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Buying second hand Japanese trains


cteno4

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I just realized this is talked a little about all over the forums, but thought having a general pinned topic would help folks see options that are out there. I’ll try to come back and keep adding links to places in this top posts as folks add to it.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Shops that Sell Secondhand 

Yahoo! Japan Auctions [jp]

Mandrake [en] [jp] [JNS]

popondetta [jp] [JNS]

Hobbyland Pochi (thru buying service) [jp]

 

Buying Services

How to bid in Japanese auctions for dummies

Zenmarket [en

Buyee [en] [JNS]

 

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When I have bought second-hand I have purchased either from Mandarake, which is a series of stores selling many popular Japanese culture goods including trains. or by using Zenmarket a Japanese proxy service.  There are fees when using a proxy agent, but you have access to a full country of new and second items.

 

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/ListPage/list?keyword=N gauge&lang=en

 

https://zenmarket.jp/

 

Proxy service threads

 

 

 

 

Edited by bill937ca
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  • cteno4 changed the title to Buying second hand Japanese trains
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I’ve bought quite a few second hand Japanese trains over the years. Almost always a good deal and nice working trains. Many were from other forum members Thru the JNS classifieds and always had great buys there. Did a few orders from Mandrake for used items when there was something odd. I’ve tried to stay off the slippery slope of Yahoo japan auctions, seems like it could be deep wallet trouble! Actually gotten a number of used Japanese trains from ebay from sellers here in the states and also from Japanese sellers. I actually met Nariichi San years ago when he was just starting selling  trains buying odd lots of new and used stuff and selling it off on ebay—this eventually blossomed into modeltrainplus!

 

I usually try to inspect as best as possible from pictures and ask questions to verify stuff. Don’t thing I’ve ever really been disappointed with a used buy. Couple needed some power cleaning/tuning and a couple of broken pantographs, but no big issues, always worth it in the end. For me they are a mix of looking for something long oop or just a deal too good to let pass by!

 

cheers

 

jeff

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Access to Yahoo Japan Auctions is definitely not healthy for a wallet, but gives you droves of options. Sets are usually in very good shapes as most people don’t run their trains and Japanese sellers are very upfront about the state of the trains. It’s usually easy to visually confirm the state of the sets, many sellers provide pictures of the underside of the motor car, giving you an idea of how clean the gears are and how used the wheels are.

 

When new or searching for specific items, it’s good to verify their price on the “closed search” to avoid overpaying and to have an idea of how often they appear on the market. Some can be quite elusive.

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Yeah I figured I could get wayyy too sucked in. Fortunately much of the oop stuff I’ve wanted I’ve actually found on ebay for decent prices (more than Yahoo japan but less than with agent fees) if I lurked long enough. Science world train took about 7 years, but I got it. It did come from a smoking house but a couple of weeks with everything spread out in the garage and case in the sun for a while and odor was all gone. I think the only ebay issues I’ve had with used trains was a couple from smoking houses, but usually solved if allowed to air out.

 

jeff

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Zenmarket is way too convenient and easy to use for the safety of my wallet. I just checked, and there are currently over 50 000 items listed under model railway n-gauge on Yahoo auctions available through a simple bid click through Zenmarket. For those looking for something specific, I recommend copy pasting key words from the Japanese product description (from Hobbysearch for instance) as entering search terms in English won't always yield the desired results.

 

I originally started using zenmarket for non-auction, non-model train related purchases to buy stuff from some very obscure online shops. Lately I've also sometimes been using Zenmarket for purchases where international payment and shipment is possibe, because putting stuff bought from multiple places in one box before sending it to Sweden will usually result in savings.

 

Buying even more stuff because I already have a pile of stuff waiting to get shipped isn't "saving money", but it feels like that. 😅

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1 hour ago, MeTheSwede said:

Zenmarket is way too convenient and easy to use for the safety of my wallet. I just checked, and there are currently over 50 000 items listed under model railway n-gauge on Yahoo auctions available through a simple bid click through Zenmarket. For those looking for something specific, I recommend copy pasting key words from the Japanese product description (from Hobbysearch for instance) as entering search terms in English won't always yield the desired results.

 

I originally started using zenmarket for non-auction, non-model train related purchases to buy stuff from some very obscure online shops. Lately I've also sometimes been using Zenmarket for purchases where international payment and shipment is possibe, because putting stuff bought from multiple places in one box before sending it to Sweden will usually result in savings.

 

Buying even more stuff because I already have a pile of stuff waiting to get shipped isn't "saving money", but it feels like that. 😅

 

Ah, the classical "if I order something else as well the postage is free" 🤣 Wallet safety pro-tip: avoid living in Japan. Don't ask me how I know this.

 

One seller on Yahoo Auctions worth looking out for is "marketenterprise_2006", it's a company which deals in all kinds of used stuff including trains; their business method appears to be bulk-purchasing collections (they advertise regularly in model railway magazines) and selling them as fast as possible, often at reasonable prices and they are often quick to reduce prices on stuff which doesn't shift quickly. Stock levels vary so worth keeping a regular eye out. Don't ask me how I know this.

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Aaaahhh yes marketenterprise_2006.... i saw this seller many times and their items are priced really good. bookoff is also a good venue for used train sets, and is also available on Zen market...

 

Thing with Zen market is the need to top up... you need to pay first before you even get to bid, and when you lose the auction, the money is inside. no biggie of course, you can withdraw it out, but more often than not you will start to browse other items instead of the trouble to get back you money... or am i the only one? 😛

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1 hour ago, JR 500系 said:

Thing with Zen market is the need to top up...

That only applies for your first few parcels tho, the more you ship the more credit they give you. I have a friend who can spend 100.000¥ before having to top up his account.

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Some time ago I used Hobby Land Pochi via Zenmarket successfully. I bought a train not available elsewhere for quite some time, everything was smooth. Seems that they inspect all used trains and categorize them using the letter convention (A is best).

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S is the best as it stands for unused. All second hand shops use the S, A, B, C, D system. B is usually “with noticeable wear”, but I take it means the box most of the time.


Speaking about shops selling second hand sets, what happened to Popondetta? I bought a few sets from them years ago but they don’t seem to have a big second hand selection anymore. I’m not even sure they still sell overseas.

Edited by disturbman
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41 minutes ago, disturbman said:

what happened to Poppondeta? I bought a few sets from them years ago but they don’t seem to have a big second hand selection anymore.

 

When I go to the Popondetta website I see endless pages of second hand goods? I never purchased from them from abroad though.

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Maybe they are back. They used to have tons of them online and then quantity dried up after they updated their website.

 

For ordering, I used to send them an email. But that was 10 years ago, I don’t know how if they would work now.

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Just posting this here, i didnt know there is actually such events in Japan!!!

 

 

Hang on, i'll get the mop. I'm just drooling all over the floor 

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30 minutes ago, beakaboy said:

Far Out! Amazing! how do they stop the sets falling off the tables? right up to the edge!

They have bookshelf ends.

 

https://www.kmart.com.au/product/2-pack-metal-bookends/724400?region_id=400001&gclid=Cj0KCQiAq7COBhC2ARIsANsPATFTcg1aAgVIgs7sFnH_1utn0_rlKhhk_aIo0nzojPdQ5_ze34fobyYaAkSQEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Can be seen in video.

Edited by katoftw
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Since yesterday, and the closure of services of Yahoo Japan to people residing in the EEA (European Economic Area) and the United Kingdom, proxy services have been disrupted. ZenMarket is no longer able to show auctions' pictures without a VPN set outside of the EEA+UK, and Buyee will show a few pictures but not all, except when reloading. Buyee does not let its users to connect via a VPN.

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On 12/29/2021 at 9:17 PM, JR 500系 said:

Just posting this here, i didnt know there is actually such events in Japan!!!

 

 

Hang on, i'll get the mop. I'm just drooling all over the floor 

Not sure why I've only just seen this video.  As it's Hobbyland Pochi, this must be how they make the majority of their money around Japanese work bonus time. I always find them very expensive for used product. (example: Kato HO Wamu 80000 2 set, used 3300 yen/ Brand New at Ami Ami 2700 yen) They do seem to have lots of hard to find stuff too but at a premium. It's great for trying to find individual cars etc.. as there's a fair amount of broken up sets in the Hakata one. Still don't think I've ever made a purchase from them but nice to browse and a good selection of stuff out of production.

 

For those who can't read the Kanji, it was in Osaka-Umeda on the 25th and 26th of December. Hobbyland Pochi is based in Osaka. Certainly would have been good looking round.

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On 11/13/2021 at 8:07 PM, JR 500系 said:

Aaaahhh yes marketenterprise_2006.... i saw this seller many times and their items are priced really good. bookoff is also a good venue for used train sets, and is also available on Zen market...

 

Thing with Zen market is the need to top up... you need to pay first before you even get to bid, and when you lose the auction, the money is inside. no biggie of course, you can withdraw it out, but more often than not you will start to browse other items instead of the trouble to get back you money... or am i the only one? 😛

yes marketenterprise_2006 i remember that name, i remember getting my series 24 and kiha 25/20 all for 2000yen(15 pcs in total)

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So what is the status now of using buyee and Zenmarket in the eu for yahoo japan auctions? Still working with proxy service for Zenmarket?

 

jeff

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after a couple of weeks (see the Disturbman post) the problem with image charging (slow/partial) has been solved from both services (zen and buyee), maybe has been just improved/forced the image caching, the only thing that can't work is the link to the original yahoo address (or it work trought VPN with Zen, but sincerly is not a so big trouble - Opera VPN is slow but is enough)

 

ciao!

Massimo

 

 

 

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Was the closure somewhat related to the EU Cookie policy?

 

I was also caught by surprise when Rakuten suddenly became inaccessible. Rakuten did explain what was going on on their placeholder page.

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