Advice for attending a Dolpa

But, if you wanted to go to Dollpoint again anyway, you should definitely go to the AE.

Well, since you insist, I guess I have to (;´・`)>

 

It might take a few hours in the morning to do the event, but it will not take all day.

The info for the Dollpoint has some info that machine-translation doesn't make clear though. It sounds like non-limited stuff will be available on April 4th & the 5th, and that you get a ticket that's good for making a purchase for the day (the ticket expires at the end of the day, that seems like a weird statement because stuff would just sell out). It does sound like they're giving separate buy & lottery tickets. Is there one lineup for both?

 

I'm guessing the After Event is the highest chance they'll have a DDH-09 in stock, so I should put in the effort (you'd think they'd make an effort to stock it then of all days...). I'm not crazy about the fact that I lost my luck in one "lineup lottery" already though

The info for the Dollpoint has some info that machine-translation doesn't make clear though. It sounds like non-limited stuff will be available on April 4th & the 5th, and that you get a ticket that's good for making a purchase for the day (the ticket expires at the end of the day, that seems like a weird statement because stuff would just sell out). It does sound like they're giving separate buy & lottery tickets. Is there one lineup for both?

Ah, OK. I will explain a bit more about the tickets, since regular-item tickets is something that Dollpoint does differently than other Volks stores (due to volume of customers, being in Akihabara).

 

Most Volks physical locations will place their new-release AE regular items out in the store in baskets, and you pick one copy out of the basket as the line snakes by it. When there is nothing more in the basket, they are sold out. Pretty straightforward.

 

Dollpoint handles a volume of items that makes putting them all out on the show floor prohibitive; they'd end up with large towers of clothes all toppling over onto each other. So instead, they put out claim tickets even for the regular items. The actual inventory is all held in the back room. Once you pick up a claim ticket, then you are guaranteed a copy of that outfit as long as you take the ticket to the register and cash it in by the end of the day. If there are no more tickets, they sold out - probably. On the 5th, if there still items in stock (because some people did not cash in their ticket on the 4th, or because not all the tickets were taken originally), then new tickets will be made and placed in the store. The new ones must be cashed in by the end of the 5th. After that, if there are still copies of items left, all the tickets will be void and the remaining stock will be placed out on the showroom floor for anyone to buy at any time.

 

I'm sure it goes without saying, but this being Volks, it is one ticket per person.

 

The tickets for the limited items like dolls are not in the above process - those are handed out only once, at the AE in the morning. Usually that's how Volks kills the time between when the line is set in its final order and when the store opens at 10. They hand out limited-item tickets starting at the new head of the line and work backwards. In any case, yes there should be just one line this time.

Thanks! That makes things a lot clearer. TBH I'm not really looking forward to the get-up-early-and-wait-in-a-huge-queue routine for just the boots (but hopefully they'll have the Dollpoint items too), but being able to attend an AE is an experience itself.

Does anyone know roughly when the next guidebook will go on sale for the Tokyo end of April/beginning of may event? Worried as I need it to arrive before I fly >_>

Sorry for another post, I think this means the event is the 6th May. Can anyone confirm?? Other question still stands too!

 

 

http://www.volks.co.jp/jp/dolpa_portal/index.html/

Question bump

Well, it does look like its at that date. In my case, I was able to buy the guidebook when I made this topic, so a month before. They shipped it pretty much immediately and it looks like I got it Feb 22nd.

Yay, the AE was a success This time I was right near the front (still didn't find out what the split number was, but I had to climb 7 AND 3/4 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS AT 9 IN THE MORNING) and was able to get everything I wanted (and I decided I wanted more when I got there) except DDH-09

 

At the time I thought there were a bunch of people in front of me going up the stairs, but now that I think about it that was probably Volks staff, and I was actually insanely lucky. I was let in at 10 am after waiting on the stairs. When we were snaking around the block to get to the stairs, it was raining so I had an umbrella over my head and wasn't looking forward much. Now I know why someone about ~10 spots in front of me got annoyed when he wasn't let into the stairs At the Dolpa there was a very clear 'split starts here' announcement, I guess there were quiet about it here because it would start a riot XD The line was HUGE.

 

 

 

...this trip turned out great.