This article is sponsored by ZenMarket

Finding rare or unique retro gaming items can be difficult to do online. Despite a wealth of resources available, sometimes it can feel like the consoles and games you want just aren’t easily available, or at the very least, affordable.

Or worse, you DO track them down, but turns out the Game Boy you were looking for was actually a Bandai WonderSwan Color, which was only released in Japan.

You might even locate one on a Japanese website, but they don’t accept Australian credit cards and not ship internationally. It might feel hopeless, but don’t give up! Our friends at ZenMarket are here to help.

What is ZenMarket?

ZenMarket is a shopping service that allows users from all over the world to shop from Japanese stores. They act like a middleman – you let them know what you want and they purchase the item for you and ship it to their warehouse, before shipping the items to you. It is really helpful, particularly if you don’t speak Japanese, as they can communicate with shops on your behalf.

You can also order from multiple Japanese shops too. If you do, ZenMarket can consolidate all the items into one big parcel for international shipping. This means you can save money on shipping one big parcel to Australia, rather than shipping each item individually, so there’s no need to feel guilty grabbing a few extra things in your merch haul (like rare Japanese N64 items or cute Kirby stuff!).

How does ZenMarket work?

1. Create a ZenMarket account. Supanova readers can get 500 yen on sign-up to use on Japan shopping using the promo code ‘SUPANOVA’. Creating an account is free, and only takes a few seconds.

2. Add funds to your account. ZenMarket uses a wallet system to ensure that you can shop at the best possible exchange rate, and process your orders ASAP.

3. Find the items you want. Simply browse using the ZenMarket website to find items on Japanese marketplaces, such as Rakuten, Rakuma (formerly fril.jp), Amazon Japan, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Auctions and Mercari. You can also copy and paste the product URL from any Japanese online store into the bar on the ZenMarket website, and their team will get the item ready for purchase, so you are not just locked into what is available on the website. Check out ZenMarket’s suggested stores.

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4. Pay for your items. Once you’ve paid, they will be sent from the Japanese shop to the ZenMarket warehouse. Here you have up to 45 days of free storage. You can use this storage time to wait for orders from other stores, consolidate your orders into one package (consolidation is free!), and organise international shipping.

5. Once your final package is ready, you can pay for international shipping to have it sent from Japan to your door. Easy peasy!

If ever you need to order some retro gaming consoles, or Japan-only gaming merch, give ZenMarket a whirl.

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They aren’t just limited to gaming merch, though – you can order anything from anime figures and acrylic stands, manga and light novels, and even discounted second-hand luxury bags.

If you can order it from Japan, ZenMarket has you covered!