At the showcase next to the stairs on Nakano Broadway's second floor
Let me get straight to the point. The moment you arrive on Nakano Broadway's second floor, do not head straight for the big signboard shop in front of you. The first technique in navigating used figures is to make a habit of examining the small display cases attached to corridor corners, right there where you've just climbed the stairs. In the summer of 2018, I discovered a 2007 first edition Max Factory Fate Saber 1/7 scale in the bottom compartment of that corner showcase. It had a "No Box, Grade B" price tag, but the paint condition was Grade A, and I spent five minutes checking for hidden scratches on the bottom of the figure. The price was about 70% of the Japanese used market rate at the time. That's when I learned: circling only the shops marked on pilgrimage maps is tourism; scanning corridor corners and stair landings is exploration.
After passing through the shopping arcade that connects Nakano Station to Broadway and entering the building, the first floor is groceries and sundries. Your destinations are the second and third floors. But the moment you seek out only the famous used shop chains, you're already seeing only the top 10% of search result inventory. Nakano Broadway's true structure is a labyrinth. Two-to-three-pyeong individual shops attached to both sides of corridors, rental showcase corners occupying one wall, even display cases installed on stairway walls. These gap spaces are where ten-year-old out-of-print scales and early Nendoroids lie sleeping.
Akihabara is a new release battlefield, Nakano is a time travel destination
Radio Kaikan in Akihabara and Nakano Broadway serve different functions. Akihabara is a battleground for picking up the latest pre-orders and securing same-day release stock. On the summer 2023 release day of the Genshin Impact Raiden Shogun 1/7 scale, a line formed in front of the Radio Kaikan first-floor hobby shop from 10 AM. Nakano Broadway, on the other hand, is where you hold in your hands items released five or ten years ago. The 2010 Good Smile Black Rock Shooter first edition, the 2012 Alter Madoka movie version, the 2015 Max Factory Saitama-sensei. You'll never encounter such lineups in Akihabara's new product stores.
Radio Kaikan's charm lies in its vertical structure. Each floor from the first to the eighth has a different character. Floors 1-2 are major hobby shops and card shops, floors 3-4 are small-to-medium used and new product mixed stores, floor 5 and above are niche specialty shops and rental showcases. The higher you climb, the denser the concentration of enthusiasts. I once saw early 2000s completed Kaiyodo garage kits in a corner display case on the sixth floor. The original sculptor's name was handwritten on the price tag, and it was wrapped in bubble wrap instead of a box. Such items never make it to the first-floor major store display shelves.
Den Den Town is called Osaka's Akihabara, but in reality it's more relaxed than Akihabara and more systematic than Nakano. The shops lined up north to south along Ōta Road in central Den Den Town have clear signboards and floor arrangements. But step just one block into the back alleys east of Ōta Road, and you'll find used shops requiring you to climb narrow second-floor stairs. During a 2019 visit, I saw a 2013 Kotobukiya Kantai Collection Shimakaze 1/8 scale there at half the market price. The box condition was Grade C, but the figure itself was unharmed.
How to run through a checklist in front of used figure display cases
There's an order to examining used figures. First, check the grade notation on the price tag. Symbols like A (unopened/opened but never displayed), B (signs of display), C (box damage/missing accessories) vary slightly by shop but the general framework is the same. Next is box condition. Look at box corner crushing, tape marks, cellophane window scratches. The box directly impacts resale price, after all. Then comes the figure itself.
The viewing angle from beyond the showcase is limited, but paint bleeding on hair tips, misaligned face decal printing, and stress marks around joints or support rod connection points are visible. If there are clear parts, check for yellowing. Among early 2010s clear parts figures, there are quite a few cases of yellowing within five years depending on storage conditions. For areas you can't see—inside skirts, backs of bases—you need to ask the clerk to let you hold it directly. Most shops in Nakano Broadway will open the showcase if you ask. Same with Radio Kaikan.
Checking accessories is essential. Count with your eyes to make sure replacement face parts, hand parts, and effect parts are all present in the box's blister packaging. Among pre-2015 releases, there are cases where the accessory list in the manual differs from the actual contents. Nendoroids especially have many parts, leading to high missing-part rates in used transactions. Even one missing piece drops it from Grade B to Grade C, and the price difference is over 30%.
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy 1/6 Scale Figure - Ryza (Black Swimwear/Tanned Ver.) by Spiritale →Places not on pilgrimage maps but where locals go
At the north end of Nakano Broadway's third floor, rental showcases cluster in a small corridor by the windows. It's a structure where individual sellers rent one compartment at a time to display their goods. Price tags are handwritten or printed and attached with cellophane tape. The advantage here is turnover rate. Since displays change weekly, there's a high probability of encountering different items even on a second visit to the same spot. The disadvantage is verification. Large used shops go through their own cleaning and grade evaluation, but rental showcases depend on individual seller conscience. During a 2020 visit, I saw a scale with repainting traces in one showcase. The areas repainted over the original coloring were noticeable, but there was no mention on the price tag.
Radio Kaikan's basement first floor is a level tourists don't often descend to. The stairs are narrow and the lighting dim, failing to draw attention from the entrance directory. But there are small shops there dealing in retro games and figures together. In 2017 I discovered a 2005 Kaiyodo Evangelion Ayanami Rei 1/6 scale there. The box was slightly wavy from moisture but the figure was clean, and the price was 60% of the online market rate at the time. Due to the basement characteristics, humidity management is weak so box conditions are poor, but prices are set correspondingly lower.
One block west of Den Den Town's Ōta Road, inside from the main street, there are used shops operating on building second floors without signboards. Places with just a small A4 paper stuck at the entrance saying something like "Used Figures & Games." Climb the stairs and you'll find 4-5 showcases packed into a space of about six pyeong. Such places often aren't registered on Google Maps. During a 2019 Osaka visit, I bought a 2011 Good Smile Vocaloid Megurine Luka 1/8 scale at such a shop. The shopkeeper personally wrapped it with newspaper and bubble wrap, and the receipt was old-style paper torn by hand.
Things good to know when planning a pilgrimage route
In Akihabara, major shops are concentrated within a 500-meter radius from the JR Akihabara Station Electric Town exit. From Radio Kaikan to the large hobby buildings across from the station to the small and medium shops in alleys on both sides of Chūō-dōri, you can make a round in two hours on foot. However, Saturday afternoons are difficult to walk due to crowds. Before 11 AM on Sundays or 2-4 PM on weekdays is comfortable. Nakano Broadway is a straight five-minute walk from the north exit of JR Nakano Station. The Broadway building alone takes 2-3 hours. Shop density is high and routes get tangled easily, so it's efficient to start from the south end of the second floor, sweep one corridor all the way to the north end first, then do the third floor the same way.
Den Den Town is accessed from Osaka Metro Ebisucho Station or Namba Station. Ōta Road is about 600 meters north to south, and expanding one block left and right doubles your search range. Here, the standard is to look while descending from north (Namba direction) to south (Ebisucho direction). Large shops are concentrated in the north, and as you go south, the proportion of small specialty shops increases. For a one-day schedule, Akihabara in the morning and Nakano in the afternoon is a safe order. Both are in Tokyo and 20 minutes apart on the JR Chūō Line. Den Den Town is in Osaka, so it needs to be scheduled separately.
One more checklist item: used shop business hours. Large chains open at 10-11 AM, but many individually operated small shops open after noon. Some shops on Radio Kaikan's upper floors are closed on weekdays. You need the habit of checking latest business information via SNS or Google reviews. In the summer of 2022, I visited Nakano Broadway on a weekday morning only to find the entire third-floor rental showcase section I'd targeted was closed. Monday is the regular holiday for Japan's small and medium shops.
![Fate/Grand Order Avenger/Jeanne d'Arc [Alter] 1/7 Complete Figure](https://img.amiami.com/images/product/main/183/FIGURE-041414.jpg)
Fate/Grand Order Avenger/Jeanne d'Arc [Alter] 1/7 Complete Figure →Timing for opening your wallet: between immediate purchase and patient waiting
The time you hesitate in front of a used figure is 30 seconds. The rarer the out-of-print item, the lower the probability it will remain until your next visit. In 2016 at Nakano, I saw a 2008 Alter Suzumiya Haruhi Disappearance ver. 1/8 scale. The price was similar to the online market rate at the time, but the box condition was Grade A and accessories were complete. After 30 minutes of deliberation, I decided to check other shops first. When I returned an hour later, that spot was empty. Since that day, I haven't found the same product in the same condition even on Japanese online sites.
The opposite case exists too. In 2019 at Radio Kaikan, I saw a 2014 Good Smile KanColle Shimakaze 1/8 scale. The price was 20% higher than the Japanese online direct-order market rate at the time, and the box corner was crushed. I searched Japanese mail-order site inventory on my smartphone right there and found new stock still remaining. I didn't buy immediately, and after returning to Korea, ordered new stock through a forwarding service. The total cost was 10% cheaper than the on-site used purchase.
The criteria for immediate purchase are three things. First, out-of-print items you haven't seen in stock online for over six months. Second, on-site price equal to or within 10% difference from online lowest price. Third, box and figure condition meets your collection standards. When these three overlap, I buy on the spot. If even one is off, I take a photo, return to the accommodation, search, then judge. The romance of pilgrimage is nice, but the feeling of seeing the same item posted at half price in domestic direct-order communities after returning home is not pleasant.
"Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story" Madoka Kaname Kimono ver. 1/7 Scale Figure →How to bring boxes home: carry-on and checked baggage
One or two 1/7 scales are possible as carry-on. Wrap them in clothes in a suitcase or stand them in a carry-on backpack. The problem is boxes. Most scale figure boxes are over 30cm, and 1/4 scales or products including large bases exceed 50cm. This size often exceeds carry-on regulations (sum of three dimensions under 115cm). There's the option of abandoning the box and bringing only the figure, but without a box, the price drops 30-50% when reselling used.
When sending as checked baggage, wrap the outside of the box in at least two layers of bubble wrap, then put it in a cardboard box again. It's common to buy large cardboard and bubble wrap rolls sold at Japanese 100-yen shops locally and pack at the accommodation. When departing Narita Airport in 2018, I sent three scales as checked baggage. I attached a "FRAGILE" sticker to the outside of the cardboard box, but after arriving at Incheon Airport, I found one box corner was crushed. Fortunately, the figure boxes inside were safe thanks to the bubble wrap.
Postal shipping is also a method. Sending to your Korean home address via Japan Post EMS or airmail costs according to weight and volume. For small figures under 2kg, EMS is cheap, but for large scales over 5kg, airmail costs can exceed 30% of the local purchase price. Customs duties are imposed at 8% over 150,000 won. Whether to honestly write the figure price as the postal declaration amount or lower it with a "gift" notation is an individual judgment. I declare honestly. I don't want to bear the risk of customs opening the box for inspection.
FAQ
For first-timers, should they go to Akihabara or Nakano first?
If you want to see the latest new release lineup, start from Radio Kaikan in Akihabara and the major hobby shops around the station. If you're looking for out-of-print scales and early-to-mid 2010s Nendoroids, Nakano Broadway is the priority. For a one-day schedule, the order of learning market sense at Akihabara new product stores in the morning and doing used exploration at Nakano in the afternoon has high learning efficiency.
What must you check before buying used figures?
Five things: box condition, figure paint condition, complete accessories, clear parts yellowing, and joint/support rod stress marks. If verification is difficult from beyond the showcase, ask the clerk to let you hold it directly. Most used shops allow visual inspection before purchase. Since price tag grades (A/B/C) are shop standards, you need the habit of re-evaluating with your own eyes.
What essentials should you bring when visiting Japan's holy lands?
Smartphone (Japan roaming or SIM card), app for searching Japanese online used market rates, bubble wrap and cardboard (can be purchased at local 100-yen shops before returning), and ample suitcase space. Prepare cash as well. Some small used shops don't accept credit cards. In 2019, I struggled to find a nearby convenience store ATM after encountering a cash-only shop in a Den Den Town back alley.
Is it okay to buy used figures without boxes?
If your collection purpose is display appreciation and you have no resale plans, it's fine. No-box items are usually 30-40% cheaper, so you can buy higher-grade products for your budget. However, without a box, protection during moves or storage is difficult, and market value drops significantly when listing as used later. When I buy no-box products, I buy with the resolve that "this will stay in my display case for life."
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May good connections reach your display cases today as well.
