cdJapan seems very good
did you try to buy from there?
i wanna hear some impressions about it...
CDJapan's point system is great! For each order you get points in worth of 3% (1% for books IIRC?) of the item price (w/o shipping) PLUS you get an extra 300/500/600 points for spending more than 5000/10,000/20,000 yen (again, w/o shipping). You get also get 300 points at the beginning of your birthday month. 1 point equals 1 yen, so like faery76 said it's possible to pay the shipping fees (or even the items themselves) with the points you earned.
Every now and then they also have special offers going on in which you can gain more points per purchase. Sometimes, there are sales as well making lots of things cheaper (I haven't seen many otome games being on sale yet, however I once did see the price for the limited editions of the TYB game series being dropped by, idk, 60%?).
As faery76 has already stated, CDJapan also has some exclusive tokutens (similar to Stellaworth and Animate, although not half as "fancy").
Another good thing about CDJ is that if there is only a limited amount of an item, it will tell you exactly how many copies are left.
Oh yeah, and unlike many other shops, CDJ actually lets you cancel your order as long as it hasn't been shipped!
If you're using Paypal as a payment method, you'll have to pay for everything in advance (of course you'll get a full refund in case of cancellation). If you're paying with your credit card, you won't be charged until they've shipped the item.
There is also the option to make a special request for items you can't find but want desperately. However, personally, I can't recommend it because it rather expensive. Take Hana Awase -Mizuchi Hen- as an example (because for some reason they have it as a Special Request item
and as a normal item): The non-special request "edition" costs only 1400 yen which is the original price. The special request "edition" on the other hand costs 3370 yen. Like, wow, that's more than double the price! (also, you can
only use EMS for special request items, and special requests cannot be cancelled.)
You won't encounter such prices when making requests for books, though (they have a special request site for books only). So if you're looking for a specific artbook, anthology or something else and can't find it, go request it on CDJ. Up until now they've granted all my book requests. (And unlike special requests, you won't have to buy it just because you request it. A few working days after you make your request, they'll simply mail you a link to said books, and from there you are free to ignore it or order it like any other item on their site.)
Buuuuut unfortunately, there are some not so good things about CDJ:
For one thing, the shipping is being calculated beforehand, and sometimes it's not really accurate. Like, I'm pretty sure that the Crystal Edition of IA/VT -COLORFUL- does not weigh mere 198g. That unfortunately also means that they might give you a heavier weight, thus overcharging the shipping price.
The other downside is they do not offer PC games at all. (Hana Awase is an exception because it's listed under the book section) If you are looking for PC games, I'd recommend AmiAmi.
tl;dr: let's sum it up:
Pro:
- great point system
- occassionally special offers and sales
- shop exclusive tokuten
- counter of how many copies are left (if there is no counter that means that there are still many copies in-stock)
- lets you cancel your order
- offers a special request service (although it's pricey)
- offers a book request service (which is completely free of charge)
Contra:
- sometimes questionable weight calculation --> higher shipping
- no PC games
I actually wanted to write something about other online shops such as AmiAmi as well, but you've only asked about CDJ and that aside, I think I've written enough for now. ;)
If you have any questions or are confused by some of my statements (English isn't my first language so my wording might be weird), feel free to ask! :)
After all, when most people go to buy stuff, Amazon is the first site to come to mind.
I wish they'd give us a reason instead of keeping it so vague.... because when I tried to order a PSP game in my first post, like I said, I got that message about CDs and stuff.
