jrcrunch Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 what is a good place to buy japanese trains like kato models in the US? or is import the only option? how come i don't see much japanese models on kato usa website? only some tram models Link to comment
NB1231 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 what is a good place to buy japanese trains like kato models in the US? or is import the only option? how come i don't see much japanese models on kato usa website? only some tram models Importing is mostly the only option. Modeltrainstuff.com usually carries some Japanese stuff but very few. Sites like buyee, hobbysearch, modeltrainplus, loco1hobby are all good places to get Japanese trains and have them imported and they all have good prices. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk Link to comment
katoftw Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Even if you find someone that does sell Japanese trains, (Kleins whomever they are gets mentioned alot on this forum), the price from a seller in the USA will be massively higher than buying directly from Japan. We have the same issue in Australia, Japanese trains cost 50% more from Oz sellers as opposed to JP sellers. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 actually its not massively higher in many cases. at times it can be w/in 10% at kleins for some items and cheaper with shipping on heavy stuff. kleins also has imported quite a few japanese trains over the years thru katousa and prices were pretty close to japanese prices many times and lower when they ran a sale on them! kleins is at times close enough that i will support them by buying thru them when i can to support them bringing stuff over. the thing that is a lot higher in the us is tomytec/tomix as its all being imported now by walthers directly from tomytec and they are jacking the wholesale prices way way up and even with a steep kleins discount its still quite a bit more than japanese street price. unfortunately greenmax stuff is no longer being imported into the us by any us importer/distributor (the old one retired a few years back). No one brings over microace. Best option really is buying directly from japan suppliers. price is good, and shipping on par for cost with us priority mail shipping these days and takes around 2 weeks. cheers jeff Link to comment
toc36 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Try modelcars.com Right now, the have about 6 Kato and 30+ Tomix boxed sets. Link to comment
HantuBlauLOL Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Go to a local hobby shop, laugh at the price, go online. -someone Seriously, LHS price went full retard now. I used to buy from one (now closed) around 10-5 years ago, and the price is still normal, around 5-20% increased price. Now it could reach 50-100% increase in price. Link to comment
velotrain Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 ==>> I tried posting this at 4 PM, but had an error. Trying again now at Moderator suggestion. 1) Try MB Klein AKA Model Train Stuff, but they likely only have the Portram - and perhaps a few others. Or - try entering the Kato model # as a search term. However, generally you'll get better prices ordering from Japan. 2) Because Kato USA generally handles only their American proto models. The Japanese proto models are handled out of Japan. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Kleins about every two years has been ordering a dozen or so japanese trains (usually few shinkansens and some express trains) from kato japan thru katousa. kleins price usually ended up around or just under japanese list. then usually after a year or 18 months they would put the remainder (seemed they usually would by 12 of each model) up on sale and the sale price could be 10% or more below the best japanese street price! if they hold to this im guessing in the next 6 months they may do it again, we shall see. Kleins is also a katousa distributor so they have lots of kato stuff in stock like unitrak and kato structures. always worth taking a look at quickly. one time they had the big kato highrise structures cheaper than japanese street prices and shipping was a lot less. they had an aoshima sale and had the parking lot structures very cheap for a while and again much cheaper shipping. they stocked greenmax at good prices until mokei imports closed... cheers jeff Link to comment
toc36 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I've recently got back into the hobby and have made a lot of recent purchases (far too many). Kleins' price for track and other stock items seems to be very competitive with what's available from Japan and what's listed on Ebay. I recommend you go to Ebay and Amazon. You will will quickly figure out which "stores" have the best price for a particular item. I've seen a wide range of prices for identical items. I've seen one store ask $9 and another ask for $90. Don't know if it was due to error. This was for one pack of Tomix Wide Tram Track. Basically, you will get a feel for the price range. Also, don't forget to factor in postage and time. Again, I've had good luck with modelcars.com. Ask for Ian if you have any questions about the Kato and Tomix train sets. Link to comment
jrcrunch Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 how come kato USA doesnt sell much shinkansens? Will they have warranty for stuffs you bought from japan in case something happens? Link to comment
katoftw Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) how come kato USA doesnt sell much shinkansens? Will they have warranty for stuffs you bought from japan in case something happens? Kato USA sell USA trains. Their core business and what 99% of USA buyer want. No they will not warrant stuff brought outside their company. Edited July 23, 2015 by katoftw Link to comment
jrcrunch Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 so only 1% in the US wants japan trains? hahaha Link to comment
velotrain Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 so only 1% in the US wants japan trains? hahaha Sounds about right to me. Do you have some evidence otherwise? Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 This has been a sticking point with katousa as they have not wanted to support kato Japan trains that have been brought over from kato japan by katousa for some dealers They will usually order spare parts from kato Japan for you if available, but it's not a fast service. This has been one of the reasons that there is not more distribution of kato Japan trains by katousa and usually only happens when some one like kliens asks to import some. Katousa sticks to the usa trains because it's their market and what they produce. Basically kato Japan does not support warentees outside japan. If you buy from a Japanese dealer that does exports some will help you deal with kato Japan in getting repairs or replacements, but usually you may need to pay for the shipping charges. This is one issue with playing with foreign toys like this, but luckily issues are pretty rare for the most part! It's jsut part of the hobby. Jeff 1 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 so only 1% in the US wants japan trains? hahaha yep from what I've seen from 11'years of doing Japanese layouts and trains at us train shows and events. While there is curiosity and interest in the different looking Japanese trains that does not equate into many actually buying them. Our large local Ntrak club I think with over a hundred Modelers only has a coule of members with a few shinkansens for fun, and n trak club members tend to be a bit more serious Modelers that spend more money than the average modeler. Kleins seems to only sell like 100 Japanese trains every couple of years and I'm sure they sell tens of thousands of us trains in that time, they are one of the big us shops. Jeff Link to comment
westfalen Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Whatever you do, steer clear of Newhall Station. Compare the prices of the Kato DD51. http://www.newhallstation.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/26_42/products_id/426 http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10046468 I've used Hobby Search as an example of a Japanese dealer because they show US$ but Loco1Hobby is often cheaper still. Link to comment
NB1231 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Whatever you do, steer clear of Newhall Station. Compare the prices of the Kato DD51. http://www.newhallstation.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/26_42/products_id/426 http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10046468 I've used Hobby Search as an example of a Japanese dealer because they show US$ but Loco1Hobby is often cheaper still. That place is ridiculous in pricing. I don't know why anyone would buy from them.. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk Link to comment
Martijn Meerts Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 I bought my Doraemon train from Newhall... And it was cheaper than anywhere else at the time (if you could even find one ...) Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Newhart is the exception out there. His idea is to buy at Japanese street price from a couple of shops he deals with in japan and then trans snip them thru him and markup the street price 2-3x. The shops he deals with sem to have some rarer stuff, but still much higher than yahoo auctions when I've checked. His idea is that the high prices make the items seem like they are high quality and hard to get and no dealing with ordering from japan. He does a great site and beautiful pictures, but it's all tailored to prey on those who don't realize they can get much better prices or have th money to just hit the buy button with the platinum card! Jeff Link to comment
velotrain Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 > The shops he deals with sem to have some rarer stuff Either that - Or, the older items stay in his stock when they're gone in Japan just because his prices are so high! If shops in Japan still have rare stuff, they'd jack up the prices themselves vs. sending it to him. I've also noticed that he'll show up on searches for older items, but always thought that was just because he'd had them for a long time - since they were new. Link to comment
kvp Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 The idea is to buy every new set that seems unlikely to be rereleased, add an arbitary price increase and then wait. If someone buys a set at the higher price, then it's simple profit. If you wait long enough and the set gets rare, then there will be people who don't want to hunt for a low priced leftover set on a japanese shelf, but have the money to buy it at almost any price. These people will pay the higher price. While this is not nice for not so rich people, the business strategy is clear. There can be three problems though. First the set might get rereleased and so everyone can buy it at the normal price or the item proves to be unpopular so it remains available at other retailers and third the set might be so unpopular that nobody can get rid of it even with a hugely discounted price. If there are two high priced sales for every stuck item, then by selling at 3x price, the business is profitable, although the unsold stock could increase, but without the originally invested money standing in it. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Theirs is a calculated business model as a premium service and selection at premium prices. He talked to us when he started out. It a lot of if its high priced it must be hard to get and high quality. It is the easiest way for folks in the us to get some of the older hard to get items simply, with no auctions, buying services, etc in Japan, but at a very high cost. I'm fine with it if the customer is aware what they are paying for and realizes there are some other options out there that may be easy. The thing I hate about it is newhall comes up top many time in searches on Japanese model trains and the prices can seriously turn off a newbie! We have had a few folks at shows commenting that they saw Japanese trains we were running are so expensive! I ask them if it was newhall and always yep! Jeff Link to comment
enodenlover Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 I just browsed through the Newhall website for the first ( and last ) time. His prices caused my ol' ticker to stop momentarily. Forty three dollars for a Kato six story office building that I just ordered from Plaza Japan for fifteen bucks! I can't think of anything that I want so badly that I'd allow myself to be ripped off like that. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Luckily you did not fall victim to the ploy! I fear for how many newbies that see them first to think Japanese trains are so expensive! It is a nice site if you want to grab some nice Picts of models! Jeff Link to comment
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