Phone Charms/Keitai Straps.

"My kinda weird hobby collection thingy"

5/29/2024

Some moons ago I used to have a collection page on my site, I've since removed it cause there was no real purpose of it, but I wanted to make a page about phone charms cause I think their fun, and I like them.

Phone charms, or Keitai Straps (携帯ストラップ) explain themselves, they little charms/straps/keychains/whatever you put on your Phone via a phone loop hole (or whatever opening your phone has, i don't think most phones have loops anymore.) Mainly popular around Japan and other asian countries.

I started collecting them around the latter half of last year, I was at a convention and bought a charm of Bibarel on a whim (Pictured in the right photo, on my 3DS) and just kinda, had it for a while... I didn't bother putting it on my phone cause I didn't know how to go about doing it (I'm not very bright.) Once I figured out how to loop it on things though, It felt euphoric and I was hooked.

They're just, cool to me, I think it's a fun way to personalize your devices and the like. If your into Anime and Games, theres certainly a charm you can get for a franchise you like. I've been a bit conscious about how my stuff looks, with how sleek and frankly boring devices look nowadays, slapping a charm on them certainly wouldn't hurt.

Types of charms.

In my time collecting these things, I've learned the few different types of charms that are/were commonplace. I'll detail them a bit.

Figure Charms

Probably the most common kind of Phone charm, easy to explain, just a figure, typically made of a hard plastic or PVC attached to a strap, probably my favorite kind aswell. The figures are cool to have and it's funny to have them dangling on a phone.

Cleaner Straps

These charms are characterized by the fact their actually meant to clean your phone. The strap their attached to is stretchy, and the actualy charm itself is plastic, filled with sponge, and has a microfiber back to clean dust and dirt and the like off your phone screen. Very light, and don't jangle around and make a clacking sound when your walking lol. The actual charms usually just have a piece of official art on them.

"Strap" Charms

A kind of charm that typically has a figure or the like, but also has a large strap alongside it, I don't quite understand the functionality of the strap itself, but I certainly think it's cool.

Metal Charms

Probably the least common kind to my knowledge, but enough exist out there to mention it here, and I do own one. A shaped piece of metal with some official art printed on it. Not too common because it's probably harder to manufacture, but I still think their very cool.

Rubber Straps

My least favorite kind, I would actually argue that in present day, these are the most common kind of phone charms. I imagine these are easy and cheap to manufacture due to the rubber material, you can find a bunch of these for super cheap, I only get them If i really think the design is neat, or if I really like the character.

Buying Guide

Do you want to these things to take over your life! Great! It's actually relatively easy to obtain these, and typically go for super cheap on auction sites. These are old, small items, so I always assumed they were considered not worth much or even trash to sellers in Japan.

I pretty much exclusively buy from Buyee which is a proxy service, basically buys/places bids on your behalf, then ships them overseas. Charms typically go for very cheap on here. On average a single charm can go for around $1-$5, more if it's a popular character or if it's sought after though.

IMPORTANT FOR SEARCH, if you just wanna peruse and see if something catches your eye, just put "携帯ストラップ" in the search bar and filter by "Buyout Price, Low to High." you'll see items that are below even $1, I don't typically bid on items, but you can do that if ya want. . If searching for a charm from a specific franchise, search up that series Japanese name, and copy the Japanese name and paste it along side the keyword from earlier, I.E if I was looking for Dragon Ball Charms I'd search "ドラゴンボール 携帯ストラップ"

Occasionally, you can get lucky and find multiple charms in a lot or bundle, for very cheap aswell, I have a good amount of character charms of series I've never seen or don't care about, purely cause they were in a bundle.

SHIPPING STUFF: While the charms themselves are cheap, the shipping; isn't, but at the very least given these are small items, they shipping is cheap for Buyee standards, for me I typically pay around $30-$38 for shipping on charms. I never buy a few charms, I buy a bunch so I can get my moneys worth from the shipping cost.

Once you find a bunch of charms you wanna buy and they finally reach the warehouse, remember before shipping to CONSOLIDATE ALL THE PACKAGES so you aren't aying $30 shipping for 10 seperate items or something, when you consolidate, itll take a few days, but all your charms will be in one single package, and you'll only pay shipping for 1 package.

For actual shipping, I use the EMS option, for convienience sake, i think it's also the default option.

Congrats! In a few days you'll have little charm thingys for your enjoyment, do as you wish with them.

(Note to self, eventually document all the charms I have on this page.)

Charm Holy Grails

Incredibly Rare/Expensive charms I wish I had...

Thank you for reading through this page, the life of collecting phone charms is a whimsical one, and I hope perhaps this ignites interest for these in you aswell...