Hobby Search

[cteno4]

wow, i just noticed that you now can get a Release list (by date or manufacutrer), a manufacturer list, and a series list by using the pull down icon at the top of the model train section nav next to the model train Genre title! how long has that been there and i just over looked it?! very nice addition.

 

 

Its been there a very long time....... long enough to grow a beard to your. toes!!   

 

Ha just missed that little pulldown icon! oh well nice to know now!

 

btw my toes already have beards...

 

jeff

[scott]

btw my toes already have beards...

 

world's tallest hobbit

[cteno4]

btw my toes already have beards...

 

world's tallest hobbit

 

well with size 14 feet some folks think im a hobbit when looking at them, but like you say the height sort of ruins the illusion...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[linkey]

Have you noticed many items now have a "limited to xxx number of items per household" tag on them?

 

Yes I noticed that too when I was trying to order more than one EF510-0, but we are limited to get one only.

[westfalen]

Have you noticed many items now have a "limited to xxx number of items per household" tag on them?

 

Yes I noticed that too when I was trying to order more than one EF510-0, but we are limited to get one only.

I've noticed some items have the limit removed or revised upwards after a while as they see how sales are going.

[keitaro]

on a side note the d51-498 went up the other day as restock. Since i want 2 steam loco's i figured i'd get the d51 but as soon as i got the email it was out of stock..... i think they must've got like 1 in lol

 

so i'm left with no choice but to get a realline model 

 

great excuse yeah?  :laugh:

[linkey]

on a side note the d51-498 went up the other day as restock. Since i want 2 steam loco's i figured i'd get the d51 but as soon as i got the email it was out of stock..... i think they must've got like 1 in lol

 

so i'm left with no choice but to get a realline model 

 

great excuse yeah?  :laugh:

I'm on the waiting list and never got an e-mail to tell me it came out, only saw it on the HS website as being a restock and when I clicked on it. It said it was sold out! It sold that quickly that now have to wait and see if they will get anymore from KATO.

[keitaro]

lol it really was that quick.

 

I was at work and I went to hs and checked no updates.

 

5 minutes later I got the email went on and it was sold out was in stock for like max 1 minute I think.

 

doesn't bother me i suppose i will support the smaller company. been thinking of 3 different models from realline for quite some time now.

[marknewton]

Micro ace have some interesting steamers too.

 

example http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10100669   Funky 

 

I bet that's what the blokes who had to maintain these engines said, often.

 

Oh, sorry, I misread that, you wrote funky  :grin

 

Cheers,

 

mark.

[The_Ghan]

Hi Folks,

 

Just want your thoughts on HS shipping charges.  See my order below:

 

[tt]> [Your Order.]

> MICRO ACE Micro Ace Times 2006 12 (Micro Ace)

> Item price :30 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 30 yen

>

> Micro Ace(Arii) 128725 MICRO ACE Catalog Vol.3 (Micro Ace) A4

> Item price :2,400 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 2,400 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-01 RM MODELS 2011 No.185 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-04 RM MODELS 2011 No.188 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-08 RM MODELS 2011 No.192 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> HobbySearch Shipping Cost [EMS] 6,100 yen

> Total Cost 11,674 yen

[/tt]

 

Note that the shipping cost is Y6,100 - for four magazines and a flier.  That's around AUD$75 or US$80.  Does that seem reasonable?  The last time I paid over Y6,000 for shipping with HS was Y6,800 for Y39,000 worth of trains - in 5 separate covers.  The shipping and handling charges seem extreme. 

 

Also, I was wondering, I had so many points saved up that I got my whole Kato 10-453/454 Shinkansen 0 Series 16 cars for free - I only had to pay Y4,500 shipping.  Is HS trying to recoup money by jacking up my shipping costs?

 

I'm reluctant to pay ATM when shipping makes up over half the cost of the order.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Fenway Park]

The items are quite heavy except the Micro Ace Times. When a friend in Tokyo used to ship RM Models to me it was £20 a copy including postage some years ago.

[Martijn Meerts]

Shipping of magazines/books from HS (and Japan in general I guess) has always been expensive. I believe there's multiple threads about it on the forum from people who found that out the hard way as well...

[Kabutoni]

Try lifting a box filled with glossy magazines and a box filled with a few standard boxes of trains. Yeah, that's the difference. Glossy paper (even more then regular paper) has a very high density rate and is thus very heavy in comparison with the Styrofoam and thin plastic that consists model train orders. But still, kind of crazy to see the cheaper items being relatively more expensive to transport then expensive items. Maybe one could think of it as some sort of compensation for the total price... That's why I always ask friends coming from Japan to bring along a railway magazine.

[David]

I actually found the same thing, shipping has gone up a lot at HS. I was going to order the new Kato 209-500 set but the shipping was $40 for a single 8-car set in case, which normally should be $22-$25. I had some other things in my cart which I tried removing but the shipping stayed exactly the same - that leads me to believe HS has adopted a less incremental approach to shipping. Instead it seems they are using a few one size fits all shipping categories.

[john_ibw]

I need to check to be sure, but, I think you are right. And I had my doubts too with my last few orders.

 

Also, yes, magazines are heavy. I have been packing and was least expecting for the cartons carrying my books to be so heavy. I have had to downgrade from air to sea fright thanks to the weight.

[bill937ca]

Hi Folks,

 

Just want your thoughts on HS shipping charges.  See my order below:

 

[tt]> [Your Order.]

> MICRO ACE Micro Ace Times 2006 12 (Micro Ace)

> Item price :30 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 30 yen

>

> Micro Ace(Arii) 128725 MICRO ACE Catalog Vol.3 (Micro Ace) A4

> Item price :2,400 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 2,400 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-01 RM MODELS 2011 No.185 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-04 RM MODELS 2011 No.188 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> Neko Publishing 11407-08 RM MODELS 2011 No.192 (Hobby Magazine) A4 Wide RM MODELS

> Item price :1,048 yen x Q.T.Y :1 = 1,048 yen

>

> HobbySearch Shipping Cost [EMS] 6,100 yen

> Total Cost 11,674 yen

[/tt]

 

Note that the shipping cost is Y6,100 - for four magazines and a flier.  That's around AUD$75 or US$80.  Does that seem reasonable?  The last time I paid over Y6,000 for shipping with HS was Y6,800 for Y39,000 worth of trains - in 5 separate covers.  The shipping and handling charges seem extreme. 

 

Its weight, weight, weight from those magazines.  The shipping charge is based on weight and volume and magazines hit you hard on both. When EMS shipping was the only shipping option, I paid 2,200 to 2,800 Yen for shipping a single magazine. Those magazines are large and printed with heavily coated paper.  You should have shipped them SAL.

[The_Ghan]

Thanks guys.  Since it seems to be the trend that postage has increased I'll be proceeding with the order.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[KenS]

I think postage has gone up, but EMS was never cheap and for light items it can still be low.  My recent pre-order for two Tomytec Car Collection boxes arrived in a 12 cm x 26 cm x 42 cm box, and shipping was 2220 yen. I think that's higher than I would have paid a year ago, but not massively so.

 

It does feel like overall I am paying more postage of late, on top of the increase due to worse exchange rates (which is around 80 yen to the U.S. dollar today; just back in April it was 85 yen/dollar). But looking at a couple of recent larger orders, from April and June, both were 3200 yen in shipping, which isn't all that much (I've had really large/heavy orders that were twice that in the past).

 

But I avoid buying things like magazines.  If I were going to get them, I think that would be when I'd want to use SAL, as punctuality and potential loss are less of an issue.  I think some of my higher postage bills have come when I included something like a Kato catalog in with a bunch of other things. The postage does seem to be heavily based on weight, rather than volume.

[bill937ca]

Could there be a fuel surcharge on EMS?  Other countries show an EMS fuel surcharge, sometimes adjusted daily, and we know English language web pages in Japan  are not necessarily accurate or updated these days.

[cteno4]

it felt like a while there HS SAL prices were going up, but that may have been due to the combos of things i was ordering. BTW rainbow ten's SAL seemed more reasonable when i got a medium sized box of tomytec buildings last month.

 

books are really tough as at 2kg SAL prices reach the same as EMS and actually get higher for a while... so its cheapest to get them at under 2kg per order to get it in the sweet spot for SAL shipping costs if you want the least per kg cost in shipping. Hobby World has a great shipping table, but not sure if the rates are all totally up to date since they closed down the overseas shipping

 

http://www.hwjapan.com/ems_sal.aspx

 

at 6100Yen shipping it would look like something like 7kg in weight.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Darklighter]

Hobby World has a great shipping table, but not sure if the rates are all totally up to date since they closed down the overseas shipping

 

http://www.hwjapan.com/ems_sal.aspx

 

HS has one, too: http://www.1999.co.jp/ems.asp ;)

[cteno4]

cool, thanks darklighter! hopefully they keep it up to date. its off a tiny bit, but probably just due to exchange fluctuations.

 

jeff

[keitaro]

my order of the realline steamer tomix 2010-2011 catalogue some kawaii waki's was 2,800 yen however i do beleive hs over charge

 

according to EMS site upto 1.25kg 2800 yen i don't beleive a train 2 freight cars and the tomix mag is 1 - 1.25kg if i weigh a hardcover 200 page book, my c57 tomix in case and everything and my 6 car freight set it amounts to 700 grams.

 

give or take due to in accuracies and added box and paper stuffed inside.

 

anyway here is the charges link for EMS all countries. http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/charge/list/ems_all_en.html

[westfalen]

I'm going to weigh the next package I get and check what the postage should be. I get magazines from HS but they come SAL because I'm not in any real hurry to get them.

[cteno4]

kitaro,

 

if you look on the hs site they have the individual weights for each item listed. the tomix catalog is really high density gloss paper full A4 size and they are much heavier than the usual book. HS lists it as 1070g (i weighed mine and thats spot on), c57 is 194g, and a pair of kawai wakis at 79g. so thats 1343g total for the items. the box (they use really sturdy corrugated cardboard boxes) and some packaging for their standard sized box that the catalog would ship in (just happened to have one sitting here with the paper packaging that came with it) is about 370g. so total weight would be more like 1.7kg.

 

So if anything they undercharged you!

 

jeff

 

my order of the realline steamer tomix 2010-2011 catalogue some kawaii waki's was 2,800 yen however i do beleive hs over charge

 

according to EMS site upto 1.25kg 2800 yen i don't beleive a train 2 freight cars and the tomix mag is 1 - 1.25kg if i weigh a hardcover 200 page book, my c57 tomix in case and everything and my 6 car freight set it amounts to 700 grams.

 

give or take due to in accuracies and added box and paper stuffed inside.

 

anyway here is the charges link for EMS all countries. http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/charge/list/ems_all_en.html