Can someone please shed some light on this? I’ve been out of the hobby for a long time. Recently back in and looking at radios on eBay. I’m seeing tons of listings for high-end boomboxes coming out of Japan by Japanese eBay sellers. Most are pretty reasonably priced and temping. Here’s my observations: 1. Most sellers do not have a high volume sales count. 2. The sales they do have are not BBX related. Mostly comic books, action figures etc. I couldn’t find a single BBX sale under any of their feedback. 3. The same exact radio is sometimes listed under two sellers. The price can vary by over $100 or more. When I contacted one of them for an explanation, I was told that it’s a group of sellers that have access to the same products. Technically it’s against eBay policy to have the same product listed in multiple listings. Has anyone purchased a BBX from any of these sellers? Is there a reputable one?
I have heard of people selling what they don’t have but can get it from the person who has it. They them sell it on at a higher price. You should check to see if that same picture is used elsewhere. Personally, I’ll stay well away from it.
If you go buyee Japan which is a proxy site which I have bought from in the past. You can find the exact same thing for sale for less and possibly by the same seller they're using the same pictures. Or you can pay more using the eBay site. It all depends on basically the shipping cost where it's free via eBay but it's cost less from Japan but then you have to pay for the shipping. It's a toss-up.
By the way, the gf508 is the same thing as the gf9696 and then the gf505 is the same thing as the gf9494 just so you know. I know this because I have a gf9696 and I bought a gf508 and then I trashed that model solely for the motor and put that motor back into the '96-96 and voila! I have a working perfectly with a used motor gf9696 now. Does anybody in the world have a cassette playing? Gf9696? Present day?
Then here's where bought the motor wrapped in boombox and switched it over to the 9696 or something like that http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/paid-125-for-this-motor-to-repair-the-sharp-g-f-505sb.9613/
They're tempting, but I don't bother with any of them. They don't provide good descriptions, they only check if it powers on, they don't provide high-rez photos or closeups, and they don't speak English very well. And sometimes they recycle the same photos in multiple auctions, which isn't exactly trustworthy.
Thanks for the replies, but to be clear, I’m not specifically interested in the Sharp radio I displayed. I used it as example to illustrate the same radio on eBay listed by two different sellers in Japan. Trying to figure out if these Japanese listings in general are legit or some kind of scam. All of the listings follow a similar pattern. 1. Great Price 2. Low volume sales that are non-BBX. Anime stuff, comics, action figures, etc 3. Same exact radio (same radio photos) listed by different Japanese sellers, but price varies greatly. 4. No actual pricey BBX sales in their feedback, just cheap nik-naks. 5. Seems like all radios listed are coming from a half dozen sellers following the above pattern.
I agree. Seems fishy. And a lot of the prices feel artificially low…just doesn’t feel right, which is why I’ve stayed away. Hoping that more experienced members here can shed some light on this.
I think I’m answering my own question lol. This radio was listed just today. There’s specific mention of multiple listings under different sellers for the same product. All of these listings seem too good to be true. Because they are.
Well I already had that Toshiba model twice and sold them both. Are you really looking for that model or something else?
The other issue with Japanese auctions is that the seawater corrodes the metal surfaces. Very difficult to find a radio without pit marks and green corrosion on the knobs and switches. Which is probably why they don't provide closeup pics, lol
Not true. I've made some purchases over there. That didn't have any corrosion or rust on the items that I got.
I’ve seen a few of the listings with pitted chrome handles. Salt air is destructive. I live in AZ and I’m a passionate scooter guy. You can ALWAYS tell when a San Diego CA scooter comes up for sale. The metal surfaces are almost always a mess from the salt air.
Also worth noting, Japanese FM radio is broadcast from 76-95 Mhz, so boomboxes made for the domestic market typically can't receive FM stations in the 97-108 frequency range.
One more thing, this is a Japanese domestic model as you can tell by the model number as you cannot get this in the USA, but I want to make note of the frequency of the FM radio via the back label. Let me illustrate with a picture. Not everything. JDM or Japanese domestic model only go up to 90 on the FM scale.
I've only bought from yahoo.jp and shipped to my buddy that lives in Tokyo and he brings them over when he visits. I've never been burned but also don't spend big money. It's very common to see multiple listings for the same item at different pricing. Corrosion is very common, if the photos are blurry, expect corrosion Shipping can be a wildcard, a few years ago Buyee stopped shipping anything with speakers from some odd reason. Others have bought $200 TT's and gotten $300 shipping/packing bills. Junk means "No Returns" but most of my junk purchases work fine. If you win it at a low price, the item might have sold to someone else, at least that's what they tell me. Some FM bands only go to 90 Hz. There's maybe 2-5 boombox/Walkman Stores over there, most sellers seem like small thrift shops, that's why you see the variety of stuff. Japanese Voltage is 100V, a step down transformer is recommended but the plug (and equipment) will work on our outlets. My buddy says they have something like 20% fluctuation built in because their power grid is very unpredictable but I still keep it safe with the transformer. A good one is on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/NISSYO-industrial-transformer-100V1500W-NDF-1500U/dp/B0017H8ILS
