I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#11

Post by haunter » Sat, May 16, 2026, 4:40 AM UTC

teruakohatu wrote: post #9

haunter wrote: post #2

Buyee is great! Bought a lot of stuff through them. Electronics, clothes, blurays, even food lol (shio kombu is still not very common outside of Japan). Never had a problem! The only downside if you buy electronics with batteries: Buyee strictly enforces a maximum 2 batteries per package rule. So for example a Nintendo Switch would be shipped in 2 package because it has 3 batteries, 1 in the tablet, and 1 in each joy…

Any tips for using it? Maybe I am trying to find the wrong things but every time I have tried to browse it confusing. Should I be looking Amazon.jp and then buying on buyee?

Buyee is mostly used with Mercari https://jp.mercari.com/en

You can use it with Amazon.jp but most of the time Amazon ships directly to everywhere, no proxy needed

In fact you can use it with any japanese store that has a link to a product, the inquiry is free itself and Buyee reports back if they can buy it for you or not

If you use Discord then the Buyee server is very helpful https://discord.com/invite/YRg3DgkBpS

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#12

Post by _def » Sat, May 16, 2026, 6:47 AM UTC

The PSP homebrew scene was a blast in a time where smartphones were just getting started. Lots of communities, typical console hacking cat and mouse games, and mysterious developers. Good times.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#13

Post by prokopton » Sat, May 16, 2026, 6:52 AM UTC

I sell stuff on Mercari a lot and people buying through Buyee are great.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#14

Post by dotdi » Sat, May 16, 2026, 7:12 AM UTC

TurdF3rguson wrote: post #3

Yup that's about the best case for buying from Japan. Also big is anime, high end fishing gear (reels and lures are perfect because they're so shippable) also golf clubs (length can be a shipping challenge). Also look into zenmarket.com for a proxy buyer / forwarder

It being a proxy buyer means they don't really support you with issues (at least from my experience using it once). I purchased a guitar for several hundred EUR (before shipping and taxes), and it was described as functional. It arrived relatively quickly and was extremely well packaged.

However, the seller either didn't know or hid an issue. Zenmarket provided 0 support. I think they just google-translated my message, forwarded it to the seller, the seller just said "item as-is, no partial refunds", and Zenmarket just closed the issue.

For the guitar nerds: the neck was back-bowed, and it was not really playable because several frets were already buzzing. Truss rod arrived completely loose, meaning fixing this would be difficult/expensive. Try to explain to a tired customer support person that it makes some kind of sound, but not the right kind.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#15

Post by kilpikaarna » Sat, May 16, 2026, 7:48 AM UTC

haunter wrote: post #2

Buyee is great! Bought a lot of stuff through them. Electronics, clothes, blurays, even food lol (shio kombu is still not very common outside of Japan). Never had a problem! The only downside if you buy electronics with batteries: Buyee strictly enforces a maximum 2 batteries per package rule. So for example a Nintendo Switch would be shipped in 2 package because it has 3 batteries, 1 in the tablet, and 1 in each joy…

T recently got my first proxy service shipment via Buyee, and I feel like the total price came out a good bit above what I was expecting, possibly to the point of it just being worth paying Japanese sellers inflated eBay prices for some things.

Buyee seem to love nickel and diming on package inspection fees and packing materials when consolidating (they're presumably already safely packed by the seller? just put it in a box for me), then supposedly have in some cases opened sealed items etc. Then even though they charged for the individual items on checkout, they seemed to bill for Japanese domestic shipping for everything only once you picked shipping for the final package? Very confusing and hard to keep track of.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#16

Post by kandros » Sat, May 16, 2026, 7:49 AM UTC

I’ve surely spent more time modding PSP than playing games. Zero regrets

I just wish I started getting into software earlier, at that time it felt something super hard for “A beautiful mind” people

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#17

Post by keyle » Sat, May 16, 2026, 7:58 AM UTC

I love my PSP but even with a new battery... it dies after 24hrs off ... not sure why.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#18

Post by relistan » Sat, May 16, 2026, 7:59 AM UTC

jwrallie wrote: post #5

After buying several used goods in Japan, my impression is that junk simply means the seller does not want to hear complaints over old items, so they sell it at a lower price. I have bought many perfectly working items sold as such. Of course buying old stuff requires some ability to do simple repairs. That’s part of the fun.

Contrast that with my personal experience of items from the UK (specifically the UK, my experience is different elsewhere) where “untested” almost always means “I tested it and I know it’s broken but I want to try to get a better price anyway”. Especially when testing would involve plugging it in with the adapter it comes with and seeing that it doesn’t light up, for example.

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#19

Post by haunter » Sat, May 16, 2026, 8:23 AM UTC

kilpikaarna wrote: post #15

haunter wrote: post #2

Buyee is great! Bought a lot of stuff through them. Electronics, clothes, blurays, even food lol (shio kombu is still not very common outside of Japan). Never had a problem! The only downside if you buy electronics with batteries: Buyee strictly enforces a maximum 2 batteries per package rule. So for example a Nintendo Switch would be shipped in 2 package because it has 3 batteries, 1 in the tablet, and 1 in each joy…

T recently got my first proxy service shipment via Buyee, and I feel like the total price came out a good bit above what I was expecting, possibly to the point of it just being worth paying Japanese sellers inflated eBay prices for some things. Buyee seem to love nickel and diming on package inspection fees and packing materials when consolidating (they're presumably already safely packed by the seller? just put it i…

On Mercari it’s more about reaching the domestic market which will not ship outside of the islands. Buyee helps with that so you can buy items otherwise never showing up on eBay

Re: I Bought a “Junk” PSP From Japan

#20

Post by rjh29 » Sat, May 16, 2026, 8:37 AM UTC

jwrallie wrote: post #5

After buying several used goods in Japan, my impression is that junk simply means the seller does not want to hear complaints over old items, so they sell it at a lower price. I have bought many perfectly working items sold as such. Of course buying old stuff requires some ability to do simple repairs. That’s part of the fun.

I did think it was weird that my local Hard Off is about 50% 'junk'. It can't all be broken, I guessed.