AmiAmi Character and Hobby

[cteno4]

Mine have always shipped within a few days of payment. But I only order from them a few times a year.

 

jeff

[MrLinderman]

Thought I'd share my first order with amiami for record.

 

Ordered 30th Jan 2025

N Gauge Starter Set 

DHL Shipping option (was same price as EMS) and only AU$10 more than slow air mail

Paid 31st Jan 2025

Shipping notice from DHL received 3rd Feb

ETA: 5th Feb

 

Went with ami as the price was just to good to ignore compared to other JP stores that ship to AU, even with the "faster" freight option it came to less than some stores without shipping included.

Edited February 3 by MrLinderman

[Kamome]

They had quite a lull of seemingly taking payment then taking significant time to dispatch but I can say my last 2 orders with them have been very prompt. Some difficult to ignore prices at times, although not always the cheapest, they often are.

 

[Madsing]

Same experience with me. My last purchases from amiami have been shipped right after payment. I love their order recombination feature. It’s possible to preorder something then, when the item becomes available, add items to the parcel. Very cool. 
 

Marc

 

[disturbman]

If you chose the option "combine with monthly order" at checkout, as otherwise I believe they will refuse to add anything to the shipment. At least, it's how it used to be.

[Kingmeow]

I'm probably missing something but it seems like they don't ship Kato products to the US but do ship Tomix products to the US.  This is from a random sampling of things that I clicked on.  Kato items seems to have a "*This product cannot be shipped to the following area: USA, Canada" while Tomix items do not.

 

Any reasons?

[disturbman]

Kato USA. They banned export to the US. Strangely enough, the other Japanese retailers don't seem to respect or have been banned to export to the US. Maybe Ami price point is too low and there was a specific complaint against them from Kato USA.

Kato A/S (Kato Europe) requested the same from Kato Japan regarding European models. No Japanese retailers can ship these to Europe now.

Edited February 3 by disturbman

[cteno4]

That’s really unfortunate! Thats fairly new maybe last 6 months or so as I’ve ordered Kato from them in the past. I’ll need to dredge the e-mail receipts to see the last one. Kato will strangle any export sales to NA this way as KatoUSA has been abysmal at doing Japanese train sales in the US. Granted I doubt it’s worth their time at all as it’s a small market and I expect price near SRP (that’s what has been done in the past with Kliens small test runs in the past) they won’t sell well. KatoUSA completely ignored our club for years when we would plead for Unitrak literature to distribute. We were the only club outside Ttrak using it and promoting it as a fun way to get started with trains. One of the comments from them was along the lines well you guys are doing Japanese trains, that’s different, so not relevant to our sales. It was very frustrating. Getting Japanese parts thru them at times was a painful and expensive process I gave up on a long time ago.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

It's been a while that that Ami-specific export ban has been in place. Perhaps since around COVID. Everyone used to wonder if Ami had misunderstood a ban to export NA models for a blanket ban. But they are still shipping non-European models to Europe, so a misunderstanding doesn't hold.

The Kato European models ban is also widely and strictly followed, even small shops like RGR stopped exporting these models to Europe and the big retailers obviously are following. It wouldn't be so disheartening if the price point offered in Europe for the models was representative of the costs incurred rather than based on how much value Kato A/S think they can extract from the European modellers.

[Kingmeow]

4 hours ago, disturbman said:

Kato USA. They banned export to the US. Strangely enough, the other Japanese retailers don't seem to respect or have been banned to export to the US. Maybe Ami price point is too low and there was a specific complaint against them from Kato USA.

Kato A/S (Kato Europe) requested the same from Kato Japan regarding European models. No Japanese retailers can ship these to Europe now.

 

This makes no sense as Kato USA does not sell/distribute ANY Japanese trains.  I understand if they wanted a ban of US models from Kato Japan into the US.

 

If I wanted to buy Japanese trains from a US dealer, that's impossible as none have Japanese trains.  So a blanket "all Kato products from Japan into the US" makes no sense and prevents sales of Kato overall.  Dumb!

[cteno4]

Well a few dealers did get some Kato Japanese trains brought over in the past. Mainly it was Kliens (model train stuff.com). They would basically order a gross of trains, 12 sets of 12 different trains. I think this was because Klein’s was also a distributor KatoUSA (at least I know they did for Unitrak). They would be priced with Klein’s discount (they usual gave a decent discount on most stuff) and it was usually 5-10% above Japanese SRP with the exchange rate at the time. They would sell very slowly for 8-10 months and then they would go on fire sale but the price with shipping was still a tad higher than ordering it from Japan with SAL shipping, so never a deal and always train I had or never was interested. Then a year or so after all gone they would do it again. I think this happened 4 or 5 times over the last decade or two. With all the flips and flops Klein’s has gone thru I doubt they will do this again. Other shops online that had a few Japanese trains thru I expect Katousa or in the old days they Mokei trains importer have closed shop in the last decade.

 

This does happen for odd reasons in Japanese channels unfortunately. Many times is an odd licensing agreement for art or designs and they have Japan only sales rights so technically exporting is not allowed. Usually this is waved if the shop in Japan asks if they are selling directly to a customer and not selling to any sort of us shop or reseller. It does have me wondering with their KatoEurope/England happening if they plan to do their own export site which will be at SRP I’m sure. Worse could be like Tokyo Diorama where they jacked the export prices way high in their site and then forced shops from export, but nicely hobbysearch seems to be ignoring this.

 

I can’t see KatoUSA caring as they have really disliked dealing with any Japanese stuff in the past, makes sense as they just would not make money putting any effort into it. The logistics and cost of stock and shipping would not work well for them.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Not everything is or has to be logical. If they were, the world wouldn't be the way it's.

 

3 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Worse could be like Tokyo Diorama where they jacked the export prices way high in their site and then forced shops from export, but nicely hobbysearch seems to be ignoring this.

 

They aren't. This was a mistake and it shouldn't happen again.

[cteno4]

Well you hope businesses try to work out the situation that works out financially best for them as well as make customers happy and keep good supply chains running. Restricting Kato Japan sales to KatoUSA countries is just not smart. Hurts their bigger shops in Japan that do export, pisses off customers, lowers sales in a tiny market. 
 

I don’t know if TDF is still trying to limit export from shops in Japan. I know they let you guys at J-trains out of the earlier higher export prices. The note I got back from the was the only way to order from US was thru their .com site at the time. TDF .com (export) site price is still like 2x the price on HS (hs does 5% srp discount) and the TDF .jp site (japanese srp).

 

jeff

[Kingmeow]

41 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Well you hope businesses try to work out the situation that works out financially best for them as well as make customers happy and keep good supply chains running. Restricting Kato Japan sales to KatoUSA countries is just not smart. Hurts their bigger shops in Japan that do export, pisses off customers, lowers sales in a tiny market. 

 

Bingo!!!!!

 

BTW, I remembered those Klein's good old days.  I actually went to the store once when I was passing by on my way to a conference in Cambridge, MD.  What a bucket list visit!!

 

But Klein's has been out of business for a few years now so they (whoever they may be in this scenario) should revise their policy of letting Japanese trains into the US, especially when no one is importing Kato Japan stuff at the moment in the US and thus there is not conflict of interest.

[cteno4]

Klein’s was always a fun place to visit. Way back it had horrid lighting and was really packed to the gills. They later cleaned up some and it got a bit brighter and more organized. Not as fun when they moved out to Timonium and they had oodles of space, kind of lost the old charm. We use to go over for a field trip every few months. They were nice and when they moved they gave the club a big pile of old Greenmax building kits (old Mokei Import stuff) at next to nothing as they were cleaning out old stock before the move and thought we could use it.
 

Now back internet only in NC.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

8 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Well you hope businesses try to work out the situation that works out financially best for them as well as make customers happy and keep good supply chains running. Restricting Kato Japan sales to KatoUSA countries is just not smart. Hurts their bigger shops in Japan that do export, pisses off customers, lowers sales in a tiny market. 

No, but it's how it's. Anyway, it only concerns Ami. I don't think Japanese are very bothered to piss off the small(er) overseas markets. That's not where they make their money from.

 

8 hours ago, cteno4 said:

don’t know if TDF is still trying to limit export from shops in Japan. I know they let you guys at J-trains out of the earlier higher export prices. The note I got back from the was the only way to order from US was thru their .com site at the time. TDF .com (export) site price is still like 2x the price on HS (hs does 5% srp discount) and the TDF .jp site (japanese srp).

Afaik, from the last news I had, they had put an export ban in place so the only place for international buyers would be their official retailers and their own shop. Maybe something changed, or HS hasn't sold out their initial stock and the ban only applies to later purchases. I find it telling that HS never bothered to take pictures of the kits or ask TDF for authorization to use their pictures.

[bill937ca]

13 hours ago, Kingmeow said:

But Klein's has been out of business for a few years now so they (whoever they may be in this scenario) should revise their policy of letting Japanese trains into the US, especially when no one is importing Kato Japan stuff at the moment in the US and thus there is not conflict of interest.

 

This is wrong.  Model Train Stuff is still operating and has some Japanese trains right now.

 

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/search#/filter:custom_scale:N/filter:categories_hierarchy:Trains$253EInternational

Edited February 4 by disturbman

[Kingmeow]

2 hours ago, bill937ca said:

 

This is wrong.  Model Train Stuff is still operating and has some Japanese trains right now.

 

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/search#/filter:custom_scale:N/filter:categories_hierarchy:Trains$253EInternational

 

This is wrong too.  🙂

 

Every N-scale item in that link is Out of Stock with a Notify Me button.  This tells me they have no Japanese trains in stock and they list them just because.  Anyone want to try to see how long they have to wait before getting notified?  🙂

 

BTW, Klein's is NOT Model Train Stuff.  Factory Direct bought them out and kept their website name and logo.  Klein's is long gone.

[cteno4]

Yes listings would linger with the notify me I think to gauge if there was interest in the past. I don’t think I ever got any notices when I tried, but would have been a while ago. Their stock seemed to go thru those cycles I mentioned, never seemed to be super serious about it.
 

Alas yes Klein’s was in deep financial trouble and sold out a couple of years back.

 

jeff

 

 

[cteno4]

8 hours ago, disturbman said:

No, but it's how it's. Anyway, it only concerns Ami. I don't think Japanese are very bothered to piss off the small(er) overseas markets. That's not where they make their money from.

Concern is we lost amiami now and will we loose others?
 

Good business is never piss of customers if you can easily help it. Not trying to actively target a market is one thing but shutting down channels with no alternative in place for a market is just dumb. In this case the market in North America is so small KatoUSA could most likely not make money on it and probably loose money and create hassles for their big business pipeline with American stuff in the KatoUSA channel. So why piss off even a small pool of customers who are buying thru the easy Kato Japan channels in Japan and keeping their shops strong which keeps Kato strong and Kato gets a few more sales to boot and makes money thru the existing Japanese channels that work and make money. Kato has lost my loyalty if they continue the export ban, unless they can bring the same selection, ease or ordering and prices to a new NA distribution system that we can currently get from their Japanese channels. I very much doubt they could ever do this and make any money. I don’t see many shops in NA bothering to resell Japanese stuff. Feels like Tomix/walthers all over again.

 

Plus if they set up NA distribution, customers will expect good support and parts they currently get from KatoUSA and that will be a lot of work to do and probably slow and expensive as it has been in the past. Currently buying from Japan you get the we don’t support you outside Japan so at your risk, which we do rush. KatoUSA pissed off a lot of US customers who bought the 500 when it came out way back and KatoUSA pushed it around at the time. It was cool looking so many non Japanese modelers had bought them just to have a bullet train to run at shows. The fragile diaphragm couplers were something US customers were not use to dealing with and many were broken. KatoUSA sort of said well it’s a Kato Japan product we don’t support it and there was a lot of push back. They finally got some diaphragm couplers from Japan to start some replacements then it went to special ordering the part with like $8 shipping (this was like 15 years back so ouch) and took 2 to 3 months. At the time it was like 3x the cost I could order the part from hs and have shipped in an airmail packet cheap and fast (and I did so for a number of us folks I knew in this situation as they kept breaking the couplers). For a few years we would have American modelers griping to us about this and how unreliable Kato Japanese trains were and why didn’t they support the product like other KatoUSA products. I’m sure it soured some of those folks on katoUSA products a bit.

 

8 hours ago, disturbman said:

Afaik, from the last news I had, they had put an export ban in place so the only place for international buyers would be their official retailers and their own shop. Maybe something changed, or HS hasn't sold out their initial stock and the ban only applies to later purchases. I find it telling that HS never bothered to take pictures of the kits or ask TDF for authorization to use their pictures.

Yes this is what seemed to be happening and at first they were trying to get the higher SRP reflected by any export dealers, not sure where that is now. They may not have been aware that places like HS do a decent export business or much of their Japanese stock.
 

What I really object to is doubling the prices on their official export site. Yes I could see a small premium for the hassle of doing export, but they are selling direct so have a much larger margin to absorb this to sell at Japanese srp, not double it. Again smaller markets every customer counts and pissing a few off hurts and word of mouth in a small market is trouble. They have lost any direct business from me in the future and I pass this bit of info along about TDF as it’s just a scummy business practice. 
 

jeff

[disturbman]

For TDF, I can assure you that they are not the only ones thinking that they need to overcharge overseas customers. They don't do it out of greed. They simply think it's the cost of doing business in another language than Japanese. In a way, it reminds me of how Japan reacts to (over)tourism. It shows how still very insular their mindset is.

For Ami, my money is on NA models and Unitrack being the reason behind the ban. The Japanese models only being a collateral casualty.

Edited February 4 by disturbman

[Kingmeow]

What/who is TDF?

 

@cteno4 good write up.  I'll use myself as an example.  I have been a Kato(USA) Fan Boi all along with their US models.  As an engineer (science, not train) I really admire the the design of their locos and how everything it put together PRECISELY without adhesives.  Compare installing a decoder in a Kato vs. an Atlas.  Katos run like a Swiss watch!

 

Anyway, my point is that I wasn't really into Japanese trains until Fall of 2023 when I visited Japan for the first time and was BLOWN away.  So now I'm hooked (🙂) but can't satisfy my addiction interest being in the US and now I'm finding out that KatoUSA is creating some of the reasons why.  Bitter taste in my mouth?  A little bit but KatoUSA just lost a notch in my book.  I know it's only AmiAmi and I have Plaza and Hobby Search but who knows where this may go in the future.

 

Do I have to actually fly to Japan to get my train goods????  Wait!  Hmmm, might not be a bad idea after all.  🤣🤣🤣

[disturbman]

4 minutes ago, Kingmeow said:

What/who is TDF?

Tokyo Diorama Factory. They make very nice building kits. I love their products, but some of their business practices have been ruffling feathers. Mostly Jeff's 😉

If @Wolf was not importing their products, I would use other ways to get them.

Edited February 4 by disturbman

[MrLinderman]

Sounds like I kicked a hornets nest 😅 - Sorry guys 

 

 

[cteno4]

7 minutes ago, MrLinderman said:

Sounds like I kicked a hornets nest 😅 - Sorry guys 

No worries ar all @MrLinderman, these are good discussions to have and why we have the forums! JNS was actualy formed when the other main Japanese modeling email groups like 20 years back had to forbid talking about things like this due to dealer wars that broke out on the lists and finally ban was put on talking about anything about purchasing. This stirred a few folks to start JNS.
 

Yes when they charge 2x the price and force me to buy thru their high price export site it does ruffle my feathers business wise. Price is also just a t a pricepoint that is not worth it. They are not markedly better than sankei (I actually prefer sankei slightly due to their laserboard), the main value is variation on buildings, but at 2x price and being forced to pay that it’s not very attractive, more affordable to put newbies onto.

 

I sent amiami an email to ask why we can’t buy Kato Japanese trains in NA, will be interesting to see if and how they respond. I think you are right disturbman, its Kato not wanting KatoUSA trains being sold to the NA market from Japan and amiami just did a blanket prohibition, may not be easy for the  to distinguish or maybe the are just taking Kato restriction too far? Who knows, will be interesting to hear from amiami. Btw hs and pj are not restricting KatoUSA products from ordering from NA currently.

 

My main concern is for the hobby, the more restrictions on sales like this, increased export prices, and fewer vendors hurts the hobby outside Japan. It’s a battle we still have some today but was always a big impediment to getting new modelers interested as they had the perception that buying from Japan was hard, risky, and expensive when it was the opposite in practice. Plazajapan proved this by doing a huge amount of sales over the years over ebay as scared modelers would take the risk with ebay as a middle man. Also generally we have observed the younger the modeler the less the bank account so trying to entice young modeler’s requires some easy and affordable pathways. Practices like we have been discussing limits those.

 

jeff