Why are Japanese PS2s so pricey?

[nosorrow]

I am entertaining buying a Jap PS2 to go along my Saturn tate setup... I'm figuring it should be easy and cheap to come by since the PS2 is the world's most successful console. Right? No. I can't find one for less than $200-$300, how come? What am I missing here?

[kamiboy]

For cheap Japanese games and hardware try Yamatoku-classic on ebay.

Looking at sold auctions you should have no problem getting a JP PS2 for under $100 total. The reason why you cannot get one for next to nothing is mostly due to the shipping price of something of that size.

Remember, Japan is on the other side of the world.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_nkw=&_a ... ic&_sop=10

[beatsgo]

Umm....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Playstation-2-C ... 461be0b006

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-14-Playstat ... 3ce17bfd84

If you're talking about new, yeah they're going to be in the $200-300 range for a reason: new. Plus the shipping. If you're patient, you can probably find a japanese PS2 around some of the gaming forums including here on the Trading Post.

[broken harbour]

I bought my white PS2 fat from an Ebay seller in america for $107.50, and it cost about 20 bucks to ship to me.

That was unboxed, with 4 Japanese games (lame ones) and the system needed a bit of cleaning, I compared and figured that was a fair price.

I don't know your location, but if you are in north america there's plenty of NTSC-J PS2's on ebay, etc that you can get, avoid the huge shipping costs, and the huge prices alot of Japanese sellers seem to be asking for PS2's.

Now if you want new... well, that's another story.

If you already have a North American PS2, its extremely easy to mod it to play Japanese discs, I installed Swap Magic on my slim and it was really easy and cheap.

[nosorrow]

Ha! forgot to mention that I was searching for a slim (silver). Thinking about it, I shouldn't limit myself to that particular model...

My NA fat PS2 is hooked to my 32 inch Wega CRT along with 7 or 8 other consoles. I'm looking to purchase a Japanese PS2 that I will hook up (along with my Japanese Saturn) to a 27 inch Panasonic Tau that was just given to me. Then I'll purchase Ibara, Mushihimesama (sp) and Espgaluda. So a swapping trick is not in the cards.

I'm in Canada btw. (Thanks for the replies, guys.)

[amdiggywhut]

I bought a slim white model off Ebay a couple weeks ago for $135 shipped. No box but seems to be in good shape & came with two controllers. I'm happy with it for the price. I've seen silver slims cheaper than that though.

[kilauea]

£90 I paid for a white slimline with mutli-region mod and 2 controllers and a naruto game. UK ebay.

EDIT: There are two test boxes (Not slims) on ebay now which are region free.

[nosorrow]

Cheapest silver I can find right now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Sony-Plays ... 4d1d0b914f