Why does the rare material end up here?

Because the shop has been buying collections for decades and employs staff who can value specialist material. When someone in Japan decides to sell an old collection, this is often the first place they think of, so out-of-production items concentrate here.

How reliable are the condition descriptions?

The shop writes them, not a private seller, so they are detailed and fairly blunt. But vintage items carry age-related wear as a matter of course — look at every photo and read the notes before deciding.

How long does a Mandarake order take?

It depends how many branches are involved. Items from one branch reach our warehouse in Japan quickly; spread across several, everything has to arrive before the consignment home is made up.

Cover for "What is Mandarake? Japan's legendary secondhand collectibles shop": pronounced "man-da-ra-ke", it buys and resells anime, manga and toy collectibles, with staff checking and pricing every item; a real shop, not a marketplace. It is known for vintage items: figures, tin toys, plastic toys, posters, original artwork and first-print manga. Below, how to order from Thailand for less through Tama-Chan: send the link on LINE, it checks the Japanese shipping cost from that branch, quotes the total in baht, items from the same branch save on shipping, and everything is consolidated at the Japan warehouse and shipped to Thailand in one go; the footer warns that almost every item is one of a kind and good prices usually disappear within days.

Before You OrderAugust 17, 20263 min read

What Is Mandarake? Japan's Legendary Collectables Shop

Mandarake is one of Japan's oldest second-hand shops for anime and manga collectables. What it sells, why the rare things end up there, and how to order from Thailand economically.

What is Mandarake?

Mandarake buys and resells second-hand anime, manga and toy collectables. It has been doing so since long before anyone treated these things as collectables, which is why it holds so much older stock.

It is a shop rather than a marketplace: every item is bought in, inspected and priced by staff who specialise in that category.

The online shop pools stock from every branch, so one search covers them all at once.

What it sells

Its best-known categories are vintage collectables — figures, tin and plastic toys from earlier decades, posters, original production art from anime studios, and first-print manga.

Beyond that: trading cards, CDs, art books, event goods and merchandise from lines that stopped being made long ago.

The people who gain most here are those hunting one specific thing that is no longer findable elsewhere, not those looking for cheap new stock.

Mandarake search results for Dragon Ball, 40,974 items, showing boxed figures priced between 4,500 and 9,000 yen with the holding branch named under each one — A live Mandarake search on 17 August 2026 — the branch holding each item is named under its price, and ordering across branches splits the goods into separate parcels.

Stock is spread across branches

The thing to understand before ordering is that each item belongs to the branch holding it, and the product page says which one.

Order several items from different branches and they ship as separate parcels, so the domestic shipping is charged several times. Choosing items from one branch saves that.

And nearly every collectable here is a single piece — the well-priced ones tend to be gone within days.

Ordering from Mandarake through Tama-Chan

Tama-Chan can order from Mandarake for you. Copy the product link and send it to an admin on LINE; the team checks the price and that branch's domestic shipping, then quotes a baht total.

If you are buying several things, say so — the team can check which items sit in the same branch so they travel as one parcel and the Japanese-side shipping is charged once.

Everything gathers at our warehouse in Japan and ships home together. Fees are on the service fee table; compare the modes on the shipping page.

Frequently asked questions

Mandarake leans to rare and vintage, where price follows scarcity item by item. Suruga-ya leans to high-turnover stock like games and books, with steadier prices. Hunting something specific, check both.

Want something from Mandarake? Start here

Collectables are one of a kind — send the link as soon as you find it.