Personal Reviews on these sites? (Trustworthy Sites)

[simplylyss1]

Hello there! I've recently started getting into Gundam after my boyfriend introduced me to the series. He even surprised me with an SD kit that we put together last night. And I loved it! Now I'm looking at sites online in hopes of buying more but have run into a bit of trouble. See, we're both in college (him about to graduate, I with a few more years) so we can't really afford or trust sites like EBay and Amazon. So I was wondering if anyone has used any of the sites listed below, and if you could give me some feedback on whatever one you've used? I want to surprise him with a kit for his graduation present, but don't want it to cost me an arm and a leg!

Sites I have in mind:
*imageanime.com
hobbywave.com
*gundamplanet.com
*gundamstoreandmore.com

* Indicates stores I would very much appreciate feedback on!

Also if you have any suggestions on stores I could check out, that would be great! I'm looking for stores with:
-Relatively cheap prices
-Shipping that won't break the bank
-Located out of the USA
-Has a variety of stock, or at least re-stocks often

I know there are probably other topics like this one that I could look through, but I'm really looking for first hand experiences the most!

[AGF-Antoine]

The best site for sure is HobbyLink Japan. It has a large selection and restocks often, plus standard lower prices.

Sadly I cannot give you any reviews on most of those other sites, since many do not ship to my location (The Netherlands).

A lot of people also use GG Infinite, but I have no experience using them before. They do also tend to have rare limited releases and such though and accompanying pricetags.

Also, another site that might be nice to check out is Dalong.net. It has reviews of most of the modern Gundam models. Well, it is only pictures if you can't read Korean, but the pictures tell a lot by themselves already.


AGF-Antoine

[Hyakushiki]

Gundamplanet is pretty reliable, the prices are reasonable and the selection is decent, they do carry P-Bandai stuff but expect to pay through the nose and once their stock is gone, that's it. They use to have free shipping for orders over $95 within the US, but now it is only for select areas of the country.

[mcred23]

they do carry P-Bandai stuff but expect to pay through the nose and once their stock is gone, that's it.

For web-exclusive stuff, that seems to be the case with everybody. I don't think that stuff gets more than one production run very often...

Anyway, call this a second recommendation for HLJ. They tend to have the lowest regular prices and shipping isn't going to break the bank in any surprising way, as some other places may do. However, their standard shipping is somewhat on the slow side in my experiences, usually taking a good two or three weeks to reach me in Florida. They'll have all the normal stuff (Meaning, AFAIK, they don't carry P-Bandai or other web-exlusive stuff) in stock fairly often, and are usually the best about getting stuff in stock at least semi-regularly. One key thing to remember in that regard is that even if something is listed as Out of Stock or Backordered on HLJ, that doesn't mean it isn't available, it'll just take a while longer for them to get it in stock (Or get enough people to have ordered it for them to reorder it). I really haven't found a better or more reliable place than them in over a decade, so they'd probably be the best place to start.

GG Infinite, since it was mentioned, I've only had very limited experiences with and their reputation is somewhat mixed AFAIK. They're a good place to get web-exclusive stuff and sometimes have sales or coupons that make regular stuff pretty affordable. However, their customer service side is something of a pain; I've had trouble dealing with them over a pair of pending orders and heard of much worse, so, unless they have something that literally nobody else has, I wouldn't really recommend them.

Also, while their selection is much more limited, bigbadtoystore.com is generally pretty solid. Easy enough to deal with, prices aren't the cheapest but still usually better than the likes of Amazon, affordable and pretty rapid shipping in my experiences with them over the years. They usually don't keep much older stuff in stock, if ever, but if you want something that is new or an online only deal, they're a very good option.