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Hi

 

Ive been to Japan on three previous occasions for the snow, love the place hence me and my girlfriend are coming up to spend the upcoming season there.

 

From my previous visits Ive always found the snowboard gear to be quite expensive if anything on par with the local prices in Australia especially in Hakuba itself with limited range. Ive spent a short time looking at snow gear in Tokyo in the snow shop area near Akihabara (forget the exact name of the district) and from memory it was cheaper than at mountains but nothing super cheap (when compared to say electronic goods), at least the range was extensive.

 

Were looking at beg-mid level gear for my girlfriend (board, binding and boots) – from major brands eg Ride, K2, Nitro, GNU etc

 

Using a combination of local stores and online we can get the gear before coming for 60,000 – 75 000 Yen (Based on current exchange rates). We know what we want, sizing for my girlfriend in Japan shouldn’t be a problem.

 

So my question is should we wait and buy the gear in Tokyo, Osaka or Nagano or get it before coming? Are we likely to save any money based on the above figures?

 

I assume stock levels for females especially in early/mid December should be still good. We will have only 1 day max to buy the gear in Japan, before heading into the mountains.

 

If the saving levels are minimal I'd much prefer to buy beforehand to not worry about it once we get Japan.

 

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

PS I have searched the site, no threads really answered my question, especially relating to current prices.

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I reckon you'd be better getting it beforehand, then there is no fear about not getting what you want, just come over and ride your heart out. i don't think you'll be getting it any cheaper with the Yen being strong

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Originally Posted By: Ctrl-Z
And do you want the hassle of having to spend the time and effort when you are in Japan? I know I wouldn't. Unless perhaps you want a gnarly Japan-only board/gear.


This.

Most stores in the Kanto area, besides the ones in Jimbocho, are not near stations. Current prices also depend on the strength of the yen, if its strong for us, then it is bad for you to buy your stuff here. But I guess bringing your stuff over would perhaps add extra costs.

Where are you thinking of going would also help as some members on here would be able to direct you to shops in the vicinity of slopes that might be able to give you some discounts.
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Snow gear usually goes on sale in the shops around end of Sept/ Oct. Online sales for last years gear is ongoing.

 

I think the new gear prices are actually pretty high. Board, binding and boots would easily be 60,000Â¥ and up anyway (and that wouldn't be the highest end gear... more mid-range). If you buy last years gear you'd be able to find it much cheaper but sizes/style are limited to whatever they have in their old stock.

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nipped into tokyo a week or so ago and found some nice prices on 2011 gear. I mean its not outstanding or anything, but big name brand stuff was around the 25-40k. Theres a surprising amount of last seasons skate bananas still on the shelves. I also found a couple of shops selling bataleon which is nice. Found 2012 ex demo as well as a 2011 riot. All ex-demo stuff was at a good price too.

 

Anyway, heres your options:

 

1. Buy at home. Gonna be pricey but theres a reason for the that (the cost of doing business vis a vis the exchange rate plus duty plus shipping).

 

2. Buy in japan. Again, its going to be pretty much comparable to aus prices, but with a decent exchange rate it might even be better to buy in AUS.

 

3. Buy direct from US using a licensed retailer. The big barrier here is vendor agreements which restrict exports outside the US. This requires using a mail forwarder which means extra shipping costs (although most companies have free shipping within continental US, the forwarders dont have the same awesome fedex deals youre likely to get with them if they shipped it to you direct - off the top of my head, rome dont have any such restrictions, so theyre definitely a good choice, plus they make great decks the 2012 mod looks great fun).

 

4. Ebay and craigslist. Top brands at good prices and with no shipping restrictions. This grey market is being targetted by some of the big names like Burton and K2. So you might find resellers for 2012 gear scarce on ebay, but craigslist is always going to have boards for sale. Only trouble is no one wants to ship to Australia or japan, so youll need to have a forwarding address if you want to get the sale. I got an awesome deal on both my quiver killer and my airobic from ebay, so its definitely doable. You just need to put a bit of legwork in and buy at the right time.

 

The right time by the way was about july to mid september in the northern hemisphere.

 

Also remember as well though that come the time people are gearing up in japan it will be off season for you guys. I dont know your market, but you get 2012 earlier than us, so that should mean discounted 2012 gear in aus versus full price (or marginally discounted) here.

 

Basically the best way is still to import it yourself. Its still about as cheap as you can get a board. But the difference between doing that and buying from yoru home country has shrunk a bit in the last year or so.

 

Hope this helps razz

 

 

 

3.

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Originally Posted By: ippy
Also remember as well though that come the time people are gearing up in japan it will be off season for you guys. I dont know your market, but you get 2012 earlier than us, so that should mean discounted 2012 gear in aus versus full price (or marginally discounted) here.


Interesting that.
Generally what time of year do manufacturers release first batches of "new" gear, considering that it's on season somewhere in the world.
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Originally Posted By: iiyamadude
Originally Posted By: ippy
Also remember as well though that come the time people are gearing up in japan it will be off season for you guys. I dont know your market, but you get 2012 earlier than us, so that should mean discounted 2012 gear in aus versus full price (or marginally discounted) here.


Interesting that.
Generally what time of year do manufacturers release first batches of "new" gear, considering that it's on season somewhere in the world.


Southern Hemisphere now gets the new season gear first, in time for it's snow season.

That is 2012 gear started being stocked in shops in Australia from May this year depending on which delivery schedules of the manufacturers.

It used to be that we wouldnt get 2012 gear until it was released in the northen hemishpere.

Sales in shops are a bit random, the biggest savings are not neccesairly for the end of the Australian season. There is also sales for the start and end of the northen hemisphere season as a lot of people travel north to the snow. So the shops actually get business more or less all year round.

So our purchase is pretty much sorted.
Buy boots in Aus. If they provide a good overal deal/discount for a whole boot/binding/board package get it here. If not buy the board and binding online, already got stores and sellers lined up. The saving might not necessarily be big but you can definitely get better gear for the same price

Thanks for the help guys
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i picked up this season's copy of "Snowboarder's Bible" (Japanese magazine) which is basically a huge gear guide and found the Japanese prices pretty shocking, especially with the strong Yen

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actually you have a point there. I remember last year researching the rome agent rocker (i picked it because its pretty likley youll find it all over the world), just to see what international prices were like and whether it would be worth it in x country ordering from a US site as opposed buying from yoru home market. I recall almost universally very early in the season japan had boards down by up to 30%. It kinda shocked me if only because most brands following in the footsteps of burton and jarden (k2/ride) have set timetables fro reductions. But in japan stuff seems a bit more lax. Then again, the msrp is MASSIVELY inflated compared to most other countries iirc. So maybe they start above the real msrp and then drop it to the actual msrp in october razz

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posted fourth of october last year by me:

 

Remember, the 2011 rome agent rocker retailed in the US for $500 (and free shipping almost everywhere).

 

Quote:
I r have come up with a new plan. Ill just go to the rome site, see the shops they recommend in various countries and get back a price if i can find the deck on their site.

 

Australia = $850 ($880Aus)

 

Canada = $630 ($645Can)

 

EU = $712 (Euro520)

 

Korea = $745 (850,000won)

 

Japan = $958 (79,800yen)

(though in truth this is weird because a LOT of places seem to be carrying at 10-30% 'discount' already making me thing the MSRP is not quite the MSRP - 30% off = $670)

 

UK = $665 (420quid)

 

(only edited out the links where i got the price because its not really worth asking permission to reference an outdated link :))

Suffice it to say they were all referenced from major e-tailers in each country.

 

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