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Filling the Lik-Sang Void
Written by Philip Jones on Wednesday, November 1, 2006
With Sony having squeezed Lik-Sang out of business, where should importers turn? We take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of the alternatives...
...Continued From Page 1
YesAsia
YesAsia appears to be the other way around from Play-Asia, appearing to concentrate more upon music and video export with barely a mention of videogames on the homepage. So why should anyone bother? Well, it might have something to do with the "Free International Shipping" banner at the top of the page. Any order over $25 qualifies for free shipping, which is a bonus in my books, seeing as most of the time I order multiple items. Their selection of games isn't as comprehensive as Play-Asia but if it's newer titles you're after, especially if you happen to live in Europe and want PSP games, then you'll find YesAsia very agreeable. YesAsia also has a super special treat for us British and German folk in the form of tax-free importing! (Our countries do really love that sales tax, 17.5%, yum!) So while their videogame service isn't generally as comprehensive as that of Play-Asia, they lure you in with good value, which makes them ideal for the occasional import.
It can be a pain if you just want say one game, as the price might be below the threshold of getting free shipping, but I often actually find myself bumping the order up with a little music, say a random CD single or DVD, expanding my collection of zany J-media.
Alternatives
There is an alternative to the aforementioned outfits. For example we have the lovely people at National Console Support. The prices are good and they are shipped from within the US (NYC) so you'll receive your goods faster than you would if importing from Asia. NCSX also has a great selection of older titles to pick over on all the popular formats, and their range of GBA games is really something special. They also do a range of toys and other assorted goodies, awesome desk fodder to impress your workmates/scare off the opposite sex (I myself find it a damn shame that traditional CRT monitors have been consigned to the dustbin of history, what am I supposed to build my videogame/Japanese culture shrine on top of now!?).
There are of course other means of locating those import goodies, namely Ebay and trading on forums. I've dabbled in both, finding them cheap and convenient. I can usually find someone on Ebay selling what I want (and locally rather than abroad) and on forums I'll often find games at silly prices, being sold by people similar to myself, so I'm safe in the knowledge the game won't be covered in cheese and have coffee rings all over the manual.
Yes, I used to be a hand model.
So... Why on earth isn't every man, woman and child living on a nutritious diet of imported goodness? As we've covered before, the games aren't for everyone, often requiring a good bit of patience to understand, but some people don't import because of the perceived hassle involved in doing it. There's been over the years a whole barrel of scare stories, passed around on forums, blogs, with sites like epinions.com having a selection of interesting reading, particularly on nefarious company that was Buy Rite Games (Whose sole purpose appeared to be to rip people off under the pretence of being a videogames importer). Many of these are true, after all, I've come across enough problems dealing with company's mail order in my own country, so we're bound to come across ones that operate from distant lands too.
posted November 2, 2006