Hobby Link Japan with new private warehouse service

[cteno4]

Hobby Link Japan (http://hlj.com) has a new service they call private warehouse. basically when you buy stuff you can throw it in your warehouse to then decide later how you want to ship it and if you want to combine it with other orders in there or elsewhere. pretty much a very flexible split and combine orders system it looks like. also real time shipping costs are displayed in your cart or in the private warehouse when you look at shipping stuff. very interesting and neat features.

 

now if they would just carry more model railroad stuff! they have been pretty good at keeping 20% off retail on most things. been a good place to pick up the odd bit or other non train hobby things over the years.

 

they are also now offering wholesale pricing to stores as well, interesting.

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

I'm glad HLJ is back serving international customers.  Unfortunately they seem to carry a limited selection of product.  It will be interesting to see how things pan out as their discount is 5% better than HS.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Edit: Bill is right ... I was thinking of Hobby World Japan.  Sorry.

[bill937ca]

I'm glad HLJ is back serving international customers.  Unfortunately they seem to carry a limited selection of product.  It will be interesting to see how things pan out as their discount is 5% better than HS.

 

Your thinking of Hobby World Japan, a different business. HLJ has been there all along.

[cteno4]

Did they ever stop? are you thinking of hobby world?

 

ive been using HLJ a few times a year for the last 5 or 6 years. never saw they stopped international shipping. they did have a recent server issue with all these new system enhancements.

 

Unfortunately they have been off and on in carrying train stuff. couple of years ago they were big with tomytec, but not so much in stock anymore, may not have been a huge seller for them or great margins for their volumes. Ive thought of emailing the head guy to ask about their train section. they have been excellent to do business with.

 

jeff

[Tecchan]

Unfortunately they have been off and on in carrying train stuff. couple of years ago they were big with tomytec, but not so much in stock anymore, may not have been a huge seller for them or great margins for their volumes. Ive thought of emailing the head guy to ask about their train section. they have been excellent to do business with.

 

jeff

 

Maybe a group message from the forum members would help!

HLJ was the first japanese shop I purchased at. It must be like 7-8 years ago. I was purchasing A LOT of Saint Seiya action figures. I've always had great relations with them, very helpful, kind and they speak fluent english which is a plus compared to HS approximative english.

 

I'd be glad to purchase at HLJ again, even more with the warhouse service now! They just have a too little model train section.

[Darklighter]

The private warehouse service is a nice idea but

- shipping costs start at 580 yen, even for very small and light items (e.g. Sankei kits) (amiami: 380 yen, loco1hobby: 180 yen)

- it took them a week to ship out my last 2 orders (after the items were in my private warehouse for some time)

- back-orders can take really long even for items that are available according to the manufacturer (Aoshima items: 1 week, Sankei items: 3 weeks, Kato items: 5 weeks)

[cteno4]

Yes unfortunately they use to be 340yen i think min on the shipping, went up a year or so back. I am just about to have my first private warehouse order shipped from a couple of small orders to see how it goes. In the past HLJ has been pretty quick in getting packages out for me. it is nice if you are picking up little bits now and then and can wait to bundle them. i was just able to add three of the green max maintenance car kits that are small and light to something larger i had in the vw and the shipping didnt go up at all, so that was nice.

 

ive only done a back order a couple of times and it took like a month before it showed up with sal, so was not bad. it was something that was oos everywhere else and just after hw closed and we lost the ability to try to back order there! hw use to be so good about looking for stuff for you, r10 as well. one request hw emailed back a couple of weeks later saying sorry no luck, but then two days later they emailed again and said they had decided to try a couple more ways and boom they found it! it was not a super high priced thing (maybe 2500yen) but they really went the extra mile in tracking one down for me! sweet.

 

hlj has been getting scarcer on the train stuff in the last year. last year i emailed the president of hlj suggesting they might look at the train market for overseas sales like this with the closure of hw and r10. he was very nice in replying and was going to look into it some. but he was not a train guy, he has one train chap there apparently. its a bit of a chicken and egg thing probably that in order to get good sales they need to have a good selection, but until they have a good customer base they dont want to invest a lot in the trains for stock and the stock they do have probably moves slowly. i can also see if its a bit out of the knowledge zone of the owner as well.

 

anyhow hlj has become less and less of a source for me. still good though to look for some odd bits in 1/144 scale and the like as well as gundam...

 

jeff