Buying video games from Perth (including imports)

I’ve put up a page with tips on buying video games as one of my guides.

The main areas of interest will probably be my experiences with various retailers and links to online stores. I linked directly to my favourite store and then also to the links page on the BigKid website. BigKid is rarely updated now, but it was one of the first useful Australian gaming sites and I think they deserve recognition. Also, they’re the only place I found with a decent list of Australian retailers!

Back in the Playstation and Dreamcast days, I imported a fair amount of games and accessories from a store in Hong Kong. As a result, I acquired a fairly good idea of which couriers are good, and how Australian Customs will handle imports. This might be a bit out of date now (with the recent “climate of global terrorism”), so please let me know if you have some tips due to more recent experience.

Note: The title means “buying video games if you live in Perth”, not “buying video games that come from Perth” (that would seriously limit your options!)

10 thoughts on “Buying video games from Perth (including imports)”

  1. I discovered your site from Aeropause; congratulations on your appointment! As an ex-Perth person, and someone who still lives in Australia, I have a few suggestions for your guide.

    When it comes to new releases local retailers generally don’t get anything before official European and/or Australian release dates. Or offer new relases substantially below RRP. Although they’re featured in the BigKid list of retailers (linked from your guide,) I’d like single out CD WOW! (http://www.cd-wow.biz/).

    A UK based company, CD WOW! always seems to have new realeases available on time and cheaper than Australian RRP. For example, I orderd a copy of Dead Rising at the end of last week for $94.99 (Australian RRP: $119.95.) It shipped on the same day I’m hoping to find it in my mailbox when I get home. The official Australian release isn’t until tomorrow.

    A few points (from my experience):

    – Shipping is “free”. Well, incuded in the price so you don’t have to calculate it manually.

    – All orders are shipped from Hong Kong so, being geographically close (relatively speaking), orders get to Perth quite quickly. The longest I’ve had to wait for an order was 9 days, but they usually arrive in 4 to 6.

    – Items are shipped individually. This can be good and bad. On the up side, items are shipped as soon as they’re available. If you order multiple items at once, and one of them isn’t in stock, the rest of the items won’t be held back. The other bonus is this method of shipping gets around any import duty imposed by Customs. I don’t think they sell any one item that even comes close to the $250 limit. On the down side, if you want all of your items to arrive together, you’re out of luck.

    The other tip I have is specifically for Xbox 360 games. It’s a little known fact that several international releases have no region coding. A list of titles can be found here:
    http://www.xbox-sky.com/xbox360_regional_compatibility_guide/

    As mentioned by that page, most of the region free games can be purchased from Play Asia (http://www.play-asia.com/). In fact, they even maintain their own compatibility list:
    http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en.html

    I haven’t personally purchased anything from them but, when you can pick up a $119.95 RRP new release game for around $60 (including shipping), it’s something I’d consider trying down the track.

  2. Wow! Thanks for all that information. 🙂

    I’ve added a note about CD WOW! to the guide and I will undertake a bit more of a revamp over the weekend. I’m thinking of creating some subpages to the guide (for specific retailers so that people can add their comments directly).

    Do you have a website that I could link to give you credit for your help?

  3. I was tempted to put the future home of my site in the original post but, as a friend’s currently hosting the placeholder, it’s not exactly “presentable”. Regardless…

    http://coffeebucket.com

    I find myself frequently pouring content into other people’s sites. I should really get around to pouring it into my own 😉

  4. I thought the limit has changed to $1000 now?At least i remember this page having different numbers than it use to…

    http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4376

    Do you have any experience with USPS Nick?Thinking about whether or not i should get the collector’s edition of Final Fantasy XII from EB/Gamestop overseas(it’s the only international shipping option) and getting this(http://www.xploder.net/ps2/products/148/Xploder-HDTV-Player.htm) for HD upscaling on this game(and other games) as all information right now only points to Blu-ray games(eg. Wikipedia entry) on the PS3 being region free.

  5. Hi Michael! I haven’t imported stuff for a while, so I’m not sure really. I don’t have any experience with USPS. I’m not convinced at how much the HD upscaler could do; the PS2 only renders at 640×480 (interlaced) max I think.

  6. @Michael
    The last time I looked at that page was a few years ago when I was placing a large order ($350 ) at Lik-Sang. From memory, it was something strange like $250 if the package was being sent by courier or $1000 if it was being sent through the postal system.

    That particular order was stopped by Customs on the way into the country. UPS gave me a call and said that I had to pay the duty to receive the shipment. I’ve since made a couple of similar sized orders, shipped by courier, and haven’t had any problems.

    The line “The method of delivery will determine the Customs clearance formalities and charges” on the current site suggests things may have been different in the past. But it definitely seems to be $1000 for all shipments now.

  7. Re: coffeebucket

    That’s right! I remember doing that same thing with some guitar controllers and light guns from Lik-sang. The weird thing was the total amount on the receipt was <$250, but the "taxable amount in regards to duty" was over $250 (???) I *think* they included the cost of shippping in the taxable amount and they also said that the taxable amount was the greater of the value on the receipt or the value in Australia of a similar item. Apparantly that is to get around people lying on their receipts to avoid duty.

  8. Well anyway here’s a link to the product page for the HD upscaler thing for the PS2

    http://www.xploder.net/ps2/products/148/Xploder-HDTV-Player.htm

    and they say:

    “Contrary to popular belief, the PlayStation 2 can output 480p, 720p, 1080i modes via a Component cable.”

    Considering it seems to be just a swap disc, i guess you’re wrong then?In any case, my friend bought another similar product from them and said the graphics did improve so i guess it works alright.

  9. coffeebucket: oh and yeah i remember that too now.

    Nick: what about play-asia.com?I’ve only ordered from them once but everything was good, i think they were cheaper too, especially if they’ve got asian versions of a game which i don’t think Lik-Sang gets(at least for Bleach: Heat the Soul 2 they didn’t). These tend to come with some sort of English instruction thing too.

    Call me crazy, but i’m going to be getting the Mai-Kinoto Hime(go to http://www.moetron.com/2006/09/13/mai-kinoto-hime-limited-edition-pre-order-ps2/ for some info, don’t think you’ve been watching anime lately either right) limited edition from them. Luckily i found my coupon(expires today) so i could save a measly $5, though EMS jacks the total to about $140, which is about the same i paid for to get the European super collector’s edition of Heroes of Might and Magic V. I think i’ve mentioned i’m a sucker for these collector’s edition stuff ^^;

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