Hobby Link Japan

>Google
Seriously, you can do this yourself. HLJ is anything but an obscure website.

>>6166269
I know they're not obscure dumb ass, I just wanted to hear some other opinions.

Is it hard to convert the USD into yen to pay?

>>6166282
There's hundreds of reviews on the website, quit being lazy.
>>6166284
Paypal or your credit/debit will convert that for you. Keep in min that the exchange rate tips a bit in their favour opposed to the actual exchange rate.

HLJ has been my website of choice for five years. No regrets. The shipping actually ends up being the cheapest too if you make good use of the private warehouse feature.

>>6166288
Are the discounts they display really as good as they say they are?

>>6166266
I order from them all the time and have, in the 3ish years I've been ordering from them, spent well over $5000 USD on products from them.

Shipping is done by automatically by a server side program which roughly calculates the total size and shape of the box big enough to move all your items and then gives an estimate when you view your cart. This estimate is the final amount of shipping if you were to ship with those items in one box, so there is very good transparency and you know how much you will pay for shipping before you even officially order from them. Their estimate also accounts for box size limitations (preventing an estimate for a SAL box too large to actually be shipped) and incorporates multiples of same items.

In addition, HLJ are famed for their private warehouse system whereby you can order an item and they will reserve one (after you pay for it) from their stock to ship to you within 60 days. That way you can buy items and still be waiting for restocks/new releases while having some items which are in stock purchased already. Shipping is then as simple as combining the items in your profile page and shipping them in one (or however many you like) box/s.

In the past, I have paid for an EMS box which their estimate came out to be around 6300 yen but when I received the box, I saw that they had paid 7500 yen. They covered the difference without telling me because I had expected to pay 6300 as per their estimate, so didnt ask me to cover the difference. That said, I have received smaller boxes which I paid ~2500 yen but they paid closer to ~2000, but the fact is that the estimate they give you is indeed the amount you will pay if you ship all those items in your cart in one box.

Their prices aren't that low (for example AmiAmi is almost always lower), shipping is reasonable but limited, they don't offer services like air small parcel which is usually much quicker than SAL.

I buy from them when I only want to pick up certain things that I am willing to wait months for (store them in private warehouse and wait for other stuff to restock/release) They aren't too bad but if I need/want stuff quickly i'd rather give my money to Amiami and do small parcel and it'll arrive the next week, they also do DHL which for small things is only like $20 and it arrives two days later.

>>6166325
>Their prices aren't that low
I agree, Amiami is still the best source for most new imports. I'll shop HLJ when they do their occasional storewide sales, though

>>6166266
>What are your experiences ordering from Hobby Link Japan?
it's like ordering from a good USA store.

>They seem to have some amazingly low prices, but I'm concerned they might be too good to be true.
like any other store, price of item might be cheaper or more expensive depending on where else you shop, as a smart buyer its your responsibility to search around. if you are lazy then pay the price.

>Is shipping really expensive? do they have good service?
There shipping price is great , their packaging is not so great, but good enough. You can add a instock item to your cart to see the shipping price.

>Or are they really just that good?
Many of your questions can be answered if you just look around or add a item to your cart. google that item you are looking at to compare prices from other store.

They only accept paypal payment. You don't have to worry about converting since paypal will convert it for you ny default, you just pay their exchange rate which already have their conversion fee included. (if you have a credit card that have zero foreign currency conversion fee you can select that to pay in paypal so it will be cheaper.)

>>6166337
It depends amiami isn't always the cheapest, lately HLJ has had better discounts on some of the more popular items.

I personally chose hlj for the private warehouse, the ability to cancel items whenever I want, and their customer support is the best.

Last time I had an issue with an order from amiami it was quite the chore and they were not very pleasant to deal with. I still use them but only when HLJ is sold out of the thing I wanted.

>>6166343
This. Amiami used to have the better prices almost every time, but lately HLJ has actually had better discounts on specific items. I don't know if that's because HLJ's discounts have gotten better or Amiami's got worse.

>>6166293
No, they will advertise as 50% off but really it's only 17%

>>6166359
which item are you talking about. that sounds like amiami than HLJ.

>>6166346
This.

>>6166325
I tend to just go Mandy if I'm willing to wait, since Amiami is usually cheaper for PO, but as noted above, HLJ's been better than Amiami on some items lately.

hlj has great sales sometimes. ive been buying from them for 4 years i think.

i dont know any other site that has periodic sales and a private warehouse to combine shipping

>>6166266

I like HLJ. Bought a bunch of stuff from them.

Didn't HLJ used to have weekly sales?
What the fuck happened?
It doesn't help that their last few sales have been pretty shit
Especially that last one with the credit
I used to love them, but at least amiami marks shit down that is obviously shelfwarming unlike HLJ which you now have to wait for a big season sale for.

HLJ allows you to cancel preorders, amiami doesn't (maybe once or twice if you mail them I've read on this board)
Amiami has moenthly shipments, HLJ keeps your stuff for up to 60 days and you can ship it before then in any constellation you'd like to get the best possible price on shipping.

The only times where I have used amiami over HLJ was when The item was in stock at amiami but not in stock at HLJ. For big boxes like gunpla just shipping one is really expensive, but 2-3 helps to bring the per box price down, this is really hard to achive at amiami.

>>6166266
They have only ever been fantastic to me.

I ordered 2 of the kaiyodo mgsv Soviet soliders when they were on sale for the holidays last year, and when one of them arrived his waist swivel immediately broke; i emailed them and in perfect english they got back to me with my options. I opted to send the figure back for a full refund and they paid the cost of the shipping (for the one figure) to me, the cost of the figure and the cost i paid to send it back to them, which i used to pay for the Revoltech Spider-Man

>>6167101

Yeah even if Amiami sometimes has better prices being able to lock in preorders then think about it later and use private warehouse outweighs it.

>>6167080
They still do, but it was never weekly, its only here and there.
Their last sale was great. I got a bunch of the premium bandai stuff from them for the lowest price you can get them.
HI-METAL R VF-1S Strike Valkyrie Roy Focker Special (Premium Bandai) 7920
Star Gaogaigar Option Set (Premium Bandai) 16200
Robot Damashii Ka.Signature EWA Nero (Premium Bandai) 6300

the other sale I got some good stuff too.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Riobot Metal Gear Sahelanthropus 15200
Metal Gear Rex Half-Size Edition 16560
VF-4G Lightning III Transformable (Macross Digital Mission VF-X) 17550

>>6166346
>This. Amiami used to have the better prices almost every time, but lately HLJ has actually had better discounts on specific items. I don't know if that's because HLJ's discounts have gotten better or Amiami's got worse.
I've been paying close attention to this issue and AmiAmi's prices have just gotten much worse over the years. I prefer the way they pack items compared to HLJ but I don't care about dinged/scuffed boxes enough to put up with some of their bullshit recently. At their peak they used to save me about $10-15+ over HLJ on the average figma and that's including HLJ's cheaper shipping. As of right now they save about $6-8 BEFORE shipping and about $2-4 tops unless I have a big ass order to get a good rate on EMS.

What really pisses me off about AmiAmi lately though is:
-Removing discounts on pre-orders. Sometimes go up by 200-500 yen (see: Guyver III, Corrin, Gilgamesh), sometimes go up full MSRP and as of late sometimes full MSRP plus Japanese tax (see: figma Shielder, figma Saber 2.0)
-Removing discounts on released items which basically makes it impossible to get a good price on stuff you might want to combine later or because a figure delay happens
-Popular items don't get the same discounts anymore. For instance, certain Bandai items will only be 14-18% off instead of the standard 24-27% off. Which makes it cheaper to buy them at HLJ as you pointed out.
-Won't combine two different months regardless of due date. Order something on the 30th or 31st and decide to add more to get better shipping? Too fucking bad, they will refuse to do it.
-Bitchy about cancellations.

The fact is...when AmiAmi used to save me tons of money it made sense they couldn't have flexibility in other areas. Now the only thing I love about them is the way they pack things because HLJ has caused me quite a few damages to figure boxes due to their inconsistent packing methods. The smaller orders tend to be packed better so try to keep it under 5 figures in general.

>>6167223
>HLJ has caused me quite a few damages to figure boxes due to their inconsistent packing methods. The smaller orders tend to be packed better so try to keep it under 5 figures in general.
To expand upon this point...the difference in price looks a little something like this:
3x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥2,280 = ¥760 per figure via EMS
4x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥2,740 = ¥685 per figure via EMS
5x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥3,060 = ¥612 per figure via EMS
6x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥3,380 = ¥563 per figure via EMS
7x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥3,700 = ¥528 per figure via EMS
8x figma Samus Zero Suit = ¥4,260 = ¥532 per figure via EMS (yes it actually went back up)

As you can see you get to the point of diminishing returns. In my personal experience HLJ is more likely to put figures in a box with ZERO padding and ZERO shrink wrap if the order exceeds 4-6 standard sized figures. That means your figures will be directly touching all edges/corners of the shipping box and even the slightest bit of abuse is going to smush up your boxes. Bigger shipping boxes also tend to get abused more heavily by postal services in general and HLJ's packing just isn't up to the task of protecting things.

So I would strongly recommend people keep it in the sweet spot of 4-6 items for EMS. More padding and/or shrink wrapped to cardboard is well worth losing out on the extra ¥100-ish savings. Also don't bother with Fedex because they are really rough with packages and HLJ themselves have told me they get much more complaints about Fedex than USPS. They've recommended I never use them again after they destroyed on of my orders.

>>6167253
Fedex like EMS will depend on your location. The rough treatment is mostly at your main local sorting station. Some area are better with Fedex, some are better with EMS.

For me,the sweet spot for HLJ is actually a larger order or bulky order. The more item you have in the box the less likely they will move around as much in transit. Bigger boxes will get touch less because who wants to move a big heavy box around. The small boxes will get use to fill in the gaps or just toss to some corner.

example; 14 x figma Samus Zero = 5000 yen fedex = 357 yen per figure.

I use fedex because I can reroute it to a any Fedex office for holding /pickup for free if I know I won't be home to sign for it.

>>6167353
>I use fedex because I can reroute it
Different anon here, but this. Also similar HLJ & Fedex reasons for me as well - for the larger orders with HLJ I usually go Fedex once my PW has filled up a bit.

>>6166266
I almost always use HLJ when I want to import something. Sure you can save a couple extra dollars if you shop somewhere else, but their shipping prices are better than, say, Amiami. Or, at least they were last time I checked.

>>6166266
The only reason not to use HLJ is Amiamis preowned section, and combined monthly orders, but HLJ has the private warehouse which is the same thing basically but it is a totally reliable site.

Love it
I used amiami ordering 2 toys and the shipping was 4000 yens
HLJ 2 toys too, just 2700
The private warehouse is a big plus specially after Christmas time, just recently shipped my last batch of figures
Amiami has fair amount of sales but HLJ with cheaper shipping makes the sometimes lower prices useless, and besides Hobby link is getting cheaper prices too and with cheaper shipping is a no brainer
Tbh the only reason I started using amiami was because of the SAS but now there's no point because HLJ got a big influx of JoJo stuff

>>6174440
the pre owned section is hit and missprice wise compared mandarake, and hlj's item holding is 2 months compared to amiami's 30.

amiami is only good now if you missed its pre order on hlj

>>6174966
>Hobby link is getting cheaper prices too
Nah, AmiAmi is just raising prices. For the most part HLJ hasn't changed it's standard discount on anything during the pre-order phase. Only difference is they are now starting to carry the discount into after release when it used to go straight to full MSRP and then they had monthly sales to drop it back down to clear out stock. HLJ seems to be moving away from the frequent sales though.

Ironically AmiAmi is now doing the opposite. AmiAmi used to never raise prices on release then started doing it with popular stuff and now more often than not just about everything starts raising in price on release unless it shelf warms and they are forced to lower it back down. Hell AmiAmi is raising prices on pre-orders now too. Start out cheap and progressively go up depending on sales.

HLJ is cheaper than AmiAmi in every case other than if you order an obscene amount of toys per month in which case AmiAmi can be marginally cheaper. Or if you're willing to use something other than EMS which I am not.

Not really helpful info but my recent experience.

Ordered thing. Thing was supposed to be released in December. Holiday/life wallet rape. HLJ decides they want money last week. Tell me I have 3 days. I write and say wait until 6 days later. They say okay and ask to email back Paypal transaction number.

Everything worked out. Good customer service experience, imo.

File: hljok.png (29KB, 713x225px) Image search: [Google]

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Alright, just to highjack this thread for a moment. I'm not experienced with HLJ but I ordered all of these items last night and they were displaying as normal "in stock" whereas now they're showing like this. Does that mean my order is cancelled?

>>6175351
no. this only shows the current status of future orders.

>>6175382
Ah, so my orders should still be delivered as if they were in stock?

>>6175388
yes

>>6175351
ORDER STOP ... this used to scare the heck out of me. Especially the way th they print it in red. I thought it ment they stopped my order. But no, just they have stopped taking any more orders.

HLJ is owned and operated by a round-eye Gaijin fuck just like JList so I refuse to buy from them