Bandai O scale 0 Series desk model

[cteno4]

ok for those of you that have everything, here is something to blow the next paycheck on. a beautifully detailed O (1/45) scale 0 series head car. roof comes off, full interior details (even the toilets and sinks), figures, lights, opening doors.

all for a paltry price of 59062 yen...

due out in feb 2012, this is the fourth series in the "superalloys for adults" from bandai. others included the space shuttle, Apollo 11 saturn V rocket, and the Hayabusa Asteroid Explorer. quite a stunning promo video from bandai!

HobbySearch:
http://www.1999.co.jp/10157624

Promo video on YouTube:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qafuj4KaEco" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Qafuj4KaEco</a>

Nikkei news release in Japanese:
http://release.nikkei.co.jp/detail.cfm?relID=288236&lindID=4

cheers

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

Hmmmm...... perhaps.

[cteno4]

just think what it would look like sitting on your desk at work! it would make the other exec jealous you know!

jeff

[cteno4]

more

http://tamashii.jp/special/o_chogokin/spec/index04.php

[The_Ghan]

Absolutely awesome.  Unfortunately, my budget won't allow.  I really need to stick to N scale spending.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[clem24]

ok for those of you that have everything, here is something to blow the next paycheck on. a beautifully detailed O (1/45) scale 0 series head car. roof comes off, full interior details (even the toilets and sinks), figures, lights, opening doors.

all for a paltry price of 59062 yen...

That's the Japanese site. We of course get shafted.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10157624

[The_Ghan]

I take your point Clem,

HS doesn't care for international customers like they used to.  I for one are buying much more stuff from Rainbow and Banzai Hobby these days, even PlazaJapan.  Voting with my feet is the only way to protest.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

That's the Japanese site. We of course get shafted.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10157624

ive emailed hs to ask why their japanese prices are about 8% higher than the HS english pages. curious to see what they say.

jeff

[keitaro]

there is plenty of items that are more than on the jpn site.

they'll probably say a mistake like when i asked them about items before.

Really though it's because we know you are going to have trouble getting it from anyone else.

For this reason i only buy stuff off them in pre order. As i can't do this on rainbow or items like realines that no one else stocks or get a few things together to save on multiple shipping orders.

[cteno4]

i asked why it was 8% in general between the sites. lets wait to see what they say before we put words in their mouths.

it is a bummer they have backed off the 20% off, but they were the ones to first go there and drove hw and others to doing that...

jeff

[Darklighter]

ive emailed hs to ask why their japanese prices are about 8% higher than the HS english pages. curious to see what they say.

The Japanese prices include 5% sales tax, the international prices don't. (75,000 * 1.05 = 78,750)

[bill937ca]

OK, Jeff.  20% off at Hobby Link Japan until October 15th.  60,000 Yen or $780.36 US

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN961474?utm_source=HobbyLink+Japan+Newsletter&utm_campaign=faba8c14ba-Sales_Chimp_BandaiShinkansen_08_10_2011&utm_medium=email

[keitaro]

ive emailed hs to ask why their japanese prices are about 8% higher than the HS english pages. curious to see what they say.

The Japanese prices include 5% sales tax, the international prices don't. (75,000 * 1.05 = 78,750)

doesn't explaine why jp site is 59,062 including tax and international is 63,750 yen

Like i said i asked about price diferences before back in march, they said it must be a mistake then changed price weeks later was back again to the "mistake" price.

I will however be interested in what they do say to this.

[Martijn Meerts]

It's not that bad actually.. Definitely cheaper than my 1/24 C62-2, which came as a massive building kit rather then a finished model ;)

[Darklighter]

ive emailed hs to ask why their japanese prices are about 8% higher than the HS english pages. curious to see what they say.

The Japanese prices include 5% sales tax, the international prices don't. (75,000 * 1.05 = 78,750)

doesn't explaine why jp site is 59,062 including tax and international is 63,750 yen

The Japanese site is offering 25% discount on pre-orders, the international only 15%. I guess, they do this because they can. 

[clem24]

I think HS feels they can charge it because they regularly sell out of stuff. It also doesn't help that they have restrictions on quantities, and because of this, they are no longer my #1 choice. If anything, they've become my last choice. It's not that they're a bad shop - far from it. But there definitely are many good ones out there (with one of them now gone - HW).

[cteno4]

ive emailed hs to ask why their japanese prices are about 8% higher than the HS english pages. curious to see what they say.

The Japanese prices include 5% sales tax, the international prices don't. (75,000 * 1.05 = 78,750)

ok the the regular price in parenthesis on the japanese site you get the english price w/ the 5% tax added.

then the japanese sale price is actually a 20% discount plus a 5% tax added, while the english price is just a 10% w/o the tax.

so it appears that they are still giving japanese side an extra 10% off the full retail for a total of 20% (what the english site use to get) and the english is getting only 10% off list now. pre orders are getting 15% off list on the english and 25% off (then 5% tax added) list on preorders.

jeff

[spacecadet]

doesn't explaine why jp site is 59,062 including tax and international is 63,750 yen

It is almost definitely because their costs to process payments from foreigners are higher.

I don't really know how things work within Japan itself for retailers, but as an American retailer I can tell you that credit card (and PayPal) processing costs are not equal for all customers.  On foreign cards, my business is charged a "non-qualified surcharge" which basically means that transaction is not qualified for the lowest discount rate.  On a $700 purchase, this can be $14 or $15 extra.  PayPal isn't quite as bad as our regular payment processor for foreign payments (though they're worse in general) but they still take a few extra bucks on foreign transactions.  I don't remember reading this in any agreement we agreed to but I've seen the exact same $300 product have a $8 commission and a $13 commission within the span of a few hours, and the only difference was that one customer was overseas.

Also like I said PayPal's fees in general are higher than a regular payment processor, and I'm sure HS takes a lot more PayPal from overseas than from Japan (if they even take it in Japan).

They may say it's a "mistake" whenever you point out the price difference, but I'll bet it isn't.  This is kind of the Japanese way of doing business, though; apologize but don't admit the truth.  It would be better if they just said up front "we charge overseas customers more because processing their payments costs us more".  People would understand, I think.

[cteno4]

I got a reply from them. they say the difference is that the japanese final price requires the customer to pay the transaction charge (ie their payment system puts the fee on them not on hs), where as the international HS has to pay the transaction fee (ie paypal).

basically with the taxes out of there the japanese price is 10% less than the international price. this makes sense, but 10% seems quite high for the transaction charges that the international customers cost HS.

paypal takes 4% max in japan to process the payment and they dont have any loss due to exchange fees as they bill in Yen (they may have another 2-3% exchange fee built into paypal's exchange rates if they billed in another currency other than their account currency)

so they are charging the international customers 6% more. while not a lot in the end, its is a difference. some could be said for having to have english speaking staff to deal with these orders and probably more paperwork to do the shipping than w/in japan.

I dont think its worth pushing this with them further really.

i dont remember them having a lower japanese prices in the past than the english price (less the tax) and it looks like they just kept the japanese at the 2010 20% off list price sale and pulled the english back to 10% off list. as folks have said you can vote with your wallet and there are options for some things at a better discount with rainbowten and banzai, but unfortunately they usually dont have the stock available that hs does. also rainbowten only does 10% off on non trains like tomytec stuff so same as hs there.

mods, perhaps this bit of this thread should get moved into a new thread as its traveled a bit off topic...

cheers

jeff

[angusmclean]

i dont remember them having a lower japanese prices in the past than the english price (less the tax) and it looks like they just kept the japanese at the 2010 20% off list price sale and pulled the english back to 10% off list. as folks have said you can vote with your wallet and there are options for some things at a better discount with rainbowten and banzai, but unfortunately they usually dont have the stock available that hs does. also rainbowten only does 10% off on non trains like tomytec stuff so same as hs there.

jeff

Granted the stock difference is apparently much greater, but a lot of what appears in the listings of HS is 'out of stock'. What is listed at R10 is 'in stock'. Over many years, if I have noticed a model or parts on another site and ordered that at R10, it has been supplied promptly. Similarly pre-ordering has never failed, even in the last week before release. I'm fairly choosy about what and where I buy, given my restricted income via the gummint, but I deal with several suppliers depending on cost/availability/greedneed criteria, but mostly at R10.

Angus

[cteno4]

I love r10 and have used them since i first started buying japanese model trains. they just tend to have spottier stock on many of the things i have wanted in the past. they have ordered things for me that they did not have when i would request them, usually worked out well! i use to preorder most everything them before the 20% wars started as they always had a fair preorder price and would ship sal. i have been steering more of my business there when they have what i want. even plazajapan as their prices on some things are better than hs with shipping included like the full tomytec car sets.

cheers

jeff

[bill937ca]

I dont think its worth pushing this with them further really.

i dont remember them having a lower japanese prices in the past than the english price (less the tax) and it looks like they just kept the japanese at the 2010 20% off list price sale and pulled the english back to 10% off list. as folks have said you can vote with your wallet and there are options for some things at a better discount with rainbowten and banzai, but unfortunately they usually dont have the stock available that hs does. also rainbowten only does 10% off on non trains like tomytec stuff so same as hs there.

Or you can order from HLJ at 20% off!

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN961474

[cteno4]

curt has one on pre-order. he will have to wrap my face in plastic wrap when i come over so i dont drool all over it!

jeff

[Webskipper]

Sales Price   :   63,750 yen  about 817.52 USD 

Even if it was free, how would you get any work accomplished?

[cteno4]

I just saw curts 0 series model and wow its amazing. quite a nice display piece. doors open, seats reverse, the works. nice set of figures with it. your right web with that on the desk you would never get any work done!

jeff

[clem24]

I just saw curts 0 series model and wow its amazing. quite a nice display piece. doors open, seats reverse, the works. nice set of figures with it. your right web with that on the desk you would never get any work done!

It's sounds so awesome... But I am going to wait until they make the full 16 car set. Until then I just won't buy it.