Monday, August 5, 2019

Card Shops In Japan: Coletre

Please check my "Card Shops in Japan" page before planning a trip to this store to verify that it's still where it was when I visited.

The first store that Ryan and I went to when we met up in Tokyo was Coletre in Ikebukuro.  This store is located east of Ikebukuro Station on the fourth floor of a building that has a restaurant called Yakitori Akiyoshi.


There's a small sign on the door identifying the shop:


The owner of the store had to take a bathroom break just as Ryan and I got there so there's a note on the door in the photo saying he'd be back in a minute.

Coletre was the first store I visited this trip that I had also visited back in 2013.  It also was the first store I visited this trip that was not a "mall store" so I expected to be able to find a lot more things from my want list.  And it did not disappoint.

The store has a wide variety of singles, going back to the early 1990's.  They also have a lot of complete base sets in stock as well as opened box sets.

I picked up a couple of the 1994 BBM singles I needed, most of the 2017 "secret versions" I needed and a couple Epoch NowOne cards.  I also picked up the brand new BBM Giants set here, pretty much just as the owner had finished putting it together.  I'm pretty sure I bought some more stuff here but I'm not sure what.  All told I spent 11000 yen here.  I can verify that the store takes credit cards because I used one on this purchase.

I came back to the store almost 2 weeks later and bought a couple other 1990's era BBM singles I was looking for.  I spent another 500 yen in the second visit.

I like this store a lot.  They carry a lot of stuff and they're a pretty good store if you're trying to build an older set.  I really only have one complaint about it - it's very cluttered and difficult to move around in.  It's not a terribly large store to begin with and there were a bunch of boxes on the floor that you'd have to move around to get to the card boxes.  Ryan said that the owner told him that he'd been at a card show the day before our visit and that's why the boxes were all over the place but the boxes were still there when I came back 12 days later.

Here's some photos of the store - you can see the boxes I'm talking about:



That's Ryan's arm on the left side of the second photo.

Just for comparison, here's a couple photos from my 2013 visit.  The store had only been open for a few months at that time:




The shelves in the second 2013 photo are the ones in the left-center part of the first 2019 photo.  The table full of cards in the third 2013 photo is the table on the right side of the first 2019 photo.

Here's a map showing the location of the store - well, really it's directions to Yakitori Akiyoshi.  Ryan says he always gets to the store by taking the East Exit from Ikebukuro Station and walking along Meiji-Dori until he reaches the MOS Burger at the corner of Meiji-Dori and the street the store is on.




UPDATE - I visited this store again on my 2024 trip.  Yakitori Akiyoshi is still on the first floor of the building and the front door still looks the same:



This store still has a pretty good selection of singles and recent sets.  I was able to pick up the 2024 BBM team sets for the Tigers, Lions, Baystars and Hawks here for 1000 yen each which was the cheapest I saw them anywhere.  I was also able to find some singles that I was looking for although they didn't have singles from the BBM team sets from the 00's that I was looking for.

The store is still somewhat cluttered although it didn't seem worse than it was five years ago at least:



13 comments:

Sean said...

Great write up. You say they had older cards going back to the 90s, I don't suppose they might have had some going back to the 80s or 70s? I'm trying to decide which shops to hit up next time I find myself in Tokyo with a bit of time to spare!

NPB Card Guy said...

I don't think this store has much in the way of older cards but there's a couple other stores in Tokyo that do.

NPB Card Guy said...

Older in pre-1991 I mean.

Fuji said...

Never seen a shop like this before. It kind of reminds me of my buddy's storage unit.

NPB Card Guy said...

There'll be a couple more like this although only one where it's difficult to move around.

Jon said...

It does look a little cramped, but still very neat! I wonder if the owner limits how many people can be in there at any given time? Also, I can't remember if I already said it or not, but I'm really enjoying seeing all of these different shops.

NPB Card Guy said...

@Jon - glad you like the posts. I actually have never seen any customers in the store other than people who came there with me. I think that may be unique among the 20+ card shops in Japan I've been to. I'll have to ask Ryan if he's ever had an issue with overcrowding there as he's been there pretty often.

NPB Card Guy said...

@Jon - Ryan says he's never found that store to be particularly busy.

Corey said...

Do you know the hours of Coletre? I can't find it anywhere.

NPB Card Guy said...

According to the store's Twitter bio, they're open from noon to seven on weekdays and noon to six on weekends and holidays - unless he's at a show somewhere.

Hmm, maybe I need to add the Twitter accounts for the stores to these posts.

Corey said...

Thank you. And yes, Twitter accounts would be helpful, especially for the non-MINT stores. Do you have any information on card shows in Japan?

NPB Card Guy said...

I couldn't find any Twitter account for the card shows but Coletre, BITS and Mint Hakata (formerly Kashii) frequently tweet about shows they're going to set up at.

NPB Card Guy said...

I finally found a Twitter account for the Tokyo Card Show