Field notes: digging used synths and gear out of Japan (Hard Off junk corners, and what it costs to get it home)

[RenSynthJp]

Long-time lurker, first post. Over the last couple of years I have been buying used gear out of Japan rather than locally, and since the "Roland D-5" and "Welson Syntex" threads got me reading this board in the first place, I figured I would write up what I have actually learned. Corrections welcome - some of this is region-specific and I am sure people here know more than I do.

Why the Japanese used market is worth the hassle

Two things make it different from eBay. First, gear there tends to be genuinely well kept - boxed, manualled, and not gigged to death. Second, there is a whole retail chain built around reselling it, so supply is constant instead of auction-luck.

The chain most gear people care about is Hard Off. Founded 1993, based in Niigata, roughly a thousand stores, publicly listed - it is a mainstream business despite how the name reads in English. It is an umbrella brand:

- Hard Off - audio, cameras, PCs, and musical instruments. This is the one you want.
- Off House - furniture, appliances, watches, apparel.
- Hobby Off - figures, model kits, trading cards.
- Mode Off / Garage Off / Liquor Off - clothing, car and tool stuff, spirits.

The junk corner

Every branch has a junk section: untested or partly working items, sometimes from 110 yen. That is where the synth diggers live. Realistically what turns up is early-90s home keyboards, a lot of Boss and Zoom pedals, cassette decks, receivers from Sansui/Technics/Pioneer, and every so often something like a Roland JX or a Yamaha rack unit that only needs a belt, a recap, or a jack.

Useful vocabulary if you are reading the listings in Japanese, because these terms are the difference between "cheap" and "cheap and broken":

- ジャンク (janku) - junk, sold as-is, no returns, no promises.
- 動作未確認 - operation NOT verified. Nobody plugged it in.
- 通電確認済み - powers on, that is all that was checked.
- 動作確認済み - tested working (as far as the shop bothered to test).
- 訳あり - "there is a reason" - cosmetic damage or a known fault, usually described.

The catch for those of us not in Japan

Hard Off's online arm (NetMall) is domestic only, same as Yahoo Auctions Japan and Mercari JP. It is not a shipping restriction you can argue your way around - checkout wants a Japanese address and, in most cases, a Japanese payment method. So the options are: know somebody there, or use a proxy/forwarding service that buys on your behalf and reships.

Cost reality, so nobody gets surprised:

- Service fee on the item - the outfits I have used run a few percent, some with a per-item cap.
- Domestic shipping to the warehouse - a keyboard is bulky, this is not trivial.
- International shipping - keyboards and receivers are charged on volumetric weight. A 61-key board in its original box is mostly air, and you will pay for that air. Ask them to repack.
- Import duty/VAT on your end.

Two more things that catch gear buyers specifically:

1. Mains voltage is 100V. Japanese domestic gear is built for 100V/50-60Hz. A lot of it tolerates 110-120V fine, plenty of vintage stuff does not, and if you are on 230V you need a transformer, not an adapter. Check before you buy, not after.
2. Big/heavy items are often not worth it. A junk-corner console organ at 3,000 yen becomes a 300 dollar shipment. The economics work best on pedals, desktop modules, rack gear, and mid-size keyboards.

I wrote the whole thing up properly - store types, what is worth buying, junk-corner grading, and how the buying-from-abroad part actually works - here: Hard Off Japan: what it is and how to buy from it from overseas

And if you just want to see what used Japanese synth gear is going for right now, this is the search I keep an eye on: used synthesizers listed in Japan (full disclosure: that second one is the proxy service I use, so treat it as a price reference rather than a recommendation).

So - what have people here actually pulled out of a Japanese junk corner? I am curious whether the pedal and rack stuff is as common as my sample suggests, or whether I have just been lucky.

[mosc]

to electro-music.com

What a great first post!

I'm no longer in the serious equipment procurement mode, but I'm sure there are a lot of people that will find this information invaluable.

[RenSynthJp]

Howard - thank you, that is a genuinely kind welcome for a first post.

Fair warning that I am mostly on the buying-and-hauling side rather than the serious procurement side myself; I just got tired of watching gear I could not read the listing for. Since a couple of people asked where the shops put the stock that does not end up in the junk bins, I have written that half up in a separate thread rather than bloating this one: Digimart: the other half of the Japanese used-gear market.

Short version for anyone who does not want another wall of text: junk corners are for gambling, Digimart is for buying, and the 100V thing will get you either way.