Some months back I wrote a blog entry about some good eBay deals I wanted to pass along. Since I've purchased more since, I wanted to give some updates and recommendations.
First, one of the sellers I mentioned last time, wredj10 still has some stuff available, and at lower prices than before. After sitting unsold for some time, the prices halved. However, this did mean I bought even more of it, so what's left is a pretty skimpy selection.
The big seller I've made multiple purchases from, though, is dora_ts17. Here is specifically the Hello! Project section of their store. First, the caveats: they're definitely "good" condition. Things like cracked cases are not uncommon, but I haven't yet had any problems reading the discs themselves. Also, the shipping is sloooow--usually seems to take about a month. But know those things going in, and there's a lot of cool stuff that can be found for cheap.
When I first started buying physical discs, it was with the idea "This is not priced much differently than getting them on iTunes, but it gives me something interesting to sit on a shelf." However, now that I'm actually filling up a shelf I have to take into account that there is finite space, so I've become more selective. But that's fine; though the selection of things for sale is pretty random at a given time, there are always some things I couldn't easily find anyplace else, or just get some version of on iTunes. Sakura Gumi/Otome Gumi singles, the Trance Remix album, Morning Cop OST, the Yaguchi + AIR BAND single, Dschinghis Khan Tartar Mix, things like that.
The prices are pretty nice, too, though shipping internationally adds a lot. The discs themselves are usually in auction format, but few enough people seem interested that you can usually get results pretty cheap. I almost never bother bidding when someone else has already bid, and still usually end up winning. Adding $3-4 shipping for a $1 win greatly inflates things, but I'd still be hard pressed to find similar things for that combined price elsewhere. They do give a discount when shipping multiple items, though it doesn't make a major difference. On my most recent purchase of 5 items my shipping got knocked down from $15 to $13.50.
There usually seems to be a batch of disc auctions timed to end every few days. At the time of this writing, the next ones have about 4.5 days left. They also have plenty of books and other physical goods, but I'm not really interesting in spending $40 to get a miniature towel from the 2014 winter concert or whatever.