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
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:
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!
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.
Older in pre-1991 I mean.
Never seen a shop like this before. It kind of reminds me of my buddy's storage unit.
There'll be a couple more like this although only one where it's difficult to move around.
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.
@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.
@Jon - Ryan says he's never found that store to be particularly busy.
Do you know the hours of Coletre? I can't find it anywhere.
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.
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?
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.
I finally found a Twitter account for the Tokyo Card Show
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