Yay! It's my first site review.
Oh my gosh! I'm seriously nervous and excited.
Here goes nothing........
This review would be on the items that bought and received, and the process I went through.
The site I purchased from is called CDJapan (www.cdjapan.co.jp), which is known for merchandise ranging from CDs to anime paraphernalia and much more from Japan (hence the title of the site). I learned about this site almost 4 to 5 years ago but with no credit/debit card to my name I decided to wait patiently till it would be my time.
My time arrived and I didn't waste a second. I picked out what I wanted for the time and to just test out how the site works. I bought 4 CDs: Kavkanize [Regular Edition] by Shishido Kavka (1st full length album), THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 01 Haruka Amami, THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 02 Hibiki Ganaha and THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 03 Makoto Kikuchi.
From this point on I'll be describing the process I went through in purchasing, including shipping and packaging and show pictures of the CDs and some bits of information that might help you if you are interested in buying from CDJapan.
Order date: 24th May
Shipping Choice: FedEx International Priority
There are about 7 different shipping options you can choose from. Once you are on the page of the item you want you'll see a Shipping Charge Calculator below the Add to Cart tab. It'll give you the list of countries they ship to and once you pick your shipping country of choice just click the tab that says Calculate. A small box will appear showing you the shipping options and their respective prices in Yen and in your choice of currency.
Shipping Time: 2 days
Delivery date: 28th May
In order to make purchases from CDJapan you must make an account with them first if you want to gain the rewards points offered. It is only mandatory if you wish to get rewards points. If you do not wish to make an account or are not interested in the rewards points you can use the Paypal option which I'll discuss a little later. You can make an account first or when you go to checkout your items. A page will appear asking you to either make an account or sign in (which is existing customers). A little note: when I signed up they gave me 300 points (which I'll discuss in a bit) as a new customer. I'm not sure if it's for every new customer but if it is it's to help start you out.
Now I'll explain what this 'points' business is about. Every item on the site has Points You Earn below currency choice tab. These points are equivalent to yen. You can use these points to assist or even pay for the entire order. The points are dependent on the price of the item i.e the more expensive the item is, the more points you'll earn and the less expensive an item is, the lower number of points you'll gain. However, points only apply to those that use the Checkout option. There are two ways to pay for orders: the Checkout option and through Paypal. Once you are ready to checkout, there you'll see the two options and above and below the Paypal tab it will say "Or checkout without creating account" and "No rewards points credited" respectively.
When using the checkout option you can use a credit or debit card. I will say that the process of the payment being immediately deducted from your account is not going to happen. It's going to take some time. CDJapan will send an approximate amount to your bank and they will authorize the amount once the currency exchange amount is accurate and finalized. At this very moment I'm still waiting for CDJapan to authorize the accurate amount to my bank. On your online bank statement (well for mine) it might show an amount not included in the overall summary and it will only be added once everything is finalized. This, however, did not affect my order being shipped.
This is the first time I have ordered anything from CDJapan and I must say I am pleased. I give my overall experience a 4/5. Everything is laid out in an easy to maneuver format and is easily accessible. There shipping is fast and on time. The prices are reasonable (as in they are the exact prices you would be charged if you were in Japan) and the rewards system is pretty appealing. However, the artist and product titles can get slightly mixed up or blended together with other artists and products with similarities in title, artist or series name, and the fact that its been 5 days since I paid and it hasn't gone through yet is a little never-wrecking. Overall, it was a good experience and I would recommend anyone who is interested in authentic Japanese merchandise to give them a try. [NB: If there is any change in my opinion of the site I will make an update post]
Phew! I hope you are still there. I know this is a long post but you're on the last leg: pictures of my CDs. Yay!
PICTURE TIME!!
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Shipping Choice: FedEx International Priority
There are about 7 different shipping options you can choose from. Once you are on the page of the item you want you'll see a Shipping Charge Calculator below the Add to Cart tab. It'll give you the list of countries they ship to and once you pick your shipping country of choice just click the tab that says Calculate. A small box will appear showing you the shipping options and their respective prices in Yen and in your choice of currency.
Shipping Time: 2 days
Delivery date: 28th May
In order to make purchases from CDJapan you must make an account with them first if you want to gain the rewards points offered. It is only mandatory if you wish to get rewards points. If you do not wish to make an account or are not interested in the rewards points you can use the Paypal option which I'll discuss a little later. You can make an account first or when you go to checkout your items. A page will appear asking you to either make an account or sign in (which is existing customers). A little note: when I signed up they gave me 300 points (which I'll discuss in a bit) as a new customer. I'm not sure if it's for every new customer but if it is it's to help start you out.
Now I'll explain what this 'points' business is about. Every item on the site has Points You Earn below currency choice tab. These points are equivalent to yen. You can use these points to assist or even pay for the entire order. The points are dependent on the price of the item i.e the more expensive the item is, the more points you'll earn and the less expensive an item is, the lower number of points you'll gain. However, points only apply to those that use the Checkout option. There are two ways to pay for orders: the Checkout option and through Paypal. Once you are ready to checkout, there you'll see the two options and above and below the Paypal tab it will say "Or checkout without creating account" and "No rewards points credited" respectively.
When using the checkout option you can use a credit or debit card. I will say that the process of the payment being immediately deducted from your account is not going to happen. It's going to take some time. CDJapan will send an approximate amount to your bank and they will authorize the amount once the currency exchange amount is accurate and finalized. At this very moment I'm still waiting for CDJapan to authorize the accurate amount to my bank. On your online bank statement (well for mine) it might show an amount not included in the overall summary and it will only be added once everything is finalized. This, however, did not affect my order being shipped.
This is the first time I have ordered anything from CDJapan and I must say I am pleased. I give my overall experience a 4/5. Everything is laid out in an easy to maneuver format and is easily accessible. There shipping is fast and on time. The prices are reasonable (as in they are the exact prices you would be charged if you were in Japan) and the rewards system is pretty appealing. However, the artist and product titles can get slightly mixed up or blended together with other artists and products with similarities in title, artist or series name, and the fact that its been 5 days since I paid and it hasn't gone through yet is a little never-wrecking. Overall, it was a good experience and I would recommend anyone who is interested in authentic Japanese merchandise to give them a try. [NB: If there is any change in my opinion of the site I will make an update post]
Phew! I hope you are still there. I know this is a long post but you're on the last leg: pictures of my CDs. Yay!
First 3 pictures are of the package itself
The next 5 would be inside the box and the CDs themselves
Now it will be each CD separately
Kavkanize by Shishido Kavka
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| Sealed |
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| Sealed |
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| Opened |
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| Opened |
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| Inside |
THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 01 Haruka Amami
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| Sealed |
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| Sealed |
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| Opened |
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| Opened |
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| Inside |
THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 02 Hibiki Ganaha
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| Sealed |
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| Sealed |
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| Opened |
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| Opened |
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| Inside |
THE IDOLM@STER (Idolmaster) MASTER ARTIST 3 03 Makoto Kikuchi
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| Sealed |
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| Sealed |
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| Opened |
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| Opened |
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| Inside |
And the final picture is of the bonus pictures I got from each of the IDOLM@sSTER CDs
I'm so glad you stuck through to end with me.
If you have any questions for me leave me a comment and I'll get back to you as quick as I can.
Till next time.
May the Lord God continue to keep and carry you through this crazy ride we call life.
Bye!
Update for CDJapan Review: 27th September, 2015
I am so sorry for this long overdue update to my CDJapan Review.
I have no excuse for my tardiness, laziness and procrastination.
So without further a due here's the conclusion to my review of CDJapan!
I believe I was still waiting for my payment to go through when I first posted this review.
(NOTE: The time it took for the payment to go through was much shorter than it has taken me to put up this update!!)
I will only be summarizing this as most of the information was mentioned previously.
FIRST ORDER Summary
Order Date: 25th May, 2015
Final Charge Date: 2nd June, 2015
Basically it took about a week for the payment to go through. I must also mention that because there is an international transaction fee. I am not sure if this fee is applicable to Paypal charges (as I have not used Paypal on CDJapan) but it is something to look out for if you do decide to buy from CDJapan.
To conclude I'll be including my second order summary (yes, I bought more things!!)
Order Date:June 8th, 2015
Final Charge Date: 2nd July, 2015
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Or so I thought. Turns out I didn't take any pictures of the CDs but I'll put up the front images of them.
Oh! And before I forget (if I mentioned this before I apologize but this is really important) I want to warn about their review system. PLEASE READ THE RULES ABOUT POSTING REVIEWS!!! I went through an incident where I accidentally put the wrong star rating for an album that I fell in love with (gave it a two star instead of five after I ran the cursor of the star rating, which is sensitive, by accident). I contacted their customer service (who I will be giving 5 stars for their professionalism and care of my situation) and conversed with them on what could be done. They were clear and concise in explaining their system and how it works. The situation was fixed by just basically deleting the comment altogether and advised me to be more careful in the future.Remember: YOU CAN ONLY COMMENT ONCE AT A PRODUCT! and PLEASE READ THE RULES FOR THEIR SYSTEM. It will save a lot of trouble and possible heartache.
My final review is the same as the original post: DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED
Just keep in mind what I said previously and I believe you'll have a pleasant experience with CDJapan.
Thank you for waiting and I will do my best to update this blog more often and frequently.
Till next time
May the Lord Jesus bless and carry you through this week.
