young

are anime dvds like Totoro, kiki's delivery service, etc cheaper in japan than thru mail order places like CDJapan? prices are roughly $42 thru them. just in general and not including shipping.

Furious

There are plenty of shops in Japan that sell R2 dvds for cheaper than list. Small specialized stores dealing in one genre are often a good bet. Also other stores offer discounts if paying in cash (Yen), while others have "card" programs with discounts for returning customers. That said, you'll find plenty of stores selling at full list as well, just like over here. Unfortunately, all the online retailers (that ship outside of Japan that is, domestic etailers do offer discounted prices online there) are hitting you with full retail prices + handling charges + shipping charges + consumption tax (which you shouldn't really be paying I gather as it is an exported item and that is a domestic tax).

Kumar J

The DVD's are generaly for Japan use only so there are no export usage.So you have to pay the consumption cost.But thats 5% of the price of the DVD.
Consumption tax is a mandatory for allmost anything you buy, even for a can of coke
Some shops here in Japan have discounts and you earn 15% to 10% for each DVD you buy depending on which store you buy it from.Which can be collected in the form of shopping points.It cannot be changed for cash but can be used in the same store to buy anything from that same store.Well its like 25% discount on some DVD's.After 10 dvds, I get 1 free with the points collected.

nekobus

There isn't any mechanism to remove the tax for export on purchases like this. Everyone pays the tax as the government considers it "consumed".

It's nothing like the VAT system in Europe or Canada where one can get the tax back.

young

so, generally, the prices thru mail order is fair. and the chances that i would find lower prices, even if i were in tokyo, are low. buying many dvds for credit and getting one for less would not be feasible.

thanks for the clarifications everyone.

young

nekobus

Yeap. While some places will have a small discount, many places charge list and have some type of a freguent buyer type program.

dorian

I thought there are actually laws in Japan that require the merchants to never charge less than msrp....?

(convenient)

Kumar J

Business is competition so they all compete.MRSP is just a price by the goverment so that you dont mark up the price of the product over that price.But makers like Sony and other electronic makers have started to put OPEN prices.So there is no MRSP, and the reseller can set the price they want.Very unfair for the consumers as we dont know how much we are paying for that product