Thread: Japan to the Fore

Posts: 11
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Post by hiredfox April 17, 2009 (1 of 11)
It seems to be the case that many new releases are available in Japan long before they are released elsewhere. Why is this? Are there some SACD's that never go on general release and end up as only being available from Japan??

What are people's experiences of buying from Amazon.jp ?

Post by FullRangeMan April 17, 2009 (2 of 11)
hiredfox said:
What are people's experiences of buying from Amazon.jp ?

You have easy life until now, read this:
I buy in AMZ.JP Japanese Songs - Emi Sawahata SACD, piano+soprano duets by 28 US dollars, plus 38 US dollars of Fedex to Brazil=66 dollars+100% of Customs taxes=132$.
There is no cheap regular air mail to Brazil, only Fedex. No more Amazon-JP, Now I buy from Hong Kong, much more affordable prices.
Full
P.S.: Amazon Deutschland is no second place in hardbuy, site no English version and 14 Euros shiping to Brazil, schutzpah...

Post by mahlerei April 17, 2009 (3 of 11)
I bought the Zinman Mahler symphonies thru HMV Japan, a couple of weeks before the discs appeared in Europe. My guess is that it's the most lucrative market; the only downside is that the booklets tend to be in Japanese only.

Post by Osbert Parsley April 17, 2009 (4 of 11)
FullRangeMan said:

Amazon Deutschland is no second place in hardbuy, site no English version and 14 Euros shiping to Brazil, schutzpah...

JPC offers 14 Euros shipping worldwide outside Europe, no matter how many discs in your order. We all have to pay for shipping if we buy on-line.

Post by FullRangeMan April 17, 2009 (5 of 11)
Osbert Parsley said:
JPC offers 14 Euros shipping worldwide outside Europe, no matter how many discs in your order. We all have to pay for shipping if we buy on-line.

I prefer Amazon.UK just 3,xx pounds per 1 disc, 5,xx pounds per 2 discs, 7,xx pounds per 3 discs, etc...
Regards,Full
P.S.: Here in Brazil too many CDs in a ship is much prone to pay ALL the customs taxes.

Post by wolf359 April 18, 2009 (6 of 11)
hiredfox said:

It seems to be the case that many new releases are available in Japan long before they are released elsewhere. Why is this? Are there some SACD's that never go on general release and end up as only being available from Japan??

What are people's experiences of buying from Amazon.jp ?

I am frustrated with Amazon Japan. I usually end up on the amazon market place traders site which dosn't translate into English so I have no idea what the shipping and postages charges are. The trader may not even ship internationally then there is always the risk that you end up with the RBCD in error. I have however had some considerable success with HMV Japan. I bought a SACD which was posted out of Toyko on the Friday and delivered on the Monday which quite frankly stunned me considering the distance between Europe and Japan that was an exception but they seem very efficent so I tend to use them

Post by Claude April 18, 2009 (7 of 11)
wolf359 said:

I am frustrated with Amazon Japan. I usually end up on the amazon market place traders site which dosn't translate into English so I have no idea what the shipping and postages charges are. The trader may not even ship internationally then there is always the risk that you end up with the RBCD in error.

I have little experience with Amazon Japan (I also prefer HMV), but does their Marketplace work differently than the one on amazon.com, .co.uk, .fr or .de ?

On these Marketplaces, there is a standard shipping rate determined by Amazon which the sellers must accept, and the seller has to indicate if he ships internationally (standard text in the product description).

Concerning SACD/redbook confusion, if you use the links on this site there is little risk of getting the wrong disc.

Post by Lee Scoggins April 18, 2009 (8 of 11)
I use HMV a lot. They are outstanding for Japanese SACDs.

Post by italoc April 19, 2009 (9 of 11)
Lee Scoggins said:

I use HMV a lot. They are outstanding for Japanese SACDs.

Thanks for the good tip. HMV's site has a lot more English translation compared to Amazon. It could be a good idea to link it to this site too.

Post by azure April 19, 2009 (10 of 11)
I mainly buy my SACDs from Japan (through CDJapan)
I have found that they offer better packaging than HMV and in some cases are much cheaper.
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
http://www.hmv.co.jp/index.asp?lang=en

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