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Mandarake Online World Shop -- a good place for used trains


1954G

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Mandarake is a chain of shops that specialize in used manga and anime-related products.  Unlike many Japanese hobby shops, they are willing to ship overseas (EMS, Registered SAL, and DHL shipping methods are available).  Although trains aren't their main line of business, Mandarake does carry used Kato, Tomix, MicroAce, and Modemo stuff.  Their prices are usually as low as or lower than Yahoo JP auctions.

http://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/

 

Above is a link to Mandarake's English page.  New listings appear sporadically.

 

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

 

I've purchased merchandise (anime and tokusatsu figures, mostly) from Mandarake for over two years, and I've never been disappointed in the quality of the used goods I received.  They're a trusted shop among most anime fans.

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the_weird_one

You know their Nanako Broadway stores are my first visit on landing in Japan but I've never been in the scale store, only the Manga, Cel, figure and Garage Kit stores.

 

And online is pretty much the same, never thought to look at them for trains.

 

 

And now I have an urge to go shopping

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Good source! Thanks for sharing! Couldn't find something I like/ need for the moment, but will keep that in mind. True, cheaper prices for older items as compared to Yahoo Auctions.

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The stores themselves are hit or miss with stock. Mandrake in Sapporo had more trains than many hobby shops I have been to last year, yet the Mandrake in Matsuyama had nothing.

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densha (電車) is the generic word for train (though it actually refers to electric trains); tetsudo (鉄道) is "railway", and tetsudo mokei (鉄道模型) is "model railway".

 

The Nakano shop is on my list of places to check out, not sure when I'll get around to it but I'll post an update when I do.

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Some nice items listed there, but a word of warning: I placed an order on the 8th and it took a week for them to confirm stock availability, by which time 2 of the 3 items I'd ordered had sold out and I was left paying more in shipping and handling than for the actual item. So what had seemed like a good catch with some nice items turned out to be not such a bargain after all.

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Some nice items listed there, but a word of warning: I placed an order on the 8th and it took a week for them to confirm stock availability, by which time 2 of the 3 items I'd ordered had sold out and I was left paying more in shipping and handling than for the actual item. So what had seemed like a good catch with some nice items turned out to be not such a bargain after all.

I should have mentioned that possibility in my original post.

 

For future reference, you can click on the "cancel this order if this item is out of stock" check box during checkout. When making an order with many items, this option is very useful.

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Thanks for the head ups.  Already found something I want.  And now save proxy buyer fees, shipping to proxy buyer warehouse and consumption tax (if from yahoo shop).  On a 12,000 yen item, I saved about 3,000 yen.

Edited by katoftw
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Thanks for the head ups.  Already found something I want.  And now save proxy buyer fees, shipping to proxy buyer warehouse and consumption tax (if from yahoo shop).  On a 12,000 yen item, I saved about 3,000 yen.

 

Glad you found something you wanted. I ended up getting a Tomix H5 limited set.

 

I was a little disappointed in their Kato selection this month, though. No steam locos, no blue trains, no American or European prototypes. Oh well.

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Of 130 something models, there was only 1 I wanted.  If I can find 1 per months of my hard to find list, I'll be happy.  Still quicker than the current rate of finds.

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its too bad they dont do sal a few little tempting things there cheap, but with ems no longer so cheap to pick up, but easy access place to some odd used bits that are oos elsewhere at times...

 

jeff

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its too bad they dont do sal a few little tempting things there cheap, but with ems no longer so cheap to pick up, but easy access place to some odd used bits that are oos elsewhere at times...

 

jeff

You do have to admit though, EMS from Asia is still very cheap compared to Europe and most other places. SAL isn't an option for me generally as I am impatient and it takes way too long for it to get here and through customs than it used to..

Go the base address (http://mandarake.co.jp) and then select english, then register. Then you can select US as a country. (they even have Hungary available) Having an english interface is really nice, compared to some shops which are japanese only.

Thank you!!

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk

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luckily here in the US SAL rarely gets hung up in customs and its pretty dead on 2 weeks and is so damn inexpensive and reliable here!

 

yes ems is relatively inexpensive, the US international shipping alternative is a few times more expensive! even our two week service is much more than sal! a stupid 3 oz small padded envelope sent from the us to japan first class is even $7!

 

cheers

 

jeff

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its too bad they dont do sal a few little tempting things there cheap, but with ems no longer so cheap to pick up, but easy access place to some odd used bits that are oos elsewhere at times...

 

jeff

 

You can use registered SAL with Mandarake.  http://www.mandarake.co.jp/en/information/ship.html

 

Most of my orders from them have been eligible for registered SAL (one time I ordered a non-train item that was too big and had to go EMS).   

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Doh! I missed the whole second half of the sentence! I guess my brain saw the EMS table below and them saying we ship EMS and stopped! Damn now I need to keep an eye out there... Not sure wether to say thank you 1954G.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

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roadstar_na6

I‘ve read on other pages that their shipping costs to overseas are quite high, can anyone confirm this? I‘m thinking about buying something I haven‘t found cheaper elsewhere but if their shipping is more expensive than others I could also order it for a higher price but save money as shipping might be cheaper.

Weight would be around 1.2kg for the item + packaging and Mandarake doesn‘t list shipping prices and will quote them only after I placed the order.

 

Thanks in advance!

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roadstar_na6
40 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

[...]

My preferred choice of small Air Mail is also still an option as well as EMS but I won't be using that unless cheaper than everything else.

 

I'd just like to know if the shipping prices in general are higher compared to other online retailers or higher/lower?

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