Duffy Post + Beware of fakes!
If you’re a member of the MiceChat forums and especially frequent Duffy’s section, you probably know what The Duffy Post is!
For those of you who are not a member of the forum and have no idea what the Duffy Post is, I’d highly recommend signing up and checking it out, as it’s one of the cheapest ways available to get Japanese Duffy Merchandise–unless you actually know someone in Japan/someone who works at Tokyo Disney/you yourself can easily get to Tokyo Disney, obviously. For those of us who, unfortunately, do not know anyone (or just feel bad asking) or do not live anywhere near there, this will probably be your best way of getting those items or even occasionally UniBEARsity items which fit Duffy and Shellie May quite well.
If you’re somewhere outside Japan and do not know anyone who could get you anything, there are essentially only two common options.
Option 1: A bidding service, suck as Rinkya or Japamart. I tend to prefer Japamart because while Rinkya doesn’t force you to make a deposit to bid, Japamart’s fees are much smaller while Rinkya could turn a 40 dollar item into you paying 90.
–A bidding service allows you to bid on Yahoo!Japan or buy off Japanese sites. Most Japanese sellers will not ship outside Japan and a lot of them do not use paypal, but rather a system through the banks. Thus, there aren’t many other ways to do it. Some of the bidding services also work to let you buy off other Japanese sites, like a fan blog for example or an actual online shop, that may be selling stuff you’d like. The other issue, if the fees weren’t enough, is you have to pay shipping twice. Once to get to the Bidding Service in Japan and once to get to you.
Option 2: Ebay
–Ebay shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. While you can occasionally find good deals, more often than not, you will find people overpricing things and trying to rip you off, especially with Japanese merchandise.
For an uncommon option example, if you can find someone on Ebay or maybe a certain store owner in Japan who can speak some English (or if you can speak Japanese), you could find someone who may shop for you. The main issue with this is it can evolve a lot of trust and chances are, your only communication would be over e-mail and/or instant messengers.
But yes, this is why the Duffy Post is a nice thing to see. While it still won’t be as cheap as if you went and bought them yourselves, the one cost shipping and small fee (25%-33% of the overall cost usually, 40%-50% for unplanned visits that are asked for by a customer) is still much cheaper than any other options (unless you find some ridiculously awesome deal). There is a minimum order of 3,000 Yen usually, though, sometimes this can be lowered. The price is actually the cost of just one outfit (I wasn’t kidding when I said Japan’s outfits were more expensive afterall!) so hitting the minimum shouldn’t be too hard. The only time it gets a bit expensive is if you ask for anything that isn’t a planned trip in which you’d have to put in price for the park ticket and transportation for DuffyDaisuki, the creator of Duffy Post. If more people also want to order during an unplanned visit, the ticket and transportation costs will be split amongst everyone 🙂 Meaning the price could be a lot smaller in the end.
Planned visits usually happen sometime after the date for new outfits arrives 🙂 And will be announced accordingly! Right now, while the Be Magical! set is on hold though, there is a Shopping Trip available for anyone who’d like some of the UniBEARsity stuff which are also nicely made and look quite adorable on Duffy! However, the deadline is tomorrow so if you really want something, I’d recommend signing up and getting your order in ASAP! <3 However, don't just join to order from Duffy Post--it's a nice little community and it'd be nice to see more people. 🙂 __________________________________ Now, for an important message. People ARE starting to make bootleg Duffy, especially in Singapore and China. As usual, they do get pretty close, so if you do buy one from there, be sure to compare it carefully and read everything. If they don't say it came from Japan or it looks off, it is most likely fake.
