A confusing eBay search for Japanese guitars

[Smallfloor]

I'm not exactly a "newbie" eBay user and so far I've been able to find and buy almost anything I wanted without any problems. But when I tried to find Explorer models from any Japanese manufacturer (Edwards, Tokai or Burny) I ran into a big problem. Namely, it happened that one and the same guitar was sold by several stores under different eBay orders (and prices), and at the same time they sold it in the store's premises, and even on Reverb! besides, the descriptions are very short, if they exist at all, so it is very difficult to shell out 900 ÷ 1200 US$ for a guitar of which you do not know the condition of the frets, neck, truss rod or electronics. Sometimes the seller says "ask what you are interested in", but the answer takes seven or more days, and sometimes it never comes. That's not business IMO.
Having failed on eBay, I began a general Internet search for Japanese web stores. Although the browser offers the translation of Japanese into any other language, it cannot do this with the buttons, but soon you "get into the trick". Then again trouble: you found a guitar but you can't buy it because your country is not in the menu (Japan Only) or it is suggested that you first check via email if it is in stock and how much it will cost to send it to your country! Sometimes the dealer answers, sometimes not. And by the time you get all that done, the guitar is sold in the meantime! Hand on heart, I can't really say that the prices are favorable because the prices have skyrocketed in the past year. There were really good chances at the auctions, but they were reserved only for Japanese people, and to participate I would have to find a middleman, but I wasn't used to such an agreement, so I gave up.
It would really be great if, in addition to eBay, the buyer had the opportunity to safely search, negotiate and pay for Japanese guitars... maybe something like that will happen in the near future to the joy of fans of Japanese music products.

 

[Sigmania]

What you are experiencing are brokers. None of them actually have the guitar. They are middle men.

You can go directly to the source in different ways.

One way is yahoo Japan. Use Google chrome to view the listings in English. You need to arrange with a proxy to bid and ship it unless you feel comfortable arranging that yourself.

Other ways are finding a seller in Japan with a storefront. Some do sell to foreign buyers and arrange shipppng. Some do have Reverb stores.

Keep at it and you’ll figure out something that works for you.

 

[user 13014]

I've been trying to wrap my head around the best way to locate and import a guitar from japan as well.

I've been looking at possibly using ZenMarket - The Best Shopping Proxy Service to buy from Japan! as a proxy if I do find something, but I'm uncertain what kind of reputation they have. I've seen a few "horror story" threads on other forums about people having problems with buyee, so I'll probably avoid them.

It's pretty fun digging through all the stuff on digimart.net and https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/ , though I'm still unsure of the best way of actually making a purchase off someplace like that and actually trying to import something!

 

[Smallfloor]

Hi Sigmania, thank you or your valuable advice. TBH, I would like to get some detailed instruction "how to spend your bucks for guitar from japan"... it seems that since the beginning of corona one part of the world is trying to come up with as many crooked ways as possible to screw someone online and get something for nothing, I read about some scams on Reverb and supposedly on eBay that were paid with paypal and that supposedly PP is not reacted in both cases as expected. If that's the case, then it's terrible...
@lang: I think that ヤフオク! - 日本最大級のネットオークション・フリマアプリ is reserved only for domestic buyers, no internatinal sell

 

[FrankiePags12]

I just bought a Chinese Tokai from Japan off of ebay. Some sellers seem to be in it for the money and don't know much about the items they have listed. The one I went with was jpsoundsguitar. He answered all my questions and sent additional pictures that I asked for. Packaging was the best I have seen. Definitely an honest seller in my eyes.

 

[Voidoid56]

I've been trying to wrap my head around the best way to locate and import a guitar from japan as well.

I've been looking at possibly using ZenMarket - The Best Shopping Proxy Service to buy from Japan! as a proxy if I do find something, but I'm uncertain what kind of reputation they have. I've seen a few "horror story" threads on other forums about people having problems with buyee, so I'll probably avoid them.

I've been using Zenmarket for maybe 6-7 years now, I must be approaching 100 guitars in total. It's an excellent service, reliable, very low fees, good customer service, they pack brilliantly. You'll need to deposit money to bid on auctions and pay for shipping, but that true of all the proxy services I know of (I guess that's part of the business model, I'm sure they put the money to work while they're holding it). In short, they're legit, and they've never let me down so far. Recommended.

 

[Smallfloor]

I've been using Zenmarket for maybe 6-7 years now, I must be approaching 100 guitars in total.

Man, I really envy you, but in a positive way! Your experience here is very encouraging and maybe the only way to go right now. I wish I could have heard you earlier and your experiences with Japanese guitars, for which (at least to me) the world went crazy.
Thank you for you valuable words

 

[Voidoid56]

Man, I really envy you, but in a positive way! Your experience here is very encouraging and maybe the only way to go right now. I wish I could have heard you earlier and your experiences with Japanese guitars, for which (at least to me) the world went crazy.
Thank you for you valuable words

Your most welcome.

I used to use a proxy called Jauce at first, also an excellent service, but at that point they only allowed shipping of one guitar per package (they might do now, though, not sure). Buyee is semi-legendary for their poor packing practises. It's actually odd that they haven't upped their game, but I'm pretty sure that old guitars is just a small portion of these companies' businesses. They seem to deal mostly in Japanese popular culture items, clothes, manga, toys, collectibles etc, i e less fragile and bulky stuff. But Zen is really good, especially if you spend 1000 JPY (7-8 USD) extra for "reinforced" packaging when ordering shipping.
One good thing with Zenmarket is that you can attempt to buy most anything for sale anywhere online in Japan with them. Just go to "Other stores", paste the url and they'll buy it for you, if possible. This means that you can search Japanese dealers' sites as well.

At any given time, I have something like 35-40 guitars at home, about 25 of them keepers. The rest are temporary guests, going out as new one's come in. It's basically a self-sustaining zero-sum game, an ongoing cycle of purchase-research-restore-flip-repeat. But it's been a good few years since I put salary money into a new guitar, I'm happy and I'm having fun.

 

[Smallfloor]

Your most welcome.

At any given time, I have something like 35-40 guitars at home, about 25 of them keepers. The rest are temporary guests, going out as new one's come in. It's basically a self-sustaining zero-sum game, an ongoing cycle of purchase-research-restore-flip-repeat. But it's been a good few years since I put salary money into a new guitar, I'm happy and I'm having fun.

, man, you sound like the kind of person I'd like to have as my first neighbor! An extraordinary story! I wasn't really thinking of trading in rare Japanese and other guitars, I just wanted a high-quality Japanese copy of the Gibson Explorer, although I saw several beautiful Les Paul models also made by Japanese manufacturers, so that your mouth starts watering right away! When you describe your job it sounds like a song easily, I'm just afraid that my wife might strangle me in my sleep if she found out about it! I am really grateful for this information, I wish you much success in your future work

 

[Sigmania]

Smallfloor, Just don’t let her look in the guest room and under the bed. Sometimes leads to divorce.

 

[Voidoid56]

Well, I've only been living with my partner for about ten years, so she was fully briefed on what to expect when we moved in together. Besides, we have a very large apartment.

Actually, I'm not "trading" per se, only enough to keep me in new guitars. It sort of followed on naturally once I started to flip the odd guitar. But I wouldn't actually attempt to make a living off it, I don't think that'd work that well. Anyway, I'm retiring in about a year and a half, so I've every intention of keeping it as a hobby.

 

[Sigmania]

That's the same thing I did for years. Guitars were bought with "guitar money" that was made from profits on selling previous guitars. Once you reach a critical mass it sort of can become self sustaining and relatively guilt free. LOL.

But the quest is endless. Always another one around the corner, and you end up selling others to justify it. At least I did.

The further you go, the longer the list of the ones you look back on and wish you had held onto. But the ones I settled on and have hung onto for the past few years are more or less keepers.

I guess in the end you don't get to keep any of them. Just wish my kids had some concept of how special they are. Hate to think of what will happen to them when I'm gone. I probably need to label everything...

 

[currypowder]

Your most welcome.

I used to use a proxy called Jauce at first, also an excellent service, but at that point they only allowed shipping of one guitar per package (they might do now, though, not sure). Buyee is semi-legendary for their poor packing practises. It's actually odd that they haven't upped their game, but I'm pretty sure that old guitars is just a small portion of these companies' businesses. They seem to deal mostly in Japanese popular culture items, clothes, manga, toys, collectibles etc, i e less fragile and bulky stuff. But Zen is really good, especially if you spend 1000 JPY (7-8 USD) extra for "reinforced" packaging when ordering shipping.
One good thing with Zenmarket is that you can attempt to buy most anything for sale anywhere online in Japan with them. Just go to "Other stores", paste the url and they'll buy it for you, if possible. This means that you can search Japanese dealers' sites as well.

At any given time, I have something like 35-40 guitars at home, about 25 of them keepers. The rest are temporary guests, going out as new one's come in. It's basically a self-sustaining zero-sum game, an ongoing cycle of purchase-research-restore-flip-repeat. But it's been a good few years since I put salary money into a new guitar, I'm happy and I'm having fun.

That's the same thing I did for years. Guitars were bought with "guitar money" that was made from profits on selling previous guitars. Once you reach a critical mass it sort of can become self sustaining and relatively guilt free. LOL.

But the quest is endless. Always another one around the corner, and you end up selling others to justify it. At least I did.

The further you go, the longer the list of the ones you look back on and wish you had held onto. But the ones I settled on and have hung onto for the past few years are more or less keepers.

I guess in the end you don't get to keep any of them. Just wish my kids had some concept of how special they are. Hate to think of what will happen to them when I'm gone. I probably need to label everything...

You guys are kindred spirits! That's basically what I've been doing for roughly 20 years, though only using proxies to buy from Japan for about 10. I have noticed that the total number in my collection has crept up over the past couple of years to the point I really need to increase the number that are moved from keepers to temporary guests. The USD/JPY exchange rate was so favorable last year, it was hard to resist buying up a few that I may have skipped over in the past.

FWIW, I use FromJapan as my proxy and have been pleased with their service and fees. I would say that, as compered to some of the others, their packing is just OK. But still, I've had very few issues over the years. I've used Buyee, Zenmarket and Rinkya sporadically in the past, usually for a one-off that FJ couldn't deal with. Buyee now has an "extra packaging" service that is really good, though nowhere near ZM's bomb-proof extra packaging.

 

[currypowder]

I just wanted a high-quality Japanese copy of the Gibson Explorer

Keep an eye out for a Momose Korina MEX, they are KILLER guitars. They don't come up for sale too often and generally get snapped up pretty quick when they do. Worth the pursuit.

Here's mine

 

[Voidoid56]

You guys are kindred spirits!

Yeah, there are a few of us around. I've a couple of friends here in Sweden that are doing about the same thing too. One thing we all seem to have in common is that "it just kind of happened", with no real conscious decision involved. Me, I had a chance meeting with a new Springy Sound in the early 80's, it impressed me deeply but I didn't do anything about it at the time. Then, many years later, a Metallic Red '82 ST-60 showed up on eBay, I bought it (for way too much money) and it was exactly as I remembered the first one. And off I went.

Anyway, it's a good thing I don't seem to have any real hoarder tendencies, or I would be making my way through a sea of guitars here at home today. And I would have been single. :-D I quite enjoy selling guitars as well, seeing them find a new home, especially with active musicians and/or young people. And I seldom have seller's regrets, I mean, there's always another one, right?

 

[currypowder]

One thing we all seem to have in common is that "it just kind of happened", with no real conscious decision involved.

That is definitely a common thread with me. It all started off with that **** 2003 Tokai LS-320 I bought back in '04 or '05. Still ranks as one of the finest guitars that have ever passed through my hands and I still have it to this day. I equate it to walking into a casino and hitting a jackpot with the first bet. That one purchase sent me down an MIJ rabbit hole that I can't seem to emerge from, I just keep going deeper and deeper.

 

[user 13014]

That is definitely a common thread with me. It all started off with that **** 2003 Tokai LS-320 I bought back in '04 or '05. Still ranks as one of the finest guitars that have ever passed through my hands and I still have it to this day. I equate it to walking into a casino and hitting a jackpot with the first bet. That one purchase sent me down an MIJ rabbit hole that I can't seem to emerge from, I just keep going deeper and deeper.

You have GOOD taste in guitars. Wow. That is gorgeous.

I bought a Fugigen made strat a few months back, and ever since I've been teetering on the abyss of the "wow, these guitars are _really_ good! Maybe I'll just take a _look_" rabbit hole ever since. Digging through digimart and reverb, etc.

I've been drooling over old Tokai springy sounds ever since. But man, that LS-320 is NICE. (The crews you have posted is no slouch either )

 

[Smallfloor]

Smallfloor, Just don’t let her look in the guest room and under the bed. Sometimes leads to divorce.

There's no way, she's like a shark that senses blood in the water. Sometimes I think she has a sixth sense for the days I find something at auction and try to order!

 

[Smallfloor]

Keep an eye out for a Momose Korina MEX, they are KILLER guitars. They don't come up for sale too often and generally get snapped up pretty quick when they do. Worth the pursuit.

Here's mine...

Man, that guitar looks as cool as a Tie-fighter from Star Wars! I did a little "snooping" on the Internet for that manufacturer - and it's not quite such a "naive" price, almost like Gibson Exp! But thank you for the idea, maybe someday I will find a copy with an acceptable price... BTW I work for 2 months for the price of an original Explorer, but life can be big B.H.

 

[currypowder]

and it's not quite such a "naive" price, almost like Gibson Exp!

The Gibson Korina 58 Explorers cost 5 times what I paid for the Momose.