Earlier this year there was a thread on SB about ebay acquiring YJA later this year which would open the doors to Americans being able to buy more easily from online Japanese auctions.

I don't know if this is in anticpation of that change, but interestingly this YJA vinyl seller has included a description in English and states that he WILL ship internationally (a change from the usual YJA policy that requires most of us to use buying agents).

http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u25688288

I've also heard from a few reliable sources that new vinyl is dead in Japan and that most of the buyers for this stuff are foreigners (mostly American collectors) - perhaps that also helps explains this seller's willingness to sell to foreigners.

Huh?

Interesting stuff.
I was the one who posted the thread about ebay joining forces with Yahoo Japan, but I don't have anything more to offer.

Also notice how YJA hides bidders names now, similar to eBay?

it would be interesting to see if this trend catches on with other sellers.

and i hate the blocked names on yja and ebay, doesn't this just help the shills? i know they say it's for the bidders protection against phishing, but come on.

This has always been the case. I would guess 80% of all the new vinyl made in Japan over the last 5 years has been shipped out of Japan. So I don't think this is the reason they are suddenly willing to sell to foreigners.

And then would it be cheaper to buy directly from an auction seller and deal with the EMS fee for that one item?
or would it still be cheaper to go through an agent (with fees) and let it all accumulate and then ship at once?

Hopefully it will cause services like Celga to get more competitive.

You would think that if their main buyers are out of Japan the companies would offer wholesale to places like... I dunno... SUPER 7. Doesn't make sense to me at all. Now I understand that doesnt count with stuff like RxH but Marmit could surely kick down a fat discount to get their stuff on shelves over here.

The licensing agreements for some of these companies, like Marmit, that produce Toho and Tsubaraya figures prevent them from selling overseas.

I'm not sure where everything goes when all is said and done, but in my experience there's been no problem selling Japanese vinyl to Japanese people on release day. Sure, a lot of that probably filters overseas after YAJ and other flipping, but I think it's a pretty big exaggeration to say that new vinyl is "dead" over here.

it is not dead in japan yet, but definitely the much bigger demand is coming from overseas.
that 80% of the new releases eventually making its way out of japan is not an overstatement.

EMS shipping really isn't that expensive. I don't know how other brokers do their business. I use MOJ, and the last thing I purchased was a TOUMA x MONSTOCK Destdon. The auction ended at 13,000Y w/local shipping at 500Y. My final balance was 17,755.50Y. That's a 4,755.50Y charge. I don't know if One up. has some sort of deal cut with EMS when it comes to postage prices, but the charge is usually fairly low every time I make a purchase. I actually just made an order a couple of days ago and it was only 1,900Y for shipping and a 5% paypal fee.

Down with brokers!

OK, I can't say that. My collection wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't for MOJ, but I also wasted a lot of extra cash to get what I was looking for that could have been saved if I just had a direct contact with the seller. In a way I feel bad 'cause if sellers do start to cater to the needs of international buyers, these brokers will be out of a job. Then again, maybe not. I'm sure some people might still feel safe going through a broker. I've yet to hear about any sort of ebay-esque scams going on over at Y!JA, but I'm sure it happens.

While there might be some savings on the overall shipping, since you won't be double-shipping (domestic and EMS), there's still the issue of communicating with the seller. Also, the YJ auctions seem to use completely different payment methods than eBay at this point, so I would think sending payment might be problematic as well.

For the $10 or however much, sometimes I think it's easier to let Celga negotiate with the seller to complete the transaction.

I might be wrong, but I know that there about 200 yen to the pound, so isn't it roughly 100 to the dollar?
In which case...

Isn't that $47 additional dollars on top of the auction closing price?

Thats seems pretty steep!