I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan
gardinerbryant.comBuyee is great! Bought a lot of stuff through them. Electronics, clothes, blurays, even food lol (shio kombu is still not very common outside of Japan). Never had a problem!
The only downside if you buy electronics with batteries: Buyee strictly enforces a maximum 2 batteries per package rule. So for example a Nintendo Switch would be shipped in 2 package because it has 3 batteries, 1 in the tablet, and 1 in each joycon. Have to plan around that when buying multiple electronics https://faq.buyee.jp/article/99?lang=en (look for items without battery, “unit only” etc)
T recently got my first proxy service shipment via Buyee, and I feel like the total price came out a good bit above what I was expecting, possibly to the point of it just being worth paying Japanese sellers inflated eBay prices for some things.
Buyee seem to love nickel and diming on package inspection fees and packing materials when consolidating (they're presumably already safely packed by the seller? just put it in a box for me), then supposedly have in some cases opened sealed items etc. Then even though they charged for the individual items on checkout, they seemed to bill for Japanese domestic shipping for everything only once you picked shipping for the final package? Very confusing and hard to keep track of.
On Mercari it’s more about reaching the domestic market which will not ship outside of the islands. Buyee helps with that so you can buy items otherwise never showing up on eBay
I've bought stuff thru sendico as well. Only thing I don't like about em is their weird credit system that you have to top up before a purchase even though there's no way to predict shipping etc
I used them recently and I was half expecting to give them my money and never receive anything, but actually they were great and very helpful. No complaints at all.
Any tips for using it? Maybe I am trying to find the wrong things but every time I have tried to browse it confusing.
Should I be looking Amazon.jp and then buying on buyee?
Buyee is mostly used with Mercari https://jp.mercari.com/en
You can use it with Amazon.jp but most of the time Amazon ships directly to everywhere, no proxy needed
In fact you can use it with any japanese store that has a link to a product, the inquiry is free itself and Buyee reports back if they can buy it for you or not
If you use Discord then the Buyee server is very helpful https://discord.com/invite/YRg3DgkBpS
Amazon.jp does ship everywhere, but their international items use a separate warehouse, and sometimes items are only stocked in the domestic one(s) and are unavailable for international shipping.
You can get a proxy shipping address via Tenso (different service but iirc same company as Buyee) and then have stuff shipped there from Amazon.jp & consolidated and shipped to you.
I used it successfully for all the cheap and/or rare second hand books available on Japanese Amazons that Amazon will normally not ship internationaly (as its actually a miriad of small sellers listing the via Amazon and often only shipping domestically).
Thanks for the advice.
Just tried it. Pretty much anything in electronic measurement equipment comes with this red banner:
“This is a prohibited item. Therefore, it is unavailable.”
Thank you for saying that because I was eyeing a lot of 12 Nintendo DSs
You can actually ask Buyee to discard the batteries after they inspected the items (you can communicate with them while the order is in their warehouse) but they only do it if it’s easily removable. Otherwise you can end up in a situation where given your example they will give you 2 choices: 6 packages which will be very expensive or we cancel your whole order but at this point there are no returns
"Buyee isn’t just an option. It’s probably the most consistent way to do it right."
"This isn’t some modern, streamlined soft‑mod. This is peak late‑2000s PSP scene energy."
"The PSP isn’t just nostalgia. It’s still a genuinely great handheld."
Once you start noticing the AI artifacts, it's hard to keep interest in TFA.
This LITERALLY just happened to me. I also resent that AI language saps the fun out of a seemingly otherwise interesting post
The PSP homebrew scene was a blast in a time where smartphones were just getting started. Lots of communities, typical console hacking cat and mouse games, and mysterious developers. Good times.
The niche older fashion brands I used to enjoy here are no longer as accessible, in part due to these forwarding services; items are priced higher for foreign buyers who still underpay compared to their domestic supply, and items are becoming harder and harder to find at all as they no longer circulate the domestic market, they just get permanently removed from it. This is despite little change in the market price of such items in other markets/currencies.
Japan is a bargain for the dollar-holder and the market is choosing to price out local interest.
After buying several used goods in Japan, my impression is that junk simply means the seller does not want to hear complaints over old items, so they sell it at a lower price. I have bought many perfectly working items sold as such.
Of course buying old stuff requires some ability to do simple repairs. That’s part of the fun.
Contrast that with my personal experience of items from the UK (specifically the UK, my experience is different elsewhere) where “untested” almost always means “I tested it and I know it’s broken but I want to try to get a better price anyway”. Especially when testing would involve plugging it in with the adapter it comes with and seeing that it doesn’t light up, for example.
I've had good luck from "vibe checking" the seller based on their other listings, it's usually obvious who's trying to make a profit vs who's just trying to clear out their unused personal stuff. The latter is often priced down too, for a quick sale. I'll only buy from a commercial seller if they explicitly describe the fault(s).
A whole lot of these bulk electronic sales seem to be "Here's all the stuff I couldn't fix". Either water damaged or the repair was botched. I can't imagine too many normal situations someone has 15 of the same game console they are selling in a bulk lot.
I used to do vacuums. As I understood it, it was house clearances etc.
I think it depends on how much it's been parted up. A big mess of everything is probably safer than a listing of 15 identical items.
One of the reasons I try and buy music equipment/instruments from Japan is that the assumption is that it will always work (It's inconsiderate to sell someone a literal brick of garbage), so yeah, I'd agree. Junk simply becomes a tolerance for DIY.
It's labeled junk because checking whether something works or not is time consuming. If it's being sold without a disclaimer it's expected that the item works or else it is subject to refunds.
Meanwhile in the U.S., 'tested, working' seems to mean "I plugged it in and the power light came on", unless there's evidence of more comprehensive testing.
I did think it was weird that my local Hard Off is about 50% 'junk'. It can't all be broken, I guessed.
I’ve surely spent more time modding PSP than playing games. Zero regrets
I just wish I started getting into software earlier, at that time it felt something super hard for “A beautiful mind” people
Yup that's about the best case for buying from Japan. Also big is anime, high end fishing gear (reels and lures are perfect because they're so shippable) also golf clubs (length can be a shipping challenge). Also look into zenmarket.com for a proxy buyer / forwarder
It being a proxy buyer means they don't really support you with issues (at least from my experience using it once). I purchased a guitar for several hundred EUR (before shipping and taxes), and it was described as functional. It arrived relatively quickly and was extremely well packaged.
However, the seller either didn't know or hid an issue. Zenmarket provided 0 support. I think they just google-translated my message, forwarded it to the seller, the seller just said "item as-is, no partial refunds", and Zenmarket just closed the issue.
For the guitar nerds: the neck was back-bowed, and it was not really playable because several frets were already buzzing. Truss rod arrived completely loose, meaning fixing this would be difficult/expensive. Try to explain to a tired customer support person that it makes some kind of sound, but not the right kind.
That's rough, it's not what I would expect because I've mostly heard good things about their support.
Parted with my PSP years ago, but I still have a working Vita sitting in a drawer somewhere. Reading this made me get up, dust it off, and put it on the charger. Looks like the Vita's going to own my weekend.
I use Jauce for buying stuff from Japan, a bit more pricey, but their shipping is exceptionally good. I buy instruments, so care is a bit more important for me.
But, yeah, I found it interesting that literally all used listings in Japan are marked as "junk", I figured this must either be some translation thing, or a trick for seller to avoid returns etc.
I still have my jailbroken PSP, back from my school days. Great fun for playing emulated PS1 games. I imagine joysticks and buttons on modern handhelds are considerably better though.
CHRONO Trigger on snes emulator.
I put my PSP from highschool into one of those "lending libraries" about town where you can put in books and such and people can just take from the little slot. Hopefully some kid enjoys the ~2004-era PSP complete with hacked firmware and a background of some hot girl leaning on a Ferrari.
Every time I’ve bought something from Japan its condition is underreported. It’s always a pleasant surprise compared to US sellers that typically over promise when describing the condition. When I put things up for sale o try to do the same. I might get a little less, but hope that the buyer appreciates getting something nicer than expected.
I spend around $5k a month on junk through Japanese auction sites for my business. Getting a working PSP graded like this is _extremely_ lucky.
Realistically you're probably looking at an 80% chance of a console like this having some kind of fault, but usually they'll be repairable.
I'm confused .. how is shipment from Japan to Australia half way around the world?
Yea this struck me as well but it’s true. It’s half way around latitudinal if you’re in the south of Australia. I’ve only ever really thought longitudinally when I think “around the world” but no reason it couldn’t be the other way.
Or it’s an AI addition and I’m way overthinking this. Damn I hate this lol.
This post is full of AI flair unfortunately
I love my PSP but even with a new battery... it dies after 24hrs off ... not sure why.
Reflash the CFW.
I sell stuff on Mercari a lot and people buying through Buyee are great.
I want my life to end that 2005 is "retro" now...
I agree with the sentiment, but that's a really weird way to phrase it!
I would have gotten a Vita. It runs PSP games (especially when jailbroken), is faster, has a better screen, and also runs Vita games.
No such things as a "Junk" PSP, as this article clearly shows!
One can explore amazing stuff in akihabara, Japan is amazing
AI thoughts
Reads like LLM wrote it.
I used to have that; it was a better GBA than a GBA itself, and I could even play Nethack on the go.
WIth a custom CFW you OFC could play Nethack at 50MHZ (With a MIPS CPU even 25MHZ would suffice), where I was more hooked than with Castlevanias...
Oh, and Scummvm, too with Broken Sword, Future Wars and the like. And ScummVM still makes releases so you can totally play Blade Runner in a PSP (and far more).
i'm sure they have used PSPs in australia as well...
I don't know if the author just writes like this, or if the text was put through ChatGPT, but it sets off my slop alarm: "Running a PSP the way Sony intended, but with a modern jailbreak in place, feels like the best of both worlds. You keep the original hardware, the original screen, the original ergonomics, but you reduce the friction. No UMD juggling. No region limitations. No locked-down firmware. Just drag, drop, and play."
Now, downvote away.
100% run through an LLM. Not sure if the author started with a draft or only an outline, but there are multiple instances of stuff like “it’s not just X, it’s Y”.
There were a couple of other LLM-isms that think mainly served to pad the length for no reason. I found the article interesting. Just not real concise.