Bandai DX Chogokin 1/48 VF-1

[davidwhangchoi]

3 hours ago, Lolicon said:

Anyone manage to PO 3 or more? 

raises hand

[Ignacio Ocamica]

43 minutes ago, Roy Focker said:

What gets me mad isn't the fact I lost out of Max but how I may lose future preorders that I really want if this becomes the new trend.

Couldn't agree more!

[rdrunner]

Just now, davidwhangchoi said:

raises hand

Good for you sir!  May I ask who you placed PO's with?  I managed to snag 2 with amazon japan GK in the 5:35-5:41 window.  Could have snagged one at 19440+950 shipping with a third party vendor as well, and regretted that I didn't, as I could have helped other members out.

[seti88]

3 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

raises hand

did you pay upfront?

[jenius]

If anyone wants to sell an extra PO, let me know! I'm trying to keep my site as complete as possible. Maybe someone will want to trade for a DX VF-31E or something.

[HardlyNever]

2 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

I hope so too.  If the situation we saw last night was ENTIRELY due to scalpers and botters being much more active than the last release (DX 1J), we should see day 1 prices fall back to the levels seen with the 1J on release date (iirc, around 24-25k).   But if Bandai had also reduced the production numbers, this will drive up the day 1 prices.  I sincerely hope that Bandai will learn the lesson from this release going forward, adjust the production numbers and find a better way to deal with scalpers.

Unfortunately, I don't think Bandai cares about botters/scalpers.  As long as product isn't warming shelves, they don't care who buys it.  I also have a hunch that word got out that this release would have a fairly low production run, making it a good target for scalpers, but that is just a feeling.

This pre-order madness definitely felt worse than any others that I've been involved in, but I don't think it is going to get Bandai to change its practices.  Our concerns don't even register on their radar, imo.

[davidwhangchoi]

9 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

Good for you sir!  May I ask who you placed PO's with?  I managed to snag 2 with amazon japan GK in the 5:35-5:41 window.  Could have snagged one at 19440+950 shipping with a third party vendor as well, and regretted that I didn't, as I could have helped other members out.

one from amiami, amazon and one from a contact.

i couldn't get any at 4pm JST launch window. 2nd time ever that happened... first time was with DX chogokin 25S ozma first renewal release back in the day. Ozma was impossible to get.  

 i hopelessly stayed up and got one with at amiami 5:30am, then amazon 6am 

Edited April 8, 2019 by davidwhangchoi

[nathans82]

Same here, I'll take any extras and will pay extra! Also, is there a good place to get the DX VF-19? I know it sold a while back.

[sh9000]

Congrats to everyone who secured one and to those that didn’t, I hope you get one along the way before release.

[davidwhangchoi]

5 minutes ago, seti88 said:

did you pay upfront?

no, just the traditional sites.

Chronocidal got it at the same time as me from amiami around 5:30am right when Nippon opened up. amiami put up a few more. 

i think another person confirmed they got it from amiami too while ppl were checking out at NY

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by davidwhangchoi

[rdrunner]

Just now, davidwhangchoi said:

no, just the traditional sites.

Chronocidal got it at the same time as me from amiami around 5:30am right when Nippon open there's up. amiami put up a few more. 

i think another person confirmed they got it from amiami too. while ppl were checking out at NY

 

Nice!

NY's ticketing system was a complete joke.  It just makes it impossible to order from their site - by the time we got through the queue, it was already sold out.  Unless the botters and scalpers found a way to get around that some how, I don't know why it would have sold out so quickly even with this annoying ticketing system in place.

[davidwhangchoi]

this really messed up my sleep. i just woke up messed up. 

waiting from 3am-6:30am EST is pretty bad on a monday.

 

[slide]

any economists here to set me strait if I'm incorrect?

 

Basic economic theory of supply and demand would suggest to me the following:

The best way to handle this [for a buyer/point-of-sale fairness perspective] would be for the stores take pre-orders [pre-payed or not, whatever], for a period of 24 hours.

they then submit those numbers to Bandai, with an additional number of units to have in-stock on release.

Bandai then produces that many [or however many more than that they need to meet whatever their backend demands].

 

Results [in theory] should be as follows:

All the pre-orders will be filled, there will be a chance for people who missed the po window on release day.

Bandai makes 100% of the money they expected, maybe even sell more than they thought they would [theory being the more you produce, the cheaper each unit becomes to produce, therefore profit increase]

Stores don't get stuffed with a Yammato-Style Shelf-warmer [or at least the store had to ask for that number of units from Bandai, so that's on the store]

and most importantly: the scalpers who bought multiple copies to sell at BS inflated prices later get the screw [instead of actual fans and collectors!] since 90-95% of folks who wanted one will get it.

AT MSRP no less...

 

None of the above sounds crazy or hard, does it?

Edited April 8, 2019 by slide

[rdrunner]

Just now, davidwhangchoi said:

this really messed up my sleep. i just woke up messed up. 

waiting from 3am-6:30am EST is pretty bad on a monday.

 

I was up since 3:15 and maybe got in an hour's sleep after I secured my amazon orders.  Fortunately the wife made Hong Kong style milk tea which is like 4 times stronger than espresso, and that has been keeping me awake all morning.

[nathans82]

The demand definitely outweighed the supply. So the supplier (Bandai), should make more supply to meet the demand. I did want to say a big thank you to @Shizuka the Cat for all the help last night.

[vlenhoff]

I don't know how some of us got 3 orders in. I had 5 websites opened, and I barely managed to get one in cart, and then it collapsed... along with the others.

Congrats to you gents. You are really lucky.  

Edited April 8, 2019 by vlenhoff

[Shizuka the Cat]

2 minutes ago, nathans82 said:

The demand definitely outweighed the supply. So the supplier (Bandai), should make more supply to meet the demand. I did want to say a big thank you to @Shizuka the Cat for all the help last night.

Thank you @nathans82

I just feel bad that PO madness was so difficult this time around.

[rdrunner]

2 minutes ago, slide said:

any economists here to set me strait if I'm incorrect?

 

Basic economic theory of supply and demand would suggest to me the following:

The best way to handle this [for a buyer/point-of-sale fairness perspective] would be for the stores take pre-orders [pre-payed or not, whatever], for a period of 24 hours.

they then submit those numbers to Bandai, with an additional number of units to have in-stock on release.

Bandai then produces that many [or however many more than that they need to meet whatever their backend demands].

 

Results [in theory] should be as follows:

All the pre-orders will be filled, there will be a chance for people who missed the po window on release day.

Bandai makes 100% of the money they expected, maybe even sell more than they thought they would [theory being the more you produce, the cheaper each unit becomes to produce, therefore profit increase]

Stores don't get stuffed with a Yammato-Style Shelf-warmer [or at least the store had to ask for that number of units from Bandai, so that's on the store]

and most importantly: the scalpers who bought multiple copies to sell at BS inflated prices later get the screw [instead of actual fans and collectors!] since 90-95% of folks who wanted one will get it.

AT MSRP no less...

 

None of the above sounds crazy or hard, does it?

This is all very good from the perspective of maximizing customer satisfaction (in that everybody should be able to get a PO), and I would love it in Bandai did that.  However, from what others have mentioned before, Macross only accounts for a very small propotion of Bandai's sales, and so it is unlikely that they will allocate so much resources to managing the supply/demand of this line, and just issue enough to make sure there are no shelf warmers.  They don't really care if money is left on the table, because they can more than make up for the losses in other lines. 

All of this is really, really sad for us hardcore Macross fans, but that's what makes this hobby so addictive - the harder they are to get, the more we want them...

[Bolt]

6 minutes ago, slide said:

None of the above sounds crazy or hard, does it?

That sounds quite reasonable, it’s a win , win for everybody (except the hack scalpers!) 

[davidwhangchoi]

13 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

I was up since 3:15 and maybe got in an hour's sleep after I secured my amazon orders.  Fortunately the wife made Hong Kong style milk tea which is like 4 times stronger than espresso, and that has been keeping me awake all morning.

ah man, you're east coast (edit: or maybe west coast, i'm tired and cant think straight at the moment) too? i feel you man

congrats on persevering and getting the dx. now we got to brave the rest of the day.

Edited April 8, 2019 by davidwhangchoi

[rdrunner]

4 minutes ago, vlenhoff said:

I don't know how some of us got 3 orders in. I had 5 websites opened, and I barely managed to get one in cart, and then it collapsed... along with the others.

Congrats to you gents. You are really lucky.  

Thanks @vlenhoff and I'm sorry to hear about that.  I really hope you can get one from somewhere at a reasonable price before the release date.  Amazon JP may open up their orders again from time to time, fingers crossed.

[seti88]

7 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

no, just the traditional sites.

Chronocidal got it at the same time as me from amiami around 5:30am right when Nippon opened up. amiami put up a few more. 

i think another person confirmed they got it from amiami too while ppl were checking out at NY

 

I saw ami's pre-order button available on my screen at that time, but i was still focused in NY. 

Turned out juggling 2 sites then but certainly prioritised NY as i didn't want to get booted out.

A strange pre-order indeed!

1 minute ago, slide said:

any economists here to set me strait if I'm incorrect?

 

Basic economic theory of supply and demand would suggest to me the following:

The best way to handle this [for a buyer/point-of-sale fairness perspective] would be for the stores take pre-orders [pre-payed or not, whatever], for a period of 24 hours.

they then submit those numbers to Bandai, with an additional number of units to have in-stock on release.

Bandai then produces that many [or however many more than that they need to meet whatever their backend demands].

 

Results [in theory] should be as follows:

All the pre-orders will be filled, there will be a chance for people who missed the po window on release day.

Bandai makes 100% of the money they expected, maybe even sell more than they thought they would [theory being the more you produce, the cheaper each unit becomes to produce, therefore profit increase]

Stores don't get stuffed with a Yammato-Style Shelf-warmer [or at least the store had to ask for that number of units from Bandai, so that's on the store]

and most importantly: the scalpers who bought multiple copies to sell at BS inflated prices later get the screw [instead of actual fans and collectors!] since 90-95% of folks who wanted one will get it.

 

doesn't sound crazy or hard, does it?

My thoughts focus more on a more equitable distribution model i.e. regional site set-ups and allocation quotas.

But yeah we know that wont work currently for macross...

 

[davidwhangchoi]

4 minutes ago, seti88 said:

I saw ami's pre-order button available on my screen at that time, but i was still focused in NY. 

Turned out juggling 2 sites then but certainly prioritised NY as i didn't want to get booted out.

A strange pre-order indeed!

seti, did you get in on NY? i didn't even try to go on. 

[rdrunner]

6 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

ah man, you're east coast too? i feel you man

congrats on persevering and getting the dx. now we got to brave the rest of the day.

Thanks David I was very lucky to be at the right place at the right time this morning.  Only a few more hours to go...

[DYRL VF-1S]

NY was definitely strange. I was able to confirm an order there. But luck and timing was it. Seems like you had to be live and active at the time of posting. Like @Shizuka the Cat said, clicking in the site kept me alive and then I kept searching while seeing them post iterations of the product page till pre-order opened.

Once it opened I sped through the order process. But once I submitted payment (I pre-paid) it spit me back in the waiting line for 10 min. During that wait, I got a notification in email of payment processed from PayPal, confirmation email from NY, and finally after the waiting queue it spit me to a confirmation on the site. Super weird experience.

[seti88]

12 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

seti, did you get in on NY? i didn't even try to go on. 

Yeah i was in the ecosystem when the 1A started to list.

That's why i saw a false flag of unavailable in the picture icon for the 1a max initially...kept searching and one of those tries i managed to get into the product page...And then proceeded to complete the order.

Nervy stuff...felt like was under time pressure to diffuse a timebomb or something whilst i was in there.....

Edited April 8, 2019 by seti88

[yman1437]

2 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

Around 4:30 AM Eastern Time

Shizuka-chan I think it's 2 hour 35 minutes after official open time, so it's about 5:35am EST

[seti88]

4 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

NY was definitely strange. I was able to confirm an order there. But luck and timing was it. Seems like you had to be live and active at the time of posting. Like @Shizuka the Cat said, clicking in the site kept me alive and then I kept searching while seeing them post iterations of the product page till pre-order opened.

Once it opened I sped through the order process. But once I submitted payment (I pre-paid) it spit me back in the waiting line for 10 min. During that wait, I got a notification in email of payment processed from PayPal, confirmation email from NY, and finally after the waiting queue it spit me to a confirmation on the site. Super weird experience.

exactly! felt like another world especially when i saw ami had a preorder open at the same time too....

i was trying to juggle ami's site which was flickering on and off, but NY was giving me the sequence to complete the order....

i dont know what i was clicking on tell you the truth!

[vlenhoff]

The DX 1J pre-order lasted from 5 to 7 minutes. I was ready, i had all shops on screen, and to me me, this one lasted 2 minutes. 

[UN Spacy]

9 hours ago, Shizuka the Cat said:

I don;'t know how pre-orders on eBay works, but I saw this one listing for the TV Max.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bandai-DX-Chogokin-VF-1A-Valkyrie-Maximilian-Jenius-Japan-version/223475196868?hash=item340828e3c4:g:RGAAAOSwLgFcpy0C

About $318.76 + $49.44 shipping

At least the seller has 100% positive feedback.

Are people THAT desperate?!

[seti88]

I looked back on my posts during hikaru's 1j preorder and CDJ had pre-orders still available 20 mins in....probably that influenced actions moving forward a bit..

After that hikaru's 1J demand basically went supernova, since all the positive reviews and such came out....not entirely surprising what happened today i suppose, now i think abt it.....

In addition to this being bandai's very first MAX VF-1 TV version ever? 

Anyway there is always still yammie's 1/60 1A TV version, which by now should be even cheaper. I still find the proportions on them quite perfect for a VF, despite bandai's best efforts...

Edited April 8, 2019 by seti88

[Shizuka the Cat]

6 minutes ago, yman1437 said:

Shizuka-chan I think it's 2 hour 35 minutes after official open time, so it's about 5:35am EST

It was about an hour and half for the 3rd party sellers on AmazonJP to start listing the VF-1A, about an hour after that for AmazonJP itself to list a few.

[Shizuka the Cat]

2 minutes ago, UN Spacy said:

Are people THAT desperate?!

Given that the VF-1J Hikaru sells for 32,000 yen on Mandarake and gets bought within minutes of being listed, maybe some people are that desperate?

I am not advocating pre-ordering listings on eBay at such a huge markup. But, I figure I might as well provide links to listings I find, including from proxies, to give people who really really want TV Max some options.

[vlenhoff]

6 minutes ago, seti88 said:

I looked back on my posts during hikaru's 1j preorder and CDJ had pre-orders still available 20 mins in....probably that influenced actions moving forward a bit..

After that hikaru's 1J demand basically went supernova, since all the positive reviews and such came out....not entirely surprising what happened today i suppose, now i think abt it.....

In addition to this being bandai's very first MAX TV version DX ever?

I had HLJ, Amiami, NY, CDj, Nin nin, AmazonJp, and even Mandrake open, 2 to 3 hours from the exact moment the pre-order started. This might explain some of my frustrations...

[Bolt]

With all the PO madness , how are these Evilbay sellers able to guarantee orders??

(years back ,before I had a clue, I bought a pre order from a vendor on Evilbay and then forgot about it. A year later I remembered. Of course the seller never shipped it. I had to dig up Paypal info and threaten them. They shipped it a month later. I think they had to go find one ..)

Edited April 8, 2019 by Bolt