Every time I try to snag a deal on figures from japan the proxy fees chip away at the savings. Buyee wants 500 yen per item now. ZenMarket is supposedly cheaper but their shipping quotes always end up higher than expected somehow. FromJapan has some commission structure I still can't fully make sense of.
Most of what I buy is prize figures and smaller scale stuff from Mercari Japan, usually 1,500 to 3,000 yen range. At that price the proxy fee is a real chunk of the total. Consolidating helps spread the international shipping across more items but it doesn't touch the per-item fees.
Went down a rabbit hole comparing proxy fee pages last week and Onemall stood out with 200 yen per item and apparently free-fee coupons sometimes. If that's real and the shipping rates aren't inflated to make up for it, it changes the math on bigger hauls. But I haven't actually placed an order through them so who knows.
I've been burned before by services that look cheap up front then tack on fees for photos, storage, special packaging, whatever else they can think of. So I don't take advertised prices at face value anymore.
Honestly at this point I just want to see a real receipt comparison, not marketing pages. Per-item fees are one thing but the final shipping invoice is where I always end up surprised.