Okay, I am new to this, so please forgive my outright ignorance of things. I have collected monster figures for years, but mostly the gashapon kind, which are pretty easy to find if you have patience and know where to look. For years, yahooJapan and ebay were all I needed. But now that I am looking for the bigger, much more rare figures, I need help. I discovered Mandarake through a member of this board - very recently - and that was a huge help. But I am hoping there are other places I should be aware of too. Are there other good sources for Japanese toys, particularly ones that are out of print and difficult to find? I am terribly eager to find many of the King Negoras by Max Toy that I am missing, and even more eager to find Marmit's mini cryptid sets and Mothman figures. Also a few of ArtStorm's Phantom Beast figures (only need three now thanks to help from a member here!) Unfortunately, when I first was directed to Mandarake, I did not realize how quickly things sell out there. There were quite a few King Negoras on the site when I first arrived just a few weeks ago, and I was excited and thought that must be the norm for them so felt no pressure to buy immediately. Later that same day, having decided which to go for first, every single one was gone! Talk about missed opportunity and regret! Are there any other online shops I should be checking out? Is Rakuten at all helpful? Surely, I keep thinking, there must be some Marmit cryptids and King Negoras sitting in a Japanese used toys store waiting to be re-sold. Surely, some of these places must be online. I just need to find them, but I am not doing so well on my own. And, I'm generally an expert searcher. Are there any places you can go where you can find someone in Japan to help you search? Mandarake invites you to submit toy requests, but I have found all they do is tell you whether it is in the store or not, which I can figure out on my own. I have tried a few other places online that advertise a toy search in Japan, but they do the same pretty much - tell you what they have and don't have, but don't go beyond it. I want to be careful in this area and not fall into the hands of someone who will try to sell me toys I am unfamiliar with at ten times the normal price. But at the same time, there are a few things I would be willing to pay extra for if someone could find it. And one last question, about Mandarake. When you search with the feature that allows you to see sold items, does anyone know how far those sold items go back? If I knew that, I could gauge how often those items come up again and how likely it is that they will appear again. If it goes back only a few months, for instance, then I know those items will surely return soon. But if those sold items go back years, then it is far less likely to show up again soon. Anyway, thanks for any and all help. Also would not mind finding other boards that might have trading forums too. My focus is monster toys, particularly monsters from folklore and myth. Cindy
I'm by no means an expert, but in my limited experience I've found that patience, kindness and decisiveness will be your biggest assets. Older/rarer toys will always have to be hunted for, but that's half the fun in my opinion. Try and do a good turn whenever you can, scour your regular sites as often as possible and keep focused. I know many people on this board have fostered good relationships with each other and always seem keen to help each other out. I, myself, have found some toys that I never even thought I'd see in the flesh just through regular checking and being ready to put down the money as soon as a major want rears its head. This is all unless there is some grail warehouse like the one from Indiana Jones whereby SB Illuminati are granted access in order to acquire their most wanted toys. I wouldn't know... All the best on your search!
Thank you. I enjoy the hunt too, to an extent. I need to be a more informed hunter, though. Mandarake, for instance - when I first went there, I was astounded by all they had and I could not believe I had not come across it on my own. I am just wondering if there are other places like that out there that I have no clue about, but really should.
Cindy! I'm sorry that I've been remiss about responding to your email regarding this topic. A couple more things about Mandarake that you might not know: Those 'Sold Out' items go back forever as far as I can tell. It's a huge tease, but at least it acts as a de facto catalog of releases, and of Mandarake's periodically painful pricing practices. Unfortunately this isn't usually possible because they are well known for not keeping the online and in-store stock synched up to each other. I first heard that from Ultrakaiju in another thread, but now I've got first-hand experience; I bought an item from Mandarake through a contact (I got a deal this way), and have been checking the item page to see when they slap 'SOLD OUT' on it. They still haven't, but my contact says that he is shipping it to me soon. (Unless I'm being conned, of course.) My "contact" is Masato-san who runs a shopping service for non-Japanese. I'd suggest that you search for his name or "M-World" on here to get an idea of his reputation, as he is known for adding in high middleman fees. In fact at first I was put off by his prices and brusque-ness (I don't think his English is too great). He will search for items from among his contacts (including Mandarake) if you ask him. I told him what I was looking for and all that he could find was a version that Mandarake had up for a long time priced at $600~. At first I was pissed that all he did was show me a link to a shop that I could buy from directly, so I declined by telling him that I only had about half of that asking price budgeted. He then told me that these items are very expensive on the resale market, and I would need to save more if I really wanted them. You might imagine how that pissed me off, but I shrugged it off and just figured that I wouldn't buy from Masato. A day later he emails telling me that he talked to Mandarake on my behalf and talked them down to almost what I had budgeted, without me asking him to do so. I don't know if he is doing this for me just as a first-time customer or what, but it does make me think that I prejudged him (plus complications from not speaking each others' languages fluently). That said, my usual buying/bidding service to use is TokyoBuyers. They are easy to use and pleasant folks.
In my experience there aren't a huge amount of Japanese toy shops online who will sell direct to foreigners. Most are Japanese language only. Personally i've never used a middle-man service so i dont know anything about that. There are some shops who will sell to foreigners if you email them directly and ask politely . . . (i've done this with the help of google-translate with mixed results). Some do and some dont. Just email them and wait and see. Chances are, if they accept Paypal as payment they might reply. As far as i know there is no way of knowing exactly when something sold out on Mandarake. Your best bet is to make a wants list here on SB and update it occasionally. You might be surprised what you will be offered out of the blue! Also, check the sales thread here every day. Other than that, its all about patience. You have to be very methodical and persistent with your searches. You really never know when a figure you want will pop-up! Patience is the key. A lot of people here, including myself, have waited years to find particular wants.
I would try emailing Mark N and see if he has any suggestions. He's cool and I'm sure he'd like to hear from a fan at the very least. http://www.maxtoyco.com/about.htm Otherwise my guess would be the usual suspects, eBay, Yahoo Japan Auctions, buy/sell sections of toy sites.
Looks like some of the "sold out" listings on M go back at least 2/3 years... probably much longer To echo fauxbot and Moog: Patience, Patience, Patience Slightly off topic, but I must add that a little restraint when buying some of the more heavily produced toys will save you a lot of money in the long run. This comes from someone who has bought a handful of such only to find them pop up again for sale at a lesser price a month or 2 down the road. You're looking in the right places Cindy, I'd just try and hunker down for the "long haul" especially in regards to the more rare items in your wants... what's the rush?
You're right, there's no huge rush. But when I found Mandarake (thanks to someone here), I did wish I had known about it far sooner. It made me think there might be other such places that I should know about. There are many things I have waited years for, and some gashapon sets that I am STILL looking for pieces from. But I must admit there are a few things I want much more quickly simply because I love them so much, like those marmit minis, for instance. Thanks so much for all the help
One-Up Japan also gets Negora. Sometimes exclusive just for them. They sell international. Also your best bet is also to become a club member to Max Toy Company USA. Mark sometimes offer some of the Japan exclusives to its members. Fewmany Japan also receives Negora since they sponsor Konatsu. They sell international also.
...many thanks for the link to 'Tokyo Buyers'. I know about 'M-World', but did not know about them. AND Cindy. One tip i would give, get Instagram, and follow all the makers and shops you can.
weird thing keeps happening to me. When I hesitate on buying a yamomark mini on Mandrake it appears on the Visiouslyfun site. Perhaps if you wait long enough all these toys will end up there.
