DX VF-25 Renewal Series (Part III)

[SaitouSad]

Thanks for the campfire sharings!

Back to the topic about preordering VF-25A;

- VF-171 CF is now as low as US$126 in local B&M shops in Hong Kong.

- RVF-25 is now US$166 and keeps dropping in local shops. It is now 12500 yen in Amazon JP.

Personally, I guess more people will be interested in RVF-25 than a cannon fodder valk. So my current guess is that its availability will match that of RVF-25, but not as cheap as VF-171 CF. I suppose the shops are more careful after RVF-25 and VF-171CF.

Let's see how many units flow for VF-25F and VF-27 to see if Bandai actually changes the production batch size...

That's pretty interesting. I always thought B&M stores would just price it really high anyway.

At least in Singapore and Taiwan, that was the case.

[Major Focker]

While the no-cancellation policy is a tiring affair, and some times their emails come off as "stuck up", I tend to just take it as it is and take note of it.

I was once asking them to do some order splitting for me, as I've hit the limit of cost of goods with shipping to be chargeable by Customs ($400 with shipping and I get taxed 7%)

Had some back and forth with them and got them to switch my packages around before giving me the shipping costs again. Off course, this must have been frustrating for them, which led them to end it (when all my shipping was settled) to drop me a note to say I should consider my future purchases carefully before I combine them.

sounds like we're in the same country

what i do is to place separate pre-orders for stuff coming out in different months so end up with different order "buckets" that i can build up on. if a preorder comes up for a month where i already have a bucket, i still place it as a separate order. much easier to just combine them later on rather than have to ask for split.

also, i now try not to push it too close to the tax-free limit. if an order is already 20k yen, i have it shipped even if the tax limit is more like 30k yen. part of the reason i do this is because once your order gets to a certain size, the box they use jumps up a notch and shipping suddenly goes from 3k yen to 5k+. that quickly evaporates their discount advantage with HLJ. so now i only order compact, expensive stuff from Amiami, and the bulky stuff with HLJ as their shipping discounts basically puts them on the level with Amiami pricing.

i've cancelled a few items with Amiami without issue. though of course i would get that email "please consider future purchases more carefully..." which i think is just fair because they do state up front that they have a no cancellation policy. sure it sucks, but it's not like they're out there to screw people.

but they've really got to do something about their packaging. another 6kg order arrived yesterday and 2.5kg of it is the huge box and paper filler. i can easily imagine HLJ using a box half the size and those lovely air-filled bags. so yeah, that's the last bulky order from Amiami. only medium sized orders from hereon.

[SaitouSad]

sounds like we're in the same country

what i do is to place separate pre-orders for stuff coming out in different months so end up with different order "buckets" that i can build up on. if a preorder comes up for a month where i already have a bucket, i still place it as a separate order. much easier to just combine them later on rather than have to ask for split.

also, i now try not to push it too close to the tax-free limit. if an order is already 20k yen, i have it shipped even if the tax limit is more like 30k yen. part of the reason i do this is because once your order gets to a certain size, the box they use jumps up a notch and shipping suddenly goes from 3k yen to 5k+. that quickly evaporates their discount advantage with HLJ. so now i only order compact, expensive stuff from Amiami, and the bulky stuff with HLJ as their shipping discounts basically puts them on the level with Amiami pricing.

i've cancelled a few items with Amiami without issue. though of course i would get that email "please consider future purchases more carefully..." which i think is just fair because they do state up front that they have a no cancellation policy. sure it sucks, but it's not like they're out there to screw people.

but they've really got to do something about their packaging. another 6kg order arrived yesterday and 2.5kg of it is the huge box and paper filler. i can easily imagine HLJ using a box half the size and those lovely air-filled bags. so yeah, that's the last bulky order from Amiami. only medium sized orders from hereon.

That country being the one with the half-lion and half fish that vomits endlessly into the river?

Yeah, I get what you mean. But usually, I just combine them altogether anyway, so that my orders are easier to track.

Since I'm usually in no hurry, I wait till around the end of the month to take a look at what I can ship, then I just drop them a mail to pack the items into 1 package and ship.

Usually, I take a look at the item estimated size and cost before I decide how I want it split (assuming I have a lot of stuff coming in that month).

Amiami's boxes are huge because they only have a few fixed sizes (like those in the Post office).

From my experience, it usually works out to something like this

1) smallest SAL Small Packet : can fit 4 x Nendoroids or Figma sized boxes

2) Anything longer/bigger will be bumped to SAL Parcel.

Since I don't do EMS, option 1 tends to work out to be very cheap (less than $10 per item)

Option 2 usually results in around $10 shipping per item, so that usually works out for me, as most local shops charge much higher or have difficulty guaranteeing stock.

HLJ really takes the cake with their shipping, so I do consider them pretty often (especially when it comes to Macross stuff I can actually obtain). I might start buying more bulkier stuff from them if their discount improves (so far the larger stuff like Riobots are about 1000yen difference, so I'll pass on those).

I love their private warehouse feature though. So convenient, especially when they have a sale going on.

[Lupin The Third]

HLJ really takes the cake with their shipping, so I do consider them pretty often (especially when it comes to Macross stuff I can actually obtain). I might start buying more bulkier stuff from them if their discount improves (so far the larger stuff like Riobots are about 1000yen difference, so I'll pass on those).

I love their private warehouse feature though. So convenient, especially when they have a sale going on.

I'm actually grateful to amiami for pissing me off so bad; because in doing so they got me hooked on HLJ's amazing Private warehouse system. Sure most everyone else will combine an order or two, or even the releases from a single month, but no one has a setup as efficient at the PW. It stuns me looking back at old orders how much I was overpaying for shipping because everything for the most part had to go piecemeal from AA. The 60 day setup is great also, especially when something comes out at the end of a month you can sit on until the start of two months later. If I wanted to clear out my PW right now it'd be $60 for shipping the 10 figures I have on order. With AA I'd have to pay $35-40 just for the 4 Space Adventure Cobra Figmas, and easily another $60 or so for each of the other sets of figures I have being held.

Which is why I don't even care if something is $5-10 more at HLJ. I can pay $60 to ship it all today or could have paid ~$160 for AA to piecemeal it to me. In the end the total price tends to cost less with HLJ if you build up you PW stock. Plus I'd rather pay $5-10 more for an item and be treated like a human being, rather than AA's belief that I'm a servant that answers to them. Oh my lord, I caused the "world's largest figure shop" (which I don't believe to be even remotely true) to overstock an item! Oh the shame! Oh the dishonor! Certainly they'll go under because of my two items, and not their snarky attitude or their complete lack of customer service!

When you pay for service you get quality service, when you bargain-bin shop you get the left behind droppings...I tend to think that collector's should be treated with a little bit of respect given the prices we pay for this kind of merchandise. If I was some kid peeing his pants in a toys-r-us while tearing open a blister-packed GI Joe I could understand AA's snarkiiness. But when you're buying 200+ toys that's a different subject. So I'll pay $10 a pop more for my 6 Detonator Orgun Riobots at HLJ knowing if there's a problem it'll be fixed and most if not all of the price difference will be made up in the combined shipping. Anyone not using the PW system yet should really do so, you will be very pleased with the way it works and the vast savings you will make on shipping if you buy lots of figures.

[Major Focker]

just to add, the PW system displays shipping cost in real time, so you can play around with different item combinations to make up your shipment. about half the time, it is cheaper for me to split my stuff into 2 shipments instead of 1 big box, eg. everything in one shipment is 5k yen, may be split into 2 costing about 2k yen each. this usually happens when you have 1 item that is particularly long or wide compared to the other stuff.

also noticed in a couple of cases that when i put the small items first into the shipping column, and the bigger ones later, it tends to calculate about 500-1k yen higher shipping than if i go first with the big items and top-up with the small ones. odd but true, at least in a few cases.

That country being the one with the half-lion and half fish that vomits endlessly into the river?

lol, yeah. went away for a couple of weeks to escape the haze.

back on topic, anyone know the cancellation policy of cdjapan? the only thing i got from their site is that if i used paypal i need to drop them an email and they will do a manual full or partial refund. but i couldn't find any info on what conditions they would only do a partial refund.

really like the gunpod color on this one. might order another and sell it later without the gunpod or swapped with a purple one. with buyer's consent of course.

or maybe someone here will be willing to sell me their gunpod/s? am i crazy?

[SaitouSad]

So I'll pay $10 a pop more for my 6 Detonator Orgun Riobots at HLJ knowing if there's a problem it'll be fixed and most if not all of the price difference will be made up in the combined shipping. Anyone not using the PW system yet should really do so, you will be very pleased with the way it works and the vast savings you will make on shipping if you buy lots of figures.

That's pretty insightful, and does hold some weight over the ever constant comparison between Amiami / HLJ's shipping /pricing. If HLJ's listings would come in a little faster, and they could do something about their pricing, then they'd really have an edge over AA.

HLJ's PW isn't exactly perfect though. They once sold away something I had already paid for in the PW. And didn't realize it till it was too late. It was a VF-1S Roy, and I had already bought the super/strike parts elsewhere to go with it. And they were pretty inflexible about replacing it with something else too.

Fortunately, cases like that are pretty rare...

Incidentally.. why order 6 Orgun? hahahah It looks nice, but as I have no clues about the show, I decided to skip it (in favour of Jehuty and Blodia Riot off course)

[SaitouSad]

just to add, the PW system displays shipping cost in real time, so you can play around with different item combinations to make up your shipment. about half the time, it is cheaper for me to split my stuff into 2 shipments instead of 1 big box, eg. everything in one shipment is 5k yen, may be split into 2 costing about 2k yen each. this usually happens when you have 1 item that is particularly long or wide compared to the other stuff.

also noticed in a couple of cases that when i put the small items first into the shipping column, and the bigger ones later, it tends to calculate about 500-1k yen higher shipping than if i go first with the big items and top-up with the small ones. odd but true, at least in a few cases.

lol, yeah. went away for a couple of weeks to escape the haze.

back on topic, anyone know the cancellation policy of cdjapan? the only thing i got from their site is that if i used paypal i need to drop them an email and they will do a manual full or partial refund. but i couldn't find any info on what conditions they would only do a partial refund.

really like the gunpod color on this one. might order another and sell it later without the gunpod or swapped with a purple one. with buyer's consent of course.

or maybe someone here will be willing to sell me their gunpod/s? am i crazy?

Lucky you

I thought it stated somewhere during the ordering stage that there would be no changes allowed. Haven't had a chance to take a gander at the cancellation policy.

I wouldn't think you're crazy for liking the gunpods. I'm even contemplating just swapping the gunpods on the VF-25F with the CF's. Ditto for the RVF.

[royard]

That's pretty insightful, and does hold some weight over the ever constant comparison between Amiami / HLJ's shipping /pricing. If HLJ's listings would come in a little faster, and they could do something about their pricing, then they'd really have an edge over AA.

HLJ's PW isn't exactly perfect though. They once sold away something I had already paid for in the PW. And didn't realize it till it was too late. It was a VF-1S Roy, and I had already bought the super/strike parts elsewhere to go with it. And they were pretty inflexible about replacing it with something else too.

Fortunately, cases like that are pretty rare...

Incidentally.. why order 6 Orgun? hahahah It looks nice, but as I have no clues about the show, I decided to skip it (in favour of Jehuty and Blodia Riot off course)

HLJ really need to get their listing up more quickly. On the other hand, their pricing probably can't be lowered--they are essentially charging more for the extra service that they provide, such as free return shipping, etc.

Selling something already in PW is pretty bad though.

My problem with HLJ is that they don't do registered small packet SAL.

Edited July 2, 2013 by royard

[Lolicon]

PW is the best thing to happen to HLJ. Prior to that, they had a ridiculously slow, a**-backwards, totally inflexible way of shipping things to you. They're still pretty slow at actually getting things out the door, but it's nice to be able to lump a couple months of purchases into one box and use Fedex. My last two shipments were fairly large boxes with multiple items, and shipping was only about 4400 yen for Fedex, which is cheaper than if I had bought all these items at different shops and paid for SAL for each one (not to mention much faster delivery).

Being luxury items, I don't mind sticking my stuff in PW for a month or two before ordering a shipment.

Just wish they got their stuff listed a little faster. Most of the time it's not an issue, but when it's a hot item, it gets to be somewhat troublesome waiting for them to update when every other shop has it up.

[ff95gj]

Speaking of Fedex; just a sharing. My last two orders: NY with Fedex, and HLJ with EMS.

Fedex:
I received the shipped notice on 19th and received the parcel on 22nd.

EMS:
I received the shipped notice on 26th and received the parcel on 28th.

I know there are lots of variables in the resultant delivery time, but just one more sample for the pool.

[anime52k8]

PW is the best thing to happen to HLJ. Prior to that, they had a ridiculously slow, a**-backwards, totally inflexible way of shipping things to you. They're still pretty slow at actually getting things out the door, but it's nice to be able to lump a couple months of purchases into one box and use Fedex. My last two shipments were fairly large boxes with multiple items, and shipping was only about 4400 yen for Fedex, which is cheaper than if I had bought all these items at different shops and paid for SAL for each one (not to mention much faster delivery).

Being luxury items, I don't mind sticking my stuff in PW for a month or two before ordering a shipment.

Just wish they got their stuff listed a little faster. Most of the time it's not an issue, but when it's a hot item, it gets to be somewhat troublesome waiting for them to update when every other shop has it up.

The one thing I don't get about Private warehouse is why only 60 days? the basic idea is good but I prefer BBTS's implamentation a bit better since you can sit on things for up to half a year letting sale items and tiny stuff that isn't worth shipping on it's own just pile up until you've got one giant box.

[SaitouSad]

The one thing I don't get about Private warehouse is why only 60 days? the basic idea is good but I prefer BBTS's implamentation a bit better since you can sit on things for up to half a year letting sale items and tiny stuff that isn't worth shipping on it's own just pile up until you've got one giant box.

I'd go with limited warehouse space. They probably serve a pretty big international customer base. maybe this would prevent screw ups as well. I mean, even with this system, they had screwed up my orders before.

[Valk-1S]

The one thing I don't get about Private warehouse is why only 60 days? the basic idea is good but I prefer BBTS's implamentation a bit better since you can sit on things for up to half a year letting sale items and tiny stuff that isn't worth shipping on it's own just pile up until you've got one giant box.

Land in Japan is expensive, so items taking up space in the warehouse is probably not good for HLJ as it's a cost to them. It's already good to have the option to keep it there for 60 days.

I wonder whether the VF-25A will be produced in lesser numbers. Normally you have a few batches at premium sold by NY by now, but they only put up two batches at premium since the preorder started. Perhaps because it didn't sell fast, they are not looking to get a lot of stock in.

[SaitouSad]

Land in Japan is expensive, so items taking up space in the warehouse is probably not good for HLJ as it's a cost to them. It's already good to have the option to keep it there for 60 days.

I wonder whether the VF-25A will be produced in lesser numbers. Normally you have a few batches at premium sold by NY by now, but they only put up two batches at premium since the preorder started. Perhaps because it didn't sell fast, they are not looking to get a lot of stock in.

Maybe they've learned from all the cancelled preorders for the RVF and CF171 and are simply not gonna risk bringing in so many of these.

[cinello]

AE Open NoWWWWWW Goooooooo !!!!!!!!!

[Tober]

Anime Export

[SaitouSad]

already gone... it's like they only had 1 piece..

[Tober]

I clocked them open for about 4 minutes. No discount tho

[ff95gj]

Damn! I missed it!!!

I have been hitting refresh on AE all day!

[charger69]

Damn! I missed it!!!

I have been hitting refresh on AE all day!

Same here

[cinello]

I got one again @ AE .

[royard]

Funny. I seemed to have gotten one from AE, but I did not receive a "Thank you for your Order N. ?????" email.

I tried again with ordering something else, and I instantly got an "thank you" email. This is weird.

[charger69]

NY

GO GO GO!

[Tober]

Funny. I seemed to have gotten one from AE, but I did not receive a "Thank you for your Order N. ?????" email.

I tried again with ordering something else, and I instantly got an "thank you" email. This is weird.

Check to see if it's in your account orders. If it is, you have one ordered. Make sure it's paid for.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Tober

[Valkyrie23]

I happened to check about a minute after the AE link was posted. I made a paypal payment so I hope it goes through.

Thanks for the heads up, Cinello and Tober!

Edited July 2, 2013 by Valkyrie23

[cinello]

Funny. I seemed to have gotten one from AE, but I did not receive a "Thank you for your Order N. ?????" email.

I tried again with ordering something else, and I instantly got an "thank you" email. This is weird.

ํyou check at your myorder , If have order is complete.

[royard]

Check to see if it's in your account orders. If it is, you have one ordered. Make sure it's paid for.

Thanks. It's there.

ํyou check at your myorder , If have order is complete.

Thanks, i just checked.

Edited July 2, 2013 by royard

[Xigfrid]

Seems that Macross fans and supporters won't be rewarded with discount anymore for pre-ordering... I also got fedup by NY inflated prices (still low compared to scalpers prices), and the other shops low stocks on Macross Bandai...

I was waiting for AE to release the VF-25A because they generally give a 10%-15% discount, but no more discount since the renewal series.

[Duymon]

If your whole inventory sells out in minutes would you discount them?

[Mommar]

Well, I went for it at NY anyway.

[ErikElvis]

2 at NY. Price isnt to bad. hopefully I can pick up 1 more at HLJ.

[mechaninac]

At this point I say preorders be damned. All I have to do is look at the current availability, and discounted prices, of the VF-171 CF and RVF-25 to see that the acquisition paradigm for the Frontier DXs has shifted to favor a 'wait for after release' approach. I skipped the jacked up preorder price on the VF-27 and intend to do the same with VF-25A (unless I can secure a 13300 Yen, or better, HLJ one; but I'm not going to sweat it if I don't), and maybe even the Ozma when that eventually hits (we'll get a better read on the hero units after the F rerelease goes in stock). It no longer makes any sense, to me, to play the scramble game to pay full price or more for something that will/should be available at or bellow retail after release without any of the aggravation associated with trying to secure a preorder, specially with the added insult of finding out you paid way too much because of haste/impulse/panic on my part and the 'let's take advantage of these Macross collectors' on their end.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, hame on me. Fool me thrice, just shoot me because I'm a hopeless chump.

[OzmaLee74]

Pulled the trigger on NY. At least I know they always deliver.

[erikos0311]

Still open at NY.

[Pedro2k6]

Anyone knows When is the release of the VF-25f?