To commemorate the start of Hobby Search’s SAL service, PVC Figrue, Mechas, Anime Toy and Fashion Doll will get 15% off and 5% points. Gundam Model, Military, Model Car, Hobby Tool, Model Train and RC Model will get 20% off and 5% points too.

I do want to use the chance to purchase stuff I missed out earlier, but unfortunately my wallet is feeling a little tight at the moment ><.

Do check out Hobby Search on Tuesday!!

Their preorder prices normally have a certain percent off, so it’s definitely worthwhile to check the site out. Do read up on the FAQs before shopping there!

Here are some pointers you like to take note before shopping there:

• Payment is by Paypal
• Shipping is via EMS (Like Hobby Search)
• Cancellation of preorders is not allowed (Like Otacute)
• Amiami has online exclusives (Like Otacute)

In addition, sometimes they have huge discounts for in stock items. Saw a couple of items selling at 55% of its original cost only! Thinking of getting the items – if I only have the cash now.. Lol. But yes, this site is great if you missed preorders at the other Hobby Sites, and you know you just have to order the figurine!

The only requirement? You need to pay with paypal. If you are a regular user of Paypal, don’t miss this chance to acquire the figurine/character good/etc you have been waiting for a longgggggggg time! Especially with free shipping!!

Few terms and conditions you need to take note:

• Only items shippable during the campaign period will be eligible for free shipping. Orders placed for backordered or future release items will be shipped (without free shipping) when they become available, as normal.
• All in-stock and shippable items from your order(s) will be automatically shipped immediately after the campaign ends on September 28 in order to insure that you get free shipping.
• Important: Your PayPal billing agreement will initially be charged for the cost of the merchandise AND shipping. The cost of shipping will then be refunded to your account in one or two business days.

Don’t hesitate and start shopping at HobbyLink Japan now!

Started on June 23 2009, the sale will be until July 2009 23:59(Japan Time). So hurry and get your cash ready to buy buy buy! ^_^

They are also giving away freebies if you purchase an order(excluding shipping) exceeding 5,000 yen! That’s really easy to hit considering 1 album cost around 3000 yen, and a single cost 1,000-2,000 yen. There are stuff like posters and postcards and files. I think the posters are probably for promotional purposes which they’re giving away now, but if you’re a sucker for posters and stuff, this is a good chance to grab stuff now XD.

They’re having some crazy stuff for sale out there, I ever saw an item slashed down by 40% off! But it depends on what you buy, those stuff that are cheap might not be what you want.. Lol.

Hurry down to CDJapan before the sale ends ^^.

I saw some stuff that caught my eye. What are them? I’m not saying until I get my copies over -_-.

Okay from the pictures below, I think you can guess what they are. =/. Yes, but they also had spare scratches T_T

Email-ed Play-Asia, and thankfully after seeing my pictures of proof/evidence, they have agreed to send me a free replacement (thank goodness, whoever heard of buying faulty goods during a sale? -.-) Not that I will complain since the items were on sale. LOL.

I should be getting them in my mail sometime around this week. Hope Play-Asia do not fail me again! Fingers Cross!*

Current Figurines and Gundams stash:

My figurines do look little. Probably because I have the habit of selling away figurines that are SAF(suddenly acquired figurines) or more commonly known as impulse buys to me ><.  Gundam kits on the other hand, I do not sell them, well I will definitely make a loss since stores in Singapore do have discounts here and there that makes the kits cheap during some point. And Singaporeans love to bargain.. So.. My saying is that: Just fix my Gundams! XD.

And since I am horrible at remembering the stuff I bought in 2008 (local expenditure – I don’t keep tabs!) this post will feature my “so-called” expenditure. It will be based more on my online purchases rather than local purchases (well I will try to remember my local expenditure as and when)

I purchase namely from these few various sites as and when: Hobby Search, CDJapan, Play-Asia, Amazon Japan, Animaxis.

For local shops purchases: KKnM(I am a regular there XD), Latendo, Toysntoy

And after entering the amount for 2hours and more, I finally managed to get a graph to show you.. The amount is based in Yen FYI.

Despite buying a lot from CDJapan this December, I expected the Nana Blu-ray and DVDs to cost the most out of my entire experiences of buying online. But turns out that May Expenditure for Hobby Search is Number 1. Perhaps I have the Shana Windbreaker I bought back then to thank? XD

Gundam expenditure is not counted for.. Because I can’t remember how much I bought them for orz.

And I remember how much my figurines bought from shops cost (WOW I AM A GENIUS XD)
Figurines bought locally: 577 SGD
Figurine bought from Ebay: 125 SGD (Lucky Star meets Fate/Stay Night Nendoroid!XD)

Number of figurines: 19
Number of gundams: 18
Number of CDs/Albums: 44
Number of Live Concerts: 5

Most Expensive Figurine: 1/7 Alter Yagami Hayate (Thanks KKnM! for the preorder ^^)
Most Economical Figurine: Revoltech Ayanami Rei Damaged Version (27 SGD only! LOL)
Most Fave Figurine: 1/8 Alter Fate Testarossa
Most NOT-WORTH-IT-figurine: Shana Nendoroid (Despite me preordering it at XXX local shop, it feels like a buy-in-store price to me. Never ever going back there again)

Most Expenditure is related to: Nanoha

Most Expensive CD/Album/Live Concert: Nana Mizuki LIVE FIGHTER 2008 Blu-ray
Most Economical CD/Album/Live Concert: UVERworld Shaka Beach – Laka Laka La (Bought for only 7.42 USD!)
Most Fave CD/Album/Live Concert: Nana Mizuki LIVE FIGHTER 2008 Blu-ray
Most NOT-WORTH-IT-CD/Album/Live Concert: None. All are worth it!

Most Expensive Gundam: 1/60 Trans-Arm Gundam Exia (87.95 SGD)
Most Economical Gundam: SD Gundams? (I have a couple of them all bought roughly the same price 10plus SGD)
Most Fave Gundam: 1/100 MG Strike Freedom (Because I love Kira Yamato…^_^)
Most NOT-WORTH-IT-Gundam:1/144 HG Throne Meisters (which I bought this year. I have not fixed them at all because 2 of them died in Season 1. Kinda makes me bored to fix their Gundam since they’re dead… >_>LOL)

Total Hobby Search Expenditure(Figurines/Merchandises): 95, 358yen
Total CDJapan Expenditure: 87, 289 yen

So by using a rough estimation of the online purchases and local purchases,
Total Figurine/Merchandises Expenditure: 3200 SGD (2222.15 USD)
Total CDs-related Expenditure: 1810 SGD (1256.90 USD)

My expenditure would not be so scary if abao did not poison me with Nana.. I love both YUI and Nana and having said that, if I did not love Nana now, I bet my expenditure wouldn’t be so high, and yeah I would not have bought a PS3 because of LIVE FIGHTER Blu-ray that came out last week XD.

Well what is to come in 2009, I have no idea. I expect myself to spend lesser on figurines and concentrate more of my resources for Nana. As for the gaming side of zenical, I do not have any games I want – until March 2009(which is a good thing!) and alas, hopefully the games I have will keep me company until March..

And yes I completed this post before midnight(2009). Look out for the next post to wrap up 2008 (anime) which I expect to start on soon.. Lols.

Happy New Year to all readers!! XD

Having preordered the moment they were available to order.. I got first press editions, and well, we have posters =D.

Too lazy to open them. I think I have four posters, yet to open them at all.. Lazy zenical ><

And behold, the picture below are my loots =D.

Loots: Nana Mizuki Live Fighter 2008 Blu-ray and DVDs, Nana Clips 4

I just finished watching the BLUE SIDE of Live Fighter. I am so high now XD. Shall continue watching the RED SIDE now =3.

Miku has been SOLD

As for Figma Hayate, I have whacked 3 preorders of her online. She’s retailed at around 2,500 yen and expecting a January 2009 release. Someone contacted me last night to have 1 of the 2 slots left, so I’m left with one more slot for Figma Hayate. Anyone interested in the last Figma Hayate I have, do use the contact form so I can reply you back promptly! You can also comment here, just make sure you leave a valid email address so I can get back to you.

You will need to pay a deposit of 40 SGD(without shipping). After she has been shipped to me, the shipping will be paid by you when we meet up. Expect it to be plus minus 10 bucks or so for shipping. The rate is now 1.56 SGD to 100 yen, so I can’t promise a lot -_-.

Deposit can be made via ibanking or meetup, whichever you prefer.

P.S: This is for Singaporeans only!

It’s BUY BUY BUY! More spending.. Sale ends this Friday, October 31st. Not too late!~

Play-Asia offers free shipping, so it’s a pretty sweet place for your online shopping! Time to get those figurines that are on discount!

Anyway I’m not a fan of free shipping. Probably because my parcel got lost, even using EMS! So when it comes to free shipping, I’ll rather pay 10USD more just for EMS. Of course I bulk many items, so the purchase is definitely worth it XD.

These are the items that I bought during the last sale, with the free shipping. I couldn’t care less if they were lost in the mail. Since it wasn’t anything more than 50 SGD XD.

UVERworld limited edition was sold out on CDJapan if I remembered correctly, thankfully Play-Asia still has them previously. In addition, I got them at 20% off. What’s more to grumble? XD

Nothing interests me at this point. I do have 1-2 items that I want, but looking at the current exchange rate, 1 USD = 1.5 SGD, it’s not really “discount” to me. Oh stop crashing, stock markets! Well, if you’re in the States, I guess it doesn’t hurt to have more impulse buys XD.

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 ^^.