You, Me and Buyee

All about Buyee JP.

I haven’t travelled much in the last couple years. Work, COVID, finances, the misery of modern airports—it all added up to make the proposition wholly unappealing. And then this week, something changed.

Maybe it’s because I finally accumulated a hefty sum of points and miles; maybe I just got bored of typing all day in my apartment. But somehow, in the span of 72 hours, I booked four trips. Nothing too glamorous—I am still very much against ‘euro girl summer’—but I’ve got plenty of fun to look forward to.

Me on Buyee preparing for all my trips this summer…

This summer, I’ll be going to:

1. Austin. I’m visiting one of my closest friends who I rarely get to see. Plus, Texas on 4th of July weekend just sounded like a party.

2. Vancouver. In fairness, this one’s for work. From there, straight to—

3. Montreal. Ooo la la! I’ve been trying to go to Montreal for years, and now I’m going for my birthday week. Too bad Just For Laughs has been cancelled : (

4. Chicago. There is no greater city in the world than Chicago in the summertime. Swimming in the lake, drinking beer in the streets…it is heaven. I can’t wait.

If you have recommendations for any of the aforementioned places, let me know! I’m looking forward to my little excursions. Totally unrelated, I’m getting back into surfing this season. I finally brought my childhood board out of storage; it is pink and glittery and very fabulous. If anybody has suggestions on surfing in LA, I’m all ears.

One more thing! I guested on my friend Charmee’s podcast, Hot Bi Summer. You can listen to us talk about queer films and Pride month events here.

Ok, enough about me. Let’s get to the main event.

The Best Kept Secret

You might have heard the name of a certain search engine floating around the annals of Cool Girl Internet. It’s whispered in TikTok videos, buried in Reddit threads. And even once you find it, navigating the space is a challenge only the truly fashion-brained will undertake.

Of course, I’m talking about Buyee JP.

Here’s the elevator pitch: Buyee is a proxy service that allows buyers outside of Japan to shop on Yahoo JP, Mercari JP, Rakuten and a host of other sites otherwise unavailable to US customers. Buyee makes the purchases for you, then consolidates them at their warehouse. This not only saves you a huge headache, it lowers your total shipping cost.

The beauty of Buyee is that you can find certain items for a fraction of the cost that you’d get them on, say, Depop. The reason is twofold—one, the Depop girlies are actually getting all their shit on Buyee and marking it up. Two, there are certain brands that are more widespread in Japan. For example, I’ve noticed that Junya Watanabe is more ubiquitous, and thus cheaper.

So I’m gonna break down my Buyee haul and my tips and tricks. And then as a thank you for paid subscribers, I’ll cover what’s in my cart and a bunch of my saved searches.

My Buyee Haul

This was my first time purchasing on Buyee and boy did I go big. Before I get into this haul, please keep in mind that my taste is, uh….eclectic. There are many normal clothing items you can find on Buyee. I just happened to gravitate towards the crazy ones.

Let’s start out with the most mild of the bunch: a Jean Paul Gaultier button down.

Yes, you’re looking at a mint condition JPG button down—that I bought for $53. For a price comparison, I found stylistically similar JPG shirts on TRR for $147, on Vestiaire for $125, and on Ebay for $79. In other words, Buyee was far and away the cheapest option.

Here’s the catch—it’s a little too tight in the chest. Such is the reality of online vintage shopping. I’m gonna try to get it altered but if that doesn’t work, it’ll definitely be up on my Depop sometime soon (and if you see me steeply marking it up, don’t tell anyone…)

Next up, let’s get a little kookier. I bought a Hysteric Glamour hoodie dress.

The girlies know that Hysteric Glamour has been huge on Depop the last few years. But because of that, the prices have gone absolutely insane. Maybe it’s just because not everyone wants to style a hooded dress, but I got this baby for $35. And she is indeed in mint condition! Now if only it was cold enough for me to wear this.

Now, on to two items I got from the same ultra-cool Japanese streetwear brand.

Keeping on the theme of hooded things—a Milk Boy hooded T-shirt.

I know what you’re thinking. Remy, this is covered in stains. I hear you. It is. But given that it was only $6, I figured I could splurge at the dry cleaners. Besides, it’s so freaking cool. Reminds of the Urte Kat tops I’ve been coveting.

And finally, the craziest piece of them all—a psychedelic Milk Boy jersey.

I know, it’s kind of giving Billie Eilish. But my truth is that I’m fully on board with jersey summer, and this top will go hard over some tiny shorts. And again, it was $11. For $11, why not?!

Tips and Tricks

In my excursion on Buyee, here are some valuable lessons I learned.

1. I strongly recommend buying in bulk. I’m normally not this kind of girl, but it’ll seriously save you on shipping cost. Plus, Buyee holds any item in their warehouse for 30 days, so you’ve got time to amass your goods.

2. Try translating basic phrases into Japanese. For instance, I really wanted to find a certain pair of ballet flats. So I went on Google Translate and found a rough translation for ‘ballet flats.’ It saved me a ton of time.

3. Start with Mercari. Yahoo JP is good if you get in early on an auction, but Mercari has a wider selection. Unfortunately there’s no way to search both sites at once; you have to toggle between them.

4. When in doubt, size up. Japanese sizes run substantially smaller than US sizes. If possible, check the measurements on the garment. If that’s not possible…go bigger. Trust me.

5. Persistence is key. I won’t lie, Buyee is not for the faint of heart. There is no algorithm that suggests products based on your interests, the saved search alerts are kind of a mess…this shopping is a labor of love, not convenience.