Good Train Deals and Coupons

[EdF]

Anyone know a current Plaza Japan coupon code?

[Kingmeow]

Try adding an item to your shopping cart and let it sit for 2-3 days.  Often you'll get an e-mail reminding you that you have something in your cart and encourages you to complete the order.  Many times, though not every time, they include a discount code that is good for the month.  Every time I've gotten one it's ¥1,000 off a ¥10,000 purchase.  Not much, but certainly helps with the shipping costs if you go FedEx/UPS/DHL.

 

Please post if you do get one for May.  🙂

[disturbman]

Team note: To avoid drowning retailer specific threads with good deal conversations, we have decided to open a new thread dedicated to sales and other promotional codes. Please post these here in the future 🙂

Edited May 2 by disturbman

[Lessigen]

PlazaJapan's cart abandonment code for May is MAYBEMAY for the usual ¥1000 off ¥10000

Edited May 4 by Lessigen

[Kingmeow]

I'm still waiting for my order to be shipped.  Of course, placing an order just before Golden Week has its disadvantages.  😁

 

Hey @EdF now's your chance to spend your money!  🤣🤑

[EdF]

And done, shipping was brutal, but the n700s starter set is big, and I don't have a dc throttle yet, just DCC, and other than shipping it's free essentially .

[Gunzel]

Suruga-ya have another 20% off sale (Y10,000+) at the same time as a free shipping “weekend”. 
 

https://www.suruga-ya.com/en/campaign/toy-hobby-coupon250510

 

[kusojiji]

Wow, thanks! Do you know if the 20% is applied at check out or are the prices already marked down?

[Kingmeow]

This is not going to end well!  🤣

[Tony Galiani]

You guys are killing me.  I can verify that the 20% is applied at check out (when you click on the discount code).

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Under the influence of the group and this thread - for better or worse! - I took advantage of the free shipping to place an order from Suruga-Ya yesterday afternoon (US East Coast time).  I received an e-mail this morning that it had been shipped.  Probably will take a week or two I am thinking as that seems normal for Japan Post.

My order was relatively small - only one discontinued Tomytec train item and some Tomytec trucks and other scenic items.  Didn't go through my want list - just focused on some Shikoku related items that I had wanted for some time and had not been able to find on my travels.

Ciao,

Tony

[Kingmeow]

Were you able to get the order up to the point where you can take advantage of the 20% off?

 

I'm looking through and struggle to find things that add up to ¥10,000 for the 20% off.  Though the Free Shipping is always available for this promo.  I'll have to keep looking...and fast...  🤣

[kusojiji]

At first glance, I didn't see any savings as I thought the prices were quite high for used, but I could be wrong.

[Tony Galiani]

Suruga-Ya's prices are all over the place - or at least that is how it seems to me.  I open the HS web site as a means to compare prices and sometimes check other sites as well when shopping at Suruga-Ya.

 

Some of the items I purchased were real bargains though some were not.  The Shikoku DMU I purchased was only slightly lower than the original retail even though it was used.  But I could not find it anywhere else.

 

@Kingmeow - I am worried - are you feeling okay?  If so, all I can say is that it is hard when the great ones lose it!  Though even Otani doesn't hit a homer everyday!

I had no trouble running up an order several times that amount - though I pared it down significantly to focus on the items I really thought were important for my projects.

 

Tony

[Gunzel]

They’ve slowly been inflating the prices versus their Japanese site (you can browse that to see the differential) and I think the formula they use to do that adds to the variation. The minimum price of an item (probably more relevant to magazines) has also jumped from Y300 in February last year to Y650 today, and the commission on the order from Y500 to Y900. That said there’s still bargains when you look at the overall landed cost. 

[Kingmeow]

@Tony Galiani I have been comparing their prices to other places as you made me aware of.  For example, looking at a Kato DD51 (which is on my wish list), their used prices is more than new prices at Plaza ($64 used vs. $59 new).  It's even $52 new at HS.  Granted they do have free shipping and potentially 20% off if you run up your order so that has to be factored in too.

 

The search continues...  🙂 

Edited 5 hours ago by Kingmeow

[Tony Galiani]

I can see that.  Their price for some Kokis was way higher than the new ones I purchased at Tam Tam a few months ago.  I was lucky I found a bunch of items - figures, road signs, buildings - for under $10 apiece.  The trucks had strange pricing - some were about $12 but some ran up to $30 or more for essentially the same model.  Can't quite figure out their pricing strategy to be honest.  It also took more time than I liked to wade through the items.  If I had not found a couple I really wanted right off, I would probably not have bothered.  But once I found several items I had been looking for, I decided to keep at it.

Tony