Doujinshi ClubA club for all those who love and collect doujins.

Since this seems to be the place where all the dedicated doujinshi collectors have gathered, I thought it might be a good thing to exchange thoughts on what everyone thinks is the best proxy to use when buying our lovelies~~

Also, what are your most important reasons for picking a proxy? The cheapest fees, the longest holding time, multiple shipping options or simply the option to underdeclare an invoice? Or are you loaded and therefore have the freedom the pick the most reliable one?

When I started buying from toranoana/melonbooks etc., I mostly used Yokatta Service, but deemed them to be too expensive, so after 'extensive research', I ended up at Treasure Japan, who hasn't disappointed me as of yet :)

I used Treasure Japan too for my last Toranoana purchase. Fees are pretty high for a single doujinshi, but oh well. Other than that, for Toranoana I like the group buys here, nice to split the fees.

I've started using Fromjapan for YJA lately, and they are aaawesome. Fees are low, tons of shipping options. It would make me so happy if they let us buy NSFW stuff too~. For those I've been using Shopping Mall Japan for the last few years, even though they have a ton of extra fees. 100 yen doujinshi always ends up costing me ~$15 with them. I'm really just with them because I'm used to them, along with being unable to find anyone cheaper for low priced items.

Price is definitely number one for me when it comes to choosing proxies. Everyone always seems to have extra fees that end up costing me the same at every proxy. Except Fromjapan, but then, they're limited too. Ah, if only we could buy stuff without middlemen.

My first experience was with the proxy service of MioBoutique ((ext link)) though it was 1 year ago I think...
It was a good experience; I bought items from 2 different stores and they charged me handling fees only once rather than one per order. I got a detailed spreadsheet with what it cost me and the price of each shipping method available so I could compare everything. Everything was packed with care and the package was sent as a gift + undervalued.
Then I wanted to pre-order some straps from Toranoana and sent them a request; they put them on order on their site rather than the proxy service and when I told them it was much more expensive than what it would have cost via their proxy service even with the most expensive shipping from Toranoana they told me I could go elsewhere if I didn't like the price...

So that's what I did -_- (finally pre-ordered them with a group order via the LSB club)

Next order I went through Yokatta ((ext link)). The items were a R18 doujin book, a strap and a plush, but it was nicely packed and the book didn't suffer at all. Undervalued and sent as gift too. Only downside is that the flat 700 yens if only for 3 or less items if I remember correctly.

And last I used Treasure Japan ((ext link)) because the LSB club was happy with it. 4th order is on it's way =)
I like their cart system, it's pretty neat. Everything was always packed with great care and came without a single wear on the doujin books, even when there were sharper items combined. Recently they've stopped putting undervalue but still mark packages as gifts. I'll have to see if it pass through customs or if I'll need another proxy...

I had thought about using FromJapan ((ext link)) some time ago but despite having the paypal logo on their site they wouldn't allow a deposit to be made via PayPal. It may have changed now? There was a discussion in the Middlemen thread (Figure shop and site review club : (mfc link)) some time ago and some user posted part of their invoice, I admit I don't like these :
dymitr③ Pending system usage fee of Charge1 ￥0
④ Excess charge ￥500
⑤ Tax （ Charge1 ） ￥0
⑥ Surcharge ￥0
because there isn't much infos on the website -or I failed to find them.

HexinAh, if only we could buy stuff without middlemen.
This. ^_^

(BTW there's the store White Canvas ((ext link)) that ships worldwide, but EMS only and with an extra 1000 yens fee so it can't even be an alternative to middlemen -_- )

I used Shopping Mall Japan until a bit ago, but it wasn't cheap and lately I had caught them making mistakes (?) in my invoices - asking me for more money than they should. So yeah :/

So now I use Treasure Japan, which is cheaper and I find the people behind it really helpful. I've been able to buy from circle websites and even order special limited edition items at Animate, so I'm really happy with them at the moment :)

I answered on the club front but I'll put it here also. I use Treasure Japan and just love their service. I highly recommend them.

also use treasure japan and love the service which is why I recommend them to everyone XD They've been really good about handling the $1000+ orders I've made with them for the group orders and the way their cart system works makes it really good for large quantity orders (I think my largest was 64 items from one shop and they didn't miss a one!). They don't offer real time bidding but as long as you send the order in before midnight central time on a weekday (or going into a weekday) they usually can put a bid in right away around 1 AM and will even try to snipe bid for you if you ask them to. I don't know if Nahoko is the one that packs the things up but someone there is a TETRIS MASTER. I've only had very minor outer carton damage in any shipment I've gotten, all the books come in excellent condition every time. Just love them love them. They seem to also have some of the best rates for large orders (10% over 10k yen).

I used shopping mall japan for an auction since TJ was down at one point. The deposit system kind of threw me off and they took a while to get back to my questions after I got a late payment notice that they never invoiced me for but it got sorted out. I had to ask them two or three times to give me back my deposit and paypal took a fee chunk out of it when they finally did =\ and then okuu got a rerelease date so it was all for naught OTL. It was kind of nice that they stored my okuu in the US but I imagine for anyone not in the US, that would actually be more of an inconvenience, since they didn't even ask about my preference. Glad treasure japan is back is all I can say XD; looking for other proxy services was a pain and disheartening.

finally got my first order from Shopping Mall Japan.
ordered 3 glass cups. I'm not sure if SMJ repacks items, but whatever they did from the seller to me worked out. best packaging I've seen coming from overseas. their ordering process is pretty smooth too. wish they had a bigger notice on their site for whenever your invoice was sent out though. completely forgot about my order and had some problems paying. technically should have paid the late fee but they waived it considering it was mostly a paypal issue.

so the goods came in fine, but their fees really blow. apparently they're much better when you're ordering a single, big ticket item. paying almost $40 extra for a 500 yen set of cups wasn't what I was expecting at all, especially when the seller used the cheapest shipping. I'd use SMJ again though if I wanted something rare n' expensive. the real time (mostly lmao) bidding is addicting.

planning on using Treasure Japan next! I'm glad this thread exists since so many proxy reviews are super outdated