-Kanrabat- wrote:At least in Japan, all of the Japanese exclusives are much cheaper for obvious reasons. I also love the fact that in Japan, they don't dick around by having the sale taxes include in the displayed price.
The sales tax isn't always included clearly. It depends on the place. Online, it's included, but it still depends, I think. Amazon includes it up-front, but Takara Tomy includes the tax at the checkout (I think). Some real shops will show the pre-tax price in big fonts, with the actual price in smaller fonts on the ticket. I read an article once that said:
- Once, pre-tax prices weren't a legal retirement.
- Then, they were, and everyone included them clearly.
- After a tax increase, many shops didn't want to lose/scare away customers, so they "hid" the pre-tax price in small/obscured fonts.
Personally, I think "lying" to customers in this way is worse than just showing the actual price.
As for "exclusives", recently, Takara Tomy have been selling some "regular" TFs as their own exclusives. Coupled with the usual late release dates for Japanese TFs (compared to US ones), I've missed-out on some TFs, as I was waiting for them to appear on Amazon Japan.
Also, Takara Tomy Mall is the only place in Japan (that I've encountered) that doesn't accept Japanese debit cards (such as Visa debit). Every other online/real shop, service, etc that accepts credit cards is fine with my card too, except TTM. "Luckily" they accept either cash on delivery or later cash payment at a convenience store (which costs a bit extra if you take the money out of a store's cash-point machine, as you can't pay bills via credit/debit cards at such places).
One "good" thing about TTM is that you don't need to pay to join the website. It's "free", although arguably, customers pay "extra" via the more expensive prices anyway. I also haven't really felt that TTM has offered anything really "exclusive/attractive" since the two Seacon combiner packs. I've also noticed that, in some cases, Japanese exclusives can also be obtained via Hasbro Asia, and possibly cheaper too. In the case of Masterpiece figures, Hasbro Asia also includes coins, which we don't get in Japan.