Has anyone ever ordered a bass from one of these sellers? They seem to have some good deals but was curious if everything was as they described it.
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Yes. Many many many times.
Each time the entire experience has been fantastic.
I do ask a few questions and make sure there are answers that make sense, but haven’t had an issue in about half a dozen purchases.
@howard - any tips to share from your end?
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Like everything else, it’s depends. @howard is quite and expert and have written a thread about it.
It seems like there’s a central hub of instrument and there are several “salesmen” who post the same instrument on different apps and each would have different price. I bought a couple from this setting on eBay and Reverb on both occasions same bass was listed by another seller for a lot more.
Unless of course, you buy from the big Japanese store then they will be the only one listing.
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As for ebay I do not use it here for domestic goods so no tips from me but understand that they will be marking things up from the cost direct.
More and more Japanese vendors, including some big names, on Reverb lately too.
As for buying from Japan in general, yeah as @Al1885 mentioned I put together a thread:
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I totally blanked on the thread you did @howard
@Al1885 ya the multiple listings are all “brokers” who try to get the best price possible first. They all can be haggled. They are legit, just another way of doing things. I was skeptical at first but got my SBV-J2 this way.
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Someone here buys zillions of Japanese basses but forgot his user name.
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@matt.g.ward.esq I think? I assume you mean besides you and me 
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@howard any idea what I’m supposed to fill out in the kana area?
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IIRC folks outside of Japan cannot take advantage of IKEBE’s memberships etc (it may have changed) and all international sales have to go through email via their international sales page (at least that is how it was last year).
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Try just repeating your name in romaji. If it fails and requires kana, ping me your full name you will use on the order in chat and I will transliterate it for you. May not check in until tonight though.
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Ahh that would work too, or Google Translate usually will do a good job unless your name has a common usage equivalent (i.e. your last name was “Black” or “Swift” something else that is a commonly used word in native Japanese).
You want Katakana, not Hiragana for that field.
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