I was browsing Amazon Japan for Shimano & Daiwa reels, and found out most of the sellers are third party sellers now. I just couldn't find a reel that's being sold by Amazon Japan itself.  I changed my delivery address to some Japan address, then voila, all the popular reels were being offered by Amazon Japan in great prices. Then I changed back to US address; all of them became "Temporarily out of stock".  

 

It seems that Amazon Japan has stopped selling ANY of Shimano reels (baitcaster or spinning) to US, and most of Daiwa popular reels, and most of Abu's reels.  You can still find them on Amazon Japan, but they're all sold by third parties.  I don't know this decision is from Amazon Japan or from reel companies, but it probably has something to do with the ridiculously low exchange rate right now.  

I would guess they're OOS in Amazon warehouses. 

They have to make reels in batches, switch models, and will get back to the previous model later. 

JDM is always a question of finding stock. 

JapanTackle is a good place to check current sale prices on Abu. 

13 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

I would guess they're OOS in Amazon warehouses. 

They have to make reels in batches, switch models, and will get back to the previous model later. 

JDM is always a question of finding stock. 

JapanTackle is a good place to check current sale prices on Abu. 

 

Maybe, but they're available for Japan domestic customers. Maybe Amazon Japan has two different inventories: one for domestic market, one for foreign market.  Anyway, it's weird to see none of Shimano reels is being sold by Amazon Japan itself, not even one, old or new models. 

Now though Amazon US offer free shipping from Amazon Japan where you still can find some good deal. The bad part is being Amazon here they charge tax and take longer to ship than order direct from Amazon Japan.

I op to order from Amazon US because I’ve been a prime member since beginning, collect a lot of point and gift card. I only carry two credit card with me, Amazon and Costco exclusive card. 

I've noticed Digitaka has raised the prices of some things, probably to offset the current exchange rate.  I was going to order another Major Craft Finetail a few weeks back, decided it wasn't an immediate need and that I would do it later.  Earlier this week I went to buy it, and noticed the price had risen by 3000 yen, and it was even priced more than the MSRP on Major Craft's own website.  I'm thinking either Digitaka is trying to not lose as much or MC hasn't updated their pricing on their own site.

Sounds fishy to me.

FM

Probably just the manufacturers enforcing anti-grey market sales practices against the larger retailers.  They can't police all the smaller vendors though.

9 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_SoCal said:

Now though Amazon US offer free shipping from Amazon Japan where you still can find some good deal. The bad part is being Amazon here they charge tax and take longer to ship than order direct from Amazon Japan.

I op to order from Amazon US because I’ve been a prime member since beginning, collect a lot of point and gift card. I only carry two credit card with me, Amazon and Costco exclusive card. 

I just bought an Alphas SV for 172 and Zillion SV for 224 on Amazon US through Amazon Japan. Like you said though, 2 week shipping and sales tax. Still a great deal though. I went this route because I use an app that splits purchases into 4 payments and it can’t be used to order from foreign countries.

You will pay full retail off tackle warehouse and be happy