Paying a Japanese card supplier: Wise or PayPal

Wise and PayPal

Neither one wins in the abstract. A payment method is buying you either recourse or a better rate, and on any single order you should know which of the two you are paying for.

On a first order with a seller you have never dealt with, recourse is worth more than a few points of exchange rate. Once that seller has quoted, photographed, packed and delivered exactly what was described, the maths flips: the risk you were insuring against has shrunk, and the rate becomes the thing left to improve. The useful question is not which service wins. It is which order you use them in.

• PayPal Goods & Services — the purchase flow. What it covers, for how long, and on what evidence is set by PayPal, not by your seller, so read the current terms yourself before you rely on them.
• PayPal Friends & Family — the non-purchase option. Check what PayPal says applies to it before anyone asks you to use it for stock; if a seller pushes you toward it, treat that as information.
• Wise — a transfer service: the money lands in the seller's bank account. Check what recourse it gives a buyer before you use it with someone new.
• Bank transfer — no platform sits between you and the seller. Whatever your bank offers on a disputed payment is all you have, so ask them what that is before you send.

Total payment cost

Two things, and only one of them is labelled as a fee: the charge you are quoted, plus the exchange rate you are given.

Compare methods the way you would compare suppliers. Fix the yen total from the invoice, then look at what leaves your own account, on the same day, for each method you are weighing up. That single figure is the price of the payment. The headline fee is one line inside it.

Whatever the gap comes to belongs in your cost per card, next to freight and border charges. A payment cost you did not count is margin you never had.

• Ask for the yen total — tax included, with shipping quoted separately to your address. Akina prices in JPY with tax included and quotes shipping per destination, so the yen figure is the one to compare methods against.
• Look at the rate, not only the fee — a low quoted fee with a wide conversion margin can cost more than the other way round. Check the rate you are offered against the mid-market rate on the day you pay.
• Watch where the conversion happens — if any step offers to charge you in your own currency instead of yen, that conversion is priced by whoever offers it. Compare before you accept it.
• Keep border charges out of the comparison — import duty, VAT or GST and clearance fees sit on your side of the border and are not part of what you send the seller.

First and repeat orders

Because the first payment is buying information about a seller and the tenth is buying efficiency.

A first order is a test you are paying to run. Does the stock match the photos. Does the parcel move when they say it moved. Does the person still answer after the money has landed. Keep the amount small enough that a bad answer is affordable, and use the method you would rather be holding if that is the answer you get. When the answers come back clean, you are no longer paying for insurance you need, and the rate starts to be worth optimising.

Keep the decision in proportion, though. The spread between two payment methods is small next to what is inside the lot. A cheap transfer on a box of duplicates and dead commons is still a loss; stock picked against your own list and checked card by card is where the margin actually sits.

• First order — the smallest lot you would be willing to lose, the method with the clearest recourse, and photos of the actual cards before you pay.
• After it lands — check the cards against the photos you were sent, then sell them before you decide anything about the next order.
• Repeat orders — scale when the last lot sold through, not when the calendar says it is time. That is the point where the rate difference is worth chasing.

Checks before payment

Everything that makes the payment method matter less. Verification is free; recourse is not.

None of that requires a payment. A seller who answers all of it before any money moves has told you more about the risk than a payment method ever will.

• Photos of the actual stock — the cards you are buying, in hand, not catalogue images. Akina sends in-hand photos before payment.
• A written total — the yen price with tax, and shipping quoted to your address as its own line.
• Who pays at the border — with Akina, import duty, VAT and clearance costs are the buyer's side. Know the rule before you commit, and budget for it.
• Carrier and tracking — which courier, and whether you get a tracking number. Akina ships by FedEx, tracked.
• A person who does the buying — you should be talking to whoever sources the stock in Japan, not to a form and not through a middleman.

Order and payment record

Message, list, photos, payment, tracking — with the money moving second to last.

If you are still choosing between Wise and PayPal, you are past the part that decides most of the outcome. Send your list and your budget, ask for photos of the actual cards, and pay once you have seen them, with whichever method you would rather be holding on a first order. Akina takes both.

• Send your list — Pokémon, era, rarity and budget, by DM on Facebook Messenger. The bundle is built around what your shop actually sells.
• Take the quote in yen — Velocity Bundle pricing is published: Starter is ¥50,000 for 50 cards or ¥100,000 for 100, Standard is ¥75,000 or ¥150,000 and Exclusive is quoted per request. Shipping is quoted separately by destination.
• See the cards first — the stock is bought and verified in hand in Japan, and photos of the actual cards reach you before payment.
• Pay in yen — Wise or PayPal, whichever your first order calls for.
• Track it out — FedEx with tracking, with the import charges on your side to budget for.