CD Japan Review

Finally caved in and tried out CDJapan for the first time and let's just say I was impressed! The turning point for me to finally order something off the site was that you got a external bonus if you brought Dream Ami's new single from there. So that's what I brought along with a E-girls single I was missing from my collection.

CDJapan is a online store based in Japan that sells a variety of items from CD's, DVD's, gadgets, figures, etc. There's plenty of things to explore on the site and they even have services called Proxy Pickup where you can purchase concert goods. For example, you can currently place pre-orders for items from TWICE's Japan dome tour and most stuff was sold out so it seems to be popular. I only really collect CD's and DVD's so that's what this review will be about.

From the site, I brought Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye in the CD Only edition and E-girls first single Celebration! in the CD Only edition. If you purchase first press or place pre-orders on CDJapan, you will get a little bonus! For the Dream Ami single, I got a poster as an external bonus and another example is MOMOLAND's Japanese single I'm So Hot comes with a special photocard if you purchase it from CDJapan whilst the offer is available. CDJapan seems to be one of the only sites left with brand new copies of the earlier E-girls singles and I rarely see used copies of them on Zenmarket. So that's why I brought the Celebration! one from here and it was reasonably priced.

CDJapan has a great points system where you accumulate points when you purchase items or when certain events occur such as your birthday or coupons. The site offers some good deals during the year as well such as spend a certain amount and get a coupon for 200JPY off. I feel CDJapan has better deals than YesAsia as it encourages you to continue making purchases through the site. For example, I have quite a few points already which I can use to get savings off my next purchase. Or bonuses are always a great incentive! I'd rather spend a little bit more and get a fun item for my collection than buying Japanese releases off YesAsia.

Now for a quick look at the two CD's I brought! First off is E-girls first single Celebration! which is a trip back in time. All the members look so young and different! This single is one of my favourites as I love the songs Celebration! and Dreaming Girls. The later was meant to have a physical release for dream (the group that sings it) but it was cancelled and the song eventually ended up on here.

Next is Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye which is my favourite Dream Ami single ever now. Love the single design, love the songs and love the instrumentals. Everything is perfect with it except for one thing. Can you guess it? If you've seen all my other Dream Ami posts, you'll probably know whats missing and it's the one thing I love the most about her releases. It seems this edition comes without the cardboard sleeve!! No!!! I was so disappointed when I saw it and I was rather confused at why it was omitted. After some searching on Instagram, it seems only the CD+DVD edition comes with the cardboard sleeve. I feel rhythm zone has been dropping the ball with the last few of Ami's releases. First we get less versions (i.e. no One Coin anymore) and now the CD Only edition has no cover. It's not the biggest deal in the universe, I just loved the cardboard sleeves and it made all her singles look amazingly aesthetic on my shelf. Now this single looks out of place with the others. Well I'll just have to wait till her next release to see what the next design will be. Anyway, this single is amazing and I love all the songs!! I got a cute poster with the single which is the promo picture Ami was using to promote the single.

The bonus poster has this image of Ami on it.

Now for some discussion on payments and shipping. Buying stuff on CDJapan isn't too difficult and I went with the Paypal method which was alright. I prefer paying straight with a card on the site but CDJapan's method reminds me of eBay's payment system. Prices are decent and around the normal price for Japanese releases. I had to pay the extra 10% because of our silly GST thing so the CD's cost 1320JPY once GST was added (normal price was 1200JPY). Shipping was actually quite good and afforable! I just used the cheapest method which was 700JPY with no tracking. I was happy with how it turned out and only took just over two weeks to receive which is normal for Japan to Australia. The items were packed nicely with plenty of packing inside. CDJapan uses those bizarre fold out boxes I see occasionally. The CD's were packed in some bubble wrap right at the bottom of the box and the poster was in between a bunch of paper. 

Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how great CDJapan was to use and my items came in perfect condition. I would definitely use them again for buying CD's as they have a great range and who doesn't love bonuses such as exclusive photocards or posters. I'm inclined to switch all my Japanese purchases to CDJapan from YesAsia as they have the points system and more items in stock than YesAsia.