[guide] Buy Back Mandarake

Konnichassu!!

Finally getting the hang of posting here again. It has been a weird year for me and hopefully my beautiful blog will be meeting some regular posts next year. Haha, won’t spill the tea just yet but it will be a great 2020.

Anyway, this is a part of Day 1 of my last travel hurrah for 2019. As you may have read on that post, I went to Akihabara to meet up a friend. I didn’t elaborate much right? Well, there were two reasons why I was in Tokyo. One was to meet my friend and two, I wanted to get some cleaning done.

If you have been a follower of my blog and my other social media accounts, you may have seen some of my anime/game purchases. However, through the years, I have lost the interest with these goods and have cluttered my room for years. I have tried selling them but sadly, the market for that has long waned and selling locally is quite a problem. I have managed to sell a few but some, it took some hardship before I was able to sell it.

I already had some information about trying to sell it in Japan since they do have second-hand markets there. However, after some research, it said that you need to be a Japanese resident to be able to sell because they will ask for their resident card. Since my friend, who was a permanent resident, was meeting me, I decided to ask him if he can bring his card along and help me with stuff. He agreed so we went to Mandarake’s main branch in Akihabara.

Mandarake is well-known for being one of the largest anime/manga market in Japan. They sell almost anything and if you are looking for rare items, Mandarake is one of the first places you can visit for them. When you visit their ground floor, you will see that it is their buy-back center.

Buy-back means they will buy your items for a certain fee. They have staff that will check your items and give you their appraisal. Of course, you have the option to decline the appraisal if the price is too low. They also do not accept certain types of merch (which are usually sundries like towels, accessories and such) but you may check with other shops offering buy-back (like Gamers, Trader and Amiami) if they will accept it.

My friend took over the whole process for me but to you foreigners out there, Mandarake does accept foreigners who want to avail the service. They will require you to present your passport and you need to fill in their short form where you can put the address of your hotel. When we were there, they have staff ready to help and there are English guides available.

While waiting, you can admire some of the pieces you can buy there in Mandarake. Some of them, as you see in this picture, are these figurines. There are also art pieces for sale that would definitely fit any home.

When I got back the appraisal, it is not as high as I wanted but then again, I didn’t want to bring it home with me so I sold it anyway. The prices won’t be the ones you will expect, but it is a good way to earn a quick buck.

Now, I do not know if the same rules apply in other buy-back stores so you may need to ask in advance. I hope this guide will help you out if you do need to de-clutter your anime/manga pile for those extra cash and going to Tokyo (or any Japanese city with Mandarake, Amiami and others).

Day 2 is coming in a bit!!!!