Hey, welcome back. *ahem* Welcome back!! *giggles* And if you thought this is an auction house trip again, no no, you would be terribly wrong. Which is why this is still counted as not outside of the circle which since the last time I told myself not to do this again, but hey, this is technically just buying (with the same charges ugh) but you know, that's what happens when you're cooped at home all day lmao you have a lot of time to start thinking of acronyms for your post titles like, a month ago haha. (If you didn't notice the title stands for "puss" haha not getting any though) I know right? It's only been like, 3 months since my birthday too. I guess that pay raise is making me stir crazy at home because of the pandemic outside. Or is it the opposite? Haha I don't know now
So yeah, I'll just show what I learnt from this, and of course, show you all
what I got for myself. Warning, it's A LOT. Like seriously, that box is the
same dimensions as the other box of cup noodles from Japan and costed 10 times
as much lmao okay let's start
HOW IT HAS COME TO THIS
If you would follow with me on a journey, I would tell you how long this took
and what obstacles stood in my way. The longest journey, too.
In the bigger picture it's due to the many items that were sold in view of
the events (not) opening within the year (that have been cancelled) so they
have to sell their goods online and that's when I come in to snatch a couple
of stuff I like which I will talk more about in other posts, but this one
package of finding not the newest stuff is specifically based on two
guidelines: (1) No auction betting to pay more than what I can chew. Haha
yeah that is actually easy there are physical stores especially in Japan
that sell photos of beautiful women (not gravure, haha) and also online btw
and I'll just pay for international shipping while aiming to get free local
shipping. And to show a large sample for such an operation to cover all the
auction trips I've made for a sampling, (2) this package should contain 50
items. Yes, FIFTY. INDIVIDUAL. PHOTOS. Again, stir crazy figures right here.
For comparison, the last time I went to the auction house, I only came back
with a fifth of this amount.
So, thanks to Suraga-ya through Rakuten, I managed to find myself
FIFTY different photos (as we will call them now) of a variety of girls I
know of probably with the similar objective of that previous auction post:
to find people to pad the list of girls who took too many selfies lol. BUT,
here's the big but, things didn't go too well. Turns out, if I were to
guess, the store did not really update regularly their stock, so every time
I order in batches of 10-12 photos, I always get my order rejected. They did
not state their reasons for rejection (I can read Japanese btw), but suspect
is as long as they see ONE photo that is not in their store anymore
(physically) they reject the whole order. At this point, around a week of
doing this to and fro choosing other photos and sacrificing those I saw in
first impression *sigh* then did I come to realise that yeah, the store did
not have a way to check for stock. So I was bring an idiot doing this back
and forth for like a week, reducing whatever I chose of the 50, eliminating
as they slowly update the sold-out stock online and then ordering the
remainder again (you need to reach about an average of 10 photos to get free
local delivery and I was taking advantage of that), and again, and again...
I was not being smart haha.
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| (What it looked like playing with them for more than 2 weeks. In general, it's a bunch of order confirmed emails, and then every single one getting cancelled on their side) |
So, I tried other options after getting fed up of literally helping them
stock check on their online store for 3 weeks lmao, I went back to my
shopping friend from Japan, Buyee. Yeah, same place as the post last
time. But again, what is different is that no auction. And surprisingly, I
can find products from Suraga-ya from there. Problem is, you have to pay
extra service charge because besides knowing that they do charge more since
they are buying on the store on your behalf.... they also tell you which
ones are out of stock. Well, not exactly which one, so I was basically doing
trial and error until I can find enough to ship one pack of them. Yeah, it
was somehow more tiring doing that for a week than what I've done above, by
the way. So, by now you should have seen that it's already not worth it.
Then, as I was looking around in Buyee, I got myself a coupon.
"Free international shipping for first time buyers", huh. I could save a lot
for shipping anything home and even though I have to pay for service fees, I
still think this was a huge discount over the whatever other two methods
I've done to burn all my energy (not money) (yet) into just trying to buy
stuff off the Internet. And so, still not auction by the way, I went
shopping on Buyee's new partnership and probably co-owned online store,
Mercari. Yes, there's a Western region version but if you go there
you won't see photos of female voice actresses in Japan, I promise you.
*laughs* So yeah, on Mercari Japan, since this is relatively a new store,
there aren't many things on sale, but this works similarly to many stores
out there today that are online which I soon realise work under the same
framework: No auction, seller's list their prices, and there are options for
selection. Yes, you cannot negotiate for prices, but you can choose what to
get. One may wonder why you can do that, but suffice it to say if you have a
dozen photos not all will want to get the whole set, so they can just write
in the comments what they want specifically, and prices can be negotiated
then. Yeah, that's the future. Go to Otamart which forwards to FromJapan for
more examples. But since I'm at my trusty friend here who still provides the
most reasonable service fees till date, I still went with here, and
remember, there's the coupon.
So I'm finally at the point where ordering integrity wouldn't be an issue,
but surprisingly, getting my package stuffed took a lot of time and
to and fro too. Mainly due to seller rejections, but also ordering this much
will take time, compared to buying it from a standard store like Suraga-ya,
so time wise it's similar to auction. Not going to bore you with details,
but there are some that you will notice later in the unboxing list of items
are lacking of like my dear imouto Natsukawa Shiina because those sellers
rejected most of the items I wanted which is a pity. But yeah, bearing the
sadness from Suraga-ya saying farewell to many photos that
I couldn't get are already out of stock before I even
clicked the button, I continued on to reach the number I was aiming for. And
finally, after a month and a half since where I started, I got all the stuff
I... may have wanted since the others I couldn't even get anyways haha.
Problem is, also I would blame Taketatsu Ayana (Ayachi) for this, but
because I saw two sets of her photos which are relatively new (like her
marriage lol) I ended up with something larger than 50.
It was 60. *laughs* And yeah, at this point it's a sixth of that other box.
*laughs*
And finally after all this work it's ready to ship off (with the protective
packaging as you'll see in a while) but MAN has it been stuck for a while. I
received this today (at home, because you know, work from home) along with
another package (which you don't have to know it's just cup noodles from
Japan, search for ZenPop) because somehow both were stuck in Japan's post
office for... about 2 weeks? (The two weeks which I got a break off my
weekends which will probably NOT happen this weekend lol sob) Yeah, both of
them, as both also shipped out of the warehouses around the same date
period. Really was about to go complain but as I wanted to, it got updated
so I calmed down haha. All in all, quite a journey to get what I want, so
let's see what I got for myself! It's show-off time!! *laughs*
Wait, you asking for real intentions? I've not been spending much money since the quarantine and my savings is increasing, so... haha
Wait, you asking for real intentions? I've not been spending much money since the quarantine and my savings is increasing, so... haha
WHAT WAS DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND
The biggest difference here is that, well, we're not playing around in the
auction hall. Which is why this isn't Part 3 of the "Auction House" series
(lol), but a separate one where I visit an actual store without negotiations
in price.
For doing this, we avoid waiting for auction time to expire. Even if I
snatch the ones that are ending soon (you can sort that) or just snipe bid the
items, it'll also take a lot more time then if I just bought... not exactly
directly, but compilation of all the items would be way easier than you think.
I did burn out my debit card purchases though, because I swiped by card for
about 20+ times within an hour, the bank just deactivated my card and I had to
call back to say it's not a scam and that I'm scamming myself because of Japan
lol. As an indirect consequence, you will also
see less items on single but more in bulk, which is kind of what I
observed and eventually collected over the time I was shopping around, which
is good, but I guess it's also based on timing as in auction either you reset
your item so that it can be listed again, but you don't have to do that for in
Mercari's case or even Suraga-ya, but the latter is disappointing so we shall
not talk about that haha
But sadly, as I found out, and if you didn't see above in the intro,
the charges became similar. Again, Suraga-ya may have made it worth it,
but thanks to the one coupon it's kind of break even? I wouldn't say that
though, because as of Buyee service policies I'm paying the same rate as an
auction item and as a purchase from Mercari, and the more you buy the less
service fee you pay, just like the auction. To add on, the uncertainty for
items to arrive will still exist, as I see my
rejection of items somehow appear more often than every if we don't
consider Suraga-ya at all, because the auction items are refreshed so we know
the buyers are active behind each item, to say the least. Who knows, if it's
automated then I guess it's no difference besides the one I mentioned above.
Seriously, it's because of the coupon waiving international shipping that made
this still the cheapest per item trip I made so far, and I'm thankful for
that. It might have costed way more without it, I would argue.
Overall, the only upside is really the ease of purchase as
I don't have to deal with dates considering I'm taking care of up to 30
sets of items at once, and if it's all auction it'll be quite a pain to deal
with if overloaded with failed bids. Otherwise, I might say this time around
it's real assurance to see that Buyee is still really reliable in being the
middleman between us and those Japanese pirates (lol) to the extent that I
won't even get scammed because they will
send us emails and ask as per the original product description if I
want additional packaging or not, translated. Yeah, you heard that right. I
think I said no haha because it's not worth much. We'll talk about what's the
threshold for that later hehe
WHAT IS HERE
So, and in case you missed
the one not photobook I reviewed last month, please go take a look, and I consider that as Phase 1 at this point, so be
sure to go take a look. Phase 2 is what you are about to see here in images,
and Phase 3 we will talk about later. So, PHASE 2 UNBOXING!!
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1kg in net weight after package consolidation, by the way. |
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Package without the wrapping (Man, Japan, you impress me) (High shipping fees too) |
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It's this much bubble wrap, unwrapped |
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Yeah, it's a lot. |
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The real meat, and still there is much wrapping because you know,
Japan. |
As you can see in the images below (sorry for the terrible shots because why
make it look good haha), since I can't put all in one mat, this is most of
what were inside 29 packages with a total of 60 items- Ah,
about that.
When I opened the largest packet of photos (of Hanazawa Kana by the way,
second image above) (yes there are 3, can click in to see) of supposedly 16
items, I counted and found out that... they gave more. Hmm... because all the
descriptions and/or the photos of the... photos (lol) would show how many each
sold set contains (one image but writes "set of 3", for example), it would be
easy to tally the numbers before I even receive them. (You'll realise how
cheap some of the sets are compared to the one expensive one) (yay Akarin
lmao) *looks at product page again* Ah, it's not written, but if you zoom in
(or if you have them like me hehe) on one of the items was not a single photo
but a pack of 4 (for 400yen!!??) (what is Kana-chan to you bro lol), which
means... let me calculate again, it's 19 for that, so... it's
63 total photos now. Yeah. Oops. *laughs* Hey, I technically am getting
more out of this now that I miscalculated but I'll take it!
...
I am getting WAY more than what I have asked for lmao
SPECIAL MINI SEGM ENT!! HOW TO PACKAGE STUFF 101
Since I had a large sampling of individual small packages, I thought I
should share with you how all of them package their items (even though it's
a piece of bromide it's still worth something) to show how much effort the
Japanese put into sending their stuff away for money:
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"Leftovers" |
"Clear Card Holder" |
"The Whole Package" |
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"Cardboard with Bubble Wrap" |
"Just One Piece" |
"Skimping on Cardboard" |
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"Waste of Cardboard" |
"Cardboard Sandwich" |
In summary, cardboard sandwich is the free option if you have much of them
lying around your place, that clear card holder is a luxury and it actually
works, and bubble wrap if you have some lying around because that feels like
overkill haha. I would say that if I were them, cardboard plus inside an
envelope would be good enough. Remember, the purpose here is not let the
thing bend or be scratched. That's all. It doesn't have to suffer a fall
down a flight of steps lol
WHAT IS COMING SOON
Ah, I may actually be looking forward to these more because, you know, they
are newer. *laughs* But seriously, as much as I would like to buy all of these
and spend a shit ton of money to buy photos, I'm still not buying them legit
as a form of supporting them, so, the ones you see before (Phase 1) (haha) and
this upcoming one that we shall call Phase 3, from more legitimate means of
purchase.
So, Phase 3 will be from two sources via pre-order (which I've placed last
month) which will release end of June, which will consist of photos from
Columbia Fes. which is a yearly music event for Anime artists from
Columbia Japan ie. all their female voice actress singers including Yuuki Aoi
and Waki Azumi which I promise I have gotten (but not Itou Miku for my bro
because he said no haha), and from
Minase Inori's upcoming live tour which is at this point postponed
(which will also explain the second wave of pre-orders due October but I'm
glad I caught on to the first) (man, are the servers lagging when it started
haha I WAS THERE) but her goods are around which are similar to Asakura Momo
as in Phase 1 HOWEVER it's not going to be a pamphlet review (lol because
Inorin has no rack-) but I got myself some photos and a clear file because I
want to love her so bad I know she doesn't love me back so these will do lmao
well it's her sh*tty selfies that drove me to get more of her photos through
other means.
Yeah, we'll do another part or update this part I guess whenever it arrives
probably July.
HOW MUCH IT COSTED
So finally, costs. You know, those nitty gritty finances no one wants to care
about but we know we have to because we aren't rich enough to ignore how much
we spent lol. Not me apparently, for this one bomb is bigger than the virus
out there that killed many; this one killed me good haha. Then again, I've
been sort of saving for it so... here it is!
Phase 1: Asakura Momo Live Tour 2020 "Agapanthus" Tour Pamphlet + 1x Gacha
Item (2x Badges)
3220 JPY = 44.68 SGD
Phase 2: The PUSS (Suraga-ya + Mercari, 63 photos total)
Because I had a lot of time to track all these packages and record how much
money I spent to determine how much service fees I want to pay, I thought I
show you guys what it looks like to be a nerd lol. Please refer to the table
below:
| tag | itemprice | charges | count | subtotal | shipping | total | unitprice | source | rate (SGD to JPY) | subtotal(SGD) | shipping(SGD) | total(SGD) | unitprice(SGD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tomatsu Haruka Tomatsu Haruka Amamiya Sora |
640 | 800 | 3 | 1440 | 666 | 2106 | 702 | From Suraga-ya | 71.71315 | 20.08 | 9.25 | 29.33 | 9.78 |
| Fuchigami Mai | 777 | 500 | 1 | 1277 | 86 | 1363 | 1363 | From Mercari | 71.74157 | 17.80 | 1.20 | 19.00 | 19.00 |
| Asakura Momo | 888 | 1000 | 1 | 1888 | 86 | 1974 | 1974 | 71.75979 | 26.31 | 1.20 | 27.51 | 27.51 | |
| TrySail | 400 | 500 | 1 | 900 | 86 | 986 | 986 | 71.71315 | 12.55 | 1.20 | 13.75 | 13.75 | |
| Amamiya Sora | 600 | 500 | 1 | 1100 | 86 | 1186 | 1186 | 71.75473 | 15.33 | 1.20 | 16.53 | 16.53 | |
| Kitou Akari | 1111 | 1000 | 1 | 2111 | 86 | 2197 | 2197 | 71.75391 | 29.42 | 1.20 | 30.62 | 30.62 | |
| Kitou Akari | 1200 | 1000 | 1 | 2200 | 86 | 2286 | 2286 | 71.75473 | 30.66 | 1.20 | 31.86 | 31.86 | |
| Kitou Akari | 666 | 500 | 1 | 1166 | 86 | 1252 | 1252 | 71.75385 | 16.25 | 1.20 | 17.45 | 17.45 | |
| Toyota Moe | 450 | 500 | 1 | 950 | 86 | 1036 | 1036 | 71.75227 | 13.24 | 1.20 | 14.44 | 14.44 | |
| Horie Yui | 777 | 500 | 3 | 1277 | 86 | 1363 | 454 | 71.74157 | 17.80 | 1.20 | 19.00 | 6.33 | |
| Minase Inori | 1000 | 1000 | 3 | 2000 | 86 | 2086 | 695 | 71.76175 | 27.87 | 1.20 | 29.07 | 9.69 | |
| Uesaka Sumire | 1888 | 1000 | 3 | 2888 | 86 | 2974 | 991 | 74.76938 | 40.24 | 1.20 | 41.44 | 13.81 | |
| Hanazawa Kana | 400 | 500 | 1 | 900 | 86 | 986 | 986 | 71.71315 | 12.55 | 1.20 | 13.75 | 13.75 | |
| Hanazawa Kana | 4600 | 1000 | 19 | 5600 | 86 | 5686 | 299 | 71.77647 | 78.02 | 1.20 | 79.22 | 4.17 | |
| Kouno Marika | 500 | 500 | 2 | 1000 | 86 | 1086 | 543 | 71.73601 | 13.94 | 1.20 | 15.14 | 7.57 | |
| Tachibana Rika | 690 | 500 | 1 | 1190 | 86 | 1276 | 1276 | 71.72996 | 16.59 | 1.20 | 17.79 | 17.79 | |
| Tachibana Rika | 350 | 500 | 1 | 850 | 86 | 936 | 936 | 71.72996 | 11.85 | 1.20 | 13.05 | 13.05 | |
| Asakura Momo | 490 | 500 | 2 | 990 | 86 | 1076 | 538 | 71.73913 | 13.80 | 1.20 | 15.00 | 7.50 | |
| TrySail | 300 | 500 | 1 | 800 | 86 | 886 | 886 | 71.74888 | 11.15 | 1.20 | 12.35 | 12.35 | |
| Uesaka Sumire | 400 | 500 | 1 | 900 | 86 | 986 | 986 | 71.71315 | 12.55 | 1.20 | 13.75 | 13.75 | |
| Natsukawa Shiina | 300 | 500 | 1 | 800 | 86 | 886 | 886 | 71.74888 | 11.15 | 1.20 | 12.35 | 12.35 | |
| TrySail | 700 | 500 | 1 | 1200 | 86 | 1286 | 1286 | 71.72744 | 16.73 | 1.20 | 17.93 | 17.93 | |
| Taketatsu Ayana | 1111 | 1000 | 4 | 2111 | 86 | 2197 | 549 | 71.31757 | 29.60 | 1.20 | 30.80 | 7.70 | |
| Taketatsu Ayana | 1111 | 1000 | 4 | 2111 | 86 | 2197 | 549 | 71.31757 | 29.60 | 1.20 | 30.80 | 7.70 | |
| Minase Inori | 444 | 500 | 1 | 944 | 86 | 1030 | 1030 | 72.17125 | 13.08 | 1.20 | 14.28 | 14.28 | |
| Minase Inori | 555 | 500 | 1 | 1055 | 86 | 1141 | 1141 | 72.16142 | 14.62 | 1.20 | 15.82 | 15.82 | |
| Amamiya Sora | 400 | 500 | 1 | 900 | 86 | 986 | 986 | 72.17322 | 12.47 | 1.20 | 13.67 | 13.67 | |
| TrySail | 300 | 500 | 1 | 800 | 86 | 886 | 886 | 72.13706 | 11.09 | 1.20 | 12.29 | 12.29 | |
| Touyama Nao | 300 | 500 | 1 | 800 | 86 | 886 | 886 | 72.46377 | 11.04 | 1.20 | 12.24 | 12.24 |
For the breakdown in summary, it's 45228 JPY (~630 SGD) which are ~52%
original item price including shipping paid by seller, ~42% on insurance and
service fees because if I don't I'll cry but not for all items (specifically
if items cost more than 800 JPY), and thanks to the coupon, only 7% in
shipping and consolidation, distributed against all items besides local
delivery charge from Suraga-ya which could be avoided with minimum purchase
which... I couldn't even do. *sigh* This could've been way higher without that
coupon by the way, and I may have stopped this altogether. Oh the numbers in
the table are just for flair in case you like accounting lol (good time to
test the new editor on tables though, super lag right now)
The most expensive item per unit price (for reference see above images
on mat) is Akarin with the cherry on a magazine a couple of years ago where I
appreciated her (outer) beauty (I want that cherry to be my face lol) (somehow
all Akarin ones are ex, and also recent from her 2nd single) and the
cheapest, thanks to counting of the items again is that batch from
Kana-chan, is getting even lower now that I realised there's even more inside
the pack that someone must have really not like the female voice actress of a
decade haha I don't know. The newest ones as you may have noticed were
out barely a couple of months as of purchase, got sold out there real quick
for example TrySail. Man, those girls aren't very popular lol and the married
ones because we know lmao Ayachi's 2 sets were real good though they were from
her best album tour 2 years ago? Yeah. I try not to get stuff that's too old
Taketatsu Ayana a decade ago isn't my type lol
Again, there were many regrets from what I've seen in Suraga-ya and I thought
I could do a cheap sweep of (though, single) items but you know, they don't
want to give me more Nan-chan or Rika-sama haha *sob*
Phase 3: "Columbia Fes." Photo Bromides + Minase Inori "We Are Now" Tour Goods
[Undetermined due to items not yet being charged]
Initial total as of point of purchase: 1800 + 2350 = 4150 JPY
WHAT'S NEXT?
One might be thinking how would I still have motivation to explore more
despite burning so much money just to get into my very own hands, but I tell
you, spending this much time in the Internet opened my eyes to recent rising
trends that could make all these a lot more... interactive than they should
be. Heck, I can still "tell the seller" through Buyee this time around for one
of my items whether I want to slap in a protective case for 150. Yeah, no
joke.
Cue Otamart, a rather small store for selling otaku items (thus the
name "otaku mart"), but everything is negotiable. Yeah, it's like a
flea market, but for those "free" goods. If you are Japanese then it's easy:
you comment on what you want specifically (say "top left, bottom right") of
any image shown in the product page and prices can then be confirmed. But this
also means that if I were to do this I can do this on a smaller scale as this
to and fro, even via forwarding service FromJapan, will take a lot of time,
and their warehouse storage period won't allow such long dates (limit 30 days)
because normally they will count the extension date on the earliest arrived
item, especially when consolidated. So, if I ever were to do this in the
future I may have to consider how large of a window I can accept before
sending them back to my place at any capacity, but that's a problem to think
of in the future, I guess.
Sorry guys, was watching livestream of Komatsu Mikako and Uesaka Sumire
playing mini-games YOU KNOW I can't miss that for this. (Sumipe lmao Mikakoshi
kawaii) Well again, this should've appeared 2 weeks ago, but there's more to
come, so yay? I'm going to regret this in a decade lmao. Then again,
reflecting back, I think I'll do auctions instead haha they have more
selections anyways and since the prices are the same smaller batches might be
better. But hey, we can only go for more right? MUAHAHAHAHA my wallet *laughs*
Cya guys again then. My weekend is either going to be work or just scanning
the heck out of these so I can pad my phone wallpaper collection haha yeah
that's my reason for spending so much money, by the way. Until next time, I
will update this page slowly on the stuff I want to show, so please come back
to take a look or just come back in a week and not read this first or whatever
lol bye