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1. Kinds of merch
2. Kinds of figures
2. Differenciating figures
3. International shops
4. Japan-only shops
5. About proxies + how to use them
6. Proxy examples

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πŸŽ€ How to buy Japan-only merch πŸŽ€

AKA how to not be scammed by Ebay resellers

With P3RE around the corner there has been a boom of P3 merch and I often see people wondering how they can buy all the stuff releasing on Japan or getting scamed by western scalper prices, so I thought a merch guide would come in handy.

While I originally wrote this for Persona merch 100% of the info applies as well for any JP products you want to buy

I will talk about:
+ Kinds of merch & their usual prices
+ Figures: Kinds & prices
+ Shops with international shipping
+ Japan-only shops
+ Proxies & how to use them Different proxies

If you have any more info or I'm mistaken in something, feel free to add to this!

πŸŽ€ Merch & their pricing

These are the most common merch types & their usual retail price (in yen). There's lots of inflation going on lately though, so prices might be a liitle off.

Keep in mind that "character tax" is a thing and often merch for the most popular characters has insame price. It's up to you if you want to pay the scalpers or keep an eye to find a good deal.

There are tons of more merch (Pita Nui, Noseberi....) but these are the most common ones. I usually just type the series' name and browse everything there unless I'm looking for something not related to the game/series like Nui clothes.

πŸŽ€ Figures

Figures need their own section since they're a trickier subject.
There are different kinds of figures, and their price changes depending on it. The main types are:

---- Scales

Pre-painted high quality figures, their name comes from the fact that most of the time the figures as sized in relation to the character's actual height (for example a 1/7 scale figure of Yukari would be 22-23cm tall, 1/7 of her height).

Due to the materials and all the work they require, their price is expensive, usually 12-30k yen. I recomend buying them with their box unless the figure has very a static pose, due to the small details they can break during shipping.

---- Garage kits

Figures modelled and casted by independent artists and sold in very limited numbers at events via 1-day licenses (unless it's a GK of an OC, then some artists sell their kits online).

These figures come unpainted and unassembled, you have to finish them yourself. Since they aren't official the artist has some freedoom, so you can find some funny ones.

Their price can vary, current ones cost as much or more than scales, but older kits can be found for very cheap (1-3k yen) specially if the character or artist is unknown.
Remember you're paying the hours and hours a single artist put onto the figure, each piece had to be modelled and casted manually and resin is expensive, that's why the price is high despite being unpainted.

---- Prize & Noodle Stoppers

Pre-painted mss-producced figures made to be won via crane games and merch lottery, hence the name. Their quality and QC is way lower than scales, but you can still find some cute ones & their quality has improved lots in the recent years.

Their price is low, around 2-3k yen. Anything more than $40 is a scam, don't pay re-sellers that price.
Usually, you will find prize figures for $15-20, that's a fair price. Since they're made for crane games, they're very sturdy so you can take the plunge and buy them boxless for an even cheaper price ($5-10), they will arrive safely most of the time.

---- Semi Prizes

Lately companies have been jumping onto the "premium prize figure" trend. While not reaching the scale quality by a huge margin, they often have better casting and paint job than prize figures.
Some semi-prize lines are "Pop Up Parade" (quality varies between figures), "Tenitol" and "Artist MasterPiece+"

Their price is low/medium, around 3-5k yen. Still, just like prize figures, I recomend looking them for around $15-25, they're not worth more than $45.

---- Action

Pre-painted figures made to be posed and played with. Nendoroids and Figmas fall in this category. They're usually around 10-12cm tall, but there are some as big as 30cm.

Their retail price is around 5-12k yen depending on the brand. Action figures in scale or with actual clothing can fall in the 17-20k yen range
I personally wouldn't pay more than $60 for ones like Nendos and Figmas due to their size, but it's up to you.

"But how I differenciate between all of these?"

If while looking for merch you see a figure but are unsure if the price is fair, go to MFC & write the name of the series/character on the seach bar (MFC uses [Surname - Name] as the entry name) and click on the result.

Scroll a bit and look for the "Figures" section. Click on the number at the corner to view all the figures (you will need an account to view NSFW figures)

Now simply look for the figure you're interested in and check its info to see important info about it. Below are examples of how each figure kind is categorized on MFC.

If you scroll down on the page, you can also see user coments & photos, which can give you an idea of how much people sell the figure for (not always a fair price tbh) and how the figure looks like in real life.

Open the images on a new tab to view them in full size

πŸŽ€ Where to buy: international shops

You will use most of these sites to buy new merch and preoders.
I don't recoment places like Ebay since they often inflate the price of everything and even sell bootlegs. You can sometimes find good deals over Ebay/2nd hand sites though, so don't fully rule them out, just be ware of prices/bootlegs.

πŸŽ€ Where to buy: japanese shops

These are the shops where you can find good deals and any kind of merch. While in the international shops (except Mandarake and Suruga-ya) are only able to offer merch producced by the IP holders (ie Capcom, Atlus), these can sell collaboration merch as well.

You will need a proxy to buy from them. To search, just put the japanese name of the series (easily found on their ikipedia pages) and browse. If you want something specific, try the words I put on the merch type section.

πŸŽ€ Proxies & how to use them

First off, a proxy is not a shop, but an intermediary. They sometimes have in-website shops so you don't have to change tabs to browse different shops, but all they do is to buy what you tell them to & then sent the item to you.

Each proxy has a user guide, but most of them work like this:

So what you will always have to pay is the item price & the shipping from Japan to your house, just like any other online purchase.
The optional payments are:shipping within Japan & proxy fees. And if you like in EU, the VAT of the item+shipping value (luckly, proxies almost never put the shipping price on the invoice)

It may sound complicated, but is very easy actually. All you have to do is sent them links and wait for "You need to pay" emails.

πŸŽ€ Proxy examples

Pretty much any proxy will do the work, the big difference is often how expensive they are. This is something you will need to research yourself to see what option is better/cheaper to you, but these are the proxies I have used:

DeJapan
Buyee
Zen Market
Japan Rabbit Neokyo Other proxies are FromJapan, OneMap, Remamboo, etc etc.
There are also "forwarders", the difference with proxies is that you're the one who buys the item (instead of sending a proxy the link to it and letting them do the work). They are useful for time-sensitive purchases, but I have never used them so I can't guide you on that. The ones I know are Black Ship (by Japan Rabbit) and Tenso (by Buyee)
And that’s all!
I hope you have fun buying, I started using proxies a few years ago and I got addicted lmao

You’re the only one who gets to say what to do with your money, but I would use the retail prices I mentioned as a reference when buying to not get scammed with high prices.
Also if you want a specific merch, the key is patience! Check 2nd hand sites every 2 days or so until you find it.

If you have any problem or question, feel free to ask me!! (except for bidding, I have never used Yahoo auctions)