Riraito

Riraito, HI, hahaha,. Yeah I'm a Dutchie. ^_^
& hello to you too.

Hey! How's everything going?

Such awesome pulls! I'm very happy for you. My own cards currently seem to be in some sort of limbo. They may or may not be delivered today or may or may not be already in some ambiguous "pick up" center somewhere. Hopefully I'll know within a few hours, and if I need to pick it up, hopefully I can figure out where I need to go. The whole thing is kind of a mess. >.<

I don't mind at all, honest! I love listening to other people's pulls, especially if they're good!

Japanese boxes are indeed small and cute, yes. :3 Most Japanese card packaging in general is a lot smaller than the packaging used for English cards (especially things like the multi-pack promo sets and precon decks), but that also means it takes up less space, which is nice. It's one of the (admittedly many) things I love about collecting Japanese cards vs. English ones.

No luck on boxes for me today; that early doorbell must have been it. :< I have my cash ready, though, and I plan on getting dressed nice and early tomorrow and having my cash and keys ready so I'm not late. x3 It'll be fun to open some packs again; feels like it's been ages!

Here's hoping you get (or have gotten already, even!) your boxes today! Someone rang my doorbell this morning (a couple hours before the postage guy is usually here) right when I was in the middle of getting dressed; I rushed to put on the rest of my clothes and ran to the door, but there was no one there, nor a sign of anyone at all either. A few hours later I get an e-mail from my hubby saying he heard from PostNL and that the box will probably arrive today, lol. Just my luck. I was hoping he might come back later, but nothing, and he can't leave it with anyone else because of the customs fees. At least I know I should be getting it tomorrow....

Yeah, Ebay is *way* too pricey. Every once and a while I'll take a look at their prices and give a nice chuckle. I'll probably look into ordering from SoulWind (at least I think he's the one...), who is a member here that usually sells booster boxes. His boxes are a bit more expensive that AmiAmi, but he would probably be willing to ship as a gift to avoid customs. I also have a friend who's in Japan for a few months that is willing to buy stuff for me, so I might see if I can buy booster boxes for me as well and bring them back to the Netherlands when he flies back in the summer. >.>

Another €21 in customs' fees?! Don't mind me, I'm just going to be over in the corner, flipping tables. After a year of ordering cards with no problems, this is ridiculous. I don't even have any cash on me. ._.; If this is how shipping is going to be from now on, I'm afraid I'm going to have to figure out some other way to get my cards... *sigh* Thanks for the heads' up, though. I'll probably head out to hit up an ATM tonight or see if my husband has any cash. *commence table-flipping*

Gah, they're making you pay customs fees? Lame. :< How much did you order?

I still haven't gotten mine, nor has hubby heard anything back from PostNL, but I have my fingers crossed.

There's still hope we might get them before then. Slightly before then, anyway. >_> It's very disappointing, though. :\

Nothing new here either. :\ My husband contacted PostNL too, but I haven't heard anything from him about if he learned anything. *sigh*

abv150 is the Dutch Japanese collector that I've traded with before. Very awesome guy to trade with. He doesn't sell, though. I think all the Japanese sellers are in the States, but I could very well be wrong. Almost all of the Japanese traders/sellers are more than happy to do International trades and such because overall we're a smaller community than those who trade English language cards. :3

Also, this is really the first bad experience I've had with PostNL delivery, so it's kind of a shame. Maybe it's because I live downtown, but if you're not home to accept a package delivery, they'll either leave it with a neighbor (since I'm home during the day, I am often that neighbor that collects packages for others!) or leave a slip telling you when they'll try to deliver again. Never anything lost, rarely delayed (this is the first serious delay that I can think of). I guess maybe that depends on your local mail people, too.

Just 2, one of X and one of Y. Aside from me, there are quite a few other traders who deal with Japanese cards, and at least one who also lives in the Netherlands, too.

Well, if I don't get anything tomorrow, I'll let you know if my hubby learns anything when he gets in touch with them on Monday.

Oooh, ouch, that is a while. Still, having some domestic tracking numbers is nice, so hopefully you can at least tell what it's doing. I hope it won't take that long too; a month of waiting is ridiculous, especially when the shipping itself only took a couple days. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Yeah, today's the official 3rd week mark and still nothing. My husband says he'll contact PostNL himself on Monday if we still don't hear anything by then (I'm a very shy person and my Dutch is mediocre at best, so I asked him to contact them for me). I still have my hopes and I still check the Japanese tracking site every day, but definitely been worried. :<

I'm actually not allowed to sell here because I'm not a verified seller. I'd be more than happy to trade any duplicates with you, though!

Also, I wouldn't be too concerned about getting cheap holos; prices for non-SR, non-UR cards fluctuate a bit but generally tend to go down rather than up after a set is released. This is especially true for "foreign" cards (i.e.; Japanese cards outside of Japan), because the cards aren't legal for play and are only used by collectors, so they won't see a surge in price due to playability. I hope you'll be able to complete your set nice and well, and I will be happy to help.

Yeah, I used to use EMS when I lived in the States, but it's kind of not worth it. >.> Though it's hard not to be impatient! I keep checkign every day hoping it's out for delivery. ._.;

Hopefully you won't have to, but it depends on how much you order. I usually order 2 boxes at a time, and that seems to keep me under the customs limit. More than that and I've been bitten bad. But, yeah, I have noticed that things coming here tend to take longer than it did when I lived in the States, and customs is much more strict too...

Mine have also been in Amsterdam since the 16th (though I live in Amsterdam, so, yeah). My thought was mostly increased customs time due to lots of people shipping for the holidays; I noticed that increasing shipping times very often when I worked with shipping stuff when I lived in the States.

So, if it makes you feel better, my cards are probably sitting in a tote close to yours. x3

Japanese sets in general have better pull rates than English boxes do, though you're right in that you won't get a full set with just a couple boxes. 1 box of each X and Y (the Japanese are fond of these "double" sets) will likely get you a full set of all commons and uncommons, and possibly all rares, though you definitely won't get all EXes (only 2 EXes per box, and there are 3 EXes per set), and you only have a chance at getting an FA or an SR like BW's Shinies.

There are other traders here who trade Japanese cards as well, some of whom I've traded with in the past. Only one I can think of that lives in the Netherlands, but it's a nice option, and the actual postage you pay for trading with people in the States, etc. is often much more reasonable than the inflated shipping you tend to pay if you deal with sites like Ebay.

I wish you the best of luck with your pulls and I hope you enjoy opening your booster box! It's a very fun experience.