Buying FAQ

Both of these options offer the same end result, buying a (normally) Japanese product and getting it imported into your country. The process of “who buys the thing” is the largest difference and is explained for each below.

A proxy is a simpler experience, usually at a slight increased cost. You find a Japanese product you would like to purchase, you send them the link and the money through some form on their site, and either automatically through a bot, or manually by a human, the item will get bought and sent to their warehouse. They’ll keep you updated during the process and tell you once it’s arrived at their warehouse. From there, you’ll need to pay an additional shipping fee to get shipped internationally (and potentially customs depending on your country and value of the item). Some popular proxies have excellent support for common sites and will let you add to the proxy cart in a single click. In summary, you give them a link and money, they buy the thing on your behalf, ship to themselves, and then ship to you.

A forwarder will give you more options in terms of availability but at an increased amount of work for the user. Starting with similar scenario, you find a Japanese product you like but you proceed with making an account on that site. Having created a forwarder account, you will get a forwarding address somewhere on the site or your profile. On the purchasing site, when you go to purchase, you would use that forwarding address instead of your own. Eventually, the item will make its way to that forwarding address, at which point they will alert you. This is where proxies and forwarders are most similar since you’ll have to also pay for international shipping here like a proxy. If an item is predicted to be sold out extremely quickly, this will be the preferred method since you are in control of the buying because manual proxies will tend to have a large lag on purchasing at a certain time.

We mention some in the fumo buying page but that’s not an exhaustive list.

We mention the well-known ones in the fumo buying page .

You’ll hear these options when shipping packages:

Prices will vary wildly depending on location, package size and/or weight. Different services have different methods to determine shipping and the best way to estimate shipping is to get a quote if you can. The second best way is finding a similarly-shipped package. If you ever plan on asking, you should include at least these 3 pieces of information: from where, to where, and what.

If you need extended summaries, you can view several better resources like Japan Post , Hobby Link Japan , or even Amiami . An important note is that not all shipping services may give you a tracking number, and a tracking number is almost always good for your sanity if you’re inexperienced in buying overseas. Confirm that the method does have a tracking number or is “Registered” which implies package tracking. Normally you can find this on the site that will ultimately ship to you. HLJ and Amiami both let you check available methods for your destination country.

Slightly different things but both are extra fees you may have to pay on your packages, or your country will be angry at you. Outside the EU, VAT isn’t something to worry about, but for our EU friends you’ll have to pay about 19% VAT (and sometimes an additional flat fee to the delivery company).

Customs/duties tax is for any country that you’re importing a product from outside the country. This will vary wildly, and most countries have a minimum limit before having this applied, so this may not count for you. Most will also have different rates but the important question is at what price point do you generally have to consider paying these fees?

Below is a table for some common countries for your reference, note this may be outdated [Last updated 2024-03-21]

The minimum values for customs have been pulled from Global Express . Customs & Duties are used interchangeably below but they’re technically different. If you need a more exact number, look up your country’s information.

This is illegal to do and you definitely shouldn’t do it. You might hear that some proxies or forwarders let you undervalue the item or mark it as a gift to pay less fees. You definitely should avoid doing this because you are robbing your country from needed taxes they collect. If your package is undervalued, gets lost, and you need to file a claim, you can only recover up to the value of the declared package, not the original amount you paid for.

Sniping is a broad term for sneaking in at the last few minutes during an auction and placing a higher bid. This, in the past, would result in in a higher chance to win the bid since you would catch the other bidders off-guard with a last-minute increase. In modern days, most auction sites have “anti-sniping” built in which means if you place a bid in the last few minutes, the auction timer will reset to 15 minutes to give people a chance to react. Buyee has a sniping feature built in which you can give it a number and when the auction is nearly over, Buyee will apply the smallest amount of your number to give you the winning bid. This can happen a few times if someone else is bidding against you.

Sample scenario: You are bidder A, all other letters are other bidders. An item is listed at 1,000 JPY, you have a sniper bid set for 10,000 JPY. B currently has the current winning bid (and has a max bid of 5,000 JPY).

1. C bids for 3000 JPY
2. B’s max bid immediately overtakes it and still is winning at 3,100 JPY
3. C places a new bid for 5,500 JPY (max)
4. B and C’s bids automatically go back and forth until it reaches 5,100 JPY with C as the current winner
5. In the last few minutes, your sniper bid triggers and bids at 5,200 JPY
6. C’s bid and your sniper bid go back and forth until it reaches 5,600 JPY, with you as the current winner
7. No one else places another bid and you win with 5,600 JPY (even though you had a max of 10,000)!

When using Buyee, it’s helpful to see your bid as “the maximum amount you’re ok with paying for this item.” Buyee will try to pay the lowest amount possible by not overbidding over another user in large jumps. Just set an amount you’re comfortable with and don’t get too emotionally attached to a listing, lest you suffer calor licitantis and end up over paying.

It should also be mentioned that if you are invested in buying an item, do not mention what item you are bidding on, or how much you are bidding in a public space. People can and will mess with you if they are cruel and either raise the item’s price or just place a sniper bid outside your range. The time for celebration is when you get the winning email notification.

Doujin plushies are plushies made by independent fan groups known as doujin circles.

While some of these plushies are part of a easy to find product line such as “funifuni” or “sukusuku hakutaku”, others are not part of specific product lines and secondhand listings will be posted much less often.

For further reading, check out piratepapillon’s doujin plush guide on MFC

For a collection of some sites, check out the fumo buying page .

This will change extremely frequently as Gift and Amiami sell new releases, but we can offer some rule of thumbs:

• If it’s a recent (< 1 year) release on Amiami, anything above 80 USD will be entering scalping territory.
• Before that, it’s extremely dependent on the plush in question and the quality of the listing, but <30 USD has high potential to be a scam.

It will depend on site to site, but here’s a quick rundown for some common ones.

All items are new unless you see a pre-owned tag on it. The title will contain something like (Pre-owned ITEM:A/BOX:B) which indicate the condition of each piece. In the item page, if you scroll down, you will be able to see what each letter stands for in terms of quality so you can make an informed decision. Amiami tends to not give details for poor quality items, even if you open a ticket, as stated in their FAQ .

This is a bit of a grab bag in terms of condition because listings are created by individuals and not a company. Think more like eBay where anyone can create a listing. Keep your eyes open for stock images, and poor seller ratings to avoid a scam or potential issues. Most sellers will list obvious dirt or damage in the description and include close up images if there’s anything noticeable. Take care on impulse buying if you see a good deal and scout it out first. Since anyone can put up an item, there is a chance for the seller to lie about the item, so this is why you need to check the ratings and see for custom images. You want to avoid as many red flags as possible.

As mentioned in the Buying page, Suruga-Ya is a reseller that takes items in and is centralized, making it more like a thrift shop instead of a flea market. As stated from their FAQ , “if we need to notify you of the condition of a product, we will clearly state the details before selling the product.” So clearly read the item’s page & check images, if supplied, to see the condition of the item. There’s not much worry for them to lie to you here, but sometimes the images aren’t the best. Make sure you run the page through a translator if you don’t speak Japanese. Normally, there will just be some slight discoloration on older plushes.

Mercari is similar to YAJ where individual users list their items, meaning it’s ripe for potential lies. Again, make sure to look at the images to be non-stock, and at the seller reviews to confirm trustworthiness of the seller. By default, Mercari JP has 6 basic “usage statuses” for the items listed on their FAQ , ranging from new, to no noticeable stains, to poor condition and a few more in between. They even specify “The ‘product condition’ you set is just a guideline.” Pay extra attention to condition if it looks like a good deal. Traditionally, this has been an amazing site to find rare finds but scalpers have started moving their gazes to here and are quick to pull the trigger, so you will need to check regularly if you want to find anything good nowadays.

Lashinbang is another centralized seller that grades items according to their standard before listing them. According to their FAQ , they use a much simpler 3 status option of Unopened, A (normal, maybe slight scratches/stains), and B (definitely scratches/stains). Similar to Amiami, they won’t respond for further detail if you have questions about an item, stating “We cannot respond to inquiries regarding product specifications.” This can be a good site to find older Gift designs, but it’s rare to find a good deal for anything new.

Mandarake is yet another centralized seller that grades items when receiving them. Their FAQ states that the majority of their stock is second-hand, but once they receive an item, they check it and note any damage on the page, with the exception of any age-related damage. They also will not grade unopened items besides labeling it as unopened.

Time is the main factor here. A suggestion is to have searches for whichever plushes or items you want, bookmark all of them and store them in a bookmark folder. Then you should be able to right-click “open all bookmarks” for that folder to quickly scan all your relevant pages & queries. You will also need consistency to do this often enough to spot a good deal, and a bit of luck. Another tip is to sort the pages by “most recently updated” before bookmarking so you’ll always see the latest items at the top and have less searching to do. If you need help navigating the Japanese UI, just ask for help in the server in one of the channels.

Gift makes the plushs. Amiami ships them (now).

Amiami used to ship them in the past (pre-2017), and then Gift decided to handle shopping on their Giftshop page (2017-2021). They moved back to Amiami in 2021.

Short answer: Made-To-Order, stock won’t run out during the scheduled sale period.

Long answer:

We need to begin with some history, old fumo sales used to always have a limited stock, estimated at ~300 fumos per design. The site (gift or amiami) would list them for sale and they would tend to sell out pretty quickly towards the end of this trend. In May 2022, we had our first MTO sale where Gift/Amiami decided they would have pre-orders, see how many they needed to make, and make that amount instead of a known limited quantity ahead of time.

This began the golden age of Fumo. Since then, most sales are mainly MTO, exceptions are generally Dekas (the large ones), and plush minis (the really small ones). If you see an upcoming sale and you’re unsure, just ask and someone will probably answer. If it’s MTO, you don’t need to worry about stock running out and can order anytime during the period (and you won’t even pay yet!). If the stock is limited, then you should be ready to start refreshing the page as soon as the sale opens to ensure you get your selection.

You can check on their chart if your country is listed.

During purchase of a pre-order item, you will not know until you get invoiced for the item(s). However, Amiami states that you can submit comparable items to determine a shipping estimate. You can do that by submitting a request and finding similar items.

For your ease of use, here are some links to common plushes for estimating a shipment payment:

• Normal Size Joon
• Medium Size Yuyuko (Mannaka)
• Large Size Yuyuko (Deka) (of note, Dekas cannot be combined with other packages)

Go to Amiami’s homepage and select “Contact Us”. Submit a request with your order number and ask them if you can have your items put into a smaller box.

The Fumo server has a janky bot that collect Amiami listings and alerts us if it senses a stock change. Sometimes Amiami will get an item randomly set in-stock. For example, when someone cancels a pre-order, Amiami might put it back up for sale. These events happen at a completely random time, for a completely random selection of plushes, with a completely random amount of stock. All that to say, we don’t know when it happens.

Refer to the fumo buying page for what different sites will allow.

For official fumos, you can see Gift’s archive of their Touhou plushes , and their general plush lines . For a wider list of plushes, you are encouraged to used MyFigureCollection since it has a much larger collection from various creators. If a plush isn’t listed on these sites, there’s a chance for it to be a custom created plush by a fan, or a bootleg company that’s shifting designs.

New fumos are generally announced twice a year at Reitaisai. After that, it takes an indeterminant amount of time to be actually available to be purchased on Amiami, and further time to be shipped out. Good luck!

Think Comicon but for Touhou. It happens twice a year in Spring & Autumn, and the Touhou Wiki has a collection

For regular fumos: If you’re a fan of EoSD, it will likely go on sale within one year along with a different colored version of her. If you’re after other regular fumos, it might take a year or two. There are no guarantees (not even the previous quip about EoSD recolors is a guarantee). Keep an eye on overstocks, you may be pleasantly surprised.

For mannakas and dekas: Anywhere between now and the end of time. Do note that while mannaka sales work like regular fumos but rarer, dekas, when they arrive, are limited sale and have not been made-to-order so you must be extremely quick when purchasing.

You can see all the official Gift Closet items on Gift’s page . Note that there are two sizes, one for 20cm and one for 15cm (at the bottom, noted by a small strap near the head icon). Here’s a Discord message with several links to Suruga-Ya searches to help finding them. The message includes a brand called UCHI NOCO which is unrelated to Gift and makes other smaller sized outfits that you may like. Sometimes just searching “Gift Closet” is enough to get you decent results on most Japanese sites.

The fumo community uses a different definition for these terms than Gift does.

Gift uses “v1” to refer to the first design of a character released as a fumo, and “1.5” to denote remasters of the original design that replace the “v1s” in official sales going forward.

The community created alternate definitions. By this definition “v1s” are fumos that include “Designed by ANGELTYPE” on the butt tag, and came with paper tags instead of (or in rare cases, in addition to) can badges. “1.5s” would be everything released since they stopped making the paper tags.

These different definitions create some idiosyncrasies, such as the community mentioning 1.5 versions of characters that Gift never officially christened a 1.5 for (ie: Satori, Kaguya), and Flandre’s 1.5 version being old enough to have her initial release including a paper tag, resulting in the existence of “Flandre 1.5 v1”.

“Puppo” is the community’s pet name for Inu Sakuya, a very old, small Fumo variant

Due to being sold once over 15 years ago at a much smaller quantity than mainline fumos and a promise being made to never rerun them, authentic Inu Sakuya fumos are exorbiantly rare and expensive.

Certain bootleg manufactuerers make a close duplicate of her and some custom makers also sell them occassionally.