I wonder whether anyone has this problem. Due to limited stocks, we’re only limited to certain items that we want - possibly Japan are hoarding all the stocks there and only a few do make it out to the supplier or online shop sites like Hobby Search. When the Stock Market crashed just recently, we were greatly affected. How so? As you all know, I’m from Singapore and the economy of Singapore is strongpathetic. The exchange rate was horrible to the extent that my shipment for online purchases ended up costing at least 10-20 bucks more. I’m expecting another payment to be made this week, so I hope that the bank uses the lower rate to deduct my shipment >< - Or I’ll end up paying at least 40-50 bucks more due to the fantastic rate-__-.

What do you do when you don’t get your figurines due to limited stocks? I think my face definitely looks like this.

Also, by mere coincidence, I heard stories of local stores where we are able to preorder figurines from them - failing our orders due to shortfall. Local stores shall not be named here but my sources are definitely accurate =X. Other than complaining, there’s nothing they can do to spare you from the agony. Due to shortfall, many are cut off from the list due to limited stocks. I know local desperados here do their preorder even before the preorder in Japan has been announced. Indeed this is very agonizing because you may be the first to preorder on the day the figurine has been announced for preorders but you may not be Number 1 on the list.

I believe several figurines like the Figma Fate T.Harlaown is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Did preorder her only to get that we’re aren’t able to get her at all! It was indeed agonizing but I managed to find a way to get her at last. =)

Also, another example is Figma Miku Hatsune.

The highest I saw for sale here is at a price of 59 SGD. The rip-off store must be trying to earn a little profit. She costs 2,500 yen and at the very most even if they did get her at retail price, she should only cost 45SGD inclusive of shipping. Why, screw them because I’ll never order from there. Even other stores were selling at 50SGD which was fairly reasonable - considering how hot she is. But 59? It’s a little bit like Figma Fate don’t you think O_O. And there’s already a re-run in November so how can this be? Lol.

Do note that Miku preorder was announced just 1 week before her official release(I believe, I can’t remember -_-)

But heck, purchasing online does the magic trick =D. I got her even cheaper than those local desperados(something to gloat about) and in addition, I only preordered her on the day she was opened for preorders! Online-shopping is definitely something to consider since the stocks will definitely be yours as long as you order before they close reservations.

So what is the lesson learnt students? Don’t be cheapskate and order through shops. If you really want that figurine(like really^10) I don’t think it’ll hurt to order online. You might be paying more or less(depending how many items you have in a shipment that can really help to save your shipping cost) but the fact is that you’ll definitely get the figurine you want. How bout that? Hobby Search only allows Credit Card at the moment but I believe they’ll be adding a paypal function soon. The other alternative is Hobby Link Japan because you can use paypal. Paypal allows you to add funds from your bank account now, so yes, even you, who can’t apply a credit card yet, can still purchase!

Like what I said in this post, I only order my scale figurines from the local stores because I save like 30 dollars ordering through them. Figma and Nendoroid can be bought online since the most you save by ordering through shops are only around 5-10 dollars which isn’t worth the trouble at all. Imagine if every week there’s a new figma/nendoroid up for preorders. Will you keep going down every week just to preorder? I think the trip to town already cost that 5-10 dollars we can save if we order online.

Also I think local shops should at least rank our Order Number when we do preorders. At least we’ll know the chances of us obtaining the figurine to be high/low. We can then try to source for more places(online or other local stores) to obtain the figurine, rather than preordering and then waiting endlessly after Japan’s official release only to be told there’s a shortfall. And when you then try to purchase from online sites, the figurine is already sold out. At this point, all we can do is scream at ourselves. T_T

At the end of this post I’ll like to ask the readers whether they do local store preorders or rather preorder through online sites. Which do you prefer? Or do you only order through online sites because that’s the only way you’ll ever get the figurines? If a local store was ever to be built near your home, would you consider going there to order or do it like me - order online?

I expect the next figurine to suffer a shortfall to be Figma Yagami Hayate. I already have sources telling me that she’s hard to get(local store trying to get from supplier). Heck yeah, I’m gonna stick to my way of buying - ONLINE!

I’ll be doing another post about buying online compared to ordering from local shops soon. Do stay tuned ^^.