International shipping US games online retailer?

[itsuka]

I'm looking for a US online retailer where I can order the Oblivion GOTY edition for PS3 (not announced for Europe so far) that will

a. actually sell it to Europe (www.amazon.com refuses to sell it outside the US)

b. has decent shipping prices (< $10 total shipping preferably)

c. has decent customer service, including some replacement policy if anything goes wrong in the mail.

Any good experiences? I could wait for ebay, but I prefer having a good adress where I can pick up a good number of region free ps3 games in the future, given that Eureopean releases are usually lagging behind (and the current dollar exchange rate doesn't hurt either).

[unknownfatehome]

Don't know about how much they charge for shipping but there's playasia, NCSX,
YesAsia (free shipping + no VAT/Tax)

[Johnny]

videogamesplus.ca is where I get most of my US games from. They usually ship Canadian versions (come with French + English manual and usually have French text on back of box as well as English) but unless your anal or a collector it doesn't really matter.

First class service, decent prices and very helpful/friendly.

[quenelf]

Seconded, I don't know whether I started using it because johnny or somebody here recommended it, but videogamesplus.ca have a completely solid service record for me (obviously I don't buy near as much stuff as johnny does). I got my Wii there and have also used it for all the Wii and DS games I've bought in the past year or so (except the Japanese DS games, obviously).

Their prices are Canadian dollars (which probably makes them rather less competitive at the moment compared to US-based sites, given the US dollar's troubles).

I think their shipping is based on weight; while it might be less than $10 for something like a DS game, it would probably be more for a collector's edition whatever (assuming said collector's edition has bonus stupid crap that weighs it down).

--quen

[Johnny]

Their prices are Canadian dollars (which probably makes them rather less competitive at the moment compared to US-based sites, given the US dollar's troubles).

I think their shipping is based on weight; while it might be less than $10 for something like a DS game, it would probably be more for a collector's edition whatever (assuming said collector's edition has bonus stupid crap that weighs it down).


Yeah, they base their shipping on weight. One thing I've noticed is that their shipping prices/game prices seem to have gone up slightly. It's probably to do with the Canadian Dollar/Pound rate but I used to pay around £36 for a game and postage but it's now around £40.

[itsuka]

Thanks, videogamesplus.ca seems to be the sort of store I was looking for. They were very eager on their site to take no responsibility at all for lost packages (which would be actually illegal in Europe, but hey, beggars can't be choosers...).

DVDpacific also has a claim like that, but they have at least a procedure in place for announcing lost packages, and I know they replace.

Any actual experiences here about lost packages?

[Johnny]

Thanks, videogamesplus.ca seems to be the sort of store I was looking for. They were very eager on their site to take no responsibility at all for lost packages (which would be actually illegal in Europe, but hey, beggars can't be choosers...).


If it helps, I personally have never had, nor ever heard of anything going missing from them.

If you have any concerns, email Sidney and I'm sure he can sort out recorded delivery or something for you.
As I said before, he's very helpful and friendly.

[Greywing]

Another option is CD Universe (www.cduniverse.com). They're pretty reliable too, from my experience.

[quenelf]

Nothing has ever been lost from them, so no. Actually, in all my years of ordering stuff from all sorts of companies across the world (DVDs, CDs, manga, games, etc) I don't think any package ever got lost. (It is possible that I might have forgotten one!)

Most companies which use non-registered mail (rather than a courier service which you have to sign for) have similar policies, though. It isn't possible to prove that the package has not arrived and the type of people who buy video games on average are probably more likely to be the kind of scum who would claim something didn't arrive when it did :)

In general this is fair enough anyway - even if the package is lost, it's not like they get their money back because the post service lost it, because there is no way to prove that and the post service won't give any insurance or whatever... why should they lose the money rather than you?

--quen

[itsuka]

CDUniverse is definitely more attractive at the moment due to the dollar exchange rate with the EUR.

[demonix00]

YesAsia (free shipping + no VAT/Tax)
Actually all playstation games/consoles are excluded from the VAT/tax free offer from yesasia (it's on their site plus they won't even ship the non GOTY edition to europe either)

[Greywing]

CDUniverse is definitely more attractive at the moment due to the dollar exchange rate with the EUR.

Yeah, another good reason in their favour. Also, if you do care about collecting games, I've never had a Canadian <English/French dual packaging> copy from them. I mean, they are American based, I think, so there's no reason to think they would send Canadian releases but still... nice bonus. :neko:

[itsuka]

CDUniverse is definitely more attractive at the moment due to the dollar exchange rate with the EUR.

Yeah, another good reason in their favour. Also, if you do care about collecting games, I've never had a Canadian <English/French dual packaging> copy from them. I mean, they are American based, I think, so there's no reason to think they would send Canadian releases but still... nice bonus. :neko:

Can't say I care. In Europe, we usually get our games with multi, multi languages (that's why anime games over here never include a Japanese track). I don't care about editions and additional languages as long as the games will play properly and have at least an English language booklet included.

[Greywing]

CDUniverse is definitely more attractive at the moment due to the dollar exchange rate with the EUR.

Yeah, another good reason in their favour. Also, if you do care about collecting games, I've never had a Canadian <English/French dual packaging> copy from them. I mean, they are American based, I think, so there's no reason to think they would send Canadian releases but still... nice bonus. :neko:

Can't say I care. In Europe, we usually get our games with multi, multi languages (that's why anime games over here never include a Japanese track). I don't care about editions and additional languages as long as the games will play properly and have at least an English language booklet included.

Actually, I believe the reason most games don't have Japanese here is because SCEE won't offer tech support for it, or some similarly lame excuse. I don't know how the games that do have Japanese get around this though...

[Danj]

Slightly related, can anyone recommend me a US site that would sell me an NTSC Wii? (I'm in the UK.) Because of the Canadian Dollar reaching parity with the US dollar, VideoGamesPlus's Wii price is almost the same as a PAL Wii, and that's before shipping and taxes, so if I was to get one I'd need to get it elsewhere.

[Johnny]

Slightly related, can anyone recommend me a US site that would sell me an NTSC Wii? (I'm in the UK.) Because of the Canadian Dollar reaching parity with the US dollar, VideoGamesPlus's Wii price is almost the same as a PAL Wii, and that's before shipping and taxes, so if I was to get one I'd need to get it elsewhere.

Try Yesasia or NCS. Although I still think the latter are charging way over the retail for them.
The price of Japanese consoles is back to normal but the US ones are very expensive at most online retailers still.

[Danj]

Slightly related, can anyone recommend me a US site that would sell me an NTSC Wii? (I'm in the UK.) Because of the Canadian Dollar reaching parity with the US dollar, VideoGamesPlus's Wii price is almost the same as a PAL Wii, and that's before shipping and taxes, so if I was to get one I'd need to get it elsewhere.

Try Yesasia or NCS. Although I still think the latter are charging way over the retail for them.
The price of Japanese consoles is back to normal but the US ones are very expensive at most online retailers still.

NCS (http://www.ncsxshop.com/cgi-bin/shop/RVL-S-WCUSZ.html) are charging about the same as VGP, and YesAsia (http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/section-games/code-c/version-all/did-10572/fil-52/pid-1004512384/)'s price is just stupid expensive.

[DiGiKerot]

Slightly related, can anyone recommend me a US site that would sell me an NTSC Wii? (I'm in the UK.) Because of the Canadian Dollar reaching parity with the US dollar, VideoGamesPlus's Wii price is almost the same as a PAL Wii, and that's before shipping and taxes, so if I was to get one I'd need to get it elsewhere.

Try Yesasia or NCS. Although I still think the latter are charging way over the retail for them.
The price of Japanese consoles is back to normal but the US ones are very expensive at most online retailers still.

NCS are charging $350 for them, which seems close-ish to elsewhere as far as I've looked.

I've just recently grabbed a US PS3 from NCS recently, shipped via USPS (Parcel Force here in the UK). I do believe the value was marked down, and it came through without customs charges...

[Greywing]

I thought the Wii didn't have region lock on games? O.O

[Danj]

I thought the Wii didn't have region lock on games? O.O

Well it doesn't play movies, so what else is it going to have a region lock on? Wii is region locked for both games and virtual console.

[quenelf]

And for everything else, too; you have to tell it your region/time zone/everything is in the US (or a few other American countries) if you get a US one.

I got mine from vgp so can't help you, I'm afraid. (I think it ended up costing me more than a UK version, after shipping, but not too much more; not certain). IIRC they still only sell them in a bundle too, although it's with a game you want anyway.

--quen

[Damo]

Stupid question time

Withall these imported consoles, what do you do about the power suply unit see nas we Uk use different voltage/plugs, I presume converters are easy to come buy?

[DiGiKerot]

Stupid question time

Withall these imported consoles, what do you do about the power suply unit see nas we Uk use different voltage/plugs, I presume converters are easy to come buy?


The PS3 is multivoltage, so you just need an appropriate kettle cable. There are Japan-friendly Asian alternatives for the 360 which run on regular, UK power supplies too.

Aside from that, you just need a moderately beefy voltage converter (not as beefy as the kind you'd need if the PS3 wasn't multivoltage, though), which shouldn't be particularly difficult to source.

[Johnny]

One thing worth noting for anyone wanting to import a console is courier charges. How they get away with such blatant daylight robbery escapes me but it's not uncommon to have a nice bill (on top of the postage you payed the retailer and usually higher than what customs charges would have been) slapped on by DHL, UPS and the like.

New 360 - £190
Delivery - £40
UPS Charge - £55

Tried to deliver it on Friday and I wasn't in and apparently my £55 doesn't get me the priviledge of a Saturday delivery so it's Monday for me :sigh:

[quenelf]

For Wii, two options:

1) Use a voltage converter

2) Buy a replacement power supply

Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to buy a genuine Nintendo Wii PSU (at the time anyway), but you can get Chinese knock-offs on ebay without any major problem.

--quen

[quenelf]

I didn't get charged for my Wii. However the claimed value of the package may not have been precisely accurate...

According to a quick google (i.e. they may have increased it for all I know, I never paid this) UPS charge £11 to charge you the customs fee, which is actually only £3 more than Royal Mail do these days.

In both cases it's daylight robbery (only the tax itself should be paid by customers, not any cost of collecting the tax, any more than you pay your employer £20 a month to collect income tax) but on the other hand, I guess if you average out all the charges I've paid including the you-bastards-you-charged-me-£8-to-pay-£4-tax charges, it still works out way less than all the VAT they've lost. (Because items under £18 don't get charged, and you sometimes get away with it on other things.)

--quen

[Damo]

For Wii, two options:

1) Use a voltage converter

2) Buy a replacement power supply

Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to buy a genuine Nintendo Wii PSU (at the time anyway), but you can get Chinese knock-offs on ebay without any major problem.

--quen
I should have said, it would be for a US PS2 as I've been thinking of one for US games anda dediated proper R1 DVD player.

I know a ps2 can be chipped but finding someone who could chip it for me, thats the hard part.