garden of digressions

merch

12 min read

An essential part of oshikatsu. This is a guide for people who are serious about purchasing lots of hololive merch .

A non-exhaustive list of hololive merchandise sources is provided, but things change so do additional research or read the respective FAQs wherever you end up.

Note that there’s almost always time-limited popups, collaborations, special events, etc running which have a separate dedicated website or section on the collaborator’s website. You should check other sources (official hololive news website, merch-matome, twitter/x, reddit, discord, etc) for info on them. It’s very worthwhile to make connections/friends across the globe to gain access to your oshi’s merch!

(US) Tariffs

Americans aren’t used to tariffs as they were blessed with an $800 de minimis exemption for packages. That’s coming to an end as of April 2025, beginning with packages from China. It’s a fluid situation, therefore readers are advised to check themselves for the latest and best information.

Relevant info when purchasing hololive merch from stores in Japan and shipping to the United States:

Physical Retailers

This is specifically for Southern California.

  • Various locations in Little Tokyo
    • Anime Jungle - Usually pre-owned
    • Soragumi - both official and fan merch, new condition
    • Book-off - Usually pre-owned
  • Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle (Various Locations, including Little Tokyo)
  • Kinokuniya (Various Locations, including Little Tokyo)
  • Animate USA (Torrance, CA), also online.
  • Paper Cola (San Gabriel, CA), also online.
  • Various stalls in Frank & Sons (City of Industry, CA)
    • Buyer beware: There are many independent businesses running at Frank & Sons, some goods may be pre-owned or replicas (counterfeit). Pay attention when shopping.
  • Round 1 Bowling & Arcade (Various Locations)
    • Merch isn’t sold directly. Usually they’re crane game prizes or ticket exchange prizes.
    • As of Jan 2025, select Round 1 locations have been stocking FuRyu products like nesoberis and hand puppets. For details check hololive TODAY’s list

Online

Helpful things include: No-FTF (Foreign Transaction Fee) credit card(s), Japanese comprehension (or a translation tool), and ability to use a search engine.

More reading:

Sources

Official stores

These are the stores that are the only place to get some things new, like time-limited birthday/anniversary/outfit goods and handwritten signature cards/chekis.

  • Official Hololive Productions Shop
    • The premiere place to get hololive merch, the vast majority of stock for goods and limited items like hand-signed items are sold here.
    • After a site redesign in 2024, it’s horribly slow and as of Jan 2025 the direct shipping to the United States is expensive again as the only option they offer is DHL’s express international delivery.
    • It utilizes Shopify’s platform.
    • When making many purchases you can save money by paying in Yen and have a forwarding service in Japan that will receive, store, and consolidate your orders.
    • If your order contains multiple pre-order purchases, the entire order will be held until all items are available.
    • Purchases of in-stock items shipping directly to United States can be processed in as little time as a week in aside’s experience.
  • GeekJack
    • An official partner shop that receives small amounts of stock from the official hololive logistics chain to sell to countries that are not served by the official shop.
    • The prices should be the same, but there’s a greater range of shipping options so it may be cheaper overall.
    • sometimes they reopen listings or run raffles for limited edition sets. Announcesments are made on twitter/x
    • aside has never utilized this site before
    • merch expected shipping dates
    • Tariff news: May 2025 GeekJack is suspending all shipments to the US for now
  • Tokopedia
    • An official partner shop that receives very small amounts of stock from the official hololive logistics chain to sell to Indonesia (and maybe adjacent countries?).
    • aside has never utilized this site before
  • Booth
    • the old hololive booth shop still sells some merch that’s made on-demand(?)
    • aside has never utilized this site before
    • you need a pixiv account to login and use the site
    • seems like they accept overseas credit cards and are officially partnered with buyee

Collab partners

Very incomplete list of e-commerce websites and whether overseas credit cards were accepted. aside doesn’t check for international shipping because he uses Blackship as his forwarder to consolidate packages.
Sometimes a site’s FAQ will state whether overseas credit cards will be accepted. The rule of thumb seems to be yes if the website in question has implemented the EMV 3-D verification check for all credit card purchases.

ShopCollabCC accepted?
theshop.jpSakura Miko x Naruto Taiyaki 2025❌ No per FAQ, had to use proxy agent.
SHARP cocoro storeSakura Miko x SHARP❓Didn’t try, used proxy agent.
official-goods-store.jpNijiHolo Exchange Game 2025🟢 - used forwarder address
stores.jpSuzakiya x hololive🟢 - used forwarder address
turnon.co.jpN/A - this is a penlight manufacturer🟢 - used forwarder address

Retailers

This is the usual list of Japanese retailers (physical & online) who stock or allow pre-orders for new figurines, plushies, anime/manga goods, music, books etc. They may also stock some of the merch sold in the official stores above.

Second hand shops

(may require an agent or proxy, see below)

  • Suruga-ya which runs a site listing goods from a chain of physical stores in Japan.
  • Anime Jungle
    • Japanese retailer based in Osaka that sells new and pre-owned goods
    • They also buy goods when you show up in person, but you probably shouldn’t expect anything but a lowball offer
    • JP and EN e-commerce sites for the Japanese store.
    • there’s also have a physical location in Little Tokyo (Los Angeles, California) with a corner for hololive goods towards the back (northwest corner of the western section for anime figures and goods).
    • aside has never purchased online from this store before, but has visited the Little Tokyo location numerous times.
  • Book-Off
  • hololivehk
    • the following is aside’s experience purchasing online from the shop directly
    • This is a legit site in Hong Kong that resells official merch from the hololive shop and various collabs. They also run pre-orders for proxy purchases for East Asia collabs like the AniPlus ones in Korea.
    • You’ll be charged in HKD, plus the usual payment processing fee dependant on the payment method.
    • There’s staff that understand English, but may need follow up reminder emails to prepare shipments.
    • International shipping payment is made by making another purchase after your original order is confirmed and their staff prep the original order’s packaging to get a shipping estimate.
    • Shipping is done through the Hongkong Post which hands off to the official/government postal carrier of your country.
      • For Americans, shipping directly from HK to US will likely incur massive tariff charges. It may be better to have them ship your order to a Japanese forwarder to consolidate with other purchases.
    • They don’t consolidate multiple (pre)orders, so make everything you want is in your cart before you check out.

User marketplaces

These are unofficial sources for official hololive merch besides EBay. Proceed at your own risk and use common sense to avoid scams and bootlegs.

  • Mercari (requires proxy)
    • The Japanese version of this website is one of (if not the) biggest pre-owned marketplaces for merch (hololive or otherwise). It’s like Japanese EBay “buy now” with some potential for your proxy to negotiate down prices.
    • They are officially partnered with the Buyee proxy purchasing service, but are many alternative agents that offer a comparable service for potentially less fees.
    • Since the JPY/USD exchange rate is favorable for Americans, you may be tempted to spend way too much money. (This was written before the tariffs went into effect…)
    • aside has successfully purchased online from this site via proxy
  • YahooJP Auctions (requires proxy)
    • The site auctions used to be a really big deal back in the day (2000s?), sometimes you can get a good deal if there are no bidders.
    • Many proxies will support bid sniping or purchasing at the buyout price.
    • aside has successfully purchased online from this site via proxy
  • Various discord servers have forums for buying/selling/trading.
    • aside has successfully purchased/sold/traded/group purchased with other users on the following servers
    • HoloTakeOver - most users seem to be based in North America
    • Ticketing & Events for Kaigai - more balanced international representation
  • myfigurecollection user classifieds, there’s more than just figures.
    • aside has successfully purchased online from other users

Agents

For online shopping, there are largely two types of agents:

  1. Proxies - These agents will handle everything about the purchase process and therefore command higher fees.
    • Some retailers won’t accept overseas credit cards, which means a local proxy is required to purchase on your behalf.
    • Typically proxies require two payments: The first time to pay for the price of the goods and any domestic shipping to send the goods to the proxy. Then a second time to pay for any services they offer and to have the goods shipped internationally to you.
    • The services may include: negotiating on Mercari for lower prices, automated auction sniping, communicating with the seller for special instructions, inspecting the received goods for defects, special handling or packaging when shipping internationally etc.
    • Once the item arrives at their warehouse, they will store your shipment and typically provide inspection, storage, and consolidation services until you request a final shipment for your order(s).
  2. Forwarders - This type usually only handles receiving, storing, and the final international shipping part of the process. While cheaper, you’ll have to purchase from and communicate with the seller by your own means.
    • If you understand Japanese, you can save some money on proxy fees.
    • Make sure you enter the correct shipping address!
      • Sometimes things out of your control may happen, such as the recent Blackship warehouse address change when Blackship moved their warehouse location which necessitated an update for preorder mailing addresses. Many retailers require an email or site message in order to make such address changes.

Proxies

In no particular order, here’s a list of proxies aside has experience with:

  • From Japan
    • Their website supports many Japanese retailers and can scrape the price, pictures, and details of links that you paste into their search box.
    • They charge a flat 500 yen fee per each type of item, plus the cost of the items and domestic shipping. Make sure to use the dropdown in the upper section of the screen to get charged in JPY instead of USD to avoid the transaction fee spread.
    • If you choose to ship your package to a location within Japan, they charge a 10% 5% fee (as of 14 April 2025).
  • Buyee
    • They are the official proxy service partner of Mercari, so there’s tight integration and an fast & easy purchase process.
    • Their website supports many Japanese retailers and can scrape the price, pictures, and details of links that you paste into their search box.
    • They charge various fees in USD with a built-in spread, so the overall price is notably higher.
    • Their forwarder sister company is Tenso (see below)
  • Goody Japan
    • Goody has a verification process where they check your government issued identification.
    • The fees are charged in Yen according to the total value of your order, but site uses a clunky charge/pre-load system where you send money to add credit to your account.
      • There are many situations where they charge extra fees/commissions. Make sure to check before committing.
    • Their website allows you to search for goods from various retailers and you can make custom requests through a form. No experience:
  • Japan Rabbit (formerly White Rabbit Express)
    • This Proxy is the sister company of the forwarder Blackship (see below).

Forwarders

  • Blackship
    • This is the only forwarding service that aside has utilized.
      • Office hours if you need to specify a delivery time or schedule a pickup appointment
    • Recommended, the fees charged in USD are fair and the site to manage your shipments is easy to use.
    • They offer lots of options for the final shipment from Japan to your location.
    • Sister company of the proxy Japan Rabbit (see above)
    • Cons
      • Requires verification of government issued ID before they approve your account. The first shipment they make must go to the address on the ID. Subsequent shipments can go to any address you enter.
      • You don’t get any benefits of their loyalty program without paying an annual subscription which would only be worthwhile if you make a LOT of purchases to consolidate for shipment.
      • Some retailers restrict purchase amounts based on shipping addresses. So if someone else already ordered the item in max quantity before you did, you’re out of luck. This is a con for most agents, as most of them only have a single location to receive shipments.
  • Tenso
    • No experience with this forwarder.
    • Sister company of proxy Buyee (see above)

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