Source

It has been a very long time but I won't take up too much time as this post is going to very long and detailed so buckle up and get some writing material. We're going to class for:


Before we continue, let's clear the air for those who might be confused.

What exactly is a 'Proxy' site?


There are possibly hundreds of proxy services out there that will allow you to purchase your desire goods from Japan, South Korea etc. I thought that I could take the lessons I learned from my experiences of the past year using a few of them to assist anyone who is new to using proxy sites and help them narrow down their choices to make an informed decision when picking a service.

Please keep in mind that my list was chosen after narrowing down a much longer list of choices thanks to other lovely people on the internet who shared their experiences. At the end of this entire post I will put the resources and people I used to make my choices and any other proxy sites that I have heard about but have not used myself.

One thing to remember: always do extensive amount of research before plunging straight into ordering from any of these sites as this can cost you extreme frustration and money. I learned the hard way. It might take some time but patience is virtue. Alright, let's start.


I started using proxy sites around late 2017 after seeing a video on YouTube giving a tutorial on how to purchase out of print K-Pop albums through proxy sites. I had gotten a pretty decent job and was being to start my K-Pop physical album collection. However, the albums for most of the groups I love either had been out of print for years or disbanded or both. I was honestly heartbroken until I learned about Proxy service late 2016. At that time I was kinda snobby and didn't want anything second hand. That changed when I started collecting. That tutorial led me to being to now own a lot of the albums for my dear groups that I couldn't purchase when they were initially released.

NB: proxy sites are not only for K-Pop or J-Pop merchandise. They can be used for almost any purchase (these sites also let you know what items are prohibited or not for purchase).

The sites I have and continue to use are FromJapan, Buyee, ZenMarket, Japonica (Mercari). For this first part of this post I will be talking about FromJapan and Buyee, the first and second sites I used respectively.