No, I am not praising any site as better or cheaper than the other, what I am professing is that where else can you find pre-orders for something that might or will be a limited release and once gone you don't have a chance for another unless you pay the inflated prices. I have not bought many trains from Hobby Search and would not buy any common ones from them for the exact reason both you and Ripley mentions. The only three (I think) I pre-ordered and I think the only things I have bought from Hobby Search turned out to be good deals because once they hit the other Online sites the price jumped. Those trains were:
The Gold Nikko Moude Spacia
C58 `SL Ginga` Set
Kyoto Railway Museum C58
Of those three the one I thought would be more of a Limited release, Kyoto Railway Museum C58, turned out to be the most common and still easy to attain to this day. The other two turned out to be good Pre-orders for me even with the higher cost of shipping. But this is what I mean about taking a gamble, at least in my case, that a train will only be available for a short time and will be snatched up quickly before being available at higher prices later. That is what I am gambling on and why it is a gamble for me on this new Twilight Express. Actually I have been doing this for so long, buying things from Japan, that I have become numb to shipping costs and don't even figure that into my choices anymore. I can't say that about me when I first started buying from there....woosh....that was sticker shock for sure.
BTW: in this video The Izu Craille wrapping looks to be paint and not stickers. Does it look like that to you? And look at the tops of each unit, I didn't realize from the original pictures the paint was a metal flake and glittery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV7qms_3SQ8
The Gold Nikko Moude Spacia
C58 `SL Ginga` Set
Kyoto Railway Museum C58
Of those three the one I thought would be more of a Limited release, Kyoto Railway Museum C58, turned out to be the most common and still easy to attain to this day. The other two turned out to be good Pre-orders for me even with the higher cost of shipping. But this is what I mean about taking a gamble, at least in my case, that a train will only be available for a short time and will be snatched up quickly before being available at higher prices later. That is what I am gambling on and why it is a gamble for me on this new Twilight Express. Actually I have been doing this for so long, buying things from Japan, that I have become numb to shipping costs and don't even figure that into my choices anymore. I can't say that about me when I first started buying from there....woosh....that was sticker shock for sure.
BTW: in this video The Izu Craille wrapping looks to be paint and not stickers. Does it look like that to you? And look at the tops of each unit, I didn't realize from the original pictures the paint was a metal flake and glittery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV7qms_3SQ8
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