From My experience:
- Cdjapan
Pros:
*Cheap
*Can Tell if F.Press Available
*Fast Shipping
*Lots of ways of payment
*Huge range of Products
*Sales Count towards Oricon Rank/sales
*Usually items sent before release date
-Cons:
Doesn't carries overseas products.
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HMV:
Pros:
-Certain releases have special stuff (mostly postcards) only gave away by HMV
-Around same price as Cdjpan *cheap*
-Sales Count towards Oricon Rank/Sales
CONs:
-HMV is a CD/DVD + MISC store, so don't spect to find everything
-They FOLD posters
-You can't be sure you get First Press.
-Average Shipping
YESASIA:
*PROS:
Huge range of products
They do carry overseas
"free" shipping
*CONS:
Japanese products are higher priced than normal
Shipping can be more expensive than usual
SALES DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS ORICON RANK/SALES
Sometimes yesasia sells first press bonusses, they don't give them away. Or if they do they simply call it a special package, and you are actually paying for the extra stuff (mostly posters)
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Overall: I tend to always order from cdjapan, They give so many coupons, they have a nice point system, so my orders tend to be cheaper. Shipping is always fast, and customer service is great and fast.
Yesasia, I have bad/good stories with them, I ordered an overseas A complete from them. Never arrived. i had choosen free shipping, so there was no way I could claim insurance (as opposed to you ordering via ems), I sent them an email and theyinmediatly sent a reshipment which was quite nice. Order arrived after like 3 weeks though.
I usually use yesasia to compara how much "less" something would end up costing with them, and I just don't find it worth it. Sure, you end up paying like $10 less due to free shipping, but if it gets lost they have no reason to reship or pay u back. And if you use EMS, pretty much the same a ordering from cdj or hmv.
Hmv, have nothing bad to report, nor anything great. Other than sometimes artists like Alan/kuu get a free postcard if you order from HMV. Other than that I haven't noticed any difference. But DONT order anything with posters from them, they pretty much fold the posters and dont care xD
So yeah, I prefer Cdjapan
HelpsAyu too!