Guide: Mercari JP and Fril/Rakuma for Beginners

This post is inspired by being done with grad school and a request from a pal on a certain discord server.
Today, I'd like to talk about my favorite inexpensive resources for secondhand brand: Mercari.jp and Fril/Rakuma. These are both direct secondhand sales options for buying from other people (instead of whole companies like Wunderwelt). However, they are only available in Japanese and require a shopping service, so they can be a little intimidating to new lolitas. Once you get the hang of them, Rakuma and Mercari are great additions to your lolita shopping roster!

Step 1: Navigation

Mercari Japan can be found at https://jp.mercari.com/ and Rakuma (also called fril) is https://fril.jp/. Both of these have prominent search bars, so let's start by searching for a brand. Baby The Stars Shine Bright is pretty popular, so let's start with that! 

Note that you don't need an account to browse these sites, but machine translation (like Google Chrome) might be helpful.  

searching for "baby the stars shine bright" on Fril.jp/Rakuma

searching for "baby the stars shine bright" on Mercari.jp

sorting by brand in the Mercari.jp search page

the brand name tag on an actual item

 

Just searching the brand name on Mercari ends up with a lot of unrelated items. To filter the results to just items from Baby The Stars Shine Bright, either type the brand name in the "ブランド" (literally "brand")  box on the left, or click one of the items, scroll down to the description, and click the brand name. 

The little price tag icon underneath the suggested search on Rakuma means that it is a brand name. Clicking on this suggested search will only give items tagged as Baby the Stars Shine Bright.

Searching by brand name is the most reliable way to get lolita results-- a lot of things tagged with "gosurori" or other generic tags are going to be poor quality or even just underwear. However, you can also search for a specific item using the Japanese name on Lolibrary. I don't recommend using other language names of pieces (including English) on Rakuma or JP Mercari-- if you're looking for something specific, it's worth the extra minute or two to look up the Lolibrary page.

When you look at these listings, keep in mind that the vast majority of them are going to be secondhand directly from the owner. Unlike secondhand stores, they may have no measurements or inaccurate ones, odd smells, bad quality photography: anything you'd see on Depop, you'll see here. Additionally, many sellers will only allow people to purchase after a DM, which can cause problems with some shopping services. Those sellers often will not sell to people with bad or machine-translated Japanese. 

I generally look up brands I like about once every week, bookmark the items I like in a designated folder, and then buy

Step 2: Choosing a shopping service

Most people on Mercari and Fril will not ship directly outside of Japan, and many sellers require communications in Japanese before they will sell to a buyer. Because of this, a shopping service of some sort is essential.

I divide shopping services into two main types: individual run, where it's just one or two people, and company, where there may be dozens of different representatives. The esteemed Raine Dragon wrote a really valuable guide to the process behind shopping services here. 

In general, with larger services, you may have to make an account, and they may not buy from certain sites. However, these services offer around-the-clock service and support through automated systems, so for time-sensitive items, it might be worth it. These larger businesses often also have in-built translation for browsing pages, but Google Translate can do the same thing with a little more effort.

Individuals don't offer 24/7 service, but they're often easier to contact with special requests and will buy from more platforms. 

Some Mercari and Fril/Rakuma sellers will not sell to known shopping services at all. 

Here is a list of current shopping services that lolitas might use as of 12/2022. Edits as of 12/26/2022 informed by babelglyph and kim on discord.

Larger Shopping Services

Tenso https://www.tenso.com/en

Tenso is a package forwarding service: the user needs to place the order and do all the communication with sellers themselves, while Tenso just provides a Japanese mailing address and forwards the packages. They will also change the value and description of packages. Tenso users must create an account. Tenso is not recommended for buying on Rakuma or Mercari, which both require creating an account and a lot of communication in Japanese. Payment is either via PayPal or credit card.

Buyee https://buyee.jp/,

Buyee is built into many Japanese shopping sites. It is run by the same company that runs Tenso, and also requires an account. Payments on Buyee can be via credit card, PayPal, Alipay, or their inbuilt points system. Although it is quick and efficient to navigate to, Buyee has high fees, irregular communication, cannot buy certain items, and will often just chuck the entire JP package into a larger box. Because of this, I only recommend this in specific time-sensitive situations. Buyee will not mark down the value of packages, but allows items to be marked as gifts.

Celga https://www.celga.com/

I don't know much about Celga, and they appear to do Mercari but not Fril. The website and Facebook have not been updated for well over a year. They also require an account. Celga will mark down package value and accepts PayPal, credit and debit card, and money orders, plus other payment methods on request.

DEJAPAN https://www.dejapan.com/

Will take requests and order from most sites. Requires an account. Will not mark down shipping, so EU and Canada residents may want something else. It does not appear to have limitations on which secondhand sites it will buy from, and is usually quite cheap because it does not charge a base service fee, just an additional 500 yen fee per Mercari item. DEJAPAN takes credit and debit card or PayPal. It is uncertain whether they will allow packages to be marked as gifts for customs purposes.

From Japan https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/

From Japan has a  good reputation in the lolita community, and will also buy and ship items from the U.S. As with other large services, they require an account. They will buy from Rakuma/Fril and Mercari. From Japan (and their other service OneMap) will accept payments in credit card or PayPal, as well as their internal points system. It appears they will mark down package value and mark packages as gifts.

Japonica Market https://japonicamarket.com/

Japonica Market is unofficially oriented towards lolitas and even has an Usakumya as the example item for their tutorial. I have only heard good things about this service. They seem to buy from any secondhand site including Mercari and Rakuma. They only accept PayPal and appear to allow modification of declared package value and marking as gift.

Japan Rabbit https://japanrabbit.com/

Japan Rabbit (formerly White Rabbit Express) had a reliable reputation among lolitas. It also has an app and a forwarding service called Blackship. Japan Rabbit accepts payment in credit card, debit card, or wire transfer, not PayPal. They allow the buyer to change the customs value of each item in a package, but will not allow buyers to declare items as gifts.

Neokyo https://neokyo.com

Neokyo will not buy from Mercari, but they do buy from Rakuma/Fril. Neokyo has an inbuilt wallet system, but will also accept PayPal or credit card payment via Stripe. They allow declared package value to be changed, but will not mark items as gifts.

Remambo https://www.remambo.jp/

This shopping service will buy from both Mercari and Rakuma, but has a mixed reputation for both service and packaging. Remambo allows users to change the package value, but will not mark items as a gift. Remambo accepts debit cards, credit cards, UnionPay, PayPal, and bank transfers.

Zenmarket https://zenmarket.jp/

Zenmarket will not buy from Fril, but it is an option for Mercari, as long as the seller agrees to buy from a shopping service. They will not mark items as a gift for shipping and they appear not to allow lower declared value. Zenmarket accepts payment in PayPal, Alipay, bank transfer, debit card, or credit card.

Individual Shopping Services

Chibi Tenshi/Tenshi Shop https://tenshishop.com/

Tenshi Shop is a one-person business that has operated in the lolita community for years. Her fees begin at 500 yen. I have personally used Tenshi Shop since I started wearing lolita. I have found her to be very communicative and helpful. She will edit your customs form/invoice within reason.

Mint Kismet https://mintkismet.weebly.com/process.html

Mint Kismet is run by Elle, who is involved in the lolita community and models for some brands. Although her service fees are higher than most, she also will negotiate with sellers to lower prices and will buy from any sites and in-person. She will also mark the customs forms however you want. Reliable, but expensive.  

Pikachuuko Parlor https://linktr.ee/pikachuuko_parlor

Pikachuuko Parlor is actually two people, and is newer on the scene. I haven't heard much about them yet. They do not allow PayPal payments, and do not indicate whether they will mark items as lower values or as gifts.

That's about all I have to say about the topic. It's a learning curve, but I wouldn't have my wardrobe without these sites!