What did you order or the post deliver? (Japanese N Gauge)

[Cat]

1 hour ago, ED75-775 said:

What took you so long, Cat? Seriously - this is a good book, but very dangerous for giving you ideas. As Jeff says, not cheap but worth it! And the Garupan manga looks interesting too.

 

Alastair

Because of the price, I've kept putting it off until it would be really handy to make the shipping worthwhile.  There have been a couple of times when it was in the cart, but the shipping went down when I took it out.
 
Roxanne & I both enjoy good track plan books, and are looking forward to some hot cups of cocoa and this. 

Once in awhile we pull out our Iain Rice library and go through his great work again.  [Sad news, he passed away a few months ago.]

[maihama eki]

WaMu as a station reminds me of my childhood in a small town in eastern Montana. In the winter, they would flood the high school football practice field and let it freeze into a sheet of ice for skating. We were in school in the daytime, so we went ice skating at night after dinner. It was often below 0 F. The "warming house" where you changed into your skates and went to take a warm-up break was an old boxcar that sat on the edge of the field. There might have been a kerosene heater in the boxcar, but I remember it was only a little better than being outside. I wasn't a good skater and mostly remember how cold my feet and hands would get, but I did think it was fun to be able to go inside a boxcar.

Edited January 6, 2023 by maihama eki

[railsquid]

Contemporary Nanbu Line:

 

Tomix E233-8000 series (Nanbu Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Tomix E233-8000 series (Nanbu Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Kamome]

Couldn’t resist expanding my cement production operations with a twin set of Microace Chichibu Wokis and a Deki 300 to pull them. I am hoping to change out all of the rapido couplers on both the wagons and loco to something more accustomed to the rest of my fleet. 

Work is continuing on the fashioning of a limestone hopper loader from the Tomytec coaling towers to create some kind of quarry facility. Good to now have something to go under it. 

[Aleks]

I got my first experience with Mandarake by mail today... an older item that had been sold out everywhere for a while and is at way too high prices on eBay. A Kato Centram, white. Placed order on December 31, arrived yesterday. I believe it is a new item (though may have been on display, the box slightly damaged, I think they said in Nakano). Total cost with shipping 12,500 yen ($97), compared to eBay selling a couple new ones right now for $170 including shipping.

 

This one seems like the most demanding tram I have for the quality of the track. My DC track is not very well laid out as it's temporary, but everything else kind of negotiates it. This one stumbles every time it goes out of a Unitrack curve into Unitram platform.

 

Model:

 

Real one in Toyama Rail stop, which then was a terminus, on a rainy evening in April 2017

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Aleks

[nah00]

I have to live up to the title of 'Koki Fanatic' by adding yet another dozen to the fleet...Also even after raiding my two container yards to load this up they still are far from empty. I kinda want to mix up the UM12s somewhat but will probably just leave them like this. Also the end lights on this set are much brighter, I didn't poke around too much to see if the design is different but it does look like now it can take a DCC decoder.

[Jimbo]

just ordered a Micro Ace dmu  A6079 KIHA 147 + KIHA47 i haven't good luck with micro ace but wanted this one.  plus a tomix lighted platform

Edited January 8, 2023 by Jimbo

[katoftw]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

just ordered a Micro Ace dmu  A6079 KIHA 147 + KIHA47 i haven't good luck with micro ace but wanted this one.  plus a tomix lighted platform

I got that set. Had no issues.

[Kamome]

Don’t have the Hayato no Kaze but do have the 2 car Ibutama, as well as 3 car Shinpei and all my MA stock runs beautifully smooth. 

[Cat]

Package from 1999 just landed.  The WaMu case is perfect for Shorties, just need to widen the foam slots a wee bit.
 

[Beaver]

The one and only Bandai N-B4 layout base to be found on Ebay. Seem to be as rare as dinosaur poo.

 

I don't have many shorties any more, but it will be very useful for smaller H0e and 009 stock.

[Aleks]

This was not originally in my plans because I never rode it and have never even seen it in person, but the train is so beautiful, I knew resistance was futile. It was sold out quickly too... and available at too high prices on eBay, but magically one turned up at an online retailer in Texas, at a price that I could rationalize. It came yesterday and immediately was unboxed and received its DCC decoder, and is about to go through speed calibration on my small layout...

 

I guess now I need to figure out a reason to go to Izu again, although I have already been there twice. Maybe riding the front car of this train could be the reason in and of itself...

 

 

 

The old and the new...

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Aleks

[ED75-775]

No new trains... yet, but plenty on the book front that could tie into future purchases. A moment of weakness and Mandarake book searches turned up a couple of tasty tramway books - plus one or two railway ones. Of course I couldn't resist, but then made the mistake of being impatient and paid the price for it, literally. DHL postage (¥6,600) actually cost more than the purchase price (¥6,000). Ouch! My bad, my bad...

 

Currently waiting to be sent from Nakano:

• Icaros MOOK Streetcar Yearbook 2022

• Icaros MOOK Streetcar EX 14 (looks to be a photo book which could be useful for ideas for a tram layout)

• Taishou Shuppan Hirokazu Hasegawa The era of Yokohama City Trams

• RM Library Volume 43 "Kawasaki City Tramway"

• RM Library Volume 76 "Kobe Streetcar in its Heyday" (Vol. 2)

• RM Library Volume 221 "Runner Cars"

• Graphic-sha Complete visual guide for all Shinkansen models

And then because I got carried away and started lurking on Yahoo! Auctions Japan:

• RM Library Volume 19 "Tokyo Toden 6000 Series"
• RM Library Volume 75 "Kobe Streetcar in its Heyday" (Vol. 1)
• RM Library Volume 117 "Last Days of Kyoto City Trams" (Vol. 1)
• RM Library Volume 118 "Last Days of Kyoto City Trams" (Vol. 2)

In total that's nine tramway books to help me towards a goal of becoming the 'expert' on Japanese trams at the tramway museum I volunteer at (because one of our older members already thinks I hold that position, eek!) and maybe building a tram layout, one Shinkansen book to complement my Encyclopedia of Shinkansen purchased at Ueno Station back in 2019, and one freight car book which looked interesting and got my curiosity engine rumbling. Turns out, it's about the different Hi-series runner cars used when loading train ferries across Japan. Interesting stuff! And now that's got me interested in other volumes on rolling stock... oh buffers, rabbit holes again!

 

At present there's another (checks Zenmarket quickly) twelve RM Library volumes sitting on my watchlist waiting to be snaffled. These should hopefully make up for what I deem to be the disappointing New Releases offerings for the foreseeable future. I'm marking myself safe (and extremely bored) from 99.99% of what's already been announced.

 

On 1/6/2023 at 3:15 PM, Cat said:

Roxanne & I both enjoy good track plan books, and are looking forward to some hot cups of cocoa and this. 

Once in awhile we pull out our Iain Rice library and go through his great work again.  [Sad news, he passed away a few months ago.]

Sounds like quality time to me, Cat!

 

5 hours ago, Aleks said:

...and available at too high prices on eBay...

Aleks buddy, I hate to point this out, but that seems to be a general rule of thumb for Japanese N-gauge from fleaBay. You will pay through the nose for it. Seriously. Do yourself a favour, get a Buyee or Zenmarket account if you haven't already so you can buy from Japanese auctions or web stores. The prices will likely be more reasonable unless you are looking for something rare (500 Type EVA, anyone?) or obscure, so you should be able to make your dollar go further.

 

I only know this because I have a eBay account, and while I've only used it to go after books and Märklin H0 stock that I can't get here, I have looked at N-gauge models from time to time. The Japanese ones can be ridiculously overpriced, though every now and again you might find a real diamond in the rough if you are lucky.

 

Alastair

Edited January 11, 2023 by ED75-775

[Tonytramman]

a few items arrived recently. 

[Aleks]

9 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Currently waiting to be sent from Nakano:

• Icaros MOOK Streetcar Yearbook 2022

• Icaros MOOK Streetcar EX 14 (looks to be a photo book which could be useful for ideas for a tram layout)

• Taishou Shuppan Hirokazu Hasegawa The era of Yokohama City Trams

• RM Library Volume 43 "Kawasaki City Tramway"

• RM Library Volume 76 "Kobe Streetcar in its Heyday" (Vol. 2)

• RM Library Volume 221 "Runner Cars"

• Graphic-sha Complete visual guide for all Shinkansen models

And then because I got carried away and started lurking on Yahoo! Auctions Japan:

• RM Library Volume 19 "Tokyo Toden 6000 Series"
• RM Library Volume 75 "Kobe Streetcar in its Heyday" (Vol. 1)
• RM Library Volume 117 "Last Days of Kyoto City Trams" (Vol. 1)
• RM Library Volume 118 "Last Days of Kyoto City Trams" (Vol. 2)

In total that's nine tramway books to help me towards a goal of becoming the 'expert' on Japanese trams at the tramway museum I volunteer at (because one of our older members already thinks I hold that position, eek!) and maybe building a tram layout, one Shinkansen book to complement my Encyclopedia of Shinkansen purchased at Ueno Station back in 2019, and one freight car book which looked interesting and got my curiosity engine rumbling. Turns out, it's about the different Hi-series runner cars used when loading train ferries across Japan. Interesting stuff! And now that's got me interested in other volumes on rolling stock... oh buffers, rabbit holes again!

 

Aleks buddy, I hate to point this out, but that seems to be a general rule of thumb for Japanese N-gauge from fleaBay. You will pay through the nose for it. Seriously. Do yourself a favour, get a Buyee or Zenmarket account if you haven't already so you can buy from Japanese auctions or web stores. The prices will likely be more reasonable unless you are looking for something rare (500 Type EVA, anyone?) or obscure, so you should be able to make your dollar go further.

 

I only know this because I have a eBay account, and while I've only used it to go after books and Märklin H0 stock that I can't get here, I have looked at N-gauge models from time to time. The Japanese ones can be ridiculously overpriced, though every now and again you might find a real diamond in the rough if you are lucky.

 

Alastair

 

Thanks Alastair! Yes I figured out as much. I mostly purchase trains on Plaza Japan, seems better prices than 1999.co.jp at the moment, cheaper shipping and no US sales taxes. And then I recently spent 11 days in Japan and came back with tons of rail stuff for my next project, and a few incidentals including E233 Ueno Tokaido train. The Saphir I just got was online found after googling for it, and not on eBay. In fact, I got an ad today for a 4-car Saphir on eBay for 15% higher price than what I just paid for the 8 cars...

 

It looks like there is a community of sellers on eBay who buy stuff while it's available, and then place it on sale at 2x or even higher the prices... they know trains will eventually sell out and though they may have to keep it in stock for a year or more, eventually they will be the only or one of very few sources where it's available. So I only bought a few parts on eBay where of course I overpaid 2x but it was small purchases and paying shipping from Japan did not make sense... and a couple of Bachmann PCC trams that I was able to auction for a good price.

 

The tram books you buy, are they all photos, do they have maps/other information? I have over the years got a few tram books though not for Japan. Also I usually buy when there is information about the network's history and maps, not just photos. I am thinking buying the 50 layouts 

 

And yes I agree the trains announced for 2023 are not too exciting. I ordered the Azusa Kaiji which I previously missed, but that's it... Which is actually good as I am running out of even planned space for storage.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Aleks

[bill937ca]

15 hours ago, Aleks said:

 available at too high prices on eBay,

Prices on eBay are for the timid or naïve.  There are many alternative buying venues.

 

JNS has a Supplier forum, but here are some alternative sources, https://jnsforum.com/community/forum/51-suppliers/.

 

Rail Gallery Rokko, a small hobby shop dealing with international orders. Model Trains Plus, another small dealer dealing with international orders. Mandarake, a chain of second hand shops with at least one dedicated train shop. Plaza Japan is one eBay dealer I have dealt with since  2007, they now have a normal website.

 

Proxy Services allow you to bid on items selling online in Japan, notably on Yahoo Auctions Japan, like Zen Market.

Edited January 11, 2023 by disturbman
unreadable on phones

[disturbman]

48 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

Prices  on eBay are for the timid or naïve.  There are many alternative buying venues.

Except the set in question is sold out in Japan. Need to pass through proxy services. In these cases, eBay can be a good avenue to find something that is not available anymore, you can some time find sets at okay prices. Though they are quite a few Japanese scalpers on eBay that sells items at an inflated price.

[Aleks]

1 hour ago, bill937ca said:

Prices on eBay are for the timid or naïve.  There are many alternative buying venues.

 

JNS has a Suppler forum, but here are some alternative sources.       https://jnsforum.com/community/forum/51-suppliers/

 

Rail Gallery Rokko, a small hobby shop dealing with international orders.               https://rg-rokko.com/

Model Trains Plus, another small dealer dealing with international orders               https://www.modeltrainplus.net/

Mandarake, a chain of second hand shops with at least one dedicated train shop     https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/ListPage/list?keyword=N gauge&lang=en

 

Proxy Services allow you to bid on items selling online in Japan.

Zen Market  https://zenmarket.jp/

 

Plaza Japan, is one eBay dealer I have dealt with since  2007       https://www.plazajapan.com/model-train/n-scale/

 

 

Yes, thank you Bill! It's a great reference list to use in the future, including some I did not know of. I am not a timid one when it comes to google searches. I also find just simply doing Google search and looking at the Shopping tab can identify interesting opportunities. This is how I found the Safir which is otherwise sold out everywhere except with eBay scalpers.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Aleks

[Jimbo]

well it got here!! runs well an very quite!! i installed a light kit in it love it

[brill27mcb]

I wouldn't say that Ebay is a bad source, only that certain individual sellers have predatory pricing and a buyer has to be knowledgeable. You can soon figure out who the bad sellers are and just pass over their listings.

 

These days, even some good Ebay and off-Ebay sellers have relatively unfavorable prices, because they bought their inventory and set their prices accordingly in the past, before currency exchange rates changed to make thing less expensive for foreign buyers.

 

Rich K.

[Aleks]

55 minutes ago, brill27mcb said:

I wouldn't say that Ebay is a bad source, only that certain individual sellers have predatory pricing and a buyer has to be knowledgeable. You can soon figure out who the bad sellers are and just pass over their listings.

 

These days, even some good Ebay and off-Ebay sellers have relatively unfavorable prices, because they bought their inventory and set their prices accordingly in the past, before currency exchange rates changed to make thing less expensive for foreign buyers.

 

Rich K.

 

Very true. The exchange rates are favorable now (well, not as much anymore as 3 months ago, but still very good), and lot of inventories on the market in US dollars must have been purchased back at 100:1 or thereabouts.

[ED75-775]

2 hours ago, brill27mcb said:

I wouldn't say that eBay is a bad source, only that certain individual sellers have predatory pricing and a buyer has to be knowledgeable. You can soon figure out who the bad sellers are and just pass over their listings.

Sounds like words of wisdom to me, Rich. I'm always very careful in what I buy and doing due diligence about whether it's the right price for me, and right shipping. True, you can get some good deals on eBay from time to time, it's all in the looking or sometimes lurking. It also helps when you also find a motivated seller who knows what they're doing and is willing to go the extra mile with their service. Personal case in point: this delivery from France mid-last year, which was offered by a motivated seller who made me an offer I literally couldn't refuse.

 

4 hours ago, Aleks said:

The tram books you buy, are they all photos, do they have maps/other information? I have over the years got a few tram books though not for Japan. Also I usually buy when there is information about the network's history and maps, not just photos. I am thinking of buying the 50 layouts 

At this stage I'm not sure Aleks. Some of them may be specifically photo albums which could be very useful for inspiring scenes on a future layout. RM Library on the other hand tends to be a bit of everything - photos, informative text, and occasionally diagrams of rolling stock/track plans/timetables depending on what each volume is about. I purchased Re-Library Vol. 7 "Usui Pass" late last year and it has all of the above in it.

If you have the opportunity to go for the 50 Track Plans book, I'd highly recommend it. @Tony Galiani was the one who got me interested in it back in March 2021, and I finally brought a copy last year. Very inspirational!

 

5 hours ago, Aleks said:

And yes I agree the trains announced for 2023 are not too exciting.

So far, the only trains I have on order for this year are two Tomix offerings: the two-car KiHa 40-500 set and the WaMu 60000 boxcars. No shiny new steam locomotives, no trains I've ridden on (though I did see the E353s at Shinjuku in 2019, that's not reason enough to buy one), and barely any Tohoku-appropriate stuff that would warrant me going crazy on preorders. That being said, this year I'm probably not going to be safe from my Märklin H0 addiction!

 

Alastair

[Kamome]

2 hours ago, brill27mcb said:

 

I wouldn't say that Ebay is a bad source, only that certain individual sellers have predatory pricing and a buyer has to be knowledgeable. You can soon figure out who the bad sellers are and just pass over their listings.

 

 

Yes, for those new to Japanese railway modelling or to the forum, ebay is not the only culprit. There are a wealth of sellers that bump up prices. Not just independent scalpers. A very well known model railway retailer in the UK does this despite the cost for such product being way under British outline prices. Yet, they seem to price point based on what the local market “expects” to pay, rather than what the item costs them, plus shipping plus their profit. Japanese outline can often be seen at 3 times the cost it would be at retail in Japan so the mark up is considerable, even when you factor in rising fuel costs and general profiteering using recent conflicts as a “viable excuse”.  They have even done this with stock that has been in store for years. A blanket rise on everything. 

 

It also happens in Japan, Amazon sellers, Yahoo Auctions, especially on HO product due to much less frequent production runs. Products are often priced a fair bit above the SRP even for older product and especially used prices. It’s not always the case, you just have to shop around a bit and use your head. 

 

Best Tips

Look at Japanese pricing of the product and what it would equate to in your currency, factoring  in shipping and import duty. Perhaps allow some wiggle room for postal ransom demands. Is the asking price reasonable?

Let your head rule.

Set yourself a limit and stick to it.

Don’t let the words “rare” fool you. Japanese N gauge is generally produced in larger quantities than other countries railway models. It is not rare but may not be carried by many retailers in your particular country. 

 

[cteno4]

7 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Sounds like words of wisdom to me, Rich. I'm always very careful in what I buy and doing due diligence about whether it's the right price for me, and right shipping. True, you can get some good deals on eBay from time to time, it's all in the looking or sometimes lurking. It also helps when you also find a motivated seller who knows what they're doing and is willing to go the extra mile with their service. Personal case in point: this delivery from France mid-last year, which was offered by a motivated seller who made me an offer I literally couldn't refuse.

On ebay it’s more about lurking for deals and avoiding the scalpers. I’ve gotten many deals over the years on ebay us while lurking searches. It was also how I met Nariichi San of model train plus before he had his store and was selling off second hand stock batches he found on ebay. It’s not going to be as direct as yahoo jp auctions, but there is potential still there if you have patience and perseverance.

 

there are retailers in the us who mark up Japanese stock 2-3x as well with the perception that it’s an expensive import. Preys on folks who don’t know the real prices or have cash and don’t care.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

3 hours ago, Kamome said:

Look at Japanese pricing of the product and what it would equate to in your currency, factoring  in shipping and import duty. Perhaps allow some wiggle room for postal ransom demands. Is the asking price reasonable?

That's how I price my items, by checking the second hand market price in Japan, but the crash of the yen has rendered this more difficult. Somehow, the abnormally low yen cratered the price of our collection when these items don't really depreciate if you take good care of them and they haven't been replaced by new runs with new motors or lighting. I have quite a few sets I would like to sell on the forum but I don't know if my asking prices for some of these would be considered reasonable.

Also, eBay takes about 11,5% commission on sale price plus shipping which adds pressure to the price, and shipping as become extremely expensive when going out of region. For example, fully insured shipping is now around 46€ from Germany to Australia for a single set with DHL. When factoring eBay's commission, that needs to be bumped up to 51€ to not lose money on the shipping.

The situation is difficult.