Just browsing through the soft vinyl on mandarake, and I got to wondering: in regards to soft vinyl toy; do you think Mandarake makes more of boutique independent sofubi (realxhead, Mvh, ggml and the like) that got for big bucks, or do you think they just sell a ton of cheap-o Bandai soft vinyl toys- the ones made for children. Karen rider or ultraman figures for 500-to 1,000¥? then I thought about all the other cats gorier of Bobbie stuff Mandarake says, and I wonder how big soft vinyl sales are compared to idol toys, or keshi, or Doujinshi, or cosplay items, video games… I wonder what their bread and butter is, so to speak. I’m
HA! It's probably something far more mundane than all that. Like Yoai Manga or Pokemon cards. I bet sofubi doesn't even make the top 5.
lol. Normally, I’d go back and edit that autocorrect typo, but I’m going to stand by it. Anyone want to go find an AI to generate some images of what “Karen Rider” might actually look like?
I've been to two mandarakes and there were several floors and sections of model kits/robots etc and a ton of manga books. The sofubi and vintage section was small compared to other sections...granted it appeared big to me having never seen a lot of it in person.
Pretty sure Manda makes most of their money from me buying overpriced minis and I ain’t even mad about it
I'm also searching for more information about their sales from Japanese sources. Honestly I was surprised at that 48% number from 2018, I expected manga to be the biggest sales category for them. Regarding what percentage of that 48% would have been represented by modern low-run vinyl toys, I can't see it being more than 5% to 10%. There are so many mass-market character toys from the last 50+ years and you can find them all at Mandarake at some point.
I think that 48% of sales is meant as revenue. That makes it easy to believe. 1 $500 toy = 50 $10 Manga books. So even if they're the largest secondhand comic retailer, dollar for dollar it's tough to compete with a few over priced toys. I see a few go up and sell almost everyday.
When I’m looking for sofubi I have to filter out Sold Items, I get excited when I see something, then realize it’s already been bought. They are DEFINITELY selling a lot of toys.
Not disagreeing that they sell a lot, but it’s not exactly like there’s any expiration date on those sold items we can see. Most of them have been in the system for YEARS. kinda nice though, since it allows you to add long-sold out stuff to your alterts list.
I've also never understood their mysterious pricing. I've seen a toy listed for 30000 yen, sell and then afterwards show the exact toy for like 15000. I don't know how accurate their price records are.
I was just in Tokyo for a few days and stopped by Nakano Broadway and Shibuya Mandarakes. Both were in sad shape relative to my last visit several years ago. The toy areas in both had been reconfigured and seemingly slimmed down. Nothing really remarkable in the cases, but everything was definitely priced at the top of the market. The open shelves of lower priced items looked pretty thin as well. Both locations had way more foreigners than I have seen before. I would say it was almost 50/50 foreigners and locals. I'm not sure where Mandarake makes its money now, but it seems like the normal assortment of toys is an increasingly small part of that equation.
That’s disheartening to hear. That the toy areas weren’t as good as you remember. I have to guess online sales must account for the lion’s share of their expensive toy sales. Maybe stuff doesn’t even reach the floor- just photographed for the website for sale, anticipating a quick overseas sale?
Yep, that is exactly it. All the hot stuff is gone as soon as they list it so all you see in the shelves is less desirable pieces whether it is the piece itself or the price. I wasn't expecting to find a ton of grails there when I went in February, but I saw very little I would call grail-y and what I did find was a good 50%+ above market
But the $500 of the sofubi toy is not all profit, maybe they paid for it for $300 so the net profit is $200, however the 50 manga they sold for $10 most likely they bought for $2 each so their profit margin is $8 for each Manga book, so for the 50 mangas (50 x $8 = $400) their profit margin would be $400, therefore they would earn twice as much money for the mangas as for the sofubi, on the other hand, the cheaper items moves faster out of store stock.
As far as I know, not all the figures in the store are in the online catalog, so many pieces can only be purchased physically in the store. On the other hand, I have a couple of friends who have gone to Japan in the month between April and May and one of the store managers told them that now that Japan has opened the entrance to foreign tourists, these are the ones who are emptying the stores plus online sales.
Part of me wonders whether Mandarake is setting aside the grail stuff for the big auctions. Even online, I haven't seen much that is truly rare and high-end show up over the past few years. For example with TFs, when was the last time you saw a lucky draw or Battle Gaia on Mandarake? Mostly it's just beaters in boxes at high prices. I think it's a combination of online sales and the fact that their margin probably isn't as good on the non-rare stuff. It probably doesn't make sense to clutter up shelves and warehouses with toys when you're only making a little back on each one, and taking the risk that they may sit for months or years. I'd guess that they probably focus now on fast-moving toys (e.g., new collector-oriented figures from established lines) or the really high-end or high-markup toys.
If you’re sitting on something really rare or valuable you probably won’t sell it to mandarake. Since they will pay you a lot less than you would make on yja. Mostly seems like people trying to make quick flips of new items or maybe lower priced stuff that’s easier to just dump at mandarake instead of spending the time to sell it on yja. Though I have seen plenty never sell on yja only to be dropped off at manda and sell quickly at a higher price. Definitely more eyes on mandarake listings.
