KATO inquiry

[AhmadKane]

I'm sorry, I have to ask. A man came in to the Indonesian forum claiming that these models are sooooooper rare. Marking nearly 60,000 yen for some Micro Ace models. Quick check would be about 10K yen for the 6 cars

 

I want to ask whether there are actually that rare, or this guy needs a wake up call. Pics below.

 

https://ameblo.jp/ishidadaijyu/image-11508580098-12503978088.html

 

 

[disturbman]

I don't know these sets but I doubt they are worth that much. They are a few sets that can reach 20,000 to 25,000 but they aren't many. These are usually special liveries, joyful or painted trains as well as a few trains from private companies (Hankyu, Keikyu, ect).

If you want a good appraisal of their real value/rarity, check their item numbers in the closed search of Yahoo Japan Auctions. It will give you an history of recent sales.

[Kiha66]

I dont believe any of these models are kato, although kato has made an N scale ED16 recently in N scale that is quite nice and worth about $5000 yen or so.  A good place to check value is hobbysearch for MSRP if the item was sold in the last few years, and then yahoo auctions sold listings to see what a ballpark used value is.  That said, I wouldn't treat these as an investment, rather only get them if you personally want them and have verified that the asking price is fair for the items.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10147365

 

Personally when someone is selling something with a high price and "rare" in the title, thats usually in indication to me that the seller has no knowledge about the item and is hoping someone will believe them and pay their overpriced guess at the value.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Kiha66

[AhmadKane]

11 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Personally when someone is selling something with a high price and "rare" in the title, thats usually in indication to me that the sell has no knowledge about the item and is hoping someone will believe them and pay their overpriced guess at the value.

 

My thoughts exactly, I mean for arguments sake, let's say the Microace 6 cars do cost 60K yen. I'd rather buy a dozen of these. I'd get nearly 12 engines and over a train 36 carriages long. Which mind you, I could mix and match with different colors like a peacock.

 

http://shop.tokokereta.com/userfiles/image/kato-n/10-039-PO_3482405_Qty1_1.jpg

[disturbman]

I thought you meant he wanted to sell all three for a total of 60k. 60k for one set is completely bonkers.

[cteno4]

Best to use yahoo.jp auctions to get a decent price estimate on older and used stuff.

 

like kiha noted you see this everywhere with someone thinking just because they have not seen much Japanese stock in their country it must be super rare and because Japanese, very high quality and expensive! Jokes on them as Japanese stock is about the best bang for the buck out there in the world! Also the size of Yahoo.jp auctions makes even rarer stuff not so hard to get and not so insane priced.
 

some just use the rare no matter what to just inflate the price even if they know what it’s really worth and hope to find the rube.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Even on YAJ, it helps to track what actually sells at what price.

There has been an unsold pair of Micro Ace Kiha E130 for months at 19,000¥.  Meanwhile, others that start at much lower prices have come and gone, selling for around 10,000¥ a pair after getting bid up.  I keep hoping some junk shells of E130s and or E131/132 will come along at a much cheaper price; I just want to chop them down into Shorties for the Suigun Line.

[marknewton]

11 hours ago, AhmadKane said:

I'm sorry, I have to ask. A man came in to the Indonesian forum claiming that these models are sooooooper rare. Marking nearly 60,000 yen for some Micro Ace models. Quick check would be about 10K yen for the 6 cars

 

I want to ask whether there are actually that rare, or this guy needs a wake up call. Pics below.

 

https://ameblo.jp/ishidadaijyu/image-11508580098-12503978088.html

 

 

Judging by the level of fine detail , I doubt that this ED16 is N scale. It looks like a World Kogei model in 1/80th scale.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.
 

[railsquid]

Yup, definitely not N scale and would certainly sell for a lot more than an N scale version of the same prototype. The photograph looks suspiciously like a catalogue photograph though, is this the model the seller claims to possess? A MicroAce ED16 in decent condition would fetch typically 3,000 ~ 4,000 yen.

 

The MicroAce Eidan/Tokyo Metro sets are generally quite sought-after and can sometimes fetch high prices (20,000 ~ 30,000 yen or more), though the 5000 series models aren't quite as popular; with a bit of perseverance and luck I could probably get hold of both the ones pictured and have change from 20,000 yen.

 

[AhmadKane]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Yup, definitely not N scale and would certainly sell for a lot more than an N scale version of the same prototype. The photograph looks suspiciously like a catalogue photograph though, is this the model the seller claims to possess? A MicroAce ED16 in decent condition would fetch typically 3,000 ~ 4,000 yen.

 

The MicroAce Eidan/Tokyo Metro sets are generally quite sought-after and can sometimes fetch high prices (20,000 ~ 30,000 yen or more), though the 5000 series models aren't quite as popular; with a bit of perseverance and luck I could probably get hold of both the ones pictured and have change from 20,000 yen.

 

 

He placed the ED16 in the KATO box, "haven't checked what's the mark below" i don''t know about you, but It's a tad bit silly to take the sellers words as gospel if you don't even know the model you're selling. 

 

And yes, I agree. These models are so expensive. I don't think I'll be buying a non dcc, non sound N scale locomotive for 60K yen anytime soon.

 

[cteno4]

It does appear to be the world craft HO as mark supposed and the picture looks like it was lifted from this blog

 

https://ameblo.jp/ishidadaijyu/entry-11508580098.html

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

On 6/26/2020 at 6:29 AM, Cat said:

Even on YAJ, it helps to track what actually sells at what price.

There has been an unsold pair of Micro Ace Kiha E130 for months at 19,000¥.  Meanwhile, others that start at much lower prices have come and gone, selling for around 10,000¥ a pair after getting bid up.  I keep hoping some junk shells of E130s and or E131/132 will come along at a much cheaper price; I just want to chop them down into Shorties for the Suigun Line.

 

There are a couple of these E130/ 131/ 132s on pre-orders  and also these ...  I missed them too and is not willing to part so much for a 2-car set but now is the chance to regain them! 🙂

 

 

So far, the highest price i have seen are the Micro Ace E491s inspector trains and Diesel type ... they go for obscene amounts of money now....  the MicroAce E215s are not far behind and i regretted buying them off the 2nd hand market when MicroAce released news of its re-release and i saw sets going for 15-18k.... Then again, the 215s are 10-car set so the price per car ratio is lower than that of the E491s...

[Cat]

22 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

 

There are a couple of these E130/ 131/ 132s on pre-orders  and also these ...  I missed them too and is not willing to part so much for a 2-car set but now is the chance to regain them! 🙂

 

So far, the highest price i have seen are the Micro Ace E491s inspector trains and Diesel type ... 

Even at Ami-Ami prices, that's more than we want to pay for shells to go to the chop shop.  We'll just keep haunting YAJ and hope for junk shells someday.  Chopping down the E491 or E193 into shorties would also be cool!  (But not really expecting to see affordable shells of those any time.)

[AhmadKane]

Speaking of which, I think I'll take the opportunity here. 

 

A friend of mine got an old KATO Nozomi starter set. What confused me is the code, it's the code shared with the Hayabusa Starter set (One I know all too well) 10-001. 

 

According to Hobby 1999. This model was from 2005 and had been recalled or cancelled. So anyone can tell whether something is horribly wrong with it or am I missing something here?

[roadstar_na6]

Kato seems to use the starter set codes for more than one version of starter sets; at least that‘s how I feel.

[Kamome]

On 7/9/2020 at 8:36 PM, AhmadKane said:

Speaking of which, I think I'll take the opportunity here. 

 

A friend of mine got an old KATO Nozomi starter set. What confused me is the code, it's the code shared with the Hayabusa Starter set (One I know all too well) 10-001. 

 

According to Hobby 1999. This model was from 2005 and had been recalled or cancelled. So anyone can tell whether something is horribly wrong with it or am I missing something here?

The old 10-001 was a 700 series Nozomi starter set which is no longer in production. There are a few starter sets which have also been discontinued but the models included were usually the regular models also separately available. In this case the model was the same as buying the base 700 set (10-276) 

These starter set models were usually in the (ベスト) BEST collection of models whereby the base set came in cardboard packaging and the add-on sets came with the book style cases with space for the base sets.

I think the only exceptions to this were the D51 (10-005)and the EF210 (10-010) whereby the locos were slightly more basic versions of the normally available ones. I have the latter and although it’s a nice enough model, it lacked some of the details found on the regular model. I also have the E4 Max starter set(10-008) which used the regular model (again no longer in production) 

 

There used to be an E2 Hayate starter set (10-002) This product number is now used for the H5 Hayabusa starter set.

When I got into the hobby you could find starter sets for the Hokutosei blue train with an EF81, and the SL Banetsu with a C57 steam loco. These have since been replaced with more modern shinkansens and commuter trains to attract newer people to the hobby with trains with larger appeal.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Kamome

[jappomania]

not really ...

10-001 Nozomi 700 set, probably is the only Kato set that don't match exactly the relative basic set 10-276

(and also 10-276 + 10-277 was a simple split of the original 10-397 8 cars basic set)

is the only one I bought because the "Ambitious Japan" banner is not applied by stickers but directly painted on the shell

(another one is the Tomix E259 NEX with Marine express logos, only inside the SD start set https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10287687/20/1 )

excluding EMU/DMU, sometimes Kato and Tomix use the old molds for the locomotive instead the improved new models (lowered price)

 

ciao!

Massimo

[Kamome]

Interesting. My documentation for set 10-276 states that it includes the same cars in 10-001 so figured it was identical. That then tallies up with 10-277 to make the original 10-397 set.

 

Car 1 723-2

Car 10 (with motor) 717-2

Car 12 (With pantograph) 725-602

Car 16 724-2

 

I wasn’t aware that the “Ambitious Japan“ banner was not an optional addition on the starter set and was pad printed.
 

I wasn’t a fan of the semi-translucent 700 logo stickers that came with these sets. I was surprised they weren’t printed like all my other Kato models. Did the 700 go through a minor livery/logo change that wasn’t on the original Kato model?
 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Kamome
The joys of Apple products correcting what it thinks I want to say.

[jappomania]

I hate the Kato adhesive sheet, too thick to be applied to the chassis side, acceptable just for the destination panels but in the past some producer (some now closed) had released sheet with decals to replace the Kato originals

from what I remember and I can see on my "roster", the mold and the paint has never been changed or improved during the years excluding the 10-001 "Ambitious Japan", the pamphlet and the sticker sheet inside the 10-276 and 10-001 is the same, that's the reason because not everybody know the difference
from the first 10-397 release to the re-release, only the stickers sheet has changed (Ambitious Japan logos added), after the set has been splitted in 10-276/77 and the difference is only the pamphlet (same stickers sheet)
now I wait the re-release in october....

 

Ciao!

Massimo