Ami Ami

Aside from HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search, a friend told me about Ami Ami. Like the other HLJ and Hobby Search, Ami Ami sells all sorts of products from figures, model kits, magazines, etc.

The site is pretty new to the international community (out of Japan) because of their recent English support and international shipping. One thing I didn’t like about ordering from the site is that they don’t use some form or automatic payment system but rather they use PayPal to receive payment from international customers. It would be nice to finish the ordering process at the end up checkout of the site.

So onward:

-Main site. Make sure you register for account first (towards the top left of the page)

-Items of the site are also a bit straight forward. It’s nice to know that they also put on their inventory amount too.

-After clicking “Add to Cart” this comes up (like any other normal merchandise site)

-Check out page. Note: Read the bottom of the page if you want to do SAL Registered. This is cheaper than EMS but slower in shipping. The price of shipping will not be shown until you get the second email from AmiAmi.

-Address and Contact verification

-Payment Selection. Of course, those who live outside of Japan PayPal is the only method.

-After all of that, this is the final page for order on AmiAmi. From there you have to pay via PayPal.

-So here’s the email that was sent to me. The final price of shipping and the item is included in the price (I chose EMS).

There was probably a glitch on PayPal because I did not see any option to pay with my credit card, even though it was on file. The drop down menu at the review portion only showed the checking account. Not quite happy about it because of the extra six days I have to wait until the money clears. One advantage of using the eCheck method is the amount of money one will save with currency conversion fee $0.40 vs $3.60 through PayPal. Truthfully if I did have the option, I’d pay the extra just to have my item a week earlier.

Obama the Anime

Okay it’s not really an anime, but it was quite funny finding this placed here. There was more than one there, so I think the DVDs were just misplaced? Crossroads Best Buy in Cary, NC.

Starting Things Back Up

Over the few days, some of the galleries will be shut down as some of the old galleries will be moved over to the new system. It’s finally fall break so there are things to be added to the site among other things (and studying for classes, err that’s not related to the site).

Cooliris Support…Somewhat…

Any galleries made during 2008 and onward have Cooliris support. Here’s what it looks like:

Here are the plugins for firefox and IE.

and

For the iPhone and iPod touch users, there’s an app for you too.

Delicious Library

First of all, I’m very tired from staying up late last night from studying, then finding this program.

Delicious Library is a catalog program for OS X which allows a person to scan pretty much anything with UPC code relating to books, music, video games, toys, and a few other groups. All it does is put the products into it’s groups for record purpose. To input data, you can either input the UPC then it AUTOMATICALLY looks for the product and puts it in to the database or for the Mac users, you can use your iSight camera to get the computer to read the barcode. Of course iSight isn’t perfect, but for the most part where the UPC code is pretty big, it works. Delicious Library seems to be working with Amazon.com to grab cover art and information for the product, along with ratings, synopsis, and reviews for the product from Amazon.com.

Other things with this program is to publish your collection into HTML format and upload it to a website. There are also options to upload directly to a .mac account, ftp, or iWeb.

Here’s an example of an uploaded Delicious Library made catalog for HTML.

Another feature it has is the ability to loan an item out and record it. This feature I haven’t tried myself.

The few problems I’ve encountered was the iSight camera and the inability to read a lot of UPC codes because it was too small. The iSight camera was never good for capturing photos in general, but for the most part it took most of the things in the example. This includes bar codes of figures imported from Japan. Another problem was the program itself unable to locate some of the items correctly. Some of the Halo books I scanned came up as some Anne Rice’s, “Interview with the Vampire.” The UPC code is apparently the same, but the ISBN number is different.

If the scanning doesn’t work, you can manually find the product using the UPC code or ISBN number. One thing to remember is if you are finding the items manually, select the item you’re inputting, otherwise it would not find it.

This program is by Delicous Monster.

Unfortunately, this program is mac only; however, my windows side says, “anything a mac can do Windows can do too.” Since google is your friend, Mediaman it is.

Play-Asia (UPS)….GEEEEZ!

After two days Play-Asia’s package finally came! Kudos to play-asia, err UPS, and their fast shipping, okay it was a bit expensive, but it was here in 2 DAYS! Better than EMS that would’ve taken at least a week.

AND…here’s the tracking. I’m still confused about the Anchorage, Alaska departure, maybe it stopped there to pick up more packages.

Play-Asia Shipping Test

A few weeks ago, I ordered a small package from Play-Asia.com and chose UPS shipping. According to their site, their expensive $19.90 shipping through UPS will take one to four days. As of this morning the item has shipped from Hong Kong and is on it’s way to the East coast of the United States.

-Method of payment is a credit card, so no slow approval of mailing a check or pay pal approval stuff.

Hobby Search Finally Arrives

After being away from another weekend, the package from Hobby Search finally arrives in arms of the receiver.

It did make attempts last week so it technically came sixdays after HobbyLink Japan.

There were a few factors in this: 1) HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search shipped it at different times, HLJ being before the acceptance and HS being after, 2) Memorial Day weekend delayed both packages, 3) HLJ did manage to get past customs on time, while HS was probably backlogged at JFK due to Memorial Day (Federal Employees are off).

Even though it was late, here what it looks like:

Back to the Race

Last week I posted the update about the shipping race we did with HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search. Unfortunately I was at Animazement partying away when a package attempted delivery last Friday then Saturday when I was away. The package that arrived was HobbyLink Japan and the three figures inside and it wasn’t until this morning I was able to pick it up at the post office. It looked like the package went though a minor war with holes on a few sides; however, the contents seem to be alright.

Hobby Search on the other hand is still in New York on the queue of being processed by US Customs. This is what happens when a person ships a few hours late and later be forced to sit back during a US Holiday.

Below was the status of HobbyLink Japan (Shipping is completed)

Below is the status of Hobby Search

HobbyLink Japan (hlj.com) vs. Hobby Search (1999.co.jp) – update

Since the orders were placed last Friday EST (Saturday JST) huge progress has happened. Both orders as of 5/20 have been processed and shipped. Even though both shipments were out yesterday, HobbyLink Japan had the advantage of getting it out of the door first, with the posted time about 1:12 PM JST and Hobby Search had their shipment posted about 6:00 pm (5/21 Japan).

We thought the orders would be out and be on the same flight out of Japan; however, it’s now uncertain because, the tracking number for HobbyLink Japan showing to be leaving Japan soon.

-HobbyLink Japan

-Hobby Search