HOW TO BUY hitomi's STUFF ONLINE

It is easy to buy hitomi's goods online. If you are interested in supporting hitomi, please read the following mini-guide that includes my personal experience with shopping online.

    First of all, it is important to have a credit/debit card. Without one you won't be able to pay anywhere. If you are a student, there will probably be a special type of credit/debit card just for you. Check out different banks' websites to see which one has the least expenses. For example, I have a debit card that didn't cost me anything. However, it costs little money to withdraw cash. If you really don't want to get a card for some reason, you can always try to ask your relatives/friends for help. If they are nice enough, they might use their card to pay online and then you give them cash. However, most people won't do that for you more than once or twice.

    hitomi's CDs and DVDs are not hard to find. Best online shops to order from are YesAsia, CD Japan and HMV Japan. YA provides free shipping worldwide and HMV has the best selection of goods. I ordered stuff from all three before and I have never experienced any serious problems. What could happen to you, though, is that your package gets stuck at customs (-> you will receive the package later than expected and you'll have to pay taxes for what you bought, which is unfortunately something you shouldn't be surprised by) or the slipcases of your items might be somehow cracked or broken. Usually that doesn't happen, or the cracks are minor. However, if it is something more severe, you can return the items back (for free) and require the online shop to send you new ones. Online shops always try to pack your order well so that it doesn't get damaged, but it can happen anyway, if the package isn't treated well during shipping. Just don't let that discourage you from buying things you want, because it rarely happens.

    Most of hitomi's releases are available in online shops, however, there some exceptions. At the moment [June 2008] singles CANDY GIRL, by myself, kimi no tonari and there is... have been outsold. There are also some special limited releases, like Japanese girl single with nail chips, that can't be purchased anymore either. Then you have two options - forget about buying them or try to get them through Yahoo Auctions Japan.

    So how to buy stuff through YAJ? I would like to mention that there is no eBay in Japan. YAJ was simply more successful and it is really the best way to get rare stuff from Japan. The problem is that most sellers will not ship overseas. Therefore, you need some middleman who would pick up the items for you and then send them to your country. You can choose your friend, single middleman, or a middlemen company to do that for you. The first two are cheaper, but the third one usually provides professional packing and shipping, so that you can be sure that either your goods will arrive safely, or you will get your money back. I personally chose the third option, because it makes the whole thing easier. With Crescent Shop you don't have to register at YAJ, and their software supports real-time bidding. There are, of course, other sites like that. But I have tried Crescent, so I can write about that one only.

    How Crescent Shop works? First read through their information about fees. If you think you can do with the prices, register. That doesn't cost money. Then if you decide you really want to try it out, you have to send them some deposit through PayPal. It works like this - if you send 100$, then you can bid for items up to 500$. So depending on how much deposit you send them, you can bid for a certain amount of money; that amount is your deposit multiplied by five. After sending deposit, you can start bidding on hitomi items. Let's say you find a rare tour pamphlet. The auction starts at 2000 yen, buyout price is 3000 yen, and the auction ends in 4 days. You can bid, for example, 2500 yen and wait. If no one else bids, in four days you will win the auction for 2000 yen. If someone else bids 2400, you will win the auction in four days for 2400. If someone else bids 2600, they are going to win the auction in four days for 2500 - that was the second highest price. However, if you bid 3000 from the start, you are going to win the auctions right away, because that was the buyout price. Buyout price is not always available though, it depends on the seller. Always bid only the highest amount of money you are actually willing to pay, because if you win, then you have to pay Crescent for the item + other fees; those fees include domestic shipping (shipping cost from the seller to Crescent), Crescent's profit fee, and shipping cost from Crescent to your country.

I hope that this guide helped you, and is going to motivate you to support hitomi.
If you have any questions, please don't contact me directly. Instead, ask at our forum or contact respective shops.

Thank you,
    miyalumix