Buying a PSP from Japan: One Fault, One Easy Fix
1d 7h ago by lemmy.world/u/PerfectDark in games
Another month has passed, and another PSP has been delivered to me (...and another PSP article has been written, one of many!)
One of my favorite things to do is to keep an eye on Mercari via Buyee, and to buy cheap PSPs. When they're listed on there 99% of the time they'll have the word 'junk' attached, which can mean anything from being dusty to not being charged to being totally ruined. I find sifting through what it might be to be super fun.
This one was really cheap for the condition it was in, judging by the pictures they shared of it. The white of the thumbstick was still white, which itself is a super rarity (they get grubby or yellow SO easily!), but it did have one issue, the charger was broken inside the charging port.
Anyway, this really isn't a deep-dive of an article. Or a guide, it was really just an excuse to share what it was like to take a gamble on the 'junk' tag and buy a dead cheap PSP which in the end required a tiny little fix I did.
If you're at all interested, or nostalgic about PSPs then follow my link to read along. Warning, I ramble and haven't written this very well at all:
https://gardinerbryant.com/buying-a-psp-from-japan/
(spoiler, it came out amazingly and works perfectly for a total of like $35.50 USD)
Just wondering, how do you deal with getting batteries shipped overseas? I was recently looking to buy a psvita on buyee and similar proxies, but the always appear as forbidden due to the battery.
The Vita is technically shippable, but a few years back Buyee decided they didn't want to do the paperwork. So now it won't be shipped through them! I thinl Neokyo (another proxy service) actually did the same a little ways back also.
That is the only handheld which you can't order though (go figure). PSP, all Nintendo handhelds are fine. Although there is a limit on two li-ion battery limit when they ship an order, so if you get a switch, they'll send the tablet in one package and the joy-cons in another.
Hope that helps. It is frustrating, because Japan's prices are much more reasonable, but you'll have to go through a local seller or eBay (where the seller bothers with the paperwork to ship the built-in Vita battery)
Ah thanks, that's a shame, I had no idea. I just assumed they didn't want to store some kinds of batteries. I'm guessing it's due the 3G modem then, if other handheld are fine?
Yea the prices and especially the culture around used items where why I was interested, ebay is often a bit more expensive.
What do you mean by local seller? Should I contact the Japanese store directly instead of going through the proxy?
What do you mean by local seller? Should I contact the Japanese store directly instead of going through the proxy?
Sorry, I mean buying in your own country. It does cost more, but you are actually better off just finding one there. It is a shame, I went through a whole process of finding a proxy service which still ships them and can be bothered with the paperwork, From Japan which got renamed to One Map is the only one which did ship them:
https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/en
This was a year or two back, so maybe check them out?