The better you get at crane games, the more prizes you win. But what do you do with all those figurines and plushies that you don’t want? Unless you are a famous Youtuber who can afford to give prizes away, you often need to recoup some of the funds spent on claw machines. So the best thing to do is: sell them. The next question is where? Over my months of crane gaming, I have discovered there are three main options. As for what gives the best return, read on.
On this page
1. Direct to buyer
The highest price you will get, without a doubt, is selling direct to a buyer. If you have a colleague, friend or acquaintance who wants the goods, sell it to them. Second best is listing it on Facebook Marketplace or the like, and meeting up with the buyer to complete the transaction in person. No middle-man, no postage cost, the entire sale price goes to you.
2. Online flea markets
Since your customer base is extremely limited in the above case, online flea markets in Japan, like Mercari and Rakuma, offer your best chances of selling. Mercari takes 10% of the sale price as the fee, while Rakuma starts at 10% and decreases all the way down to 4.5% depending on your sales for the month. For larger products, shipping eats up most of your earnings.
For example, for a figurine that sold for 2000 yen, you would pay 200 yen in fees and 750 yen for tracked shipping. Meaning your take home earning would only be 1050 yen. Still, it often works out cheaper than shipping independently. It is also comforting that both platforms allow for anonymous and fully tracked shipping.
If you want to sell internationally, eBay is probably your best bet. But be warned that their fees are horrendous and Payoneer takes such a huge chunk it feels almost criminal. I lose around 30% of the total sale just from the fees. Combined with the risk of overseas shipping, it just wasn’t worth it for me. I switched to Delcampe for selling internationally, but it is not well known and traffic is low there.
3. Sell to stores
This can be hit or miss depending on the store, the prize and demand. It pays to shop around a little and compare, as buying prices can varying greatly for the same prize. However, as you don’t have to pay for shipping, you can sometimes earn more by selling to a store than on Mercari/Rakuma.
I did a little experiment last month to see which of the big second-hand stores would give me the best prices. First, I picked three figurines and three plushies to sell. Then I went and got quotes for them. Here are the results:
Figurines
| Lashinbang | Suruga-ya | Otachu Akiba | |
| 勝利の女神：NIKKE ぬーどるストッパーフィギュア-ドロシー ノスタルジア- Nikke Noodle Stopper – Dorothy Nostalgia | 1000 yen | 200 yen | 300 yen |
| 呪術廻戦 MAXIMATIC SUKUNA Special ver. Jujutsu Kaisen Maximatic – Sukuna Special Ver. | 600 yen | 190 yen | 500 yen |
| NARUTO -ナルト- 疾風伝 Grandista -HATAKE KAKASHI- Naruto Shippuden Grandista – Hatake Kakashi | 400 yen | 180 yen | 100 yen |
Plushies
| Lashinbang | Suruga-ya | Hobby Off | |
| NieR:Automata めちゃもふぐっとぬいぐるみ 機械生命体 NieR:Automata Mechamofugutto plushie – Machine | 200 yen | Refused | 10 yen |
| 「ラブライブ!蓮ノ空女学院スクールアイドルクラブ」夕霧綴理 寝そべりぬいぐるみ Love Live! Tsuzuri Yugiri plushie | 300 yen | 20 yen | 10 yen |
| 【ラウンドワン限定】 推しの子 アクア + かな ぬいぐるみポシェット [Round 1 exclusive] Oshi no Ko – Aqua + Kana plush pouches | 10 yen each | Refused | 10 yen each |
In general, I found Lashinbang gives the best prices for both figurines and plushies. I ended up selling everything to them, with the exception of the Kakashi figurine and Oshi no Ko plush pouches. At 20 yen, I am going to keep trying to sell them on Mercari/Rakuma. Even if I only get 100 yen, it is better than what stores are offering me.
Suruga-ya has lowball prices for figurines and will refuse to buy a lot of plushies. Maybe they give better prices for collectible high-end figurines, but since I don’t have any of those, I can’t say. Hobby Off, and the other “Off” stores, are notorious for offering dirt low prices, likely because they also sell things very cheap.
Otachu only buys figurines but gives good prices for certain popular series. For example Lashingbang offers 500 yen for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game Equal Arts figure of Chaos Soldier below.
I managed to sell it to Otachu for 1000 yen by bringing it within three days after release. When I checked again a week later, the buy price had fallen to 400 yen. So speed really pays when it comes to prize figures.
General tips
- The sooner you try to sell the prize after release, the better chance you have of getting a good price. After a week, the price tends to fall. Exceptions for highly coveted prizes that later become rare.
- Plushies and other merchandise are hard to sell, unless it is Chiikawa or some highly popular franchise. Better stick to figurines if you are playing in the hopes of reselling.
- If you get good enough, you may even begin to make a profit. But you generally need to clinch the prize in well under 1,000 yen to do so, unless it is a rare item.
- Check the 買取表 (buy price chart) of various hobby stores to get the best prices. Many do not post their list online so you may need to go to the physical store and look at the list there. Unsurprisingly, the greatest concentration of such stores is in Akihabara.
- Most stores also allow you to sell figurines via post, but may charge fees for the shipping and the bank transfer cost. This option is only worth it if you have a lot of figurines or live too far away from the physical store.
- Sometimes stores have campaigns, such as bonus amounts for bringing over a certain number of figurines to sell. Take advantage of those. But be aware that bringing a large number of the same figurine often results in reduced buy price from the second one onwards.
Where I sell
In Japan
International
For more on crane gaming, check out The Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Crane Games or the archives.