Advice for collecting in Eastern European country

Hello BPT,

As a Bulgarian, I got into TOMY's Plarail models ever since I was a kid watching leokimvideo and jar111s in 2014 and up, and I always begged my parents for these models and sets. But back then, I never realised in Bulgaria, there's no TOMY Plarail being sold.

So, why not ask for advice?

eBay won't be an option though, it's stupidly expensive and shipping cost.
The only TOMY Plarail I got is a 2003 Thomas with no track nor Annie and Clarabel, his eyes are facing down instead of forward, and I got it from a flea market, but those are hit or miss.


Hope you can help, thanks!

[Super]

I hope there will be some suggestions for you from our members Simura

tried looking at FB marketplace?

Tried looking on Buyee (Yahoo! Japan Auctions) yet?

Hi Simurated,
As someone that currently also resides in an eastern european country (Poland) I have to unfortunately tell you that the options are limited. Ebay, jauce stuff like that are basically the only guaranteed options to buy old tomy stuff as after all they have been discontinued for a long time.

The suggestions of others above are valid, but yeah in countries like poland or bulgaria, the high shipping fees are basically unavoidable if you're trying to collect tomy stuff. It's sad but true (but at the same time makes this stuff more interesting to collect).

Hi Simurated,
As someone that currently also resides in an eastern european country (Poland) I have to unfortunately tell you that the options are limited. Ebay, jauce stuff like that are basically the only guaranteed options to buy old tomy stuff as after all they have been discontinued for a long time.

The suggestions of others above are valid, but yeah in countries like poland or bulgaria, the high shipping fees are basically unavoidable if you're trying to collect tomy stuff. It's sad but true (but at the same time makes this stuff more interesting to collect).

That's sad, thanks for helping anyway!

---

Tried looking on Buyee (Yahoo! Japan Auctions) yet?

Did look at it, i saw a few engines for like 200+ USD

---

tried looking at FB marketplace?

Facebook Marketplace only had one listing, and it was a counterfeit knockoff

I believe Mister No (a forum member who is not super active anymore) is Croatian, and he bought most of his of stuff from eBay.

I got good news, I found a listing in one of the bulgarian online stores and I saw the Thomas Beginner Set (that one with the Pullback Thomas), along with a Pullback Percy and James as a bonus.


And I DO remember back in 2021/2022 where they sold a huge lot of track, but mostly engines and rolling stock, which I was unlucky enough to not get.

Both of them came from England.

Something I learned in the past is if you want to buy good items at cheap price you gonna be patience. I remember months ago saw a Buyee listing of Plarail engines lot (Pre-2018 Thomas characters 1-6) and a few IRL based engines and it was sold for 1100 yen 🥲

I believe Mister No (a forum member who is not super active anymore) is Croatian, and he bought most of his of stuff from eBay.

I don't think Mr No would describe Croatia, a member of the European Union since 2013 as 'Eastern Europe', although some older definitions did include some of the Balkan republics.

In fact it is clear from his contributions to a previous discussion of the topic that it is easier and cheaper to import Plarail into Croatia than it is into the UK. Just saying.