TIPS FOR KOEI MERCH COLLECTING

- As with all merch buying, set budgets and limits and stick to it. I save up money for a 'merch pool' and only buy when there's enough in it. This is really important.

- There's a high chance you're going to need a proxy buyer! Some of the rarest and most interesting KOEI merch only gets released/sold in a few countries so I suggest you look into proxy buyers and find yourself a good, reliable one. I've had good experiences with Treasure Japan.

- KOEI's official shops can be found here, Gamecity shop, and here, KT Spot. As of late, the latter is getting special releases of goods that aren't showing up on Gamecity, so check in now and then. Gamecity, meanwhile, will announce special events sometimes, which might have unique merchandise associated with them.

- If you don't know any Japanese, you're going to at least need to learn the Japanese names for the characters and series you're looking for as well as some basic terms for searching.

- For older releases, you're almost certainly going to have to look into the secondhand market. KOEI will occasionally do limited releases of older things but otherwise you're going to be looking in places like Yahoo JP Auctions, Suruga Ya and so on. Will you find things on eBay? Yes, sometimes, but the markup there tends to be so ridiculously high you'd be paying less using a proxy to get the same thing elsewhere. The only things I've found on eBay at reasonable prices are some of the books, but who knows? It can be worth an occasional look.

- Speaking of Suruga Ya specifically, they now have an English language website and will also ship to countries outside of Japan. However, this version of the site seems to miss multiple items from the Japanese site, so it's worth checking both this and the Japanese version. I can confirm I've had two successful buys from the English language site that arrived quickly and safely.

- You can order from Goods Republic directly as well but I do not necessarily recommend it. Very rarely you might get something at a reasonable price but the mark-up can be a bit much sometimes, and you'll again find it cheaper via proxy services even including the commission charge on many occasions.

- Yahoo auctions tend to be the best way you're going to get rarer and more unusual items, but it comes with the usual auction site chances of losing out. Each proxy service who will bid for you will handle it a little differently.

- For more specific tips... definitely select a few characters you're going to buy for in terms of character focused merch, as especially for the Warriors games the sheer volume of items around is enormous. Be forewarened however that popular characters can often go quite a noticable amount more than lesser liked ones on the secondhand market. Of particular note in this regard is Ishida Mitsunari for Samurai Warriors, and Guo Jia for Dynasty Warriors. They do tend to have more things to buy in general featuring them, however.

- And now I will talk about can badges. I do not know exactly why but can badges are HUGELY popular and thus in the secondhand market can go for shockingly high prices in some cases, and the effect of a popular character is even more noticable here. For example with myself, I've been able to get them for Mitsuhide and Motochika at a reasonable rate, but for Guo Jia? I've not even tried. If KOEI release new can badges you have any interest in, get them there and then if you're into someone popular. You're unlikely to get them cheaper later.

- Good luck looking for Pokemon Conquest merchandise at a decent price! It's getting rarer and rarer and remains rather popular. If you see something you want available, and it's within your set price range, get it as soon as possible before you're beaten to it.