Hobby Search

[cteno4]

hmmm not cool in my book, although they do have a bit more cost in shipping agent and answering english emails, etc perhaps along with maybe a higher paypal cost than japanese payment methods, but paypal is pretty cheap for these transactions. the customer is stuck with about a 3% international fee thats built into the paypal exchange rate if you use their exchange process.

 

luckily little ordering for me these days. I was a big HW user, but they have not been listing as many things that i want on pre order or stocking... always try them first for preorders as they have 26% off a lot of the time!

 

how have you liked banzaihobby.com? seen them but never used them. look like they are keeping the 20% off and have sal shipping...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[westfalen]

The HW Japanese site shows higher prices than the English site both before and after the 20% discount, I presume the Japanese prices include local sales tax.

http://hobbyworld.aoshima-bk.co.jp/scripts/hw/kengt.aspx?sc=28 (Japanese)

http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/kengte.aspx?mk=&sc=28 (English)

 

I notice the full price quoted on the HS Japanese site is higher than that on the English site but we end up paying more because of the lesser discount. Sounds a bit dodgy to me, might be just compensating for expenses on overseas orders but why not just say so or add a 5% handling fee to the shopping cart, HS are usually pretty up front about other things.

 

Do Banzai have any trains other than Kato or am I missing something on the website, clicking on Greenmax or Tomix brings up 'page under contruction'. Looking at the steam locomotives as an example they list long out of production engines like the C50 and C58 with no indication of whether they have them in stock or not, but the new D51 is not listed.

[Guest ___]

westfalen brings up a point. IS HS giving a little more of a domestic discount becasue their customers have to pay local sales tax, and that maybe this is to make buying from them a little more for to their local base?

[The_Ghan]

Westfalen,

 

Banzai only offers Kato atm.  Pity, as I use Tomix track and platforms.

 

Shashinka and Westfalen,

 

The idea of a better discount to Japan because of a sales tax (which I believe is 5-6%) is a moot point as the retailer is collecting the tax on behalf of the government.  The wholesale price is the same, the handling fee is the same, only the actual shipping cost varies.  The tax gets passed on.  If HS is willing to make x% profit on the locals why are they making more out of us?  Other retailers are not doing this.  I think HS has the best website and therefore a large international customer base.  They are simply profit gouging.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Guest ___]

Has anyone actually thoguht to send an email and just ask?

[clem24]

Hahaha and we can't even order off the Japanese page (yes I just tried and it says my ID is not valid for "Japanese site").

 

I dunno if I'd call this price gouging. Something like Newhall Station, now THAT'S gouging. But this? It's no different than an eBayer charging handling fees for international orders. I'd say, if you don't like it, shop elsewhere. There are so many choices nowadays. They probably have to stay more competitive in the Japanese marketplace to survive. I mean, 20% off pre-orders is already pretty good if you ask me since as early as what, last year, they were only offering 5%.

[cteno4]

Yeah i would agree a few percent discrepancy is not at all horrible for the offshore orders and definitely not gouging. gouging to me is like newhall where they mark stuff up 200-300% over retail and hope folks are not aware of the real prices.

 

i can see a few percent extra as they get nailed with a shipping agent charges for the offshore stuff most likely and have to keep a english speaking staff on all the time. cc overhead is probably higher.

 

we are probably a small fraction of their total business so i am quite happy they are willing to do offshore sales at very reasonable prices and give almost japanese street prices. maintaining the english web site alone is a lot of work and expense.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[disturbman]

we are probably a small fraction of their total business so i am quite happy they are willing to do offshore sales at very reasonable prices and give almost japanese street prices.

 

No no, they gave better price than japanese street.

[westfalen]

I agree, they are still far cheaper than buying Japanese in Australia, not to mention the fact that they stock items hobby shops here would have never heard of, or be able to get if they did. Their service when you have a problem or question is probably worth a few yen as well, not to mention the ease of ordering and navigating their website, some U.S. and British dealers would do well to take a look at them. The recent problems they had where they admitted they were the victims of CC fraud indicates to me they are usually honest about things and not trying to deliberately rip us off.

 

I just sent them my reservation for the next months order of magazines.

[cteno4]

we are probably a small fraction of their total business so i am quite happy they are willing to do offshore sales at very reasonable prices and give almost japanese street prices.

 

No no, they gave better price than japanese street.

 

sorry mis spoke there meant almost japanese discount price...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

funny you say that because i don't beleive it's really 20% off or 15% etc etc.

 

I always bounce between sites to find the best price and shipping before I buy.

[The_Ghan]

And a further problem with HS.  They have reduced the % on bonus points, from 5% to 3%.  This makes it harder for us to earn a freebie.  That is effectively a 7% price increase since Christmas.  A bit of a rough deal considering the GFC.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[bill937ca]

HS has been more liberal in issuing points than other dealers like HWJ.  With HWJ if its on sale you get zero points.  The rate at HS has always varied.

[cteno4]

And a further problem with HS.  They have reduced the % on bonus points, from 5% to 3%.  This makes it harder for us to earn a freebie.  That is effectively a 7% price increase since Christmas.  A bit of a rough deal considering the GFC.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

bummer i missed that!

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

I know I keep pedalling this cart but, a few more things I've noticed in the last week:

 

1. They've taken down the % discount from the item description.  You now need to do the math in your head to work out wnat % your discount is;

 

2. 20% discount seems to be back .... just do the math on this:  http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10044246

 

3. Something funny still going on with the pricing because the locals still get a 5% better buy price .... just look at this:  http://www.1999.co.jp/10044246 ... I know we're only talking about $3-$4 now, which is trivial compared to how things were a week or two ago.

 

Finally, normality has returned to HS and our buy breaks are back at 20% for many things.  However, compare these: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10040330 and http://www.1999.co.jp/10040330 .... considering I need about 30 of them for the stations on my layout I'm going to be paying around $60 more plus shipping.

[westfalen]

The Yen all add up. I wonder if they think we won't be bothered looking at their Japanese site?

 

If they have to charge a bit extra to break even it might be the price we have to pay to stop them going the way of Hobby World.

[keitaro]

to be hohnest for them to hire english staff in addition to their japanese staff this would say to me there would be a surcharge.

 

Still for the quality of the items and the cheap price compared to other countries it's still great value

[The_Ghan]

Do you need English staff?  In the days of Google Translate and automated label printing software, who need English staff?

[bill937ca]

I think with HS adjusting their prices and points policy, and HWJ closing their online shop we are beginning to see a shakeout in Japanese online hobby retailers probably caused in part by the very strong Yen and increased competition when AmiAmi opened their English language shop opened in early 2010. These dealers are not just train items and while AmiAmi does not carry train items, it is the largest internet figure shop in Japan.

 

In the short term this means better prices and terms for customers, but in the longer term it means achieving business targets is more challenging and hard decisions are made which often ultimately mean less choice and more restrictive terms for customers.

[Darklighter]

2. 20% discount seems to be back .... just do the math on this:  http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10044246

They are offering 20% discount because it's a pre-order item.

[cteno4]

im not sure i would want to run a biz with google translate, could really get you some wild errors...

 

Japanese business tend to not like to do any translation unless they feel its really good. I could also see some not so tolerant folks off shore getting pissed with something that would come out of google translate.

 

sounds like HW is shutting down due to the loss of the manager of the offshore biz and having a hard time to replace them, not poor business, but who knows.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[westfalen]

Just maintaining a separate English website even if the bulk of translation is done by computer must take up someones time who could be doing something else.

[bill937ca]

sounds like HW is shutting down due to the loss of the manager of the offshore biz and having a hard time to replace them, not poor business, but who knows.

 

It would not be the first time that a decision on shutting down a business in Japan was deferred because of the worker's seniority.  Leroy Demery has noted that Japan's tradition of lifetime employment tends to delay railway and tramway closures, but the retirement of a large number of tramway motormen in the past has cleared the way for a closure petition.  If employees leave or retire the business may be up for review in a manner not often seen outside Japan.

[keitaro]

i know what you mean my wife dad retires this year and he is a senior architecht been in the same company 34 years.

 

they are begging him to stay on part time for another year because they don't want to review the approach the business takes. and because most clients request from from her dad.

 

However he doesn't want to retire but it is the business expectaction that all employees have to retire from full-time work, where as he has to retire but can work part-time in his particular case.

 

I wonder how that will work for however takes over must be alot of pressure.

 

while i don't know aiko personally i'm sure it's more they couldn't find an english speaking employee who fits the criteria needed. i'm hoping it could be only a month or 2 and they can find a replacement and re-open.

 

aiko replied to me and said she is quitting suddenly so i guess that means it was unplanned? hence no time to find replacement?

[bill937ca]

aiko replied to me and said she is quitting suddenly so i guess that means it was unplanned? hence no time to find replacement?

 

Could she be going back to school? The Japanese school year is April to mid-March.

 

I've also wondered if the closure might be short term.