About Arashi's concerts good prices (and some personal happiness)
Finally my popcorn concert goods arrived at home safe and sound.
This time I was my wallet was lucky since I didn't like most of the goods: basically I don't like bright pink and I didn't like the general graphic line they adopted for this tour's gadget.
Anyway, i really want to talk with you about the "magical" adventure of buying Arashi's concerts' gadgets.
After a 2012 full of gadgets (WAKUWAKU, 24hTV and a BW DVD that was out of stock in less than 2 hours), overseas fans spent a lot, but the horrible news about UraAraMania made clear to us that Arashi are happy if there are international fans, but they don't give a damn about them.
(and please, don't tell me "Arashi have nothing to do with organization", 'cause Jun once was asked for his opinion on the idea of reserving some concert's seats for foreigner fans and he said that's not a good thing, 'cause it would be unrespectfull for FCmembers. Thanks for you consideration Jun, really...)
Anyway, many of us already know about their dorky position and accepted the concequences. But there was more!
At the end of August, the Popcorn tour started and overseas fans had a new terrible surprise waiting for them: ALL the people who did the I-go-to-buy-goods-for-you service decided to double the prices (many asked more than twice!).
Before this tour the prices were hight, yes, but I can tell that, before Popcorn, there were still some who selled for a not-honest-but-acceptable price (I know it 'cause everytime me and my friends had to buy something, I spent one entire day to compare the prices of every single seller).
Well, honestly, this thing pissed me.
They stay in line for a long time, maybe for all the day, they had to buy a ticket to go to the concert's place and probably they had to buy lunch. OK. I understand it and it's ok for me if they want to refund all the money they spent for us or if they want to earn a little from this service. But A LITTLE in my language doesn't means "all the people who buy from me will refund the rent of my home in Tokyo" (or wherever they live).
Since I still have my comparing-prices-table for Popcorn Tour I'll wrote it here. Please notice that: 1) all the prices were converted in euro following this summer money-change for €, ¥ and $; 2) these are the prices every shop wrote at the beginning, if they made some change I didn't wrote it.
NORMAL PRICE
jegoods
japanje
marup
Daitejohnny
Doublejan
Meiling
Slants
pamphlet
16,46
26,44
30,80
28,24
30,80
31,28
25
30,66
poster
6,58
14,29
16,68
20,40
16,68
15,69
13
17,25
jumbo uchiwa
4,11
11,75
10,27
14,12
10,27
10,20
10
9,58
clearfile
4,11
9,79
10,27
12,55
10,27
9,41
10
9,58
photoset
4,49
9,79
10,27
13,34
10,27
10,20
11
9,58
penlight
12,34
20,57
23,10
23,54
22,46
21,97
20
23
bag
9,87
17,63
19,25
20,40
18,61
18,83
17
19,16
towel
28,80
41,13
46,20
43,15
46,20
45,50
40
49,82
phonestrap
6,58
12,53
14,12
17,26
14,12
13,34
13
15,33
bandana
4,11
9,79
10,25
11,77
9,62
9,41
10
9,58
mirror
8,23
15,67
16,68
18,83
16,04
15,69
15
17,25
IC sticker
2,47
5,88
6,42
6,28
5,77
6,28
8
7,67
earphone jack
5,76
14,69
16,04
14,91
12,19
14,12
12
13,41
miniuchiwa
2,47
5,88
6,42
7,06
10,27
7,06
8
7,67
stickers
4,11
9,79
10,27
10,98
8,98
9,41
10
9,58
I wrote the names of the shops, but... why not? Names are public, everyone of those seller wrote their prices in je-sales comm, so this are public infos. Ad I'm not here to talk about them, I'm just reasoning out about my buyer position.
So now, please, choose one item and calculate how much a seller earns if... let's say, 30 people buy it. I choose the penplight as an example. In order, every shop earns:
246,7€
322,8€
336€
303,6€
288,9€
229,8€
319,8€
Just for one item. Ok, I don't have any idea about how many people could buy a penlight from one shop, but think that the one who earns less than the others earns 7,66€ from every penlight. And we're talking about one single item, you have to add the others.
Usually I avoid some items and immediately look for others. For example, I always check the design for pamphlet, T-shirt, bag and towel, but I don't have interest in clearfiles, posters, photos, uchiwa and penlight. Other things depend on what they invented for the tour (badges, phonestraps, pins and so on). Also I don't have any interest in the limited gadget of every Arashi's tour date (the coloured gadget).
But talking about Popcorn Tour I kind of... dislike every single gadget except for the limited item! Ahahah!! XD (all my logic...)
That's why the only thing I was interested were the Earphone jacks.
As I said before the problem was "prices". On the average, we can say that 1 jack costs 14€, 14x5=70€ + all the shipping costs. Ri-di-cu-lous. With the real price, 5 jacks are 28,88€ A LOT less than half the price I would have spent buying from the usual fandom sellers.
But today I'm here to say I managed to have all the 5 of them *_*
I bought 2 of them (red and green) from one of the sellers above, Amanda's jegoods. Her price wasn't the cheapest, but I bought from her many times, I know I can trust her and she communicate quickly with her buyers (though lately she became incredibly slow to ship things. I guess she's taking too many orders to manage everything). I asked to ship them together and the package was small, so I didn't have to pay any custom duty (which actually is my costant nightmare since is usually hight and given without any logic by italian custom service: once I paid 35€ for a package a little bigger than your pc's mouse! And it contained 2 pins and 1 strap!!!!!!! Fuck!).
Thanks to a friend I managed to buy the blue and the yellow jack at the normal japanese price because she knew some girls who could buy them for us.
Last, the purple one. I have a friend who arrived in japan during October: she was going to the concert and wanted to buy some gadget for herself. I asked her the jacket and the pamphlet too: some time passed and I recovered from all the 2012's purchase, I saw the scans and I liked it (though I still don't have courage to open it. It seems it smells really bad XD), plus she could buy it at the japanese price. This was an occasion I should catch and I didn't have to pay custom duty this time too!
So, today the purple jack arrived and this little collection was completed spending less than expected!
I'm so hhhhhhhappy *__* the best thing is that... I use them! XD
I can change them depending on what I wear (→ meaningless).
Here is the photo I made today *_* (→ why did I put them on amnos order starting from the right? ò_O changed photos u.u)
front
behind (with city name and date)
*sparkle sparkle* XD
And here ends my post u.u
Ahahahah! sorry for writing that much. Now I have to eat and go back to study!
This time I was my wallet was lucky since I didn't like most of the goods: basically I don't like bright pink and I didn't like the general graphic line they adopted for this tour's gadget.
Anyway, i really want to talk with you about the "magical" adventure of buying Arashi's concerts' gadgets.
After a 2012 full of gadgets (WAKUWAKU, 24hTV and a BW DVD that was out of stock in less than 2 hours), overseas fans spent a lot, but the horrible news about UraAraMania made clear to us that Arashi are happy if there are international fans, but they don't give a damn about them.
(and please, don't tell me "Arashi have nothing to do with organization", 'cause Jun once was asked for his opinion on the idea of reserving some concert's seats for foreigner fans and he said that's not a good thing, 'cause it would be unrespectfull for FCmembers. Thanks for you consideration Jun, really...)
Anyway, many of us already know about their dorky position and accepted the concequences. But there was more!
At the end of August, the Popcorn tour started and overseas fans had a new terrible surprise waiting for them: ALL the people who did the I-go-to-buy-goods-for-you service decided to double the prices (many asked more than twice!).
Before this tour the prices were hight, yes, but I can tell that, before Popcorn, there were still some who selled for a not-honest-but-acceptable price (I know it 'cause everytime me and my friends had to buy something, I spent one entire day to compare the prices of every single seller).
Well, honestly, this thing pissed me.
They stay in line for a long time, maybe for all the day, they had to buy a ticket to go to the concert's place and probably they had to buy lunch. OK. I understand it and it's ok for me if they want to refund all the money they spent for us or if they want to earn a little from this service. But A LITTLE in my language doesn't means "all the people who buy from me will refund the rent of my home in Tokyo" (or wherever they live).
Since I still have my comparing-prices-table for Popcorn Tour I'll wrote it here. Please notice that: 1) all the prices were converted in euro following this summer money-change for €, ¥ and $; 2) these are the prices every shop wrote at the beginning, if they made some change I didn't wrote it.
NORMAL PRICE
jegoods
japanje
marup
Daitejohnny
Doublejan
Meiling
Slants
pamphlet
16,46
26,44
30,80
28,24
30,80
31,28
25
30,66
poster
6,58
14,29
16,68
20,40
16,68
15,69
13
17,25
jumbo uchiwa
4,11
11,75
10,27
14,12
10,27
10,20
10
9,58
clearfile
4,11
9,79
10,27
12,55
10,27
9,41
10
9,58
photoset
4,49
9,79
10,27
13,34
10,27
10,20
11
9,58
penlight
12,34
20,57
23,10
23,54
22,46
21,97
20
23
bag
9,87
17,63
19,25
20,40
18,61
18,83
17
19,16
towel
28,80
41,13
46,20
43,15
46,20
45,50
40
49,82
phonestrap
6,58
12,53
14,12
17,26
14,12
13,34
13
15,33
bandana
4,11
9,79
10,25
11,77
9,62
9,41
10
9,58
mirror
8,23
15,67
16,68
18,83
16,04
15,69
15
17,25
IC sticker
2,47
5,88
6,42
6,28
5,77
6,28
8
7,67
earphone jack
5,76
14,69
16,04
14,91
12,19
14,12
12
13,41
miniuchiwa
2,47
5,88
6,42
7,06
10,27
7,06
8
7,67
stickers
4,11
9,79
10,27
10,98
8,98
9,41
10
9,58
I wrote the names of the shops, but... why not? Names are public, everyone of those seller wrote their prices in je-sales comm, so this are public infos. Ad I'm not here to talk about them, I'm just reasoning out about my buyer position.
So now, please, choose one item and calculate how much a seller earns if... let's say, 30 people buy it. I choose the penplight as an example. In order, every shop earns:
246,7€
322,8€
336€
303,6€
288,9€
229,8€
319,8€
Just for one item. Ok, I don't have any idea about how many people could buy a penlight from one shop, but think that the one who earns less than the others earns 7,66€ from every penlight. And we're talking about one single item, you have to add the others.
Usually I avoid some items and immediately look for others. For example, I always check the design for pamphlet, T-shirt, bag and towel, but I don't have interest in clearfiles, posters, photos, uchiwa and penlight. Other things depend on what they invented for the tour (badges, phonestraps, pins and so on). Also I don't have any interest in the limited gadget of every Arashi's tour date (the coloured gadget).
But talking about Popcorn Tour I kind of... dislike every single gadget except for the limited item! Ahahah!! XD (all my logic...)
That's why the only thing I was interested were the Earphone jacks.
As I said before the problem was "prices". On the average, we can say that 1 jack costs 14€, 14x5=70€ + all the shipping costs. Ri-di-cu-lous. With the real price, 5 jacks are 28,88€ A LOT less than half the price I would have spent buying from the usual fandom sellers.
But today I'm here to say I managed to have all the 5 of them *_*
I bought 2 of them (red and green) from one of the sellers above, Amanda's jegoods. Her price wasn't the cheapest, but I bought from her many times, I know I can trust her and she communicate quickly with her buyers (though lately she became incredibly slow to ship things. I guess she's taking too many orders to manage everything). I asked to ship them together and the package was small, so I didn't have to pay any custom duty (which actually is my costant nightmare since is usually hight and given without any logic by italian custom service: once I paid 35€ for a package a little bigger than your pc's mouse! And it contained 2 pins and 1 strap!!!!!!! Fuck!).
Thanks to a friend I managed to buy the blue and the yellow jack at the normal japanese price because she knew some girls who could buy them for us.
Last, the purple one. I have a friend who arrived in japan during October: she was going to the concert and wanted to buy some gadget for herself. I asked her the jacket and the pamphlet too: some time passed and I recovered from all the 2012's purchase, I saw the scans and I liked it (though I still don't have courage to open it. It seems it smells really bad XD), plus she could buy it at the japanese price. This was an occasion I should catch and I didn't have to pay custom duty this time too!
So, today the purple jack arrived and this little collection was completed spending less than expected!
I'm so hhhhhhhappy *__* the best thing is that... I use them! XD
I can change them depending on what I wear (→ meaningless).
Here is the photo I made today *_* (→ why did I put them on amnos order starting from the right? ò_O changed photos u.u)
front
behind (with city name and date)
*sparkle sparkle* XD
And here ends my post u.u
Ahahahah! sorry for writing that much. Now I have to eat and go back to study!