If you added up the value of my collection based on current aftermarket prices—or even original retail prices—you still wouldn’t come close to what I actually paid for it. That’s because I rarely pay full price. Over the years, I’ve learned how to hunt for deals, buy secondhand, and use the right resources to keep costs down.

For many collectors, secondhand buying is one of the best ways to build a collection affordably—especially when it comes to older, rare, or sold-out merchandise.

Before we get into where to buy, it helps to understand one important tool: proxy services.

A proxy is a service—or sometimes an individual—that purchases an item on your behalf in Japan, receives it at their address, and then ships it to you internationally. This is often necessary for region-locked items, event exclusives, or storefronts that don’t ship overseas.

There are two main types of proxies:

Individual proxies are usually friends, small group order hosts, or people attending events in Japan. These can be useful for convention exclusives or museum merchandise, but they often come with higher fees. Depending on the event, you may be covering ticket costs, transportation, storage fees, and service fees on top of your purchase. For niche series, I’ve personally paid an extra $100 or more just to secure certain exclusive items.

Corporate proxy services are usually cheaper and more structured. Instead of paying event-related fees, you’ll usually only pay a small service charge plus shipping. These services typically buy from online storefronts like Animate, Amazon Japan, Mercari Japan, Rakuten, or Yahoo Japan Auctions. Some will even accept special requests if you provide a direct product link.

Both have their pros and cons—it just depends on what you’re trying to buy.

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Zenmarket.jp

ZenMarket is my preferred proxy service for purchasing from Japanese sites like Mercari Japan, Amazon Japan, and Yahoo Japan Auctions.

For collectors hunting secondhand deals, Mercari Japan in particular is one of the best places to look. It functions like an online secondhand marketplace where you can find rare figures, event exclusives, and discontinued merchandise—often at prices far below the aftermarket rates you might see elsewhere. I’ve personally found scale figures and rare Nendoroids for less than their original retail prices.

One of the main reasons I use ZenMarket is its loyalty program. Their standard service fee is only 500 yen per item, and once you build up enough purchase history, you can unlock credit options that allow you to buy now and pay later.

This can be incredibly useful if a grail item appears unexpectedly between paychecks.

Another major benefit is that ZenMarket allows you to purchase from almost any Japanese storefront—not just their listed marketplaces.

For example, if a figure releases on a site like Native or Aniplex and includes exclusive bonus items, you can simply paste the product link into ZenMarket’s search bar and request a quote. Once approved, they’ll purchase the item on your behalf.

After your items arrive at their warehouse, you can consolidate them into one shipment. I almost always recommend this, since international shipping from Japan can get expensive very quickly.

Cons:
The biggest downside is deposit fees. When adding funds to your account, payment processors may take a percentage, so it’s important to add a little extra to cover the difference. This can make budgeting slightly annoying, especially for larger orders.

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Buyee

This is the service I personally use the least, but it’s one that comes highly recommended by many collectors.

Before ZenMarket added Mercari Japan to its supported marketplaces, I used Buyee for most of my secondhand browsing. Even now, I still recommend using Mercari Japan directly to search for items, since it gives you the most control over filtering and keyword refinement.

One of the best ways to find rare merchandise is by searching using the original Japanese title of the series rather than the English translation.

For example:

• Black Butler → 黒執事
• Clear file → クリアファイル
• Kotobukiya → コトブキヤ

This becomes even more useful when searching for event-exclusive items. If you know the exact exhibition or collaboration name, include it in your search to narrow your results.

For example:

Black Butler Exhibition: Rich Black → 黒執事展 RICH BLACK

Once you search, I highly recommend filtering by For Sale (販売中) so you only see currently available listings. This saves a lot of time and helps avoid scrolling through sold listings.

Learning how to search in Japanese is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a collector—it opens up far more listings, better prices, and harder-to-find items than searching in English alone.

Once you find an item on Mercari Japan, if it’s available for proxy purchase, you’ll usually see a “Buy this Item!” button. Clicking it will open the listing through Buyee, where you can place your order.

At this point, I usually select “Add to cart” rather than “Proceed to order” right away. This gives me time to compare multiple listings, cross-check condition notes, and price compare before committing. More often than not, there are several listings for the same item at different prices.

If the item does not show as available through Buyee, that usually means it requires a private proxy or personal shopper to purchase it manually. This often happens with smaller sites, event-exclusive items, or sellers who restrict proxy purchases. In these cases, many collectors turn to trusted group order hosts or private proxies through anime collecting communities.

When placing an order through Buyee, you’ll be offered several optional service plans. I personally use the 500 yen Standard Plan, which includes package inspection and shipping insurance. This means Buyee will inspect the item when it arrives at their warehouse and help handle refunds or returns if there’s an issue.

Keep in mind you’ll also pay domestic shipping within Japan, but Buyee usually shows this upfront so there are fewer surprises.

For payment, Buyee accepts:

• PayPal
• Credit Card
• Alipay

I personally use PayPal linked to my credit card for added purchase protection. Just be aware that Buyee will automatically charge your default payment method unless you change it in your account settings.

Once your item arrives at Buyee’s warehouse, you can choose your international shipping options. If you have multiple purchases, you can consolidate them into one shipment to save on shipping costs.

Buyee also gives you packaging options, such as:

• removing the seller’s original shipping materials to reduce package size
• adding extra protective packaging for safer transit

I personally always choose express shipping and protective packaging. It costs more, but for expensive or fragile collectibles, the peace of mind is worth it.

In my experience, the only issue I’ve run into was with a bulk order where the seller withheld some items. Buyee handled the dispute, and I received a refund for the missing items.

And if a seller is unable to ship—or becomes unresponsive—Buyee will usually issue a refund as well.

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AmiAmi

AmiAmi isn’t just useful for new pre-orders—their pre-owned section is one of the best places to find authentic secondhand figures from a retailer you can trust.

The catch? Popular or high-demand items move incredibly fast.

AmiAmi updates their pre-owned inventory daily, and for me this usually happens around 3–4 A.M. If there’s a grail item or a highly sought-after release, you often need to be refreshing the page right as listings go live. Otherwise, there’s a good chance it will sell out before you even finish checking out.

That said, niche or less popular series tend to stick around much longer, which makes this a fantastic option for nostalgia collectors like myself.

This is one of the safest ways to pick up:

• Nendoroids
• Prize figures
• Scale figures

often for far below aftermarket prices.

One of the biggest advantages of AmiAmi’s pre-owned system is their condition rating. Every item is graded so you know what to expect before buying.

Always pay attention to:

• Item condition
• Box condition
• Damage notes

Occasionally they will include photos if there is noticeable damage, but in my experience, even lower-graded items often arrive in surprisingly good condition.

If you’re patient—and lucky—AmiAmi’s pre-owned section can be one of the best places to score incredible deals.

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Mandarake

Mandarake is another excellent option for secondhand anime merchandise, especially if you’re hunting for older, rarer, or more obscure items.

Mandarake is a well-known chain of stores across Japan that specializes in all kinds of collector goods—from anime figures and art books to official animation cels, vintage merchandise, and rare doujinshi. Their inventory can be incredibly diverse, which makes it one of the best places to browse when you’re looking for something unusual.

They also ship internationally through their online store, making it accessible even if you’re outside Japan.

Prices can sometimes run a little higher compared to marketplaces like Mercari Japan, but the tradeoff is reliability. Mandarake has a strong reputation for accurate condition descriptions and authentic merchandise, making it a safer option for collectors who may be newer to buying secondhand.

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Secondhand collecting can be one of the best ways to build your collection without paying steep aftermarket prices—but it takes patience, research, and a little luck.

Whether you’re browsing Mercari Japan, watching AmiAmi’s pre-owned updates, or digging through Mandarake listings, the biggest advantage is learning where to look.

With the right tools, even rare grails can become attainable.

Until next time, happy collecting.