Thread 11602379

Hey guys. Can we just take a moment to give thanks to the greatest 2nd hand store to exist on their 45 Year anniversary!
I've been addicted every since I found it 20 years ago and have undoubtably spent more with them than any other store.
Share your Mandarake memories, from the elating wins to the crushing misses!

>>11602379 (OP)
Ok. You first,

>>11602379 (OP)
I’m afraid I have no interesting stories because every transaction has been extremely quick and easy. Even though this is how I feel after blowing all my fun money on mandarake.
Shipping creeping up and up is less fun and pleasant though.

>>11602379 (OP)
I've never bought a single thing from them and now with the tariffs I likely never will.

>>11602385
Damn. So many good ones, but one of my personal success stories was bfw balacus for 25k when he was going or $2000 on ebay.

Mandarake = god. Fuck I wish I could still buy from them and I wish I bought more stuff before tarrifs/de minimis ended. I only got a couple things but they were quite good deals. Got my Figma grail Okabe from Steins Gate there. Also got Snail Shell Modernia unopened for super cheap basically free shipping. They always shipped very fast too like next day while other Japanese sites usually take at least a week.

I occasionally still browse stuff but I know I shouldn't because it's painful seeing great deals and then seeing how much it would cost to ship

Omedetou Mandarake. Maybe I'll see a box with your logo on it again in the next life...

>>11602401
>>11602395
I’m sure you guys will make it back out of your tariff situation eventually. In a couple of years. Take heart in that Eurofags also get turbotaxed, though maybe not so badly.

Thinking back, I got Hikaru for around £60 shipped quite recently.
Luv me mandarake
Luv me bargains
Simple as

>>11602401
>Maybe I'll see a box with your logo on it again in the next life...
I've got those boxes all around my house being used for storage and other things. Its hilarious. They cat even sleeps in one :)

>>11602379 (OP)
>spent more with them than any other store.
How much do you think you've spent?

>>11602422
I don't even want to think about how bad prices will be in this hobby in a couple of years considering how much they've shot up in just the last few.

>>11602482
Fuck knows. I wasn't going to go into each order and tally them up, but i'm up to the 8th page in my order history and each page is 48 orders, so over 350.
If you average each one at 10,000 yen, that's 3.5 million yen, which equates to.........................
............................about $25,000 USD
sheesh

>>11602379 (OP)
I mean... I just buy stuff from them. I don't have much else to say except that I love them. These two were from mandarake

>>11602379 (OP)
I wish I could have bought more, before the bad times hit. Tried buying a 2,500 yen trading figure, cost me $70 total after shipping and tariffs.

>>11602386
My experience with Mandarake has always been pleasant as well. Gotten really nice things, almost feels like im stealing japanese heritage to stick in my filthy gaijin cabinet.

I'd like to take this opportunity and tell people to NOT BUY FROM HOBBY GENKI. They flat out will try to refuse refunds and replacments and worst of all will resell your QC issue copy on their atore as used

>>11602559
>>11602594
>>11602597
They really are great. My only frustration is there inability to combine across their different stores like Jungle can.
I recently started backfilling some of the Naruto SHF I was missing and managed to snag both a Gaara and Lee for good prices (compared to the current after market), but had to ship them separately. It's not the end of the world though, and I never seem to pay any import tax with them regardless of the value.

>>11602607
insane when you compare to ebay prices.
Has anyone here used Goofish yet? I heard it is pretty good, but complicated if you're not chinese.

>>11602422
It's been a fuckup since poohflu. They blew up the shipping since then.

>>11602379 (OP)
>to the crushing misses!
I have a good one, march of 2020, shit's about to hit the fan, one random night i stumble upon 3 honda nsr 500 (pic related) for like 5k yen each (in the west each one goes upwards of 200 usd) and somehow i manage to snag them.They get shipped a day later and up until then everything was normal... until they get to the airport. A week passes and nothing... deep into the second week I start to get nervous... and out of the blue the nips announce they're canceling all shipments. My package is returned to manda and couple of days later they contact me saying since they have no idea when they'll be able to ship again they've sent me a refund. A day later they put them up again for 6 or 7k yen this time and i never see them again.

>>11602379 (OP)
During my first trip to Japan, I visited the one closest to central Akihabara (I think there's a a second one further away also in Akihabara). It was cool, but I was surprised the toy selection seemed more limited than online. Later I learned each location has a different focus on product categories.
Anyways, I bought a crap ton of the original Digimon cards for cheap ($10) in a card cubes from them. That was fun to come across.
I use their online store infrequently, and it is always really nice. I usually only use it for super obscure stuff, like certain seal stickers, cardboard displays, and some sofubi. Its sort of rare to see the alerts go off. However, a few weeks ago I bought an early doujin from a mangaka that I really. That was pretty nice.

I used to love Mandarake because of the absolutely stupid deals you could find there for both new and old items. I would always wait for a Figma to release, give it a week or two, and then buy the thing for half or more off on Manda. That doesn't happen anymore though. Not sure when it started to happen exactly, but they stopped doing good deals for basically every single figure and model kit line I'm interested in. Hell, most of the time they're more expensive than I could get elsewhere. Amiami's pre-owned section or Suruga-ya gives better deals on my stuff now. I'll forever love them though simply because the majority of my collection came from them. I probably have a collection worth 15K or so that only cost me somewhere in the 3-4k range (over about 14 years) because of their old deals. I'll probably never order from them again, but I'll love them all the same.

>>11602379 (OP)
Truly the rulers of all time.

>>11602994
that's called a clock.

>>11602915
I would always love to visit a Mandarake store irl. Maybe ill get to go to Japan for my 50th, but travel is so expensive its cheaper just to collect toys ;)

>>11603085
This is unfortunately my view too, I'd love to go around Japan buying stuff but just getting it online is cheaper.

One time I got banned for Mandarake for years because I ordered a figure off eBay that wasn't in their online store as a last resort. Apparently the ebay seller was doing some sort of scamming and I would have to order through a friend as a proxy
After asking them why I couldn't order directly, they sent me why they banned my address- an order I made off ebay that had the payment defaulted through the card company. the, luckily I don't erase my purchase emails so I showed them the order from two years prior and they were able to sort out the situation, telling me they were a known fraudster and ominously warning me not to do the same thing which has made me skeptical about ordering any Japanese product off eBay.
I will notice some items on eBay that are Mandarake listings too even now.
I'm glad the situation was sorted but it is kinda nerve-wracking that if they I could get banned again if I buy through another seller like that.

>>11602476
I threw out so many of these boxes, now i wish i could see just one more little one.

>>11603211
…do you want me to take you a picture of one I’m keeping for sending out eBay stuff in?

>>11602379 (OP)
One time I ordered something and when i re-read the description I noticed it was damaged so I cancelled. At that time I was scared they will block me
Think I bought a different one later from them

>>11603625
What Mandarake deems as "damaged" is just light signs of use that are hardly noticeable most of the time, I always prioritized buying damaged goods from them because they're significantly cheaper while still being close to new. If they don't provide pictures of the damage you can rest assured that it's a non-issue.

>>11603626
This. If there's anything actually noteworthy they usually list it in the actual description of the listing or take extra photos.

>>11603392
Well honestly I meant more in person. I suppose I still have one, I just bought a DX GoGoV in the summer and I probably keep some stuff in storage in one. I'm more lamenting not having a package from them every month or two.

>>11602379 (OP)
I didn’t know they had a real store for a second I thought
“No way has online shopping been around 45 years”

I stopped buying so much merch before I found them but I really enjoy going through their listings for obscure stuff. All the old character phone cards and perfumes and whatever. It's neat.

Never ordered from Mandarake but I lived in Japan for about 7 years and visited probably like 5 or 6 locations. One of my apartments at the time was in Nakano, so I was 3 minutes from the main store.

Right before leaving the country I had friend's dad help me transport my entire Japanese transformers collection to the Mandarake in Akiba. Needed a truck for the whole spread, and sold it to them for so much less than it was worth! lol

>>11604645
During the buyout they pay about 20-25% of the price they sell for, Mandarake is notoriously stingy among these types of second-hand hobby shops. Surugaya pays at least 30% and their sell prices are often lower than Manda's. I think the biggest perk Mandarake has over others is that they deal with a really wide range of collectibles, stuff like movie posters from 40 years ago and obscure garage kits that many others wouldn't take.

I have ordered so much shit from them, though I haven't recently due to tariffs and shit. One of my last orders I got Revoltechs of Melona and Nanael from Queen's Blade. There was this one peg looking part that came with Melona, and I really didn't know what it was for. This was the image from their page for Melona. I check on Nanael and she's missing the milk liquid from her bottle. It turns out I guess when they were cleaning and inspecting the figures, the milk part must had fallen out of Naneal's bottle and ended up being placed with Melona. It's a very loose piece that doesn't stay in the bottle. I'm glad I have it, though I store it away not to lose it.

>>11602379 (OP)
I've never bought anything from them, are they really good? I usually buy my stuff from Mercari

>>11604649
I really wish Suruga-ya’s English site wasn’t so jacked up in price, even with free shipping, their jp site is so much more affordable.