Maybe we need to make a modern buying guide? Would you all be interested in something like that?

yikes. thats enough to keep me away. thanks.

Anyone order from fullcarttoys before? I was looking to pre-order some pban stuff from them and was just wondering what the experience was like for some of you that have bought from them.

FYI I was able to place an order on the Dogengers Store using Zenmarket. Hopefully it will arrive sometime this summer.

With mandarake, is there a trick to getting an alert for an item if it pops up in any store, not just one? Or is that how it's supposed to work, and I've messed it up somehow?

I think normally it's across all stores but they might've changed things. I use Buyfriend to set up alerts for Amiami and Mandarake.

Okay, fair, maybe it's just a thing on my end, or it's not in stock long enough to trigger the auto-alert. I guess I'l give that a try.

Well, Jungle Osaka/SCS had me wait 6 days to tell me THEY screwed up the shipping prices (after I paid) now want extra 57,00 Yen. Bought 10 Figuarts. Originally asked to send 6000 for shipping. Have not used them since they RUINED their website, and I truly regret it now.
How are you gonna ask me for more money because YOU screwed up?
Last time I do business with them. Use at own risk while I go get my PayPal refund and use Mandarake instead. What a complete letdown. My Trustpilot review and others will not be kind after this kinda crap

So i had a quetion about how shipping works for mandarake at non-sahra stores. Do you choose the shipping and then they give you an estimate? Or no matter what you choose they give you an estimate for all shipping options available?

They only give you the shipping amount after you place your order, meaning you can't compare like you can SAHRA.

I know that but like are you locked into the shipping ootion you choose or they give you prices for all shipping options and give you the option to swap to the cheapest one.

You're not locked exactly, but you can't just switch at checkout like you can on Amiami. You'll have to email them to ask to change the shipping method and even then, you won't know how much the cost is until after they've implemented the change.

What I do is, I find those items or something close- comparable in size and weight- on Sahra and see how much it would cost for a particular option, and expect a +/- of ~2500Y on that estimate just to be safe.

Ok so im only looking for one item, the sentai artisan digitaizer and battle raizer set. Im trying to get it from nakano or any of the 3 stores that have it. Sahra has it as well. But the estinate that Sahra gives, thats their final price for shipping?

In the case of just that particular item, yes. It changes depending on how large/heavy the overall parcel is, so if you're getting multiple items it's subject to change.

But here's the estimate on the store page (Sahra):
https://i.imgur.com/CCRXcCW.png

And here's the quote when I take it to checkout (Sahra):
https://i.imgur.com/HAvxPBX.png

So this would be about what you could expect to pay at Nakano or elsewhere, give or take 1000 yen or so.

Can the price change drastically if i add say 3 rider shikishis, 3 ranger keys, 4 keychains, and a yugioh promo booster pack? Cause with these using sahra to check, it keeps jumping between 4400 yen and 6300 yen

Assuming all of that is fairly flat it probably wouldn't be a substantial increase, if any. If you start adding Figuarts or similar, then you can expect a bump before too long.

So it could jusy ge sahra glitching and overcharging? And yeah all of it is small and flat. Much smaller than the artisan box.

I can't say for certain, again, it depends on how big the overall parcel is and how heavy. A few ounces can make a huge difference.

anyone ever use a site called Ukiyo Kumo?

Huh, never heard of it, will check it out

What's the best place to get the little Ultraman and Kaiju figures that Bandai releases in droves? The cheap ones with limited articulation that were made for years before they became an in-universe gimmick as Spark Dolls in Ginga.

AmiAmi and HLJ sell them, that's where I'm buying the ones that interest me.

Of course if you're looking for older ones, Mandarake and YJA are where to go.

HLJ has always seemed like the better resource, but they're not nearly as user-friendly as they appear! They also sell-out quickly.

I found a couple of good ones on www.bigbadtoystore.com which I would also recommend.

Mandrake, YJA, and AmiAmi, based on what I could find, don't appear to be as user-friendly in appearance.

Sucks how most of these things are relatively cheap, but they don't last long and aren't regularly reproduced!

They take some getting used to, particularly Manda and YJA (it's easier to search if you use the kanji), but AmiAmi's relatively straightforward, again, just takes some getting used to.

Can you elaborate on what you mean here? Mandarake definitely takes a bit of getting used to with the different stores but once you get over that centimeter-tall hurdle it's fine, and nothing about AmiAmi or HLJ is complicated that I can think of. I don't understand what you mean by non-user friendly?

I've heard of people having a tough time with HLJ. It looks good, but they still complain. It's also real finicky with its stock.

I'm not sure if I found the RIGHT Mandrake or AmiAmi, but what I found isn't as easy to follow as something that affixes itself to one's native tongue.

I went by what I saw. And I was rushing things.

That... still doesn't explain what you found confusing or unfriendly.

Then I must conclude that I lack the necessary ability to articulate what I saw or didn't see.

"Unfriendly" may also be misleading. If the short version failed, I'll attempt the long: I was unfamiliar and lacked the timing and patience needed to understand, but my initial observations did not inspire the same manner of confidence as more familiar resources.

Maybe they mean its not Amazon level of eCommerce

So... I had a question about manda shipping. Which i hope someone can answer. Specifically about the address area.

I live in an apartment, and when i write my address the normal way, like street on adress line 1 and apt# on adress line 2, it looks fine. Until i get to the confirmation screen.

That page has my adress flipped as apartment first and street adress on line 2. I didnt want any errors with my purchase, so i went back and tried to redo the adress info. I wrote apt on line 1 and street on line 2. This fixed the adress to look normal on the confirmation page, the flip puttting the street on line 1 and apt# on line 2.

After that i contacted manda to report the issue and confirm i updated the address. They then took my corrections and sent me an updated invoice with the adress all correct. Street on line 1 and apt# on line 2. I thought that was that.

But when i went to pay via paypal, i guess bc it was pulling the info from the address page i filled out, it took it in the format i wrote it in to deal with that flip issue. So on the paypal payment page, my apt# is on line 1 and street address is on line 2.

Im worried this mix up will cause my bank to decline my purchase through paypal. Has anyone else ever experienced this?

* All the info is there, its just apt and street address are on each others lines in the address on my paypal payment, Like this:

Name
Apt
Street
City
State
Zip
Phone number

I've had it happen to me before as well but it's never been an issue for me.

Yeah. I was worried. But it also didnt give me trouble. Just went through a bit ago.

If I understand it right they're asking for the address in the layout they'd use within Japan, but it gets converted to whatever format your country of residence uses when they put in the information to their shipping service, or the service themselves convert it.

Has anyone used Japan Post Surface shipping recently?

How was it? How long did it take? I haven't used it since before 2020.