing the price has doubled to $40. It's like every time they sell a copy of a game they just keep bumping up the price.

Hit-Japan has also bumped its prices up a bit, I've seen things like boxed Famicom and Mega Drive consoles which used to go for a steady $60 BIN (less with an offer) jump up to $90-$100.

In any event, my ordering experience between Game of Japan and Hit-Japan is always very different. Never had a problem with Hit-Japan in any regard, but have had to deal with a bit of crap from Game of Japan. E.g. Taking 2 weeks to despatch my order, waiting 2 weeks to inform me that the items I've ordered aren't in stock despite them being listed as in stock on their website and lastly some very rude responses to straight forward questions that I've asked.

[bartre]

Sometimes one or the other is always cheaper.

lol.

Whats to lol about?   : :

"sometimes one or the other is always"

that sentence is so weirdly structured.

[Flare65]

I remember as of two years ago it was still in the 70-120 range.  Then it pulled a freaking Chu Man Fu on us!  I hope like Chu Man Fu, the price comes down...but doubt it.  They realized us dumb Americans are willing to pay too much.  =/

The going rate for Coryoon is 230ish plus shipping for a complete copy.  The one from the UK ended around that price range last night.  I've seen others go for the same.  Given its kinda programmed by the same people that did Magical Chase (from what I've heard), the price isn't going to come down on this one.  Even the japanese version of Magical chase is a $190.00 game now.

I did see a card only of Coryoon go for around 100.00.

[Opethian]

Naxat has nothing to do with Palsoft

what you probably mean to say is that the game engine used in Coryoon was also facelifted for PC Denjin

[kazekirifx]

I bought a loose Coryoon hucard earlier this year here in Japan for about 7,000 yen.

[SuperDeadite]

I bought a loose Coryoon hucard earlier this year here in Japan for about 7,000 yen.

Man that's crazy.  I spent 6,000yen on my cibbler copy in Osaka about 3 years ago now...

[MotherGunner]

One day, Coryoon.  One day....

[Opethian]

well I guess the days are over when you could get this game complete for under $100

[Yamazaki]

Tokyotoyfactory does the same thing.

A copy of Panorama Cotton sold for 149€ - after that the price for a mint copy wa 249€ all of a sudden! Not its dropped back to 179 I believe.

[MotherGunner]

One day, Coryoon.  One day....

Happened faster than I thought!  So excited!

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=12417.new#new

[tbsjordan]

yeah, it works similarly to ebay, stores are set up, and just sell through rakuten.
at least that's my understanding.

It's also similar to Amazon, in the same sense.
Rakuten itself doesn't sell you stuff - they just keep track on your points and account information. There are a number of different stores which focus on different things like, clothing, music & movies, gaming & anime/manga and so on so forth.
You CAN find things for very cheap, but keep in mind that these deals might very well get nullified by the shipping costs. I've only done business with a store called Suruagaya and while they ship international, they use EMS and you won't know the final sum (including shipping) until they've calculated everything out and sent you a mail asking for your purchase confirmation.

So, using the EMS price chart and keeping en eye on how much a number of CDs/jewelcases and so on weighs will help in understanding what the shipping costs will be like. Of course, once you start adding books & posters etc it becomes rather impossible. Packaging also weighs a bit and you don't know how much bubblewrap they will use (everything has been very well packaged though). I've taken notes a few times when doing business with them and depending on what I bought the packaging weighed from 400g - 1000g. The last one was a shipment of 8 LDs so they packaged that shit pretty tight.
From my notes (which might not be totally correct) 1 CD in it's case (music or game) is about 120-130g while 1 LD can range from 360g to 515g depending on what exactly is in there. Insert sheets, bonus material and so on.

Still, I've found some really cool thing there. Game systems tend to be expensive but some games, books, posters, music and laserdiscs can be had for a steal.

I've been thinking of buying a bunch of games from the Suruagaya store, prices are great. How's the condition? Are the games complete or loose?

[Ji-L87]

I've been thinking of buying a bunch of games from the Suruagaya store, prices are great. How's the condition? Are the games complete or loose?

Don't count on all games having spinecard, perhaps But otherwise, if something is missing, it's usually mentioned in the item name. That being said, it often turns into gibberish thanks to machine translated english. What you can do if you're feeling extra paranoid is switch the page language to Japanese (there's an option for that in the right corner) and then look up what's actually written in the item name using either google translate or an add-on like Rikai-chan.
Especially Hu-Cards are often loose if they are cheap, so be wary of that.

For example, "[used] PC engine Hu card software F1 circus (there is no box theory)" () means that the game is loose.

[tbsjordan]

Thanks for the help, I'm looking forward to buying some stuff from that store in the near future