MP 25 Tracks preorder discussion thread

[Abraxys]

Originally Posted by Oberon Prime

I never looked all that closely at AE but I would never of thought their prices on the cars would be so much more than HLJ to start with but to add onto that their increase for Tracks is truly shocking.

yeah....i put AE by accident, I was talking about Nippo Yassan All these japan retailers are giving me headaches.

HLJ did increase but 8$ for accessories seems alright to me. Im going with HLJ for now....hopefully their shipping isnt 24$ >.>

[Oberon Prime]

Originally Posted by Abraxys

yeah....i put AE by accident, I was talking about Nippo Yassan All these japan retailers are giving me headaches.

HLJ did increase but 8$ for accessories seems alright to me. Im going with HLJ for now....hopefully their shipping isnt 24$ >.>

Well I was expecting less than $10 as this is what I paid for shipping Wheeljack and Bumblebee. But then due to weight and size restrictions on SAL shipping I had to go with EMS for Magnus which cost me nearly $40. So I suppose in the grand scheme as long as its somewhere inbetween I will be okay with that.

[infinite_virtue]

Originally Posted by elburrito

Not sure if anyone is aware of "Mandarake". This is an Asian online "Zellers" of toys. While it is hit and miss for availability/stock, sometimes one can find great deals.

They had exhaust a while back for less than $50 CAD shipped!

There are a couple of problems with this site though:

1. when you first arrive at the site, it will give you an "over 18" or not option. Choose "not" or face the landslide of plastic statue porn, and

2. for non-Japanese speakers, if you use an online translator to convert your search term into Japanese, your search on Mandarake (and some of the other Asian sites) will be more effective.

I have not found Tracks on Mandarake yet, but he is coming and I'll bet when he does, it'll be less expensive than other places.

I wouldn't quite call Mandarake a "Zellers" type store. Mandarake is actually a shope that sells second-hand stuff which is why you tend to find items for cheaper. It all really depends on the current market price. It's also the reason why you won't be seeing Tracks on Mandarake until after he has been released, so sometime in Sep/Oct.

I mostly buy from HLJ and AmiAmi and from my experience, AmiAmi shipping tends to be higher than HLJ because they use larger boxes and more paper stuffing than HLJ does which kind of negates the savings unless you buy enough in one shipment to make it worth it. I decided to pre-order from HLJ this time around.

[Darth Cylon]

I got my MP-20/21/22/23 and 21G from NY. It was great. I still think the shipping with MP-25 is wrong as the box size and contents just cannot be physically bigger and heavier than MP-22. Actually come to think of it. NY made a mistake on MP-22 too as it was obviously over the shipping weight limit by SAL so they shipped it by EMS even though I paid for SAL Registered.

But please don't bash NY for this. I went with HLJ for MP-25 this time. Yes it's 6000 yen there and HLJ is generally a few bucks more expensive than other Japanese sellers but they have a lot more offer on what they sell. Amiami is always sold out, NY jack up prices like crazy after releases (23500 yen for MP-12??), and AE wants your money up front. HLJ offer privater warehouse up to 60 days so I can always do different combine shipping with other stuff I buy from them.

Mind you if NY got the the price and shipping right for the next MP *Ironhide* I would gladly order from NY again.

[brr-icy]

got mine ordered

[Pgianos]

When retailers want money up front I know we complain but what it does for the retailers is it gives them buying power so if they tell the distributors hey we are in for 2500 units guaranteed if the price is right (bc they know they have already presold 2500 and are not worried about overstocking) they can get a better price per unit...

[xueyue2]

Hobby Search has the highest price up to now.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10315037

[Mega-Prime 316]

How does Chimungmung compare for buying and shipping?

From what I've seen on their site they seem to have some really good prices and looks to be $20 US shipping worldwide. Most of what I looked at seemed to have a total price shipped, what we pay for the item retail. Am I reading that correctly? How long is the usual shipping time from them?

[MULTIPLEX]

^ship time is 5 business day for me but I'm in Ontario. He always mark down value and packs extremely well. I've used him many times but the current exchange rate will add quite a bit to the price.

[Mega-Prime 316]

I was comparing Chimungmung to the North American sources, BBTS and Automaton and his pricing seems a bit better, but the NA sources do offer a bundled shipment.(OOH or Pile of Loot) Just trying to figure out the pros and cons, now that everyone has switched to the US dollar.