Review of Hobby Search

Update 11/19/2009:Spoke too soon. Turns out that there is a problem with Hobby Search and Paypal, so they had to cancel all orders that were to be paid via paypal. Of course, since I was in one of the banned countries that Hobby Search will only allow to pay via paypal, shopping is officially stopped for me till their troubles are fixed.

Update 11/18/2009: Hobby Search announced that they are lifting the ban on shipment to certain countries due to the implementation of their Paypal payment system. Just sent in my order and will post an updated review once my order gets through.

Was planning to conduct a review of Hobby Search of Japan by purchasing an item off of their online store but was stopped short at user registration. Turns out that they do not ship to my country… hahaha… good thing I didn’t fill up my cart yet, that would have been a good waste of time.

I fired off an email to ask them about it and after a minutes I got a reply from them, they said that the reason they weren’t selling items to my country was because of past instances of “credit card trouble”. Ok that answers that, its sad that a few schmucks in your country commit credit card fraud putting the rest of you honest citizens in bad light. Not to mention I’m totally embarrassed as a citizen of my country.

If you face the same dilemma as me, you can always try placing your order over at HWJapan, Hobby Link Japan, Over Drive Inc or even the recently opened Amiami English site. I’ve tried them already and I was pleased with their service, they also have paypal which is a more secure way of paying. But please don’t commit any fraud that will put the rest of us in trouble *snicker*

Anyway, on with the review. According to the site literature, Hobby Search was founded in 1999. Their offices are located at Tamada Build 7F/6F Misuji 1-1-19 Taitoku, Tokyo. The funny thing is that their company is named Hobby Search Co Ltd, but their official website is at 1999.co.jp, weird?

The Pros:

1. Best product Description page - I was most impressed with Hobby Search’s product description page. I’d say that it was the best I’ve ever seen. Not only do they show you shots of the product but they also go the extra mile to take pictures of the manuals and parts (if it is a model) which can really help during decision making time.
2. Large Inventory - There are a lot of items in the site which could help cut down in your cost of shipment because you can get it all from one shop. Aside from toys, figures and model kits they also have tools and other accessories needed for model kit building (brushes, paintmarkers, etc).
3. Quick at Pre-orders - A lot of new items which are scheduled to be released can also be pre-ordered from their site. I’ve also noticed that they are quick to have the latest items for pre-release up in their pre-order page. The only other site that seems to match with their speed is Hobby Link Japan and Amiami
4. Good Product Listing arrangement - The way they arrange their items in the site is very convenient to the buyer. Items are well placed based on category. The layout of the site was really well thought of. You can also filter out items that are already sold out whenever you use the search box. There are also tabs on the product listing page that you can select to bring you immediately to the latest or restocked items. You can also jump directly to the Figure or Mecha page, or browse by manufacturer. In short, its very convenient.
5. A lot of RSS Feeds - aside from the product listing, there are also a lot of rss feeds that you can put in your favorite feed reader. So anytime there is a new product, a restocked item or items that are up for pre-order, you can see it right away in your feed reader.
6. Dedicated English site - the site frontpage is Japanese, but there is a dedicated page in English for us gaijin.
7. User rewards - points system for every purchase that you buy which you can then use to knock off the price on your next order. Of course the points can’t be used for shipping charges.
8. Secure Registration System - uses SSL system for user registration, user login and for order payment
9. Charging only when pre-order arrives - some sites ask for payment upfront for pre-orders, but they only ask you to pay when your order is already there.
10. Mecha sale page - where they place stuff on sale. I have to say though, that most of the items they have on here isn’t much to be desired, but hey, at least they have a sale page.

The Cons:

1. Doesn’t ship to my country - but I can’t fault them for that because I know how it feels like to be burned with an online sale. You just want to block out the entire nation, and I do that too with my other sites, but not a nation, rather an entire continent…. hehehe
2. Shipment method is only by EMS - no SAL shipping so its going to burn a hole in your pocket. I recommend however, if your shipment is that expensive, to actually use EMS. Since 2010, they started shipping by SAL already.
3. Payment method is only by credit card - I prefer to pay by Paypal because of the security features it has.

All in all its a great site and if I had the chance to purchase from them I would have. If I were planning to setup my own online shop I’d definitely use them as a measuring stick. Anyway, just to add more information I’ll list the countries that they ship to so you can check whether you are in the clear or not:

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Botwana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain(UK), Greece, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherland, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay,Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saipan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, Ukraine, Urguay, USA, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe.