While I was in Japan for a short trip, I had this funny idea in my head and wanted to do a little project of mine. Which shop is the best place to go to buy cards? Some sold other cards cheaper than others but who on average had the better prices? I was curious so why not look through some numbers to the few shops I went to.
Using this mainly to add on to Peke's article on shops to go to in Akihabara and Ikebukuro: https://peke.notion.site/Tokyo-Card-Shop-List-Pok-mon-9eb2a76d3d34433191192982e4e594bd
From Peke's article, there's a few shops not covered here:
- Fuku Fuku (Number 6) didn't have a lot of the playable Singles I was looking at, only saw 2! They didn't have much standard stuff to be fair
- Surugaya (Number 7) had the same issue as Fuku, not many standard playables but more Retro stuff.
- I forgot to visit shop number 8
- I didn't get to see more of the shops in Ikebukuro but did include 2 on here!
To look up for Pokemon Gyms in Japan, check out the map here: https://map.pokemon-card.com/
I took note of the prices of some of the playable cards and wanted to use cards I'd think people would naturally go for:
- Rotom V (Avg Price: 1700) - Staple card in many different decks and very pricey too, hard to find in many shops
- Fezandipiti ex (Avg Price: 1640) - New staple card for many different decks, less pricier than Rotom but even harder to find
- Dragapult ex (Avg Price: 600) - One of the best attackers in the game right now
- Charizard ex (Avg Price: 220) - Also one of the best attackers in the game right now but a promo box did just get released which means prices for it should be lower than usual
- Ursaluna ex (Avg Price: 300) - Not sure why I picked this but it's a splashable attacker in any deck
- Terapagos ex (Avg Price: 1080) - The new big attacker in the game!
- Sableye (Avg Price: 250) - The main attacker for Lost Box
- Noctowl (Avg Price: 630) - The new big support Pokemon in the game
- Dusknoir (Avg Price: 530) - The biggest new "support" attacker in the game, just released in English
- Munkidori (Avg Price: 380) - Another top support mon in the game and sees play in all sorts of decks
- Buddy Buddy Poffin (Avg Price: 800) - The on-demand trainer card to get
- Unfair Stamp (Avg Price: 1370) - One of the two best Ace Spec in the game
- Prime Catcher (Avg Price: 2500) - The other best Ace Spec in the game, but the more expensive one for sure
Trading Card Secret Base
Location: 3-2-11 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +340yen (From 10 out of 13 cards)
Notes:
- They have a lot of sleeves on sale, and also many mats/box/sleeves from overseas
- One plus for me, they have card frames for sale
- A lot of older cards on sale too
Card Shop BEAMS
Location: Akiba1131.bldg 3F, 1-13-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: -710yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)
- They have some sleeves on sale, including Katana sleeves
- Quite a lot of older cards on sale here
- Many used cards on sale here and they look in good condition
- One of the better shops when it comes to card prices, they tend to have sale prices too
Card Rush (Shop #4 in Peke's List)
Location: BiTO AKIBA PLAZA 7F, 1-18-18 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: -50yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)
- I've been recommended this shop because of their prices, yup can agree! Lower average prices to many places and it's near the main station of Akihabara
- They've got Dragon Shield and Katana sleeves here, and if I remember, their prices were the best
- Big playing space, one to go to for events
Dragon Star (Shop #3 in Peke's List)
Location: BiTO AKIBA PLAZA 6F, 1-18-18 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +90yen (From 5 out of 13 cards)
- The price may not look like it, but some of their stuff are quite affordable
- A lot of playables sold out, must be a good spot to get cards then
- They also have sale prices
- Playing space too
- More sleeves here if I remember, especially Dragon Shield and Katana
Hobby Station
Location: Radio Kaikan 1F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +880yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)
- I wouldn't go here to buy singles, maybe sleeves and boxes
Card Labo (Shop #6 in Peke's List)
Location: Radio Kaikan 9F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +290yen (From 10 out of 13 cards)
- Prices are a bit higher here, go next door (Fullcomp)
Fullcomp (Shop #6 in Peke's List)
Location: Radio Kaikan 9F, 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: -190yen (From 6 out of 13 cards)
- Prices seem good, maybe that's why a lot of playable cards here were sold out when I was there
- They have mats, sleeves and card frames on sale here too, also some overseas stuff
- They had a few English trainer cards which is a big plus
Hareruya 2 (Shop #2 in Peke's List)
Location: 1-2-5 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: 0yen (From 13 out of 13 cards)
- Prices here seem to be spot on, no wonder it's a popular place for people to get cards here
- Not as many sleeves as other places (they do have Dragon Shield and Katana), but they have more special boxes for sure
- Probably the easiest place I've been to to sort through singles
- Daily tournaments with their own system which is always nice, more easier for overseas players to join in on the fun
PlayGym Tokyo
Location: gran+AKIHABARA 2F, 2-9-9 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +930yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)
- A bit further out from the other shops
- Prices here seem a little higher than others
Cherumo Akihabara (Shop #1 in Peke's List)
Location: Nikko Building 4F, 6-14-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +130yen (From 6 out of 13 cards)
- Loads of singles on display here, so much I got lost as to what was where
- Singles might be a bit higher than other shops but boxes seems lower than other places
- Some overseas mats and sleeves on sale here too
- Good spot to play from what I've heard!
Volks Akihabara Hobby Heaven 2
Location: 4-2-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: +85yen (From 5 out of 13 cards)
- Not many singles here, don't bother
- Not many other stuff as well
Card Shop Pompoko
Location: Kinokuniya Building 1F, 1-2-14 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Must be a new shop, couldn't find a website for them
Price Average: -940yen (From 11 out of 13 cards)
- Randomly ran into this shop, their prices are really good! Cheapest of any shop I went to so far!
- Didn't see many sleeves or boxes here
Card Labo Ikebukuro
Location: Plaza Inn Ikebukuro 4th floor, 1-20-6 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: -170yen (From 12 out of 13 cards)
- Loads of singles here but not many older cards, didn't see much
- Some sleeves on sale
- Sale prices too, their prices are better than most shops
Card Secret Ikebukuro
Location: 5F THE KINDAI 10 IKEBUKURO, 1-23-9 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo
Price Average: -830yen (From 9 out of 13 cards)
- They have English cards, and not just on display, but singles too! Big win for me.
- Their prices for Japanese cards seems really good too, second best behind Pompoko on my list
- A lot of sleeves here (Dragon Shield, Katana, Eclipse, you name it), loads of overseas mats, sleeves, boxes and special cards
- Big playing space, another good spot for overseas players to play
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