Year In Review: Stimulating the Economy
One thing that impacted nearly everybody this past year was the economy and how it has been struggling if not downright pathetic in some areas of the world. As a dutiful American, I might not drive a gas-guzzling SUV from GM but I spend a lot of time making sure that Yen stays strong, probably to the detriment of Japan. Nonetheless it is best that when I have money to spend on imports that I spend it; all those hobby export stores must be taking hits during a time like this. I wonder if the used goods market is thriving thanks to the economic climate, or are they being pushed down also via the aggressive discounting a lot of new goods stores are doing? (I think my sarcasm turned to curious honesty somewhere in this paragraph.)
This year I kind-of-sort-of opened my personal floodgates of figure importation. I also bought more figures than I ever did during a 12-month period. For the longest time I bought figures via US-based stores who would get their stocks from the fledgling oversea operations of Kotobukiya or Alter or whoever else that were branching into North America (well, their distributors more accurately, but w/e). Prices were easily 20% less than imports because we skip one middleman in the process and the shipping is much less (rarely it goes beyond $10). It is as if there was already a built-in discount on top of cheaper shipping (or free if I was there in person to buy it, or from RightStuf, etc).
The economy is definitely bearing down hard on the retail importers who aren’t channeling figures via cheaper routes. End of last year I bought a figure from a domestic retailer (who shall remain nameless for now) and I returned it for a refund, taking advantage of a guarantee return policy (one of the few advantages these kinds of stores have over their oversea competition). Guess what, I never heard a peep from them after getting the OK on the return and mailing it. Just means I will never shop there again as they owe me like, $60.
I’ve tried a few other stores this year. I think my very first Hobby Search order shipped in ‘09. Yes, I am late to the party, but like what the kids say, Hobby Search is pretty pro. Their prices are on the high side, factoring in shipping especially, but I know you can be doing a lot worse elsewhere.
Prior to ‘09 I used mainly Hobby Link Japan for imported figures. I still do, but I think they are slowly becoming a “worse elsewhere option” if you don’t take advantage of their sales. Like CD Japan, they might price higher than the competition but HLJ has coupons and what not, which could make a good deal in some cases along with their slightly-less shipping. If there is a real flaw to HLJ, it is that they don’t include images on their listings early on. I mean, if you ride the figure news cycle, that’s sort of important. It’s not a huge problem, just an inconvenience and barrier to impulse shopping.
As anyone who’ve actively collected this stuff knows, way too often the only way to get anything is to preorder the sucker. And even then preorders “sell out” pretty quickly for popular figures, way before release, and hopeful buyers late to the game have to exploit stock distribution inefficiencies and hunt out shops that wasn’t selling all their stuff on the first round (or auctions). As a lot of HLJ’s coupons do not apply for preorders, they’re much less relevant for the serious figure collector.
This just all goes back to Hobby Search. Despite their somewhat backwards order system that is questionably secure, they still take Visa and MasterCard, so you can’t really be too badly off buying from them. Their service is prompt (and unsurprising Japanese retailers are all really good at customer service) and EMS generally does a good job. That’s more than what I could say for most, and that explains why it is kind of the number one place for western import-happy figure otaku.
Sadly I can’t say the same for AmiAmi yet. When they opened their doors to the English-language web, I had to take a shot and order from them as they are one of the largest Japanese sites for figures. In some ways, AmiAmi itself is one of those shops that could have “popular” figures in stock that other places sold out, because there is a discrepancy (however small) between what western fans like and what Japanese fans like. Also, Amiami do have pretty good prices. They did slightly mess up the very first order I had with them, although it was resolved relatively cleanly. Their Paypal-only option was unfortunate but not insurmountable, as you can see. Certainly there is nothing stopping them from cleaning up their order process and improve everything (along with their more competitive prices). Heck, they actually have Verisign-signed certificates, if you know what that means. I dislike Paypal like anyone, but I trust Paypal with my bank and payment information over random Japanese shops, rationally speaking.
Oh, there’s also newcomer Otacute. They have a much more aggressive English-language presence with affiliation links and whatever, compared to other importers, and they ship from Japan. And I think advertising works, as they say. My personal experience with them is satisfactory, but I would rank them below AmiAmi and Hobby Search in terms of overall satisfaction. Part of the problem is their interface, but also in terms of prices. On the other hand, they do offer a variety of shipping methods. They also take orders for some retailer-limited special edition figures, which is something to take note of.
With all that said, my orders from the domestic stores didn’t stop either. Some figures were still better off purchased months (if not years?) later at a major discount. As with the economic climate there were some sales to take advantage of. I think the only memorable raid I did with a domestic shop was with ToysLogic. I mentioned RightStuf earlier, and it’s a good deal if you combine their already-low, free-shipping prices with their club discount. Too bad they aren’t so good with giving feed back stock/restock info, and what ought to be preordered.
Well, let me take that back–I’ve probably hit maybe one or more retailers that are from the US via eBay. I’ve hit “retailers” from Japan via eBay as well. Love it or hate it, eBay remains a legitimate source for figure buyers, especially the ones that missed their preorder deadlines (orz). You really could find all kinds of stuff there, both legit and misleading, of cheap sales and overpriced, sold-out goods. It’s definitely something reserved for the more well-versed shoppers, or those who don’t mind taking risks. Things like Bing Cash Back really makes it nice for Americans, too! But yeah, buyer beware definitely applies.
With all that comparative shopping going on, ironically, it was a non-retailer that had the greatest impact on me this year in terms of spending. “MyFigureCollection.net” or formerly known as Tsuki-Board, provides a MAL-style figure collection (and expanding into toys, plastic kits, dolls, and toys) interface complete with all the expected web 2.0 trappings. The site is kind of wonky, but it is a wealth of information in an area that really never had a good, centralized source for information. It is also a pretty good resource and a gateway to a lot of different English-language figure vendors. Thanks to it (and its feed) I discovered a lot of kits that I want to get that would have otherwise faded into obscurity/OSS-ness before I even notice them. Of course, my wallet feels otherwise, but as they say, you cannot serve both God and money.
To go back a few more years, the figure market really opened up in the latter half of this decade, and in the past year or two there’s an explosion to sell to western fans. I’m happy about it, but at the same time some of the strains in this fan space are more apparent now. For example, a lot of people still don’t know what recasts are, both the woes and wonders related to it. There is still not a lot of great options for cheap displays (I want something “more” than this…). A lot of the figure blogs are just parrots of the same info, and I get the feeling that there’s a lack of horizontal growth in the fan base proportional to the number of people buying. It is as if those who are really into it live in the same online enclaves as others. Perhaps photography’s close ties with figure blogging, too, tend to discourage collectors who lacks the photography abilities/equipment from talking things up in a way that encourages readership growth? I don’t know.
What I do know is figure is not all that I spent money on this year. There are over nine thousand ways to spend your money even in the small space of anime-related goods. The usual media importing of books, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray aside, there are the con parties, the touristy things, and used goods. None of that is particularly new, but shopping in Japan is pretty cool, I have to say. It’s one thing to buy new stuff there, but it’s another to shop used with the selection these places have. It is incredible if you know where to look. I don’t, really!
The other notable, non-figure thing I did this year that was different than previous was to use proxies. That True Tears BD box, for example, has hit its 2000 preorder quota long ago, or so it seems. To do that, I had to actually not just find any proxy (as many of them focus on Yahoo Japan Auction, a certified black hole of money all by itself) but a proxy that is willing to jump the hoop to do this preorder-possible-cancel thing. In this case, Celga was my weapon of choice. That said, I’ve never actually done business with them despite hearing about them years ago, so we’ll see how the entire process turns out in a couple months.
If you’ve done Yahoo Japan Auction, you would know they tend to be fairly low risk than eBay over here. Unfortunately it’s much more of a pain in the rear to buy from Yahoo Japan Auctions due to the nature of payment, let alone that just about nobody ships overseas. It makes proxies that are good at auctions a necessity, and fellow importer WAH showed me the hoops via Crescent Shop to see how it works. And it works pretty well I must say. At least when it comes to “normal” transactions. If there were any downsides to Crescent Shop, it was the horrible exchange rate and there was a little bit of a learning curve.
Most proxies as far as I know will take their cut in two ways. First, most of them will use their own exchange rates to bill you, which are some of the worse you will see. I mean, if banks shortchange you 2-3% from the market rate, then expect about 5+% for these third party proxies. For a 3000 yen item that is no big deal, but it is for a 30000 yen item. Second, they will all charge some kind of fee. For auctions, it’s usually some kind of % of the auction price. And it seems most proxies compete with each other on the price point, so expect anywhere from 5% to 20% on this, as the rates will vary on how much you are buying. Again, for a 30000 yen item, 10% is a lot (you’ll see why)! And some places charge over 20%! Thankfully they don’t take any fees beyond that–which is already including any transaction fees, domestic shipping from original seller to proxy, and of course international shipping (well, I imagine most don’t take a cut from this…they’ve got enough). At least, any fees that stings. And of course, the fees is always compounded by the crappy exchange rate. For non-auctions, most proxies operate also on a fee schedule, often priced similarly as auction items, using a crap exchange rate on top of a fee schedule. Well, this varies a lot from shop to shop. Same as with customer service, as the commission fees and quality of service being the only two distinctions for proxies.
I would be preaching to the choir if you’re rabid importer. You might not know, however, that buying scalped tickets is another layer of pain and suffering on top of that. I think we used ticket.co.jp through a proxy and uh, yeah, maybe not again. Maybe others can bestow upon us more magical powers on the ways to acquire cheaper tickets (or at least ones with better seating), I can only hope.
Hopefully those of you curious importers might be spared of the same mistakes I made this year. It might be towards the end of the holiday shopping season, but nonetheless godspeed, ladies and gentlemen.
Year in Review 2009:
- Introduction
- Otagei
- Streaming
- Figure Imports
- Retrospective
- #MALKeionbu
- N^2 List
the true tears post from back then was for the non-paid preorders, more of a serious interest check/non-binding promise. they haven’t announced whether or not they’ve hit the mark, but they extended the cutoff date from the 16th to the 21st, so I imagine things are looking good.
Oooh, thank you for the update.
I’ve always been under the impression that a lot of people who buy stuff from YahooJapan auctions like to use http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com/ or somesuch. Supposedly they store your stuff so that you can have it sent all at once to save on shipping costs. Note that I haven’t used this service though so I’m only going on secondhand info.
All the proxies I researched into will bundle your goods for shipping at your request. I think in Celga’s case, they even have warehouse in the US so they could save money on their own internal shipping for the US customers they have.
There are a lot of different Yahoo Japan proxies.
I swapped from HLJ to HobbySearch a couple of years ago because I was getting annoyed with how long it was taking HLJ to list figures I wanted (often weeks back then, now it’s just a couple of days I think) and they would sell out their preorder allocation for stuff within a few hours so I often missed out on things I wanted. Also it was insanely frustrating to have them shipping stuff one or two at a time. HobbySearch’s recombination system is a great feature, being able to get them to bundle all your stuff together so you generally only have one larger package per month really offsets the higher price of EMS shipping. And they have a rewards program - in three years purchasing from HLJ I never even received a coupon code from them, let alone access to a reward system like HobbySearch’s (which incidentally will result in me getting [url=http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10092698]Alter’s Exceed Mode Nanoha[/url] for free this month :P)
MyFigureList is a fairly nice site. I don’t really update my profile enough though. And I think I have the same problem as you regarding display cabinets. I’m starting to wonder if the only option is to have some custom-made.
As far as proxy buying goes, I haven’t really gone down the route of rare / limited releases yet. Just a few LE Nendoroids. I’ve used Tokyo Hunter’s proxy service a few times.
YahuOku is most useful if you have a premium account (or know ppl who do), know basic written Japanese, have a shipping address and a means of paying in Japan. And of course, have tons of patience and resolve in the bidding wars lol.
I guess you can balance the hassle involved in this method against the crazy fees + shipping that comes from using proxies. The process can be tedious but it’s the best (and sometimes only) way to get your hands on the good stuff - especially those tickets.
Hm, I wrote a comment here last week and it hasn’t turned up. Wordpress thinks I’m a spammer? :V
I dug it out. Maybe wordpress think your comments are lousy :p
Anyways, I did the math with Hobby Search’s reward system. The point system is not particularly competitive, although it is good that you can use it on most orders and obviously it rewards loyalty. The shipping combining thing is pretty much worthless as well because I just don’t buy that much, and I’m not even sure what you mean. HLJ does exactly the same thing if you ask them to (actually, for me they defaulted to this behavior of 1 shipment per month). And I am sure many other shops would too…
But yes, some discounts I mentioned above are specific to Americans. For example I just had a HLJ package of 4 figures shipped to me last week for free via Paypal’s promotion. The only stipulation was that I buy some clearance item that was pretty cheap. But I didn’t really factor that in to my post.
Well HLJ’s system might have changed, but I used to set them to group orders together. They never really did it. If stuff came out in the same week or within a week of each other there was a chance they’d stick it together, provided that they hadn’t already packed the stuff. One week I had four packages arrive within a day or two of each other, including two on the one day. It worked out that I ended up paying about the same for SAL shipping on average than I would for EMS on one big package. Of course that’s shipping to Australia, which should be cheaper than shipping from Japan to the US.
I hadn’t realized HLJ only gave most of their discounts to Americans, though that’s not surprising.
The shipping difference may be at work. The typical Hobby Search package is 2500-4000 yen in shipping this past year, for a single figure that’s decently sized (eg., World Is Mine was 3600). How bad is it for you?
Had to dig back into my records to find a more normal package. 3200 yen shipping for Alter’s Subaru Nakajima plus a Nendoroid together. Anything since then has been larger shipments. 5400 for a 1/8 figure plus four Nendoroids, 6800 for Sonic Form Fate plus two Nendos…
Hmm. yeah, so considering my orders from HLJ this year, I probably saved somewhere around 20% just from one of their promotion alone. Granted that’s probably 20% on their slightly inflated cost and their shipping (about the same as anyone else using EMS), but yeah. Value.
We wouldn’t have had to use Ticket.co.jp had you called me earlier!
Then again, we probably would have gotten even worse seats if we got tickets the cheaper way.
We meaning you, yeah. It’s more like crescent shop fail, let’s just leave it at that.