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Thread: Where to buy pachinko balls

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    Tokie Owens REIDBOY's Avatar
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    Default Where to buy pachinko balls

    New here first post. I have 8 working vintage pachinko machines. I currently have about 3,500 balls. I am looking for another 3,000 balls. Any good sellers would be helpful.

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    Blind Shooter jstunt1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Pachigoda on eBay or jt comatz on alibaba sells them. Best prices I’ve seen so far


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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    and biscuits
    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Pachi Puro lotsoballs's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    JT Comatz has best bulk prices in my experience. They sell cases of 4000 balls. Otherwise Clover Collectables or Pachinko pagoda on eBay if not buying bulk.

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    Tokie Owens REIDBOY's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Thank you for the suggestions.

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    Stuey - The RADministrator MrGneiss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    WELCOME!!!

    "Blowing smoke rings at the moon."

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    Blind Shooter jstunt1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Is it just me or did jt comatz shipping go up again in price


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    Fever Hunter Atoombolle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Shipping is never cheap... Keep that in mind when buying from overseas. If Peteybob has a sale, I go through him. Otherwise I'm partial to buying through Yahoo Auctions and FromJapan as shipping from Japan directly is slightly lower than shipping from Taiwan it seems (and you can do ground shipping too as an option when you're not in a hurry). The downside is that you'll be dependent on what is available. But there's pretty often packs of 25kg (about 4000 balls)

    Going through JT Comatz is great if you're in or near North Carolina and can go through Randy for a group buy. If not, then ultimately the various costs add up to be not that far off as shipping directly from Japan by air in my experience.

    Example through Yahoo auctions (I didn't ship just the balls, so it's a messy order):
    - I paid $38 dollars for the 25kg of metallic blue pachinko balls (free shipping within Japan)
    - I paid $224 in international shipping fees (excluding the handling and internal shipping fees for 3 other auctions that were part of the shipment)
    - The other items in the shipment were a tiny little keychain, a B1 sized poster (expensive to ship) and 10 plastic dollar boxes (with the padding on the bottom) which end up pretty large and expensive to ship, and likely made up a good chunk of the shipping cost simply due to the size of the box.

    Ignoring that the other items would have affected the shipping, I paid 6.55 cents per ball. Keeping in mind that the shipping for those other items would have easily passed 50-75 dollars by themselves, I'd say the net cost of the balls was still around 5 cents each.

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    Blind Shooter jstunt1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by Atoombolle View Post
    Shipping is never cheap... Keep that in mind when buying from overseas. If Peteybob has a sale, I go through him. Otherwise I'm partial to buying through Yahoo Auctions and FromJapan as shipping from Japan directly is slightly lower than shipping from Taiwan it seems (and you can do ground shipping too as an option when you're not in a hurry). The downside is that you'll be dependent on what is available. But there's pretty often packs of 25kg (about 4000 balls)

    Going through JT Comatz is great if you're in or near North Carolina and can go through Randy for a group buy. If not, then ultimately the various costs add up to be not that far off as shipping directly from Japan by air in my experience.

    Example through Yahoo auctions (I didn't ship just the balls, so it's a messy order):
    - I paid $38 dollars for the 25kg of metallic blue pachinko balls (free shipping within Japan)
    - I paid $224 in international shipping fees (excluding the handling and internal shipping fees for 3 other auctions that were part of the shipment)
    - The other items in the shipment were a tiny little keychain, a B1 sized poster (expensive to ship) and 10 plastic dollar boxes (with the padding on the bottom) which end up pretty large and expensive to ship, and likely made up a good chunk of the shipping cost simply due to the size of the box.

    Ignoring that the other items would have affected the shipping, I paid 6.55 cents per ball. Keeping in mind that the shipping for those other items would have easily passed 50-75 dollars by themselves, I'd say the net cost of the balls was still around 5 cents each.
    Can you explain how the yahoo auctions work and what to expect to pay for international shipping for the machines and balls? Is that an alternative to machines and balls from Japan instead of A-pachinko?


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    Pachi Puro lotsoballs's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    I don’t like how you never know how much shipping is gonna cost when buying anything off yahoo auctions; once FromJapan or Buyee has bid on your item for you; they can then charge you whatever they want essentially for shipping. And what are you going to do about it?! Nothing or else they keep your money and throw out your item. Also sometimes machines get broke from poor packing then you’re really screwed!

    Price varies a lot for oversize and overweight items.

    That’s what’s nice about JT Comatz is upfront transparency about shipping costs BEFORE you commit to purchasing. I’m not buying anything off yahoo auctions anymore but cells from now on.


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    Fever Hunter Atoombolle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by jstunt1 View Post
    Can you explain how the yahoo auctions work and what to expect to pay for international shipping for the machines and balls? Is that an alternative to machines and balls from Japan instead of A-pachinko?
    There is a sticky for it:
    https://www.pachitalk.com/forums/sho...hopping-on-YJA

    Basically, you get an account with Buyee or FromJapan and copy links to Yahoo auctions into their search boxes. Then you can use the proxy service to make a bid. When the auction is won you pay the costs at that time (charge 1).

    Additional costs are 300 yen per auction + shipping fees inside Japan and international shipping. Shipping fee is to Tokyo for the auctions. Depending on what you buy you get an email from them asking if you are interested in extra options offered by the seller.

    International shipping for machines is generally FedEx Express of FedEx Economy (slightly less expensive). Machines ship individually. I've had pachinkos cost me as low as $270 to ship FedEx economy to me from their warehouse (the machine cost me $51.26, fees, domestic shipping, 110v->24v transformer ($18) and individual volume controls for each speaker and international shipping was $370.82 for a total cost into my hands of $422.08). The machine was Tokio Special.
    Most expensive shipping so far was Pirates of Dynamite King at $410.96 shipping.

    Like lotso said, you're somewhat at their whims, and I've been lucky with the things I've bought so far. Good packaging and no problems at all. I do try to go with reputable sellers (and become a repeat customer of theirs) and understand that I'll always be at risk with any purchase I make.

    That said, I've asked for quotes from JT Comatz for a few of my Yahoo purchases as well before buying them and so far the lowest difference I've gotten in a machine has been $167 in the machine and $84 dollars in the shipping, so for that one (my most expensive Yahoo purchase) I still saved $251 AND got individual volume pots installed as a bonus.

    I don't want to badmouth JT Comatz as they do great work for the community, but for me personally it's only worth it if I can't get the machine from Yahoo auctions because shipping to my house from Taiwan starts at $500 if by air.

    Note that when looking for machines the selection on Yahoo auctions only looks massive because of auctions being frequently relisted. If you're looking through the new listings you'll basically see the same group of machines over and over every couple of days until they sell. JT Comatz has a far larger selection of machines.

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    Tokie Owens REIDBOY's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Shipping from over seas is a lot; at least for this guy. $210 for shipping 4,000 balls. Another seller will only sell 1,500 at a time. Thank you all for the feedback. I had no idea.

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    Fever Hunter Atoombolle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Shipping things ground will be less expensive but I'm usually not patient enough for it. 4000 Balls for under $230 is still better than anything I see on eBay. Plus, I couldn't resist when I saw them. I'd never seen metallic blue pachinko balls before (and haven't seen them since either. Once the seller was through his stock of them I haven't seen anyone else sell any. Not that I've been looking for them though).

    That's the biggest downside of auctions: You never know what you're going to find.

    Here's 10kg of pachinko balls and a dollar box for 2200 yen ($15) plus shipping and handling (1710 yen shipping + 300 handling fee for FromJapan) : https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp...on/u1115098101
    There's links to more at the bottom of the page. Essentially you're looking at $60 for 3000+ balls and then the international shipping for them. The shipping estimate tool suggests it'll be $150 by air, $115 by ground. Still better than what I see on eBay.

    That said, there's often better deals on balls showing up so you can do better with a bit of patience. In the meantime get a quote from JT Comatz including shipping to see if they can get you a deal instead. It never hurts to ask.

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    Pachi Puro lotsoballs's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    I should note; I haven’t paid for air shipping from JT Comatz for many years; I get all my machines and cases of balls via the group shipments (by slow boat to NYC, then shipped by truck to the Charlotte NC area). This way it’s much cheaper than costly air shipping very heavy items. About half the cost of air shipping. But for those not local to NC area; not much saving to be had once you have to ship again domestically from Charlotte to for the final leg of the journey to your home. Unless you are getting multiple machines, cases of balls, ect. Then Fastenal shipping from Charlotte does make financial sense; because they will ship a pallet full of pachinkos to you far cheaper than FedEx/UPS.

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    Blind Shooter jstunt1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by lotsoballs View Post
    I should note; I haven’t paid for air shipping from JT Comatz for many years; I get all my machines and cases of balls via the group shipments (by slow boat to NYC, then shipped by truck to the Charlotte NC area). This way it’s much cheaper than costly air shipping very heavy items. About half the cost of air shipping. But for those not local to NC area; not much saving to be had once you have to ship again domestically from Charlotte to for the final leg of the journey to your home. Unless you are getting multiple machines, cases of balls, ect. Then Fastenal shipping from Charlotte does make financial sense; because they will ship a pallet full of pachinkos to you far cheaper than FedEx/UPS.
    Who does the group shipments?


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    Pachi Puro lotsoballs's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by jstunt1 View Post
    Who does the group shipments?


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    Randy Silver; he works with Karen and Aki at JT Comatz. Can find them on the North America pachinko club or Pachinko and Pachislot trader groups on FB. There’s an upcoming shipment early next year…

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    Blind Shooter jstunt1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by lotsoballs View Post
    Randy Silver; he works with Karen and Aki at JT Comatz. Can find them on the North America pachinko club or Pachinko and Pachislot trader groups on FB. There’s an upcoming shipment early next year…
    So do you pay the price on Alibaba for the machine and balls or do you get a discount there too? And shipping is less as a group? I’m intrigued


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    Pachi Puro lotsoballs's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by jstunt1 View Post
    So do you pay the price on Alibaba for the machine and balls or do you get a discount there too? And shipping is less as a group? I’m intrigued


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    They sometimes have specials, and certain machines for under $200 for time to time. $129 was the cheapest I’ve seen.

    Shipping to Charlotte usually works out to $200-260 a machine. Depends on how big the shipment is and many other factors. It’s safer in my opinion than air shipping since FedEx and UPS will often rough up heavy boxes!

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    Fever Hunter Atoombolle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    One caveat: The transformer for a pachinko machine (if you buy one from JT Comatz to go with your machine) will be shipped in a separate box and sometimes incurs its own shipping cost in the bulk shipments.

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    Default Re: Where to buy pachinko balls

    Quote Originally Posted by Atoombolle View Post
    One caveat: The transformer for a pachinko machine (if you buy one from JT Comatz to go with your machine) will be shipped in a separate box and sometimes incurs its own shipping cost in the bulk shipments.
    Im seeing some beef among shipping and people not getting what they paid for? What’s been going on there? Between Randy and Mike? Is this common or do most people get what they order


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