[Nyororin]

An item is worth as much as the person paying for it decides it is worth.

For Japanese items being sold out of Japan - there is a "collectible" value that is set by the buyer. This is over the regular market value. The same kind of value comes into play inside Japan for imported items. It is really the rarity you are paying for.

You say you bought a decal for $9 - but can find them in Japan at the 100yen shop. In Japan. You were not in Japan when you bought it, so did not have the option of heading over to the 100 yen shop and picking one up. You paid for the convenience, and the value you assigned to the item. You were not ripped off.

The same kind of thing comes into play with any collectible item. This is why certain items eventually hit amazing prices at auction - there is more value to the buyer than the actual production cost or value of materials.

I personally get a kick out of just looking at the prices on J-list because of the silly things that are so incredibly expensive. I don`t think they list it any more, but a couple years back they had a 10,000 Nitori futon set for sale at something like $800. Cheapy kotatsu for $1000 and up.

I would never pay that kind of price for these things, even if I lived in the middle of nowhere in the US. And no one is going to force me to. But there are apparently people out there who will, and who value the items enough to pay that amount.

I don`t think it is even misleading. In many cases it WOULD cost more to simply buy the things in Japan and send them to the US - and that is for me living here. Imagine the price difference for someone living in the US who wants a bag of Kit-Kats. J-List is cheap if you realize that for them to get the low low Japan price they`d need to fly here.