2023: The year of selling your model trains? What the heck is going on?

[kndy]

For those who have visited Akihabara, some may notice consignment stores selling a lot of trains.  Second hand pop up shops are selling trains.   Many articles trying to get people to sell their trains.

 

https://mokeitetsu.com/used/kaitori

 

https://tetsudohonpo.com/column/column20230611/

 

https://www.takakuureru.com/magazine/8493

 

https://kakaku.guide/model-train/post/6631/

 

What the heck is going on?  Since the beginning of the year, with the Japanese economy leading to many companies increasing their prices, there has been a boom in the used market.  Not just male customers but female is growing as well.   

 

The bad thing is many people are not wanting to pay for trains that are too expensive and are opting for used.  And in Japan, there is a general sense that Japanese train owners are respectable to their collections and they maintain it really well.

 

But now it's become big business.  Companies in Japan want people's used trains.  Takakkureru even got singer Kyon Kyon (Koizumi Kyoko) to promote their service. Popondetta who is known for selling trains, wants to now buy your trains.

 

https://kakaku.guide/model-train/

 

https://www.train-takakuureru.com/

 

https://tetsudo-kaitori.jp/

 

https://www.toy-forest.jp/category/toy/rail/

 

https://mdltrain-arrows.com/

 

https://www.popondetta.com/kaitori.html

 

https://hobbyland-pochi.net/?type_id=1

 

https://www.figurekaitori.net/collection/rail/?a8=o5a7254SMX_IXtg8-WgSiyR6RIuYZyApaWgs4I80CslSMXayEXT5iXToiXzw_wAgfskt8PaBK5a7ds00000012574002

 

https://tetsudohonpo.com/

 

https://kaitoricollector.com/pricelist/category/model

 

https://www.omocya-kaitori.jp/mb/tetudoumokei.html

 

https://www.little-cage.net/genre/rail/

 

https://www.ji-otrain.com/

 

While the idea is not new...consignment stores in Akihabara and Nakano have been around for many years, baseball and Pokemon card shops and video game stores have been around, as with the "OFF" stores or Traders stores selling used items.

 

But as of late, 2023 is a boom for people to sell their trains.  This is the most proactive I've seen companies wanting to buy trains from people, to the chagrin of model train companies who have increased their prices and hoping their sales numbers don't dwindle as much as they have in previous years.

 

I decided to give it a try and purchase a few things used (which I never do, as I prefer my trains brand new), but the trains were well maintained, no damage and a lot of care went into shipping it to me overseas.  But I guess I can see it becoming a business.

 

YouTube has no doubt been a catalyst for used cars and homes being sold in Japan to people living overseas.  I am seeing things growing on the vehicle side as more and more non-Japanese are participating in Japanese car auctions to sell Japanese cars that are 25-years and older to those living outside of Japan (or those who come to Japan often and want to ensure they can drive their car when they visit the country).  

 

It'll be interesting to see how these second hand stores have impacted new train sales (which were decreasing already).  

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by kndy

[Das Steinkopf]

Some interesting points and observations made there, when I was going through Tokyo in May this year I went to many model rail stores and would have to say that Popondetta and Hobbyland Pochi seemed to be the busiest stores, mind you a lot of the time I was in the stores was around the middle of the day, my wife and I used Tokyo as a stop pver to the UK and we were ther for a week from May 9 and back there for a few days near the end of the month so we got a decent spread of time there.

[Kamome]

Interesting observations. I’d also imagine with the added challenges relating to new product and price competition, profit from new stock would be minimal. Stock is probably bought at 40-50% of SRP then most discount to 20-30%SRP to be competitive. This leaves a very slim margin so you’d need to turn over a lot of stock to pay for staffing, rents, taxes etc.. Fine for stores that turn over massive amounts of stock across various markets, but not for those who specialise. 

 

Used stock would have much better margins but you have little to no control on what stock comes in. You sometimes see adverts for specific product so sellers would get slightly better buy back prices. 

 

I’ve also noticed preorders seem to be filled and closed and often there is little to no additional stock on shelves after orders have been fulfilled. The used stores may be the best option to find these products along with the little gems impossible to find elsewhere. My local Pochi has some relatively impossible to find elsewhere products, they just command a high asking price.