Going to Japan in a month. Wondering if there's anything that I can sell from the US

[bearrock]

Hey all,

I'm going to Tokyo next month, and I bought my ticket and hotel with a credit card. I was wondering if there's anything that's in high demand in Japan that I can get from the US and sell there and make a quick buck. Just tryna alleviate some of the pressures from credit.

I will appreciate any helpful assistance.

Peace.

-B. Rock

[nice gaijin]

What are you going for? You're talking about just packing something in your luggage and trying to sell it... to whom? If you don't have something really valuable in your possession, there's nothing that will be worth the trouble of trying to hock while you're in Japan.

[Shineko]

Neither do I think that bringing something into a country with a selling purpose is a smart move, unless you want to pay the tax on it when you enter the country. The best thing to take with you is money, credit card, etc. Everything else will just be waste of time, for me at least.

Why go all the way to Japan and waste time by trying to sell of something you brought with you? Who would you sell it to? How would you communicate with the possible customer?

[bearrock]

It's just something I threw out there.

I'm going to meet my girlfriend who's from Korea, but a fluent Japanese speaker.

I'm in the hip-hop industry and sell New Era baseball caps. We sell them over here for $35, and in Japan they sell them for 50 to 75$. And Japan doesn't have any nearly as unique and exclusive as ours, because once again, in the US, we're the only store that gets these hats and in limited amounts.

I'll be hanging out in Harajuku and Shibuya so I already know stores to wholesale to in those areas, but what I was wondering was maybe there's a certain type of facial cream that the Japanese folks want.

It was only a question, I'm not dependent on this so, yeah.

[Shineko]

See, giving some details would help a lot.

If you already know people who you can sell them, go for it. Remember to declare them when you arrive to the country, though. If you get caught, the caps might be taken away. Unless you want to try to smuggle them to Japan, which I really do not recommend. Anything you bring for sale has to be declared at the point of entry. I do not know how much you will have to pay, so it might be worth the trouble or not.

[nice gaijin]

You could take some "samples" of your hats and just show them to potential buyers (stores, not individuals) to see if you can generate some interest, but don't take it beyond that. Trying to peddle your wares to individuals on the street makes your merchandise look cheap and shady, and if you are just showing your hats to potential wholesale customers I don't think it's a matter of concern for customs (but you should double check anyway). Leave the cream at home.

As an aside, "new era" are the flat-billed baseball caps? I think they look horrendous. But I guess people will buy anything, and there's most certainly a market for trendy hip hop merchandise in Japan.

[bearrock]

Thanks guys for your responses.
Yeah, I'm going to Tokyo solely to meet my girlfriend, but wouldn't mind marketing the brand we have here in the US there in Japan.

And they might be flat billed when you buy them, but you get both hands on them and curve them a little bit. HAHAHA, just joking.
Yeah, I also thought that it'd be a pain in the a$$ to take about 100 hats, so I was just thinking of taking the best samples I have currently, (although we create 15 new designs every week), and show them and tell the stores that we will ship to them with express or priority mail.
Thanks guys once again for your help. I'll keep the customs issue in mind, but with me, I can just say it's all my gear... which it is.

[Macsick]

:blush: there's one thing that has high demand in japan (at least some are ready to pay alot of these) and it's used PANTIES!
Saw this done in one finnish travelling tv-show called madventures, they had couple panties with them and sold them for high price to one kamen guy.
Even tough it might hard to find ppl willing to buy these, it's always worth of trying. a little more pocket money doesn't hurt anyone =P

[ullvarg]

@Macsick
I wouldn't really say high demand, there is only a few stores that sell them in tokyo and the price for a pair of used panties is about 5000yen so you have to push allot to the few stores there is to make any money of it.

[bruno]

XL-size panties from burger-feeded USgirls !
Why not ??:p

[quato]

Reeses PB cups are IMPOSSIBLE to find here. I know a bunch of Americans that would kill for some....