FS Arcade machine exporting from Japan || COSMO-LOGI LLC.

[kevinddr]

Hello, what is your preferred method of communication I regards to business questions on shipping and purchasing of cabinets. I sent an email through the site but if there is a better way please let me know, thank you.

Email or DM here to either me or @aperturegrillz are both good; we also can chat on Discord (https://discord.gg/sc55QD6Xht) but we do read and respond to all messages we get both through email and here. Lately we have just been insanely busy with work in progress on 2 (now apparently 3!) different upcoming containers as well as some individual game pickups all over the country so we have been slow to respond to any new inquiries. Zach and I are going to go through the backlog of messages tonight and try and get back to as many people as possible but if you don't hear anything from us in the next day or so absolutely feel free to send another message.

Is there a local pickup in the Seattle area? Would you be able to get replacement CRT monitors for candy cabs in the future?

Yeah, local pickup is completely fine! As for selling individual monitors separate from cabs, while in theory it's something we can do (as we do buy monitors on their own or pull good ones from completely wrecked cabs) in practice it's very rare that we'll actually want to sell them individually instead of using them to replace monitors in cabs we have that already need them. We can sell spare chassis however if you need those; we don't always have them available but there are some cabs with tubes that are so burned or otherwise EOL that it's better to just pull the working chassis, recap it, and sell it separately. Feel free to let me know what you are looking for and there is always a chance that we can provide it.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently in this thread; I can assure everyone that it is not for a lack of activity but actually rather the opposite! We are looking into moving to a larger warehouse/office space in the near future and preparing for the upcoming containers at the same time is about the limit of what we can handle with just 2 people! I will make an effort to provide some more updates soon.

 

[aperturegrillz]

Hello again!
What a gap from our last update, almost two months. We've been quite busy! Here's what we've been up to...

We're now working on prepping three different containers to go out before the year is over, one to America, one to the UK and one to Canada. The ordering of shipments and everything is a little up in the air, but the coming few months should be our busiest ever with regards to shipping. The US container still has a good amount of room on it and we're trying to fill that as quick as possible.

As mentioned, we were talking about trying to find a larger space to work out of to meet the growing storage requirements of our business and provide a better space to do cabinet work. Well, around the end of September we found the answer: we've started renting a ~330 square meter space formerly operated as an arcade in southeastern Gunma, about a half-hour drive from our current warehouse in northeastern Saitama. There's still a ton of work to do of relocating much of our current inventory over there as well as getting all the stuff out of overflow storage we had started renting nearby, but we've already started putting machines in and the space is very easy to use compared to what we're moving out of. Our current space is only about 70 square meters on the ground floor and another 70 in the office space above it, which is much less convenient to use. We had packed the upstairs completely full of Vewlixes and candy cabinets, but it wasn't a great place to actually work on anything and whenever we wanted to get cabinets back out we'd have to move them down the stairs one at a time on our motorized stair climbing handtruck.

Here's a quick peek of our new place:

As you can see, still a lot of room for filling up with cabinets as well as providing a space to work on stuff. The whole space is also on the ground floor, so machines can very easily roll inside. Only problem is for the tallest cabinets, they don't fit through the door without some disassembly (namely, beatmania IIDX) but this is a marginal issue compared to the problems with our prior space. Later we'll also move all our soldering equipment, etc. here to make working on monitors and stuff much less of a hassle.

When we've had time, we've been working on getting a lot of the Astros, Blasts and New Nets that didn't make it on prior shipments for being in bad condition or having issues up and running and starting to get some of them presold. We should also be receiving another 9 Blasts and 4 New Astros on Monday the 27th, and two good Aeros and a large quantity of Vewlix F's and C's on the 31st. We are planning on offering said Vewlixes at very preferential pricing to the US for a limited time.

We've been handling a lot of stuff through direct contacts, so our website does not paint a remotely realistic picture of our current inventory. We should be adding more things on our website soon especially after our relocation is complete, but for the time being, more up to date info will be posted in our Discord, and you can also ask us directly if there's something you are looking for. Also, a while ago we received a bunch of Blasts many of which have really intense burn-in, so we're planning on parting some of them out for their power supplies, monitor boards and other components. We should have some working examples of MS-2930, 2931 and 2933 to sell. We should also be parting out some Net Cities with bad burn-in that would provide even more working chassis.

 

[msamiullah]

We're now working on prepping three different containers to go out before the year is over, one to America, one to the UK and one to Canada. The ordering of shipments and everything is a little up in the air, but the coming few months should be our busiest ever with regards to shipping.

For the container to Canada, where will the cabs be available for pickup/shipping? Toronto or Vancouver ?

 

[kevinddr]

For the container to Canada, where will the cabs be available for pickup/shipping? Toronto or Vancouver ?

The Canada container is to Vancouver but for a single customer; there is a chance that they may be willing to tack some other purchases onto it though so I'll ask about that.

 

[kevinddr]

Small update with some cabs available for inclusion on the upcoming Seattle container that will go out imminently (just finalizing the game list).

As has been our standard since the introduction of tariffs, all prices exclude tariffs and ocean freight/drayage (expect around $300 for ocean freight / drayage and 15% of stated price for tariff).

Blast City 764739
MS2930 monitor - good focus, bright, some burn on left and right sides (check site for photos)
Body very good
$2000

Blast City 1072485
Burn Level 2, good MS2933 monitor, decent MS293x focus/convergence, bright tube, bad/rotted Blast speakers (can swap known good non-rotted for $100), decent intact body, overall slightly above average functional cab.
$1400

Astro City 574257
Burn Level 2, sharp and extremely bright MS8-29 monitor, cabinet body has some poor touchups but no structural problems, speakers good (speaker panel looks a bit scuffed, can swap for a fee). The tube emissions seem abnormally good (read: "it's fucking bright as fuck") which bodes well for its lifespan.
$1600

Blast City 959169
Burn Level 2, speakers good, body good (compare to 764739 for difference between "very good" and "good"), MS2933 digital chassis, image bright with average MS293x focus/convergence
$1700

There are of course more cabinets currently undergoing testing and various repair work (monitors, parts swaps, etc). I'll post info about them as they become ready!

 

[kevinddr]

Additionally, we have many Vewlix FCs to put in this shipment. We have decided to put a flat price of $850 (+ $130 tariff, ~$130 freight) on these machines if they are included in this container. If there is any interest in specific machines I can pull them aside and fire them up to check monitor condition and take some more detailed pictures; if the monitor doesn't look at least average I can swap it with one of the many we have although I am assuming not many people are buying Vewlix FCs for the condition of their original monitor at this point in time. We also have some more Vewlix control panels for the cabs that have Sega ones installed that we can swap on if desired on a first come first serve basis. If anything looks good to you and you want more info, let me know!

 

[Battlesmurf]

Hello! Sent a PM a bit ago. May I hire you for a monitor purchase? Thank you!

 

[SC-Ultra]

Hello! Sent a PM a bit ago. May I hire you for a monitor purchase? Thank you!

No, and they will steal your monitor find for their own needs.

 

[mrchrister]

Hey, I would be interested in an Astro city. Any chance I can tag on for the shipment to Vancouver?

 

[kevinddr]

Hey, I would be interested in an Astro city. Any chance I can tag on for the shipment to Vancouver?

Yes, I will PM you with details!

No, and they will steal your monitor find for their own needs.

Would you have been happier with the outcome of you paying me around $400 for the monitor and it arriving at my office DOA (which, by the way, is what happened in the end when I bought it) because the seller shipped it face down on a sheet of bubble wrap? There is a reason that we generally don't offer that service.

 

[msamiullah]

Yes, I will PM you with details!

do you have any Neo 25 that could be included in the Vancouver countainer?

 

[kevinddr]

do you have any Neo 25 that could be included in the Vancouver countainer?

No Neo 25s ATM. They do come up from time to time though; I will let you know if we get one.

 

[kevinddr]

For the record, this is how the monitor SC is referring to showed up at our office after domestic Japanese shipping. Situations like this are why I certainly won't do it in situations where the seller is unwilling to let us pick up the item domestically so that we can control the packaging from start to finish. I'm willing to take that risk for myself at times but since I can't guarantee a good service or that your open frame monitor won't get wrecked by some fuckwit shipping it face down on a piece of bubble wrap I generally won't take anyone else's money for such a service. Despite what is written on the tape on the frame., we later tried reseating the yoke. No luck; it is truly dead.

 

[aperturegrillz]

Not to belabor the point too much, but there are various reasons it's not feasible for us to offer proxying for something like an arcade CRT. Even selling one by itself that we already have and know the condition of would be difficult and very expensive.

The state we received it in is like the photo Kevin posted: the chassis runs but needs repair (red drive is locked on), and the tube's shadow mask is knocked out of alignment. There is no way to get the blue color shift on the right side of the screen to go away.

Say we did proxy someone a bare monitor like this. If we take your money to buy it and it arrives damaged, I won't have any recourse to return it or get my money back -- YAJ listings for arcade stuff are always "no claim, no return, no exchange". Are you comfortable with spending the money and potentially getting nothing? (Or in this case, spending like $550 to get an MS8-26 chassis that needs repairs?) Furthermore, we have to pay for disposal of broken tubes here. Are you willing to pay me to cover the cost of disposal for something you had me buy? Should I charge it in advance as a deposit?

After we said we were buying the monitor for our own use, SC said that he would have liked to have known we wouldn't proxy it because he would have "tried his luck with zenmarket". Imagine how that would have gone. Even if they had been willing to handle shipping it and it didn't end up necked on the way to him, it was already irreperably damaged before even leaving Japan and he would have had been out even more money just to get the chassis paired to a ruined tube.

We assume a lot of risk buying off of Yahoo sellers. I've bought things that turned out to be a complete write-off, like a Blast tube the seller swore worked but had been necked by a dead chassis. Even whole cabinets can turn out to be duds. This is why we set prices according to condition and don't offer "bargain" prices or fixed rates by machine type. Our business model involves assuming that risk in order to reduce it for our customers, who so far I think have been universally satisfied with what we've managed to deliver them.

Lastly, it absolutely cannot be considered "stealing" for us to buy something off Yahoo Auctions just because you linked it to me. It's a public marketplace and searching it is not difficult; we look at it every day.

 

[ChrisBEANS]

No Neo 25s ATM. They do come up from time to time though; I will let you know if we get one.

Likewise I’m still very much up for an SNK New Candy 25 coming to the UK…

(Ideally the 25 with the blue and pink marquee and chrome CP surround, but beggars can’t be choosers so the 26 would work too!)

 

[SC-Ultra]

They can try to spin this however they like but the bottom line is they said they wouldn’t be able to sell it to me at the very same time purchasing the monitor for their own purposes after I shared them the auction, so just know If you send them a link to something they believe they can use for themselves (in this instance completing an aero city) they are immediately entitled to that without asking you any further questions as they are the only people living in Japan that could possibly help you purchase that item.

I had planned to just let it go but seeing people make the same mistake I needed to say something. For the record I purchased a New Net City from these guys locally before they went back to Japan and everything was fine with that transaction, and before this issue I was recommending them to others based off that positive experience so I didn’t think twice about sharing something with them.

I’m guessing it’s a generational thing as they still don’t believe they did anything wrong here. Even now they send me DMs about “my attempt to trash them publicly.” Everything is about them. But this is a small hobby, If they have something you need, buy it. Just don’t send them any potentials, they clearly aren’t that kind of proxy.

To answer their question while it sucks to lose the monitor it’s going to be hard for me to feel bad about their now free chassis, which is a part I could still use by the way. I think I’m done here. If they quote me out of context again I’m just going to post our conversation here. Buyer beware.

 

[aperturegrillz]

The chassis wasn't free, it cost me over 60,000 yen and it came with a ruined tube I now have to dispose of... anyway, that seems to be all that needs to be said on the matter. It should be clear to anybody reading this what happened. I don't think we've ever advertised our business as a proxy service, we are trying to add value and help assemble good machines for people instead of just acting as a conduit for people to get whatever off of auction sites.

 

[Cereth]

Lastly, it absolutely cannot be considered "stealing" for us to buy something off Yahoo Auctions just because you linked it to me. It's a public marketplace and searching it is not difficult; we look at it every day.

This is literally a daily affair. It doesn't matter if it's with a business or on a public forum, or on a Discord channel, post, whatever. People post shit all the time, ulterior motive or not, personal desire or not, and ultimately it'll fuck over someone, somewhere. "Generational" my ass. More like someone needs to grow up and get with the times. Just because you don't like the world you live in doesn't mean you don't have to live in it. Only make yourself look like an idiot with eyes that blind to a) reality and b) facts in your peripheral vision.

EDIT: Also forgot, about the proxying thing, yeah. There's like maybe 1 reason to help people and 100 to not. Especially stuff like this, it is VERY not easy to do. This hobby, ESPECIALLY CRTs, just seems full of assholes who have no idea and no care about how the world works or about other people. I give Cosmo-Logi a LOT of credit for doing as much as they do as it is, especially starting up fresh in it. I earned my own hate in parts of this community because I won't put up with people's shit. Don't think some people deserve the time of day. So, voicing my support of all this! Keep up the good work, 'cause let's be honest, ain't nobody else doing it!

 

[aperturegrillz]

Our first fully presold UK-bound container has been packed! It should be on the water at the start of December and arrive about 2 months later.

This should be the final container loaded from our old office in Saitama. Soon, we'll be relocating our forklift to our new location in Gunma. From now on we'll be working on getting the next US-bound container finished, which we plan to send out to Seattle in December. That container is also effectively fully spoken for, but there is a possibility that we can make one or two more presales on CRT candies or Vewlixes (C/Diamond Blue) if you let us know right away.

Following the coming US container, we are planning on working on the container to Canada and beginning preparations on another 20-foot to the UK, as well as spending some more time building out our new work space to make future work easier and enable us to deliver a higher level of quality with a better turnaround time.
If you are interested in space on the following UK container please let us know, because the level of interest will probably determine how fast it comes together and gets sent out.

 

[sj00]

The Canada container is to Vancouver but for a single customer; there is a chance that they may be willing to tack some other purchases onto it though so I'll ask about that.

Hello! Super interested in a Blast City to Vancouver. Is there still a chance of tacking onto this order?