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| My current arpakasso collection!!! Guess which ones arrived via Japonica package? |
What is Japonica?
Japonica is a shopping service that bids for you on Yahoo! Japan, Mbok, Japan Online Shopping Sites, etc. You pay a downpayment of how much you're willing to bid on an auction and they will bid for you. For example, I paid 2373 yen + paypal fees for this Mbok auction. If you didn't win the auction, they would refund 100% deposit within 24 hours by Paypal.
Total payment would be:
+ Auction/Shopping Subtotal ( Closing Price + Shipping Cost to their Office )
+ Commission (see chart, under ¥2500 purchase = ¥800 commission, paid ¥400 r/t 50% off deal?)
+ Shipping Cost to Your Home
+ PayPal international fee 3.2%+40yen of the Total
Kinda expensive, right? But it's the only shopping service that works with Mbok (that I know of)
Other Japanese Shopping Services?
Review
- My experience started on November 20th by emailing & paying via paypal for the bid on Mbok
- I worked with someone named Yukiko, who replied to emails on a timely basis (within 1-2 days)
- WON THE AUCTION (Nov. 24th)
- Package from Mbok arrived at their office in 5 days (Nov. 29th)
- Paid for shipping and commission fees (Nov. 30th)
- Shipped Dec. 1st, arrived at home (Dec. 10th)
- COST: ¥5619 (converts to $66.87, but with paypal conversion $71.87 T_T)
PROS
- CHEAPER than buying on an English storefront (eg. arpakassoshophk)
- +$48 for the jumbo pink arpakasso
- +$42 for two 12cm baby arpakasso
- +$22 for the white arpakasso phone bag
- +$21.50 for shipping (usually free keychain)
- $133.50 TOTAL?!
- THEREFORE: you save so much $$$ with Japonica/any SS if you bulk buy arpakasso
- Great customer service! (Fact: Japanese shops have AMAZING customer service)
- Find your perfect auction listing that you want to get!
- High chance that you will be paying for an authentic arpakasso (new pictures of arpakasso in a regular setting VS stock pictures)
CONS
- Longer waiting time from order to delivery (20 days for me)
- If you have a USA seller like MyMaido, shipping is max 7 days in USA)
- English is okay (feels slightly less professional with some capitalization errors, but it's like 100 times better than Bodyline communication that has horrible Engrish)
- You might not win the auction…
- Might not be BRAND NEW
- Paypal Exchange rate: 1 USD = 80.4062 JPY plus extra paypal fees
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars!)
Now onto the unwrapping pictures~
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| The box was sent from an Mbok seller so I didn't expect HQ new packaging |
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| Opened from the side |
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| Covered in bubble wrap and a plastic bag |
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| Unpacked in all of the arpakasso glory!!! |
Love the pouch! It's super cute~~~ And we have the same giant pink alpaca now (* 7 *) I've never used Japonica before, but this is a great review! Very useful <3
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelsey!!! Are you on the Arpakasso forums? I hope you'll post pics with your alpaca somewhere~
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