Hmmmm which store in Vancouver was this?

Bottle Jockey in Burnaby. They only had 2 and are now OOS. Legacy Liquor also had some and I think they have a few left. Their price was slightly higher. The government store only had From the Barrel but price is decent.

I got my mate in Tokyo to hunt for the Yoichis 15 and 20 but none to be found after going and calling 30 stores.

Using Wine Searcher I then found out US has plenty of Yoichi 15yr but most of them would not like to ship overseas. Binnys had it in inventory but when I ordered they were gone.:(

In NY, a store called wines4today, they even had >60 of Yoichi 15yr on Monday but today the listing is gone from their website. :( The price was USD109!!

This is crazy. LOL

and some US stores seemed to have jacked their prices too...

As of June 28, the Hasegawa store in Tokyo Station had plenty of the Hibiki 12 in full sized and airplane bottles and a few of the 17. Nothing over 20 was available

What were the prices for Hibiki 17?

The 17 was 13,900 yen but it is gone today. They do have airplane bottles of the 17 at 900 yen per

Can see why they are gone.

For those visiting, could be interesting to try some Nikka products.
http://www.nikka.com/storybar/

An unexpected place to look (seen with my own eyes...) would be in the Tokyu Hands Department stores that are large enough to have a food section in the basement. Ones in Shibuya area had Hibiki 17, Yamazaki 18, Nikki both coffee grain and coffee malt.

Just some tips

Any idea on Hibiki 17, Yamazaki 18, Nikki both coffee grain and coffee malt prices at that store

Was walking around Marina in San Francisco yesterday and stumbled upon a random liquor store that had Yoichi 15 for $139. Didn't pull the trigger (still debating) but they also had Hibiki 17 at $189 which is not a bad premium over the 20k yen at Haneda/Narita (most places in the US list it closer to $250)

FWIW, if you live in a US state in which you can have liquor shipped to you, Hibiki 17 is still available pretty widely online for $140-$170. (Yes, you'll pay tax and shipping on top of that, although a lot of online shops offer free shipping.)

Shame it skyrocketed at the NRT/HND duty free shops; I picked it up for 11k yen earlier this year, then paid the 20k yen markup in May to have another bottle on hand.

Wine Anthology (located in NJ) had been my go-to for several Nikkas, but I see now they're sold out of everything but Coffey Grain. (I got my Yoichi 15 from them last year for about $90, and picked up 2x Miyagikyo 12s for $93 each a few weeks ago.) My guess is that as word spreads of Nikka's discontinuing the age-statement Yoichis and Miyagikyos, they'll be harder and harder to find. I did see the Miyagikyo 12 at a couple of MRY-area liquor stores last week for $120-ish, and came home with a Hibiki 12 ($80) and an Ichiro's Malt Chichibu "On the Way" ($205, at the top end of what it's found for, but then again, a bird in hand...)

How come you didn't stock up when Costco had Hibiki 12/17yo's?

Yup! Glad I loaded up when Costco had the 12 & 17 Hibiki. everytime I went shopping there those couple of weeks, and I saw bottles still on the shelf, I couldn't help myself and a couple found their way into my cart each time. :D

Sometimes when we see that the item is plentiful, the desire is not there to hoard them. That is a weird thing about us humans.