Japanese PCE Magazines for sale OR TRADE - UPDATED

[dshadoff]

news ?

Please be patient... I will soon post a list of available issues; I will edit the starting post of the thread at that time.

I think I will start with Dengeki G's Engine at that time, since it seems to be popular, plus since they are the thickest magazines, they will help me clear space in my room faster.  They're also generally in very good condition, and in some cases I have more than one copy available.

...Which brings me to the next question.
Are there guidelines at this site (or a "standard" elsewhere) as to how to grade quality of the magazines ?
I want to be as clear as possible without spending huge amounts of time describing each issue in painstaking detail.

[dshadoff]

I was thinking a little more about pricing.
I haven't decided on pricing yet - and actually the original purpose of the thread was to get some guidance on pricing.

When I put these up, I will be as fair as I can.
I will post the approximate amount that I paid (not including shipping) for nearly all of the issues.
I will evaluate offers below that price, especially in larger groups.

I will only ship using a service which has tracking numbers (ie. EMS, FedEx, UPS, etc.)... which might make shipping high for individual issues.
I will try to get estimated shipping rates posted with the magazines.
For example, I recently received some more magazines from Japan - about 20-25 issues - and shipping via Fedex was about $120.

As for my own cost, I recall that the price I paid (not including shipping) was basically in one of 4 categories:

1) About $15-20.  These were purchased either in North America at the time they were released, or in Japan years later.  Many of the more common Dengeki issues fall into the group.  Say about 15-20% of the issues.

2) About $20-25.  This was about half of the magazines in all, across all magazines.

3) About $50.  This was a relatively small number of rare PC Engine Fan magazines across the years, and about half of the issues of Marukatsu or Gekkan PC Engine from 1990 or earlier.  I have only a few of these in duplicate.  Those duplicates were either to replace a magazine in poor condition, or they were part of a larger batch purchase.

4) About $100.  Yes, painful as it is, I paid that much for some issues of Marukatsu and Gekkan in the 1989-1990 area.  I am still missing some of those issues, and would happily pay this much for a missing issue.  I may have duplicates of some of these $100 issues, but mostly they are lower quality (ie. I paid a higher price to "upgrade").  I do have some good-quality duplicates from batch purchases, and these will be priced accordingly.

[kisaku]

Cool!
Please tell me what magazine's numbers you have!

[dshadoff]

Good news/Bad news.

Good news: I got oragnized enough to check on shipping rates.


Bad news... actually horrible news - they are unbelievably high.

I was preparing to ship out a package of something else today, and I tried to find shipping rates...
They're atrocious to ship from Canada to anywhere in the world... a lot worse than I recall, the last time I shipped anything regularly.

So basically, it won't be worthwhile for anybody outside of North America to buy these magazines... and it could seem horribly expensive (but at least plausible) to a resident of the USA.

Here's how bad it is:  If I were to ship something to the USA as "Expedited Parcel", and have somebody forward the same article via ExpressPost to virtually any other country in the world, it would come out about the same price as shipping directly from Canada.... via surface mail, with no tracking.  Shipping ExpressPost from here would be 50% to 100% more expensive.  It just doesn't make sense.

Here's how I found out:
I was going to ship a 2.2kg parcel to a friend in Australia.  It's about the size of the retail box of a laptop computer.
- All couriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL, Purolator) quoted prices between $300 and $350.
- CanadaPost quoted $257 for "Priority courier", $152 for "XpressPost", and $91 for "International Parcel - Surface"
- USPS, however... (if I lived in the USA) quoted $135 for "Global Express Guaranteed", $70 for Express Mail, and $53 for Priority Mail.


In order to see how this maps out for magazines, assume that
- Dengeki PC Engine magazines are around 400g each
- other magazines are around 300g each (although older ones may be thinner)
- plus inserts
- plus packing/shipping container

So, 2kg is easy to hit with just a few magazines...

Also, for any service that doesn't automatically include tracking, it's $15.25 to add it on... which is horribly expensive.

Not sure if anybody is still interested after hearing this... though maybe it's bearable for North Americans.
Or I suppose if anybody is planning to visit the Toronto area, we can meet or I can drop them off at your hotel.  

Let me know what I should do next, about the sales...
And of course, for trades, I'd happily cover the appropriate shipping charges on my side, so this wouldn't affect trades in any way.

[Black Tiger]

Which city do you live in?

[dshadoff]

Which city do you live in?

Strictly speaking, Mississauga.
For those who don't know the city, it's immediately adjacent to Toronto, and is the actual location of Toronto's International airport.

[Black Tiger]

Too far away for me to do a pick-up.

[Arkhan]

Too bad Canadia doesn't offer global flat-rates like the USPS.  The medium flatrate boxes could hold a pretty huge stack of magazines.

Shipping rates for USA (and AFAIK, Canada) went up in January to the current borderline retarded pricing.  What used to cost 15$ now costs 25$.

[kisaku]

I need these if you have:

PC ENGINE FAN 1989 numbers. 4,5,7,9   
PC ENGINE FAN 1991 number. 11

[kisaku]

I sent you a pm!!! Please answer me!

[NightWolve]

Try reaching him via AIM if you have an account. His username is: morphos9

[dshadoff]

Marukatsu magazines listed.
See very first post in thread.

[esteban]

Marukatsu magazines listed.
See very first post in thread.

Comrade, I know you are too busy, but I had to ask: is there any chance you (or volunteers from family/workplace/neighborhood) could scan the covers + table of contents for the magazines?

It's OK, you can laugh. I had to ask, though 

Thanks for humoring me.