I recently had occasion to buy a set of No. 38a Long Handled Trimming Scissors. I went directly to Kaneshin in Japan. Not only were they cheaper than some places in the U.S., but they arrived five days after I ordered them. The people are more than courteous and will bend over backward to make certain you get what you want. Other than the occasional Masakuni (for some of the things they make that nobody else does) I will be getting my tools direct from Kaneshin in Japan.
Kaneshin is fantastic, and Nishimura-san is really great at customer service, a real pro.
I will say something in defence of North American retailers though or, rather, I at least want to describe how I view the situation
:
When I opened Canada Bonsai people often messaged me to ask what I recommended as a good bang-for-your-buck tool. I decided to sell Kaneshin tools because they are a tool that I believe in and use myself. My price (in CAD) includes shipping to anywhere across Canada, and that price is the same or lower than what it costs if you were to order directly from Kaneshin and pay international shipping + duties as a Canadian. My profit margin on the tools is negligible; I made the prices just high enough so that they barely cover my operating costs. For this reason I encourage people to order directly from Kaneshin and truly don't care if somebody buys from Kaneshin or me. By putting Kaneshin on my website more people are exposed to their tools. This is important because many people won't bother, or don't want to bother, with researching bonsai tools, and I understand them! There are so many brands and so much junk that comes up on amazon, for example, when you search for bonsai tools, it is hard to know where to begin. It is also helpful to Kaneshin when I place a $4000 order to serve the Canadian market, in terms of everything from cash flow and predicting manufacturing needs to reducing their load of emails and transactions that they need to manage, which are just a few reasons why Nishimura-san works with retailers like me of course
Duties and shipping are likely a different experience if you're buying from the USA, but when buying from Canada they can be a significant factor.