In partnership with Toy Coin

There are anime shops, and then there are shops built by people who actually collect. Toy Coin has been operating out of Singapore since 2009, founded by two collectors, Wendy and Calvin, who turned their hobby into a business and never really stopped tinkering with it. What started as a small side operation has grown into something with a lot more layers. Today, the store covers new pre orders from trusted manufacturers, limited ready stock for fans who want something now, pre owned figures sourced directly from collectors leaving the hobby, and a live auction format that's developed its own community over the years. Whether you're looking to secure an upcoming release before it sells out, hunting for a discontinued figure at a fair price, or trying to find a smooth way to offload an entire shelf's worth of collectibles, Toy Coin has built a model with an answer for all of it. This spotlight breaks down how each part works, and why collectors in Singapore and beyond keep coming back.

In partnership with Toy Coin

[PRE-OWNED] Assasin/Semiramis

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[PRE-OWNED] Tobiichi Origami

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[PRE-OWNED] Asuna

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[PRE-OWNED] Nendoroid Mackenzie & Funghi / Ozawa Rina & Nameko

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What Is Toy Coin? A Bit of History

The origin story is refreshingly unglamorous. Wendy and Calvin were already active on collector forums, enjoyed the hobby enough to want to be more involved in the community around it, and figured a small store was a natural next step. In the earliest days, that meant posting listings on those same forums and personally meeting buyers at train stations to hand off deliveries, a system that held up remarkably well until COVID 19 forced them to switch to professional courier services.

The company has remained a largely two person operation ever since, run day to day by the two of them. Over the years that's meant a fair amount of experimentation: attending anime events, launching their own LINE stickers featuring their mascot character Mako, producing a short original comic series, and rebuilding their e commerce website more than once as the business grew. They also became a Good Smile Company partner shop, working with one of the most recognised names in the figure industry, and briefly ran a physical retail space for about three months before returning to a fully online model. The store also carries products from manufacturers such as MegaHouse, Kotobukiya, Max Factory, Myethos, Bandai Spirits, and FREEing, covering scale figures, Nendoroids, figma, POP UP PARADE, and licensed merchandise from anime, games, movies, and pop culture series.

New stock today comes primarily through pre orders. Once a pre order window closes, additional stock of that item is often limited or unavailable entirely, which is standard for the figure industry given how manufacturers structure production runs. A smaller volume of ready stock covers buyers who don't want to wait months for a release to land.

The pre owned side has grown substantially over the years and now sits alongside the pre order business as an equally important part of the operation. Collections are bought from other collectors through the Buy Back Programme, cleaned and documented, then moved through the live YouTube auctions, where each piece is presented with full on stream condition disclosure and opens at a competitive starting bid.

How Toy Coin's Live Anime Figure Auctions Actually Work

The mechanics are more considered than you'd expect from a live stream. Toy Coin runs an open bid, English style auction on YouTube Live, the same ascending price format used by traditional auction houses, where the highest bid at close wins. Toy Coin announces upcoming auctions via their social channels and WhatsApp channel, and releases a preview list of items ahead of the stream so buyers can research before a single lot goes live.

The Auction Format, Step by Step

1. Preview list drops: A curated list of items going to auction is shared ahead of the stream. Experienced buyers use this window to research market values, check collector databases, and set their budget ceiling per item.
2. Stream goes live: The hosts, known to the community as LBN and Hazell, present each figure on camera with real time physical inspection, calling out condition notes for both the figure and the original box, including any mould spots or paint inconsistencies.
3. Bidding opens: Buyers place bids in the live chat with a minimum $5 increment per raise. Each lot also carries a Buy Now price alongside its starting bid, so anyone who would rather not compete through the bidding process can take the item outright. An anti snipe countdown extension resets the timer if a bid lands in the final seconds, so last moment grabs don't decide the outcome, actual bidding does.
4. Unsold items sheet: Any lots that don't attract bids during the live stream are compiled into a publicly shared Google Sheet. Late arriving bidders can browse and claim unsold pieces without disrupting the flow of the next live lot.
5. Payment: Local buyers settle instantly via an on screen PayNow QR code; international buyers pay through PayPal. After payment, winners have two weeks to arrange local self collection or courier dispatch.

"The 2 week storage option is a lifesaver for local collectors. It lets us combine winnings across different weeks to save heavily on courier fees."

What makes this format work isn't just the technical setup. It's the transparency. Every condition detail is disclosed on stream before a bid goes through. Box mould, paint flaws, and missing accessories all get called out in real time. That kind of upfront honesty is rare in the secondary figure market, where photo only listings across general resale platforms can obscure flaws that only become obvious when an item arrives at your door.

In partnership with Toy Coin

[PRE-OWNED] Figma Gwendolyn DX Ver

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[PRE-OWNED] Scathach Sashi Ugatsu Bunny Ver.

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[PRE-OWNED] Yuzuki Yukari Police Officer Ver.

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[PRE-OWNED] Aigis

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"I love how thoroughly you check the boxes and point out even minor scuffs before starting the bids. It makes buying pre owned figures much less risky."

Toy Coin's YouTube Channel and Video Reviews

Toy Coin's presence extends well beyond the storefront. Since around the same period the business was finding its footing, they have been producing content on YouTube, unboxing reviews, prize pulls, and figure previews covering some of the most popular anime and pop culture releases coming out of Japan. Bleach, One Piece, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Sailor Moon, The Quintessential Quintuplets, SPY x FAMILY, Monster Hunter, the catalogue is broad, and it's been building for years.

Many of these reviews cover prize style figures and limited lottery draw releases that are widely sought after, frequently limited, and often unavailable through standard retail channels outside Japan. Having a dedicated review library for these makes Toy Coin's YouTube channel a genuinely useful reference point for collectors deciding whether a particular set is worth chasing.

The trust this generates is harder to manufacture than the content itself. Seeing the same people behind the store also reviewing figures on camera, showing what prize tiers actually look like out of the box, how paint applications hold up in person, whether a set lives up to its promotional renders, builds a layer of credibility that a product page alone cannot. The specs are printed on the listing either way. What the videos add is the sight of people who clearly care about the hobby handling the same items they sell.

LBN and Hazell carry the same energy across both the auction streams and the review content, and the product knowledge they bring to each session is a large part of why the audience shows up whether or not they intend to bid. The channel's archive of past auction streams is also worth a look if you want a sense of how a session runs before joining one live.

"I got the Demon Slayer Kamado Tanjiro Total Concentration Figuarts from the auction and would rate the experience 9/10! LBN is always accommodating with reasonable requests when viewing the items, which I really appreciate. My only wish is for fewer prize figures in future auctions, but honestly, I can't think of any other way the auctions could be improved. Great job overall!"

Leaving the Hobby? How the Buy Back Programme Works

Every collector community has a quiet undercurrent nobody likes to talk about: people leave. They move, they downsize, priorities shift, or the hobby they poured years of enthusiasm into simply stops fitting the life they have now. When that happens, the question of what to do with a shelf of two hundred figures is genuinely stressful. Toy Coin has been on the receiving end of that problem for years, and built a formal programme around it.

Some collectors approach Toy Coin with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of items. Selling every single piece individually would take an enormous amount of time and effort, for the seller and for Toy Coin alike. Buying the entire collection outright gives sellers a faster, more convenient way to move on from the hobby, without spending months managing individual listings, buyer questions, and one off shipments.

Because the items are purchased with resale in mind, the quotation Toy Coin issues factors in more than just item condition. Market demand, cleaning and storage costs, the research needed to properly identify and document each piece, and the time it will take to find each figure a new owner all go into the number. Toy Coin has also been upfront that pricing has to stay competitive, sometimes at or below prevailing market rates, simply so the collection can be successfully rehomed rather than sit in inventory indefinitely.

The programme is designed for collectors who are exiting or scaling back, not, as Toy Coin notes in their own terms, for those looking to profit. The process starts with a list. Toy Coin generally asks sellers to submit at least 30 items, although smaller collections may still be considered on a case-by-case basis. Items should be listed in the following format:

If you can't compile the list yourself, you can submit photos instead. Toy Coin charges a listing fee of SGD $10 per 50 items to generate the list on your behalf, item condition in that case is recorded based on what's visible in the photos, and remains subject to physical inspection. Either way, the rough quotation they issue is based on current market trends, figure demand, and item condition. The final number is only confirmed after they physically receive and inspect the items, with adjustments possible if condition differs from what was submitted.

After the Handover

Once Toy Coin physically receives and inspects the items, they confirm the final quotation. Each piece is then cleaned, researched individually, and documented before it enters the pre owned inventory, and most of it heads to live auction from there. Your Albedo Bunny Ver by FREEing doesn't get quietly relisted with the box mould cropped out of the photo. It gets presented honestly, with the flaw mentioned on stream, and priced accordingly.

Sellers who've been through the process describe a similar trade off. They knew they could likely fetch more by listing items individually, and chose Toy Coin anyway for the convenience of moving an entire collection at once. Logistics and payment speed are what they tend to mention afterward.

"They arranged for Lalamove to collect the items, which made the whole process really hassle free. Payment was made within 2-3 days, as promised. This service is perfect for anyone looking to bulk sell their collection quickly and easily. However, it may not be ideal if you're trying to maximise profit on individual items. One suggestion: it would be great if free pickup could be offered for collections above a certain value. Overall, a very smooth experience! 10/10!"

"The owner immediately checked through all the items on the spot, clearly pointing out any damages and explaining any deductions in a very transparent way. Everything was smooth, clear, and straightforward, no surprises at all. A truly hassle free experience!"

How Collectors Find Rare and Discontinued Figures Here

Plenty of collectors will tell you they tuned in to a Toy Coin auction stream out of curiosity, with no real intention of bidding, and came back the following week with a budget in mind. There is a particular kind of suspense that builds when a figure you have been tracking on secondary markets, one that has been sitting at twice its original retail price for months, suddenly surfaces in a live auction with the bidding still wide open. It does not happen on every stream. But when it does, it is the sort of moment collectors talk about for weeks afterward.

For serious collectors, this is the part that matters most. The pre owned inventory comes directly off other collectors' shelves, acquired in bulk through the Buy Back Programme rather than sourced through the usual resale channels, which makes the assortment genuinely unpredictable. One auction might be heavy with Nendoroids; the next surfaces a mid 2010s Alter scale figure that hasn't been in production for years. Recent lots have included a Robot Tamashii Aura Battler and a GALS Series Sui Feng from Bleach, and every so often something entirely off script shows up, like a LEGO Warcraft set, just to keep things interesting. The Google Sheet of unsold items after each stream is worth bookmarking even if you don't catch the live session.

What Turns Up Most Often

Based on verified buyer reviews and past auction streams, the inventory skews toward:

• Nendoroids, chibi style figures from Good Smile Company, consistently the most common category to appear at auction.
• Scale figures, 1/7 and 1/8 scale PVC figures from makers like Alter, FREEing, and Phat Company, covering popular series like Fate, Re:Zero, and Granblue Fantasy.
• Figmas, articulated figures with multiple accessories; buyers have specifically requested more of these in stream feedback.
• Prize and kuji items, lower priced but still collectible, great for casual fans entering the hobby.
• Holy Grail figures, discontinued, highly sought after pieces that surface rarely but create the most competitive bidding when they do.

That last category shows up in buyer reviews often enough, and independently enough, to say something about who is watching. A fair number of viewers are there on the chance of catching the one piece they'd otherwise spend years hunting through Japanese proxy services or paying a heavy premium for on third party resale markets.

"I bought a Robot Tamashii Aura Battler during one of Toy Coin's auctions, 10/10 experience! The price was great, and the bidding process is usually smooth and well managed. Product knowledge is generally solid, though there are occasional gaps when LBN isn't familiar with certain series. Still, I've been pretty satisfied overall with the auctions."

"I bought the GALS Series Sui Feng from Bleach and rate the auction 10/10. The item's condition was accurately described, and the stream experience was generally pleasant, with informative insights into the market values of certain figures and their pricing. The selection can sometimes be repetitive due to the popularity of certain series, but there are also random, unexpected items like LEGO Warcraft, which adds some fun variety."

The Anime Collectibles Market in 2026: Why Second Hand Matters

Understanding why a shop like Toy Coin exists requires a quick look at where the broader market sits. The global anime figure market was valued at approximately USD 4.8 billion in 2024, with a 9.3% compound annual growth rate projected through 2030 (Grand View Research). That growth is driven largely by collector demand and the reach of streaming platforms, which keep introducing new series to audiences well outside Japan.

Scale figures from top manufacturers can carry retail prices anywhere from SGD 100 to SGD 500 and above. Limited editions, convention exclusives, and sculptor signed versions routinely double or triple that on secondary markets. For most fans in Singapore, buying authentic anime collectibles online at retail price is already a stretch; finding them post discontinuation at anything resembling a fair price is nearly impossible through standard channels.

The second hand market fills a gap the primary market structurally cannot. Manufacturers like Good Smile Company and Alter produce figures in limited production runs. When those runs end, the figures don't disappear from collector wish lists, they just get inaccessible or expensive. Japan's used goods market has long been a pressure valve for this (MyAnimeList editorial, 2025), with the cultural tradition of maintaining items in excellent condition meaning secondhand often approaches new quality. Toy Coin brings that ethos into a live, transparent auction context accessible to buyers across Southeast Asia, Australia, the UK, and the US.

How Toy Coin's Auction Compares to Other Ways to Buy Pre Owned Figures

More Than a Shop: Building a Collector Community

Read enough of Toy Coin's verified buyer reviews and the tone starts to register more than the pricing does. Buyers talk about the stream the way people talk about a weekly show they follow, they reference specific hosts by name, and they recommend it to friends who have no plans to buy anything. One buyer noted they watched an entire auction without purchasing a single item and still rated the experience highly, which is not the sort of thing anyone says about a checkout page.

"Toy Coin's auctions are a fun and rewarding experience! The range of items can vary, sometimes diverse, sometimes focused (like Nendoroids), but the brief preview list shared a few hours before the auction is really helpful in deciding whether to join. That said, having it released a day in advance would be even better. Each auction item is clearly described, with accurate condition notes for both figure and box. I especially appreciate the Google Sheet of unbidded items, it's a smart addition that lets you catch up without disrupting the flow. Pricing is definitely below Singapore's market rates, making it a great chance to score good deals. The auctions are engaging thanks to LBN and Hazell, whose energy, interaction, and even little touches like the hammer sound effects make it all the more enjoyable. Occasionally, a rare Holy Grail figure pops up, an exciting opportunity for serious collectors. My only suggestion would be to better manage the total number of items, as some sessions can run up to 9 hours, which gets exhausting. All in all, it's a well organised and entertaining event. 9/10!"

"The live interaction and chat bantering make these auction streams feel more like a community hangout rather than just a commercial storefront."

Toy Coin has leaned into this with a WhatsApp announcement channel, active TikTok and Instagram presences, and consistent YouTube archiving of past streams. If you missed last month's auction, you can rewatch it to get a sense of pricing, figure condition, and whether the next one is worth joining for your wish list.

For collectors who are newer to the hobby, this community context is valuable in a way that a static online store simply cannot replicate. Watching experienced bidders compete for a figure you're unfamiliar with is a decent way to calibrate your own sense of its value. And between the auction streams there is always something happening. The pre order side of the main store, covering upcoming releases from top manufacturers, adds another layer on top of that. The ecosystem makes more sense when you see it whole: the storefront, the streams, the review archive, and the Buy Back Programme all feed each other, and the result is a shop people check in on out of habit rather than only when they need something.

The Bottom Line

Toy Coin has never tried to be the biggest anime figure retailer in the region, and what they offer instead is easier to describe than to replicate. The trust has accumulated slowly, out of handling the unglamorous parts well: condition disclosed before a bid rather than after delivery, Buy Back collections valued honestly, and a stream that runs every week whether or not the lineup is exciting.

In a market where bootlegs circulate freely and photo only resale listings hide a multitude of flaws, that track record counts for something, and it holds up whether you are hunting your next shelf addition from Singapore, bidding in from another timezone, or sitting on four shelves of figures you no longer have room for.

The next auction is worth catching live. Watching one all the way through tells you more about how the store operates than any product page will.