Distributor Help?

[AhmadKane]

Hey guys, my name is Kane from Indonesia. I'm a member of the Indonesian Model Railroading Community and a Model Railroading Merchant. I'm an avid fan of the Japanese Railway, and I use a mix of Kato and Tomix tracks for my layouts. 

 

There are a lot of people in Indonesia who would prefer using Kato and Tomix tracks for N scale layouts, and I concur, the shipping price from Japan as well as its quality is far better than Euro and American models (at least that's what's preferred). I was wondering to expand my business, and would like to be a distributor instead of selling things I buy from Hobbylink  and AmiAmi. Any of you could know how to get in contact and become a model railroading distributor? 

 

Also which online retailer would you recommend? I've known Hobbylink and Amiami, and was wondering if there is a retailer that dabbles more in wholesale. Thanks

[katoftw]

Why not contact the manufacturer instead?

[cteno4]

Japan tends to have a few layers of distributors. Manufacturers may be able to put you in touch with some exporting distributors. All of the importers I know in the us have had one thing in common in making connections with distributors in Japan and that’s been either speaking Japanese or having a souse or relative that is fluent. The other thing is having a shipping/export agent that can take delivery of product in japan and arrange the export and shipping  to where ever.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[roadstar_na6]

HobbyLink has a website set up for interested wholesalers here.

[cteno4]

Good catch, I had completely forgotten about that at hlj! Might work with some of the other large players as well, worth a shot to the usual big players.

 

jeff

[AhmadKane]

 

On 4/22/2020 at 3:06 PM, roadstar_na6 said:

HobbyLink has a website set up for interested wholesalers here.

 

Interesting, I think I'll go take a look and come back to you guys. 

 

Once again, I really appreciate being in this forum, and I hope for your cooperation and guidance

[cteno4]

Sadly the last three distributors in the us that had distributors deals in japan to import stuff here have all passed away in the last decade. we currently don’t have anyone really doing a real import business anymore for Japanese model trains. They were able to do a decent business once they had their distributors, shipping agent (usually need someone in japan to handle receiving goods from the distributors and arranging shipping and export paperwork) and export shipping system.

 

we had one chap importing Tomix, Kato (Japanese), and a lot of greenmax frommthe 70s thru mid 2000s. He was the supplier to a lot of our local hobby stores. His wife was Japanese so he had her to translate everything and they visited japan often to see family and keep business relationships going. He would bring over a half a container every few months. This meant very low import costs for him and good prices for wholesale relationship to stores here.

 

Around the time he was retiring another small import business for direct internet sales got going. That chap has lived in japan for quite a while while younger and spoke Japanese well. He expanded an internet model railroad online business to also import Japanese trains and structures. He has a friend in japan from school that was his import agent and he did regular palette shipments by containers usually and some air freight. He even rented out extra space in his shipping palette to folks that needed to ship over larger stuff that can be really pricy by the usual methods. Sadly he passed away suddenly and the import business closed.

 

the last chap started getting Tomix and Kato stuff to export to India first (he lived in the us but was Indian and working on bringing more model trains to India). He also became the us distributor for the then Japanese company (later moved to Hong Kong) that made T scale. Later he was looking bringing stuff to the us after the chap above passed away, but sadly declining health made him have to shrink his business and then he too passed away. He too had a daughter in-law who was fluent in Japanese to do all his business communications.
 

The only remaining sort of importer here is one that works with a hobby shop in japan and jacks the price way up (2-3x) for their profit. Not really a true importer.

 

katousa does bring over Unitrak and structures and has a good distribution network here but only a few Japanese trains now and then and they don’t do a good job with those when they do. Our big model railroad distributor Walthers did set up a deal with Tomix/Tomytec to distribute fine track and Tomytec structures here in the us. But walther’s seems to be charging Japanese SRP as a wholesale price here. I can’t believe Tomix would give them that bad a deal (Walthers is know for cutting deals good for them). It did not last long here with the high prices they were charging and from the availability of stuff now it looks like they are not pursuing the deal more.

 

thats the dump of what I’ve heard on importing here in the us at least the last 20 years. Good luck with it.

 

cherrs,

 

jeff