How to track anime figure preorders across AmiAmi, Solaris, Nin-Nin, HLJ and Good Smile
Anime figure preorders accumulate faster than anyone plans for. A scale here, a Nendoroid there, a surprise Pop Up Parade, all sitting in different vendor dashboards, in different currencies, with release dates scattered across the next 18 months. This guide walks through how to actually keep track of it all without a spreadsheet gradually eating your life.
Why preorders are harder to track than deliveries
A delivered figure is a single point in time: it arrived, it's on your shelf, you can photograph it. A preorder is a promise. It's a row of facts that all matter, and several of which keep changing:
- When the figure releases (often slipped once or twice).
- Where you ordered it from (AmiAmi? Solaris? Nin-Nin? GSC's own shop?).
- How much you paid, in the vendor's currency, which may not be yours.
- When you actually get charged: sometimes at order, sometimes at shipping.
- Status: still preordered, shipped, delivered, cancelled.
Catalog sites like MyFigureCollection are excellent at tracking the figures themselves. They are not designed around your order pipeline. If you want to answer "what will I owe in June?", a catalog can't help you. That's a ledger question.
Where preorders usually come from
Most figure collectors end up juggling at least three or four of these:
| Vendor | Currency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AmiAmi | JPY | Large Japanese retailer, typical first stop for scales and Nendoroids. Order codes like FIGURE-XXXXXX. |
| Solaris Japan | USD | US-facing storefront, useful when you want USD pricing up front. |
| Nin-Nin Game | USD / EUR | Hong Kong based; multi-currency and installment payment plans. |
| HobbyLink Japan (HLJ) | JPY / USD | Long-standing JP retailer; private warehouse feature defers shipping cost. |
| Good Smile Online Shop | USD / JPY / EUR | Good Smile Company's own storefront, with region-specific exclusives. |
| Other | Varies | BigBadToyStore, Anime Corner Store, Ichiba Japan, direct-from-manufacturer, local anime shops, etc. |
Each vendor has its own order history page, its own email format, its own way of handling shipping and payments. What you need is a single view that doesn't care which vendor it was.
What a good preorder tracker does
Before you pick a tool (or build one), these are the capabilities that actually matter in practice:
- One row per order. Title, vendor, price in the shop's currency, release month, current status. Flip statuses in one click as shipping emails come in.
- Multi-currency normalization. You enter the price as it appears on the site (¥9,500, $259.99, whatever) and the tracker converts it to your base currency for rollup. Crucially:
- FX locked at save time. Exchange rates change daily. If your USD total keeps drifting every time the yen moves, your year-to-date numbers are fiction. The rate used for an order should be captured the moment you save it and never float again.
- Rolling monthly forecast. For each preorder, slot the expected charge in the release month. Total it up. That's the number you need to see before adding another preorder in a lean month.
- Status workflow. Preordered → Shipped → Delivered → (optionally Cancelled). No more hunting through vendor emails to remember whether the Miku figure is already on your shelf.
- Private by default. Pricing is personal data. A tracker worth using keeps your ledger scoped to you, and only shows a public view if you explicitly opt in.
The FX-rate question, in detail
This is the part most spreadsheet workflows get wrong. If you have a formula like
=A2 * GOOGLEFINANCE("CURRENCY:JPYUSD"), every cell in your history silently
re-prices itself every time the market moves. Your "what I spent in 2025" number
shifts by hundreds of dollars between logins.
The fix is simple: at the moment you log the order, grab today's rate and store it alongside the price. From then on, the display conversion uses that stored rate, not a live one. Year-to-date totals become stable. Monthly forecasts for orders already placed don't wobble. Only new orders pick up today's rate.
Rule of thumb: the FX rate is part of the transaction, not a display preference.
Collection tracking vs. order tracking
Two different jobs, often conflated:
- A collection tracker answers "what do I own?". Images, manufacturer, scale, character, lineage. MyFigureCollection is the standard here.
- An order tracker (or ledger) answers "what am I on the hook for?". Prices, vendors, payment dates, upcoming charges. This is what spreadsheets and dedicated tools do.
They overlap once the figure is delivered. A delivered row is effectively a collection entry. But the whole preorder pipeline (easily 12 to 18 months per order) is invisible to a pure collection tool.
A minimal workflow that scales
- Log on order. As soon as you confirm a preorder, add a row. Title, vendor, price, release month, status = preordered.
- Flip on ship. Shipping email hits → flip status to shipped. Optionally add a tracking number.
- Flip on delivery. In-hand → status delivered. Now it graduates into your collection view.
- Review monthly. Check the rolling 12-month forecast at the start of each month. If the next two months look scary, don't add new preorders until the wave passes.
The tool this guide is on
FigureLedger is a free web app built around exactly this workflow. One row per preorder, 14 supported currencies with FX locked at save, a rolling 12-month forecast bar chart, a four-stage status flow, an image-grid shelf for delivered figures, and an opt-in public shelf URL for sharing your collection without exposing prices.
It's vendor-agnostic: AmiAmi, Solaris, Nin-Nin, HLJ, Good Smile, and anything you type in as a custom vendor. It stores your data in a private Supabase backend with row-level security. It's free.
Questions collectors ask
Is there a free anime figure preorder tracker?
Yes. FigureLedger is free, no ads, no paid tier. Optional Ko-fi tip link.
How do I track AmiAmi preorders?
Add a row with vendor = AmiAmi and the JPY price from the product page. You can paste the AmiAmi product code for cross-reference. On shipping email, flip status to shipped. On delivery, flip to delivered.
Is FigureLedger an alternative to MyFigureCollection?
It's complementary. MFC is a figure database: what exists, who made it, when it was released. FigureLedger is an order ledger: what you ordered, from whom, for how much, and when you'll be charged. Keep using MFC for catalog data; use FigureLedger for the pipeline.
Can I share my collection publicly?
Yes, by opt-in. Public shelves live at /u/your-slug and show only images and titles.
No prices, no vendor, no order dates, no currency.
Does it support JPY / USD / EUR / GBP together?
Yes. 14 currencies total. Pick one as your base currency; every order displays both the entered amount and the converted total. FX rates are locked at save time.