First order checklist for Japanese Pokémon cards

Order sequence

Start with a written request list. The reply should separate items already held from items that still need to be sourced; a listing or a product photo does not establish wider inventory.

Before payment, confirm availability, the exact item and condition or packaging, final JPY price, shipping cost, and dispatch timing in writing. When exact-item photos are available, use them to check the pictured items rather than as proof that every listed product is in stock.

Approve the written terms only after those points are clear. Akina then checks the exact items and ships on the timing confirmed in the quote.

• Send the request list — product or card, quantity, budget, destination, and required date.
• Confirm sourcing status — which items are already held and which will be sourced after the request.
• Review the exact terms — condition or packaging, final JPY price, shipping, dispatch timing, and exact-item photos where available.
• Approve and pay — Wise or PayPal, after the written quote is complete.
• Track the shipment — FedEx with the dispatch timing and tracking stated in the order thread.

First message

Four lines: what you sell, the Pokémon and rarity you want, your budget, and the date you need it by.

A message that only asks the price gets a price back. Buying wholesale from Japan rewards specificity, because the person sourcing can choose between two cards at the same cost and pick the one your buyers ask for by name. Start with the request list when choosing listed boxes, PSA 10 cards or singles. If you already keep a want list in a spreadsheet, send it with the request so it becomes the reference for later orders.

• Where you sell — marketplace listings, a live show, a card show table, or your own site. It changes which cards are worth sending you.
• Pokémon and era — the names your buyers ask for, and the sets you want them from.
• Rarity band — AR, SAR, or a mix; the tier your customers actually pay for.
• Budget in JPY — a figure you are ready to commit, not a range.
• Your date — the stream night, the show weekend, the day it has to be in hand.

Test-order size

Small enough to sit on without pain, large enough that the result means something.

There are two ways to get this wrong. Too small and you learn nothing — the outcome is noise, and one slow week tells you nothing about the supplier or the picks. Too large and the money you need for the second order is locked inside the first, which bites hardest exactly when the first one worked and you want more of it.

Pick the size you could absorb into your own selling week if the order taught you something expensive.

• One sealed box — choose from the dated JPY reference-price list, then confirm availability, packaging condition, final price, shipping and dispatch timing in the quote.
• A 50-card bundle — Starter is ¥50,000 Standard ¥75,000 built to the list you sent.
• A 100-card bundle — ¥100,000 Starter or ¥150,000 Standard, once you know what your shelf clears.
• Exclusive or a graded single — Exclusive bundles are quoted per order, and PSA 10s are sourced and quoted one card at a time.

Photo check

That the photo shows your order and not a sample: the cards you asked for, the count you are paying for, and no repeats across the lot.

Photos before payment are the one point in the sequence where the stock can still change, so use them. Ask for another angle on anything you plan to list as near mint, and ask by card name for the ones you are counting on to carry the order.

Then approve in writing in the same thread. Contents, price and photos end up in one place, which is also your record if something needs sorting out later.

• Count — the cards in frame match the number you agreed in the thread.
• Duplicates — a bundle built to your list should read like a shelf, not a pile. Repeats are the shortest path to dead stock, and that is the line between hand-picked stock and cheap bulk.
• Condition — corners, edges and surface visible on anything you will grade or sell as near mint.
• The named cards — the chase cards you asked for are in the photo, not implied by a description.
• The lot itself — the image is of your cards, shot for your order.

Payment and shipping

Cards are priced in JPY including tax, shipping is quoted separately for your destination, and import charges stay on your side of the border.

Get all three numbers into the thread before you send money. The card total is the straightforward one; freight depends on weight and where you are; the import side depends on your own country's rules, so look yours up before you order.

What those charges do to your margin is a separate calculation, and the duties and landed cost guide in this playbook runs it line by line.

• Currency — JPY, tax included. Your conversion happens at whatever rate your payment method gives you that day.
• Method — Wise or PayPal. Check what recourse each one gives a buyer before you use it, and keep the message thread either way.
• Freight — quoted per destination, so ask for the figure before you approve a total.
• Duty, VAT and customs fees — the buyer's side of the deal. Look up your own country's thresholds before the first parcel, not after it lands.
• Carrier — FedEx, tracked. File the tracking number where your bookkeeping lives.

Restock record

You write the second order from the first order's sell-through, not from the calendar.

Log what cleared in the first week and what sat, by rarity band and price point. That record is what turns a supplier into a supply line: the next brief goes out with the misses removed and the movers repeated, and each round lands closer to your shelf. The trigger to go bigger is evidence that you sold the last one, not the time since you ordered it.

Your next step is four lines — what you sell, the Pokémon and rarity you want, your budget in JPY, and your date. Send them and read what comes back. You will get either a price, or a plan for your shelf.

• Log outcomes for a week — what sold, at what price, and how fast.
• Cut the misses from the next brief — exclusions are as useful to the person sourcing as requests.
• Repeat the movers by name — the same Pokémon and rarity band, more of it.
• Time delivery to your selling day — the stream, the table, the weekend it has to be there for.
• Keep one thread — the history becomes the brief.