Macross Collectibles Market Watch - Current Auction/Store SOLD prices

[Mommar]

They'll never come down I'd wager.

Low production chronicle exclusive.

Gakken just bought for around the same price.

I haven't seen one under 400$

Hell isn't there one in the FS section for 300$?

Which I think was the first thing sold off his thread.

They weren't only a Chronicle Exclusive. I bought mine from LocusHK for $116 back in 2011.

[Gakken85]

Woah, Did I really just get this?

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1421945.html

[Falcon18]

Saw that for a few seconds and disappeared as I reloaded the page. I think you might.. There's a 1S Max for 20,000yen too.

[Gakken85]

My computer froze for the first time in months...I was like..frakk. haha. Ill let you know if I get the receipt. I might have missed it.

[Valkyrie addict]

They weren't only a Chronicle Exclusive. I bought mine from LocusHK for $116 back in 2011.

I regret not being around here for 2011, for about half of what I've spend now I'd probably have my collection complete.

Woah, Did I really just get this?

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1421945.html

Congratz, the stuff you find in Mandarake is amazing, gotten myself some sweet stuff there at great prices.

Saw that for a few seconds and disappeared as I reloaded the page. I think you might.. There's a 1S Max for 20,000yen too.

I swear some people spend all night F5ing Mandarake for a great deal

Edited October 9, 2013 by Valkyrie addict

[Falcon18]

Not all night. But most of my day

Surprisingly, I haven't bought anything from there.

[close313]

I spotted an ssp Roy for 15k yen at mandarake and mmediately cancelled my po for arcadia roy which is about the same price. Hope i didnt make a bad decision.

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

i saw a max and miria set brand new sealed end for 500 free shipping on yahoo auctions on sunday. i could've got my proxy guy to get it but i withheld because these yf-19 are priority. nice grabs everyone!!!

Edited October 9, 2013 by davidwhangchoi

[barurutor]

I spotted an ssp Roy for 15k yen at mandarake and mmediately cancelled my po for arcadia roy which is about the same price. Hope i didnt make a bad decision.

If it's the box similar to this one:

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1281165.html

...you may have to order replacement shoulders from shapeway.

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-247338.html

really good price for v2 elintseeker

[SuperSenpai]

You can't blame people for stalking deals on Mandarake. My experience has been that if you see something good there, grab it quick because it's not gonna last long thanks to the vultures on MW! Recently, I saw a VF-25F renewal Alto for 13,000 yen... didn't act on it since I have one... came back to the page 5 minutes later and someone had already snapped it up.

I only wish Mandarake had a private warehouse function like HLJ does. I've probably paid a lot more in shipping costs because everything I bought from them was shipped one piece at a time.

[close313]

Haha i was looking at that VE-1 too but also know that it is the non anniversary ver, so i got the cheaper roy ssp instead knowing the risks of the shoulders. At least i got an SSP. I saw a GBP-1S with 1J yesterday.. but i was waiting for them to reply me for the shipping costs then someone snapped it up

[barurutor]

I bought the shapeways replacement shoulders for my 1st release v2 Roy 1S w/SSP and 1st release v2 Hikaru 1J last year, they're well worth the cost. I will eventually have to pick up one more set for my GBP-1S w/1J though.

[close313]

I bought the shapeways replacement shoulders for my 1st release v2 Roy 1S w/SSP and 1st release v2 Hikaru 1J last year, they're well worth the cost. I will eventually have to pick up one more set for my GBP-1S w/1J though.

Was it u who bought the 1J with armor? Good catch!

I was contemplating abt it, since i already have an 1J but not armor. Should have just clicked buy when i saw it

Edited October 9, 2013 by close313

[barurutor]

Nope, I got my GBP-1S with 1J from ebay SG last year. The web exclusive GBP-1S looks interesting though.,.

[skullmilitia]

Thanks for posting that VE-1!

I added another grey valk to my grey valk archive!

Now to find a buyer for my extra kidney.

Lol!

[wmkjr]

i saw a max and miria set brand new sealed end for 500 free shipping on yahoo auctions on sunday. i could've got my proxy guy to get it but i withheld because these yf-19 are priority. nice grabs everyone!!!

There is a set right now going for 198000yen. Yikes!

[Major Focker]

first time here.

i should be paying more attention to this thread.

[Falcon18]

i saw a max and miria set brand new sealed end for 500 free shipping on yahoo auctions on sunday. i could've got my proxy guy to get it but i withheld because these yf-19 are priority. nice grabs everyone!!!

How does yahoo auction work for overseas buyers anyway? They have some really good prices..

first time here.

i should be paying more attention to this thread.

You should! It's the go to thread if you wanna find smth for cheaps.

[Gakken85]

Woot. Got my confirmation for the low viz. 25,200 with ems! Wouldn't get that good of a deal around here haha.

Glad that I missed out on this on the sellers forum a couple of time. Saved me a good bit haha.
Guess I will cancel my arcadia focker. I think one badass roy is enough for now.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Gakken85

[skullmilitia]

I got that VE-1 under 200$ shipped with SAL.

That's about what I paid for the reissue from HLJ.

Sometimes Mandrake really pulls through!

Plus the VFX I got even though the site said "opened"

It wasn't, it was sealed inside. Tape on the wing lights, and gear.

[SuperSenpai]

I got that VE-1 under 200$ shipped with SAL.

That's about what I paid for the reissue from HLJ.

Sometimes Mandrake really pulls through!

Plus the VFX I got even though the site said "opened"

It wasn't, it was sealed inside. Tape on the wing lights, and gear.

Mandarake strikes me as very conservative when it comes to pointing out defects. For example, everything I've purchased from them had a comment indicating that there was damage to the box, even though they always arrived in pristine condition. Given that they deal with a lot of secondhand goods, it may be that they don't want to have collectors coming back complaining that they failed to make note of some defect.

[Gakken85]

I think they just say that to cover their ass, because collectors tend to be... ahem... picky about things. I'm sure they got endless complaints about box condition in the past and just put that up to say, "hey, if you buy from us and the box is dented, live with it."

Everything I've bought from them has been really stellar though.

I swear the Brutish dog I got off them was new in box.

I got a MISB VE-1 v2 from a guy on the forums a few months back for like $220 shipped from Canada... forget his name.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Gakken85

[barurutor]

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1263264.html

another VE-1

[Valkyrie addict]

I have absolute zero complains from Mandarake.

I always noticed if a valk has been taken out of the box by seeing if the plastic tabs from the clear plastic housing are rumpled or not.

[close313]

Im kinda looking for a v2 VT-1, what do you guys feel is a 'reasonable' price for it? Should i take a chance with arcadia rereleasing it?

[skullmilitia]

Wait, I think the Super O will be reissued with option parts.

Hell I just tweeted Mr.K asking about a Ostrich.

Hopefully the translation isn't too bad.

Edited October 10, 2013 by skullmilitia

[Guest davidwhangchoi]

How does yahoo auction work for overseas buyers anyway? They have some really good prices..

hi Falcon18, here's a thread on all the info you need

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=38915

if you go to the home page of each service listed on the first post of the thread linked, the instructions are given and pretty self explanatory.

the person who taught me everything is jvmacross, the starter of this thread. he's very knowledgeable about using proxy Japanese service in general. He's very friendly and approachable so you can try pm'ing him if you have any further questions after looking into those sites.

i used yokatta (very easy instructions)

http://yokattaweb.jp/

and rinkya

link: (home page has instructions)

https://www.rinkya.com/en/

which i felt mugged but get what you want. just put $60usd (depends on the cost of the item, but for valks in the 150-250 range this is about right)

on top of what ever the end price is and that's prob the amount you will pay to use the service.

Edited October 10, 2013 by davidwhangchoi

[Major Focker]

i've used Rinkya and ShoppingMallJapan and have done comparison shopping for other providers. i now almost exclusively use Buyee.jp

Rinkya service fees are highway robbery. $15+1$/1000yen, minimum of 20$. most other providers also charge a mix of base fee+fixed rate for every 1000yen above a certain threshold, but in effect they all tend to range to being 10-15% of the yen auction price. using Rinkya's own example from their webpage, a 10,000 yen auction will be $25 commission. yep, effectively 25% and it only becomes competitive (ie. translates to 10-15%) at around 30,000 yen or higher, and of course on the other end, you will get charged $20 for a 2000 yen auction. yes, you read that right. it effectively doubles the item price. plus they have their own forex conversion which is guaranteed higher than your bank or paypal's, and a slew of "other fees" on top.

SMJ has more competitive service fees and they have a few perks like waiving some of the fees when you buy multiple items from the same seller and free package consolidation service. however, they also do their own forex which at times makes them uncompetitive, their system is less transparent (eg. you don't get to see how much they charge you for the shipping from seller to their warehouse), and they require you maintain a balance with them which defines the upper limit of how much you can bid. they do have a neat feature though when several SMJ customers are bidding on the same item. if you have the current winning bid say at 10,000 yen and your max bid is 15,000, and another SMJ customer puts a max bid of 12,000. SMJ will not post his bid on yahoo and instead advise the other buyer that he needs to bid higher than 15,000 (your max bid). if he revises and bids higher, then it gets posted. if he backs away, then nothing gets posted and the auction stays at 10,000.

Buyee is far simpler. 10% of auction price with a minimum fee of 500 yen, plus 200 yen bank transfer fees (which other proxies also charge). just copy paste the auction URL onto their website and from there you can bid in real time. other proxies also have this feature, but Buyee (and a few other proxies) do one better by displaying the calculated fees associated with your bid amount, and gives you the total alongside the "Confirm Bid" button. your account page will itemize all the fees for auctions won, each item will have their calculated international shipping cost and they're the only proxy i know which also tells you the package weight for each item. extremely handy when you want to optimize your consolidated shipping. for those conscious of import taxes, their system also let's you specify the declaration value for each item, all done on your shipping page without having to email them. naturally though, you have to agree to their terms that Buyee cannot be held liable for misdeclared items.

Buyee charges your credit card or paypal directly and doesn't require a deposit. but the big plus for me is that they charge you in yen. this is significant because:

1. proxy forex rates are rarely, if ever, better than paypal or your credit card/bank, and in many cases significantly worse.

2. if your home currency is not USD, a dollar denominated proxy will take a margin when they convert yen to USD, then paypal/CC/bank will also take a margin converting from USD to your home currency. and these double forex charges apply to your total shipped cost

3. some proxies do not display their forex rate, or they do but changes it daily/weekly making it difficult to track just how much you'll be charged. my gut feel is that they "time" their invoice to you when their declared forex is even more in their favor than it already is. for example, if the prevailing bank rate is $1:100 yen and the proxy posts their forex as $1:95 yen (ie. +5) during the week when you bid. if next week, the bank rate is $1:97 on a particular day and the posted proxy rate for the week (or day) is $1:90 (ie.+7), you will likely get invoiced at 1:90. but if the bank rate was instead 1:103 and the proxy rate is 1:100 (ie. just +3), you will likely be billed at 1:95 which was the rate when you placed your bid. or some proxies might honor forex rate at time of bidding but "optimize" on when they charge you their service fees and shipping. of course there are permutations when both you and the proxy benefit (eg. when the yen was rapidly depreciating earlier this year and proxies were using higher than usual spreads to insulate themselves) but in my experience this is much rarer than cases when it is at buyer's expense and proxies make a little extra. you can sometimes counter this if you use paypal and play the odds by paying the following week. but if they have access to your CC then you are defenseless. this forex business might seem trivial but this is easily +/- $20 or more when forex is on the move, and worse if you are subject to #2 above. i think it's fair game that companies play the forex, but it should be at least neutral for the customer when they decide to play for extra spread.

the drawback for Buyee is that they charge for package consolidation (some proxies do it for free), they only ship using EMS or UPS for very big items or those with lithium batteries, and each transaction is handled separately even if it's from the same seller. having said that, i've rarely (just once) bought multiple items from the same seller, and when you're consolidating packages EMS is often actually cheaper than SAL parcel once the package reaches a certain size/weight (which is easily the case when you have more than 2 small to medium items).

for buying directly from webshops, their parent company Tenso is one of the big boys in the parcel industry, hence expectedly, one of the most competitive. so the only japan shops i can't buy from from are those that only do fax/mail/phone order, or when the account sign-up and shopping cart pages cannot be translated by google chrome. fortunately, some very kind MW members were able to help me out then.

apologies for the Rinkya-rant and if this reads like an advertisement for Buyee. nonetheless, hopefully some of you will find this useful. i'm not a bean counter really, and in fact i'm more prone to foolish impromptu purchases and/or getting carried away with bidding just for the thrill of winning. but it helps to know that i've done my homework to minimize the damage from my lapses in purchasing judgement

[Gakken85]

I agree. Rinkya sucks. I still use their service for searches! haha

But I jumped ship to a smaller proxy a few months back.

Fees are insane, and their policies are bullshit.

[Falcon18]

Wow. Thanks guys for the reply! Fully appreciate it. Will look into the options now. Or worse to worse I'll just continue stalking mandarake.

[Astro_BS-AS]

Hi guys... have you seen this?

http://www.nippon-yasan.com/lang-en/macross/3606-choujikuu-yousai-macross-vf-4g-lightning-iii-limited-edition.html

A nice and cheap u$s 931 !!!!!!!

INSANE !

[Gakken85]

That belongs in the auctions of great insanity thread. haha

[close313]

Just wanna ask if this is a safe valk to buy? http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1347327.html

I'm concerned alot because i just saw jenius' safe/avoid list at anymoon (and being a macross noob) not sure which one is this. Will mandarake accept exchange/return if one of the arm is broken on arrival? Made me realise this after barurutor's warning haha. Hope my 1S that I bought isn't too bad (I can take a cracked shoulder..)

[SuperSenpai]

Just wanna ask if this is a safe valk to buy? http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1347327.html

I'm concerned alot because i just saw jenius' safe/avoid list at anymoon (and being a macross noob) not sure which one is this. Will mandarake accept exchange/return if one of the arm is broken on arrival? Made me realise this after barurutor's warning haha. Hope my 1S that I bought isn't too bad (I can take a cracked shoulder..)

I believe any of the valk + super/strike parts combo sets are in the "not safe" category.

That said, jenius's list is not an absolute indicator that your shoulders will be cracked. I think it just means that valks in those batches were made before Yamato ironed out their manufacturing problems, so it is more likely you'll get cracked shoulders. As a piece of anecdotal evidence, I purchased an unsafe-according-to-the-list Hikaru VF-1J from Mandarake and it arrived with perfect shoulders -- no cracks, no stress marks, handled fine. I believe skullmilitia also recently purchased an "unsafe" valk with strike parts from Mandarake, and it had perfect shoulders too.

Also, Mandarake is really good about making note of defects in their used goods. So if it has cracked shoulders, chances are the listing will say something to that effect. And even if you do end up with cracked shoulders, you can always hit up Shapeways for replacements.

The broken shoulder syndrome is not really something people need to fear anymore, given that there are fixes now. What is more worth noting is that the valks with potential shoulder issues also are the valks that have the rainbow tinted canopy effect and the older-style mechanism for locking the leg swing-bar into the nosecose (or crotch in battroid). Some people don't like the rainbow canopy effect, and the older-style locking mechanism is a bit more difficult to transform compared to the newer releases (which use the same mechanism as the 1/48 valks, so technically it is the older one I suppose). I think these issues are more worth noting since you can't really fix those.

Edited October 12, 2013 by SuperSenpai

[Frogze]

Also, Mandarake is really good about making note of defects in their used goods.

SOrry to quote you on just this specific mention about manadarke which is otherwise a great ressource for second hand toys, but I have had a few bad experiences with them in the past and I thought it could be useful to let others know.

I got a VF-19P for a great price (15K iirc) and it had a busted hip joint and a missing intake cover, none of these issues were mentioned in the listing.

I'm not really bummed about it since the price kind of makes it up for the damage but still, I wish this was properly mentioned in their listing since it is a really obvious flaw on the toy.

So, yes Mandarake is good, most of the time...