Local Figure Stores

Have you ever wandered around your city, looking for figure stores?

In the communities around me there are not much otaku or figure collectors. So opening figure stores could be considered a risky business. What's the risk? You'll have your items unsold for a loooong time.

I've been wandering around city to find figure stores. It's not surprising for me but i only found 8 stores. Hey, i live in Surabaya, do you know that Surabaya is the 2nd largest city in Indonesia (the largest city in Indonesia is Jakarta of course). In the 2nd largest city in a country you can only find 8 figure stores.

So with just a little number of stores around, you can't really rely on them to get your wanted item. But to be honest, i have 6 figures, and i got 5 of them from the local stores. I almost never bought PVC figure from online shops. I bought a set of Haruhi keychain and trading figure Rin from eBay.

From 8 stores i came across, 2 of them are serving orders. Normal stores usually have displayed items, and if certain item is displayed that means you can buy that item / the item is in stock. But not for the 2 stores. They display item that already ordered by certain person. And if you want the item, you can order and wait for 1-2 weeks.



You know, i kinda amazed on how they get the items. Let's take an example at Kureha by Max Factory. In HLJ detail, Kureha was released around October 2007. From Japan to Indonesia it took around 1 month or more using SAL delivery. So you can expect Kureha comes around late November or early December.
Let's say i came to the store in late November. I met the store's staff, and happen this conversation:

Me : "Do you have Max Factory's Kureha?"
Staff : "Yes, we have 3 of them in stock, but all of them were already ordered"
Me : "Is there any chance for me to get one?"
Staff : "You can order 1, my boss will add more stocks in 1 weeks"
Me : "Do i need to pay DP?"
Staff : "If you want 100% possibilty to get one, then you should"

So i ordered one, and a week later i got one. I'm kinda surprised on how they get more stocks while in international order, they already out of stocks.

A week ago, the store's staff sent me a message telling me new items (indlcuding Fauna) just arrived, so yesterday i went to that store. I asked, "can i take a look at Fauna?", and she said "I got 3 of them, and all of them already sold out, if you want 1 you can order and wait for 1-2 weeks, my boss will add more stocks". It happened again, except this time i didn't order Fauna.

Once again i'm surprised on how they add more stocks for internationally sold out items.



I tested on how they get old items, so i asked about old items.

Me : "can you get old and already internationally sold out items?"
Staff : "if you hand me over the details and photos, i can work that out for you"

So i planned to give her photos and detail for Alicia Florence (ARIA) by Good Smile Company, that has been released October 2007. But i'll have to wait for the result.

BTW, photo of Alicia Florence is taken from http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/

So basically, local stores around me have "connection power" to get old items from distributors. Making the impossible became possible.

As far as i know, if you want to look for sold out item you'll go to eBay to look for the item.