No stock, no exclusive sale items, no cancelations, no point system, godawful customer support team, insane shipping prices compared to other online shops, which makes their private warehouse useless. They've become a last resort website, where one gets stuff that was sold out elsewhere, at least for me. No idea how they will survive in the foreseeable future.
>>11837160where do you order stuff now that bandai's not letting people sell stuff from japan? hlj and hobby search have like a dozen kits available, if that
HLJ is the only place that has semi-reasonable prices and good quality that ships to my 3rd world failed state, so I will keep using it since the 2 times I shipped from them it just worked. I didn't have any issues with customer support either. Though I do only buy stuff that is in stock.
>>11837160What happened to hlj they have gotten almost none of the recent figmas and they don’t seem to have much extra stock afterward. Their private warehouse is good but pointless when they have nothing worth buying. I really wish amiami had a private warehouse because they have the best selection and while they both offer ecms shipping for around the same price, amiami stopped using uniuni which sucked.
>>11837160They've always been a last resort website for me. My goto import site has been, and still is Amiami. They've definitely gotten a little slower to actually ship things than they used to, but it is what it is. They still are usually cheaper than HLJ price wise, and for shipping, they have a point system, their customer service, the one ro two times I've had to deal with them in the past decade, have been good, and they've even added an order cancellation function so you don't need to email them and beg to cancel a pre-order anymore. I prefer them. My alternate is Hobby Genki for stuff like P-Bandai Japan only items, mainly Digimon vpets. They've been fine for the most part, I've had an issue here and there with them in the past but in the end they ended up resolving things, even if things took a little bit to actually follow through. I've used HLJ probably 4 times in the past decade whereas I have dozens of orders on the other two. I've used Nin Nin Games once recently and it wasn't bad, I couldn't really complain about it. They held my figure for like six months because I was too cheap to ship it after the shipping prices went up so I guess they're ok in my book.
>>11837299Now if only they'd learn to tell you the shipping cost before you commit and without having to email support, like a real store. They aren't making online customers compete with offline ones, they have no fucking excuse.
>>11837160>no exclusive sale itemsNo store should have that, tbqfh.>>11837280God only ones why gsc does the retarded things they do.
I stopped using hlj a few years ago, their prices were always higher and shipping was either the same or higher than amiami. When did they stop letting you cancel orders?
>>11837395I'm generally pretty close when estimating how much shipping will be for any particular figure I order from them. Yeah, it's annoying they don't tell you what the price will be when you pre-order, but at the same time, with how things have been going, who knows what the shipping situation will be like in just a few months of waiting for a pre-order to release.
>>11837166Since when is Bandai not letting people order from Japan?
I've used HLJ for a long time because of the Private Warehouse function without any issues, but the last year has definitely been frustrating. I still have a couple preorders through them, unfortunately.
>>11837160>insane shipping prices compared to other online shopsThat's amiami though?Anyway, they'll survive because not everyone is you. I'm buying less from them because of their cancellation policy change, but they're still fine to order from. Private warehouse is great, their shipping costs are IME probably lower than amiami, and if you have a lot to ship you can see all the combinations of possible shipping costs before checkout, unlike amiami.
>>11837200As a fellow third world hell hole citizen, have you tried Hobby Genki? I like them over HLJ cuz their private warehouse is basically infinite, for now at least, it's probably bound to end.
>>11837421That's why they need to charge you up front so they take the risk that shipping costs will be higher--not you.
>>11837433Depends on where you are and the shipping methods available I suppose. I usually just wait for a shipping sale which sadly has become more rare. They had a good thing going for a while with their PW, superior customer service and easy cancellations. That alone drew me to them since the price for their figures was always higher compared to other stores.
I have something on preorder from them, am I going to get fucked in the ass when it actually drops?
>>11837299>alternate is Hobby Genki for stuff like P-Bandai Japan only items, mainly Digimon vpets. They've been fine for the most part, I've had an issue here and there with them in the past but in the end they ended up resolving things, even if things took a little bit to actually follow through.I had an insanely shitty experience with Hobby Genki that went something like this.>Bring Arts Bart on sale half off>buy it>ages later they say shipping is more expensive than they calculated And they just wouldnt ship it and wouldnt answer my emails for months and months. And when I did it was like nonsense bullshit. I feel like I must be in the minority though. It completely negated the sale though in the end lol
>>11837424covid, you can't get bandai stuff from hobbysearch as a westoid
>>11838031there's a bunch of Tamiya stuff (mini 4wd, etc) that you can't buy on the international site too
>>11838031just the hobby division, figures haven't been an issue yet
>>11837160Do Japanese people order from Hobby Link Japan? Or is it exclusively for imports?
>>11838444They can order from them if they want. There's just no reason to. So many other places are within walking distance of your average otaku-inclined Jap, and the ones that aren't have actual reward programs and what not that make it better for shipping within Japan. HLJ was made by a guy who wanted to make it easy for Americans to import Japanese hobby goods, so there's really nothing special about it for people within the actual country.
>>11838640Similar thing on nin nin game, made by a French
I've never really gotten the hate for HLJ. Maybe it's a few dollars more than Amiami but the private warehouse makes up for it.
>>11838931Do they still let you store figures eternally in the warehouse?
>>11838976why are you americans this fucking retarded, you can't even ship anything to your country because of how fucked your postal service is
>>11838977You don't need to ship any figures if you can store them in the warehouse eternally though.
>>11838978>you can just slap on down one hell of a hunkachino if you get those wholesome little skibidinos all in line
>>11837160they've worked fine for me, but I am stopping importing because with my countries VAT of 25% and the tons of extra fees I am basically not gaining anything anymore from ordering from there.They do suck when it comes to preordering anything bandai though, especially model kits, its just so ass.>>11838931it's more they just had a lot of bad piling on for a short time, they used to give an unlimited cancel window which is gone now, mainly due to americans mass canceling after that shit went down, they started charging for privatewarehouse space after 180 days which is still fine and not expensive but its annoying, and shipping is more expensive but thats just it across the board.I've also personally started to find the private warehouse as a bit of a curse, you can just end up piling up so much shit there that shipping out everything can get way too expensive and annoying.
>>11838976No, they just started implementing a storage fee over a certian number of monthsThe Private Warehouse ended up being a sort of trap for me because while I was waiting for picrel, I decided to nab a bunch of other small things so they could all ship togther. But then picrel got delayed for over a whole fucking year and I got forced to ship all the other random crap I bought or pay storage fees on it, which defeated the whole purpose. And now picrel might end up getting siezed when the new customs bullshit goes into effect on July 8th. None of this was really HLJ's fault, but it was a perfect fucking shitstorm that cost me a lot of fucking money, and I STILL might not get my goddamn robot.
>>11839094How long do you have to cancel an order now, and when did they change it? The private warehouse and ability to cancel orders freely were the main reasons to use hlj.
>>11839655you're supposed to have a month or so, but most things that they put up have their preorder date marked as already past the cutoff to cancel, so you can't cancel them at all now
>>11837160I haven't ordered in HLJ in 7 years. Hope they go out of business and someone more competent replaces them.
HLJ has the best UI and I don't know why other stores haven't made something like theirs. Prices and shipping aside, most places are a pain to navigate through unless you already have experience with them.
>>11839590>No, they just started implementing a storage fee over a certian number of monthsWhat happened to that anon who has that one robot figure in his warehouse for like 4 years? I think it was a revo.
>>11840285I think this was the biggest reason I clicked with HLJ all those years ago to begin with. The Private Warehouse feature was a bonus, but at a glance, the site was infinitely more intuitive and navigable.
>>11837160They need to have constant salesBitching about not having space and they are selling some Mcu captain marvel for full price.Dumb bitches look at amiami
>>11837160Thanks Trump. You need your gold ballroom yet the people don't need import figures. Dogshit president.
>>11841539You voted for him
Why can't Americans make anything?
>>11841539You brought this and whatever civil war or whatever happens on yourself.
>>11841539>>11841555>>11842232Got what I voted for, silly soi lefties!Importgod btw>>11841640Why can't chungusfurry make an original post?
>place an order on hlj last night >says it is allowed to be cancelled by 7-31 >check my orders and it does in fact allow me to cancel>decide to order elsewhere later as they have a better price >go to cancel >can no longer cancel this order deadline closed on 7-16 shady fucking cunts running this website, why even pretend to let you cancel at all if you’re going to operate like this?
Fuck. I need to check if I can cancel some stuff now
