There are many places to buy Dragon Ball Carddass cards so I will make a list of some of the better places, and my opinions on them. In Japan there is a distinction made between the two very different type of sellers: buyers 買取 (kaitori) and resellers
転売屋 (tenbaiya). The first, buyers, are professionals, they invite customers to present cards they wish to sell to them by bringing them to their store, after which they evaluate the cards based on ongoing price listings and make a price offer to the customer before buying the product. The second type, resellers, are individuals who shop around for good deals wherever they can, with the intent of selling them higher once acquired. Professional shops are always more reputable and preferable vendors to buy from than resellers.
Mandarake in Japan
Mandarake is the best known manga and anime related merchandise second hand chain in the world. It was first started in 1987. They sell many Carddass cards and lots of Dragon Ball. You need to be in Japan and sometimes prices are on the high side compared to some of the other places, but they are professionals and the condition of the cards are properly described. They are a very reliable place to acquire Dragon Ball cards from.
Mandarake store list and locations
There are many stores in Japan and availability of cards probably changes a lot from one store to the next.
Below are direct links searching for Dragon Ball cards on the online part of Mandarake's shop, both in English and Japanese. Their online inventory is pretty small, and unfortunately they don't write the dates on these so one can't tell when the sold items sold.
Mandarake online shop DB cards in English
Mandarake online shop for DB cards in Japanese
Sometimes they also do sales of Dragon Ball cards through their special
auction system.
Below you can view the list of ongoing or upcoming
auctions for Dragon Ball cards. The ended auctions are useful to see what some cards sold for (but check the dates). Sometimes
it's worth searching on the Japanese site as well as there can be some
differences in listings.
Mandarake DB cards on auction in English
Mandarake DB cards on auction in Japanese
VintCollect
VintCollect is an online only shop fully specialized in Carddass cards, mainly Dragon Ball cards. This online store has become the leading shop specialized in dealing with Dragon Ball Carddass. The owner is highly professional, and all items are likely to be appraised and evaluated with the highest standards. Like Mandarake this site only buys cards from individuals who bring their cards to them. There is no physical store location so everything is done online. I highly recommend this store to all Carddass fans.
VintCollect main site
Unfortunately the site is only in Japanese, however they do ship internationally but one has to navigate the Japanese site first. There is a little helpful guide with pictures showing how to get around the site available too which might help.
VintCollect's English guide for navigating the site
Inventory is updated daily during week days and things move very fast. Fortunately the store allows one to delay shipping a certain number of times, which means one can buy when stock comes up and pay shipping only once after enough items are bought.
The sold item pages are also useful to see what items may have sold for, but like Mandarake's online shop, sadly there are no dates so one can't tell when the cards were sold at those prices.
VintCollect also has a Yahoo Auctions Japan account under *tmmjrjb so one can find more of their products there too, but more on YJ! below.
*Update 2022: his Yahoo account seems to have changed to something else.
Yahoo Auctions Japan!
Yahoo Auctions Japan also known as ヤフオク is a great place to shop for Dragon Ball cards as there are new listings daily and lots to chose from. Prices are something collectors complain about in recent years but usually other stores and sellers follow Yahoo so once items reach new prices there it will be reflected in places like Mandarake, VintCollect and other places as well.
Yahoo Auctions Japan! main site
One can shop at Yahoo auctions by using proxy shopping services that will purchase the items for you for a minimal fee, store it and later ship it to you once you request to have a shipment. I won't be going over proxy services because I don't know them well enough, but it's worth spending some time to do some research as the ones that are generally most promoted are not necessarily the best.
Yahoo Auctions with search for Dragon Ball Carddass (sorted by newest)
Yahoo Auctions with search for Dragon Ball Carddass (sorted by recommended)
Japanese understanding is needed to navigate around, so above is a basic search for Dragon Ball Carddass to get you started. Some proxy services can do the translations as special features which is useful to see what the descriptions are like.
Some of the most reputable sellers for DB cards on Yahoo include the very respected KaitoriCollector (their main account goes by the name kaitoricollector_first but they have a few alternate accounts for different auctions). They are another online kaitori seller that just happens to often have Dragon Ball cards (often times of the rarest kind including the rarest limited cards).
One thing to keep in mind on Yahoo is that bidding high and losing often sets a new price for the future, which means you may end up paying more next time because sellers will have taken note of the highest bids of previously ended auctions.
Mercari
Mercari is a Japanese site for individuals to sell their items on but there are lots of Dragon Ball cards that get listed there daily. They will sell internationally only through the proxy shipping service Buyee.
Mercari main site
I think Mercari is a good alternative to Yahoo Auctions Japan, but less accessible from overseas since customers need to use Buyee.
Mercari search for Dragon Ball Carddass
Here's a direct link searching for Carddass. Since it's not auction based, items sometimes sell very fast.
Rakuten Market (Fril)
Fril now called Rakuten Market is an alternative site to Mercari. This site has less inventory but still has daily new Dragon Ball cards that people put up for sale.
Rakuten Market main site
Rakutem Market search for Dragon Ball Carddass
Prices vary a lot, and like Mercari as they are not auctions good deals tend to sell fast.
Ebay
Most people use ebay already so I don't think I need to explain. They have a lot of Dragon Ball Carddass listings.
Ebay main site
I don't recommend ebay for Dragon Ball
cards. In the late 2000's there were a lot of out of box full part sales, but things have changed. Availability is down, and prices have gone up. The prices on ebay for Dragon Ball cards will generally be the worst of anywhere on the internet.
JD World Tokyo
JD World is a newer shop created by a French collector living in Tokyo. This seller is a reseller unfortunately. Inventory is updated regularly enough but prices tend to be higher than average, and are listed in euros. Condition descriptions are a little vague and items as of this date generally do not show the back of the cards. They also sell new Carddass releases.
JD World Tokyo main site
Despite the negatives the site seems to get good feedback from people in the French community who have bought there which is why I am listing it. However I'm still not a fan of resellers so I would not recommend it over better alternatives. It is a good site to buy brand new Carddass releases however.
*Update 2022: The store URL and info was updated.
Facebook
Lastly there are facebook groups for Dragon Ball Carddass collectors. These communities allow fans to meet each other online and trade or sell/buy cards with each other.
The biggest English speaking one I know of is called
"Japanese Dragonball and DBZ Cards".
Most of these groups are private and require joining. I think it's a great concept but sadly the English speaking groups I have seen appear to have
very low activity and participation.
There are some nice French and Hong Kong groups out there though. People are nice and seem to often speak English there but they sell in euros or hkd so prices are generally a
bit above what one would expect when shopping in Japan.
