Where To Buy

Okay, so now you have a pretty decent idea of what's coming out, what's already out, and what you might want to buy.  So now you just need to know where to buy it.  Well, the best place would be from actual capsule machines or toy stores in Japan, but we don't all have those options.  Luckily, I'm here to help you find the best deals outside Japan.

Like I said, you don't usually want to buy from play-asia.com.  They overcharge and they tend to sell out pretty quickly, but if you don't mind spending the extra money, it is a good place to find new releases, and you can even pre-order.  eBay is an easy way to find what you're looking for, even if it's something that's been out of production for some time, but eBay, and other auction sites like it, can be risky, since it's a hot spot for bootleggers, and it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether you're buying the real thing (I'll cover this in depth later).

Great places to buy can be local comic shops.  Many tend to import toys to sell alongside their manga.  Sometimes toy stores will have imports as well, but it's a bit more rare.  Anyone who lives near the Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT can visit The Toy Vault inside the mall for a decent selection, but I doubt that helps many people...  Anyone living in New York can look up the store HKT in either Pougkeepsie or Wappingers Falls.  HKT is a nice import shop that gets all sorts of toys and always has a pretty nice selection.  Atomic Comics on the west coast is another nice chain that tends to get in a decent selection of imports.

For the many of us who don't have a good comic or import shop nearby (myself included), anime conventions can be a great way to check out the newest toys and search for good deals.  Use animecons.com to find upcoming cons in your area.  Even the smallest cons can have a great selection in their dealer's rooms.  I found a better selection of toys at my small, local con Connecticon this year than I did at Anime Expo, the biggest anime convention in the nation, so you never know what you're going to find.  Conventions are a great way to compare price and shop for good deals, since it's likely you'll find more than one booth in the same room selling the same items.  This also means you can haggle a bit.

If you just don't feel like leaving the house at all, you can always shop for your toys online.  There are many reliable websites that sell our toys, but few have good selections and their stocks tend to change frequently, making them unreliable. hammergirlanime.com is a nice little site with good deals and very cheap shipping for orders over $25.  The down side is, again, the selection is small and changes frequently.  Still, it's something worth keeping an eye on.  mugentoys.com is another one with a somewhat limited selection, but often has good deals, and even allows pre-orders on some upcoming items.

For those of you who feel you must resort to eBay to find what you need, do use caution, and be sure to read my upcoming tips for detecting fakes.  Also, I'll soon be starting my list of trusted and untrusted eBay sellers.  The list will include eBay sellers that I, or people I know personally, have ordered from and found to be trustworthy or untrustworthy, to help you sort out the bootleggers.

As you can see, buying gashapon and other figures is not so easy.  Finding what you want at a good price from a trusted seller will always be a bit of a scavenger hunt, but that's really part of the fun of collecting, isn't it?

The Chase:  Comic shops, import shops, anime conventions, hammergirlanime.com, mugentoys.com, play-asia.com (if you don't mind paying more), and eBay (with great caution).