General guides send everyone to the same six shops. If you are hunting one category, here is where it actually is.

Cameras

Khlong Thom Market, 499 Worachak Rd, Chinatown. The flashlight market — used camera gear alongside electronic parts, tools and vintage watches. Nothing is priced, almost nobody speaks English, and Saturday evening is the main session. MRT Sam Yot.

Treasure Factory, 1106 Sukhumvit Rd. The best graded, priced, guaranteed camera section in the city. What you give up in romance you gain in not buying a brick.

King Kai Bearing, Samut Prakan. A Japanese-import warehouse specialising in cameras, musical instruments and hi-fi speakers. Not in any guide. Closed Sundays, BTS Bearing.

Talad Rot Fai Srinakarin — vintage cameras among the Bakelite radios and tin toys, Thursday to Sunday evenings. Bring a torch.

Note for shipping: batteries must come out of electronics before air freight.

Records and audio

Zudrangma Records, Sukhumvit 51 — the internationally known one. Molam and luk thung reissues and originals. The first stop for any visiting collector.

Audio Minute, 4F Thaniya Plaza, Silom — Japanese jazz pressings, which is a serious and expensive corner of the vinyl world. Closed Sundays.

Garage Records, Lat Phrao Soi 8 Yaek 9 — 80s and 90s alternative, open 16:00 to midnight.

Vinyl Die Hards, Srinakarin Soi 44 — used from ฿100 in large unsorted crates. A genuine dig.

Track Addict, Sukhumvit 69 — used vinyl from ฿300.

HOF Records, 3F Fortune Town — easy to combine with the Ratchada night markets.

Note for shipping: speakers, amplifiers and anything with magnets are dangerous goods for air freight. Plan sea, or carry it.

Military surplus

Horse Unit, Warehouse 30, Charoen Krung Soi 30 — 1950s–60s US and European issue, ฿1,000–10,000. The best in Bangkok, and selected by someone who knows reproduction from original.

Wooden Submarine, Phetchaburi Soi 18 — Americana menswear, military apparel and leather, ฿500–1,500 standard.

Indigo to Indian, Sukhumvit 36 — military items alongside indigo workwear and Native American silver.

Rong Kluea, at the Cambodian border — military surplus in bulk and much cheaper, but very mixed and a lot of it is reproduction.

Toys and collectibles

Mega Plaza Saphan Lek, Chinatown — six storeys, 600+ shops, Thailand's largest toy and collectibles mall. Floors 1 and 2 mix new and secondhand: vintage figures, Gundam, game consoles, Pop Mart blind boxes from ฿390.

Pattavikorn Market, Nawamin — 1980s and 90s anime figures, Saint Seiya and Dragon Ball, among the ฿5 clothing piles.

Siam Gypsy Junction, Bang Sue — collectible Lego, taxidermy, original movie posters, Wednesday to Sunday evenings.

Talad Rot Fai Srinakarin — tin toys and the older end.

Watches

Khlong Thom is the recognised vintage-watch hunting ground, and it is exactly as opaque as that sounds. Nothing is priced, nothing is guaranteed, and you need to know what you are looking at.

For authenticated pieces: Komehyo (condition-graded to the Japanese standard), Tokyo Joe and 2nd STREET.