Volks News 84

Yeah, nothing has been said for Volks USA online sales, just that these outfits will be for sale at Dollpa. I'll be going to Dollpa, but its really stressful for me to buy outfits at events like this. I hope you're able to get what you're looking for in the end. 

Thanks.

Oh yeah I forgot that; I hope they're not only at LA Dolpa since I can't go to that.

I'm convinced the billing system is down. This is beyond Sakura Miku levels of fail.

So I ask: How is this not embarassing?!? 

Nearly 7 hours since the event started now and I still can't do anything on the site. I managed to get the main event page to load and it looks like everything is still available which I find hard to believe. Maybe no one could buy anything, or maybe stock isn't being tracked at all; I have no idea.

I'm tired of this and tired in general and I guess I'm giving up and going to bed. I guess I'll see what happens tomorrow. This is really disappointing. 

Phew, gave it one more try after taking a few hours break from the website - and my order went through for SD16 Abyss Black Set & SB-SD16G-079 boots. Hopefully you guys can get what you're after either on the international site or from Volks US - I don't have the Volks US option due to being in Australia, so i'm thanking my luck in being able to finally place an order.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Tango_Six
Spelling

After 9.5 hours, the site is working slightly better for me, I get further in the order process to the point the card info is submitted, and then I get the same error message there.

And the outfit I wanted most, the SDB Abyss Black set, is now gone which it told me before letting me check out so I had to remove it from my order. The other two Abyss Black sets I wanted are still there, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to actually get the order to go through. I'm very tired, having tried this all night long, and I'm very irritated by now.

Volks doesn't release that many outfits I like, and when they finally have something I really want, I can't buy them because their website and ordering system for these events is complete garbage. I'm going to try it one more time and then I'm going to bed.

Edit: Trying that one final time, it finally worked. I got the SD and SD16 Abyss Black outfits, but because of this mess missed the SDB one, which of course is the one I wanted most. Hopefully I can get that in a Volks USA lottery. When I had to rebuild my cart an hour or so ago because it had been cleared again, it was still there but it went away while trying over and over to checkout.

I'm glad I got what I was able to get, but after so much frustration trying for so long, it doesn't really feel like I succeeded at anything at all.

Edited August 31, 2019 by cfx

13 minutes ago, cfx said:

I'm glad I got what I was able to get, but after so much frustration trying for so long, it doesn't really feel like I succeeded at anything at all.

I'm happy you at least got some of the items you wanted. This is my first time ordering in one of these "clickwar" events. If this is how it's going to be in the future, i'm gonna give them a miss - and try to pick up stuff later from Yahoo Japan (if they're not marked up too much) or wait for them to appear on Mandarake.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Tango_Six

I know when I receive the order I'll be happy I got the two outfits; it's just after the draining experience of ordering, right now I'm like "whatever"...

 

My memory of this might be wrong, and as I've only been at this hobby since early 2018 I have only tried to buy a few times during these clickwars, but what I recall from the previous Volks website was it was slow and buggy to put items in your cart, but once you entered the checkout process, it typically went ok unlike what is happening now. Plus, on that old site items were held for you for 30 minutes (I think, time might have been different) once you put them in your cart, unlike now where nothing is held for you.

The other thing that helped though was the dolls were typically lottery, so they didn't add to the site traffic. Still, this was a disaster those first two hours before Rem and Ram were available so there's problems beyond that.

This mess aside, I tend to like ordering from Volks Japan over Volks USA because the prices are a little cheaper (may barely be true now with a worse exchange rate), shipping is fairly similar in cost, and the clothing items I have entered the USA lottery for, my win rate hasn't been that good. So if there's something I really want like these outfits, I try to get them at Volks Japan first and if I miss then enter the USA lottery for them.

I'll check the Japan site over the next few days, because sometimes they briefly restock, or used to. Before it was probably items from being reserved in carts that never checked out so it may not happen as much now, though there may be other reasons it happens. I also got on the notification list just in case.

Edited August 31, 2019 by cfx

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles cfx 😕 I was also going to say you don't often say you want stuff (at least as far as I've seen) and I was really hoping you could get what you wanted from this release. I'll keep an eye out for the SDB, in case they restock...

I think this probably happened because there were -too- many people for the system to keep track of stock, so probably put out errors but without removing items from cart? ... last month I bought the Swimming Club Junior Set, I had no problems with checking out. The site wasn't overly laggy either, so the whole process was decently easy. It didn't seem like there were many people interested in what was offered...
Not sure if lottery would be better, personally. There are so many scalpers with a trillion of accounts for the dolls themselves, imagine how hard it would be to win an outfit... I mean, yes it's hard the way it is now -anyway-, but maybe if you really want one specific outfit, you can pay and go to an internet cafe for faster internet, just that once or twice.

I wish I could go through Volks USA. Somehow they seem to always have what I want in-stock.

Sounds like a rough release night for everyone.

I haven't used Volks Jp since they arbitrarily decided to burn their old webstore to the ground and build a new one with fewer features that was more customer hostile.  Even then, any night with clickwar major franchise dolls plus clothing releases is going to be a shitshow.  

And, on top of that, they didn't stagger things out.  In the past they managed traffic by phasing the releases over a few hours.  Half the outfits at 10AM and then the other half at 11AM.  I imagine they killed that idea because of the loss of cart retention.  But now since all the items drop at once and it's clickwar....  clustermess.

I didn't participate in this mess, but I definitely sympathize with everyone. 

At least people like Cfx and me have the option of the USA store.  If the Jp store as it exists since the redo was my only option, I don't even think I'd bother anymore.

4 hours ago, cfx said:

 

I tend to like ordering from Volks Japan over Volks USA because the prices are a little cheaper (may barely be true now with a worse exchange rate), shipping is fairly similar in cost, and the clothing items I have entered the USA lottery for, my win rate hasn't been that good. So if there's something I really want like these outfits, I try to get them at Volks Japan first and if I miss then enter the USA lottery for them.

I'll check the Japan site over the next few days, because sometimes they briefly restock, or used to. Before it was probably items from being reserved in carts that never checked out so it may not happen as much now, though there may be other reasons it happens. I also got on the notification list just in case.

Correct me if I am wrong.  But did you not once say in a post,  that you only order from Volks USA since you live in US no other store mattered to you. I am just curious.

And congrats on the outfits you won.

8 hours ago, cfx said:

Edit: Trying that one final time, it finally worked. I got the SD and SD16 Abyss Black outfits, but because of this mess missed the SDB one, which of course is the one I wanted most. Hopefully I can get that in a Volks USA lottery. When I had to rebuild my cart an hour or so ago because it had been cleared again, it was still there but it went away while trying over and over to checkout.

All the 84 outfits are listed as being sold at the LA Dolpa. They also list the September outfits as having a presale at the LA Dolpa.

I'm just hoping they're not only being sold there, since I can't be there. I assume there will still be an online event too, just antsy because it isn't announced yet, and hopefully it won't just be leftovers from Dolpa since that could mean some items would already be sold out.

Anyway, I am glad I was able to get the two outfits; I was just underwhelmed earlier after all the frustration of the ordering experience and the lack of sleep. I see now the SD16 Abyss Black outfit is also gone so I'm glad I tried again before finally going to bed.

This question will show how little I consistently follow what's going on but I learnt they stopped to provide free scans of Volks News, which is a bummer because it was a great initiative, a very nice move from them.
I wonder how many Volks News were scanned (what range) and if there is someone smart who had the precaution to back up all of them somewhere?

Looking at my web history, it was issues 79-83 that were put online. There may have been a way to save them, but you couldn't directly do so other than just print-screen captures. I think three issues were kept up at once; I know at some point as they put new ones up older ones were removed. I'm not quite sure when they were all taken down but it was before 84 would've gone up.

Volks_dd twitter has a nice closeup picture of the SDB Abyss Black outfit:

I'm really liking the texture of this material.

21 hours ago, cfx said:

Looking at my web history, it was issues 79-83 that were put online. There may have been a way to save them, but you couldn't directly do so other than just print-screen captures. I think three issues were kept up at once; I know at some point as they put new ones up older ones were removed. I'm not quite sure when they were all taken down but it was before 84 would've gone up.

Ok, so this is actually pretty recent, I am not that rusty. In fact, I thought remembering those publication started at least two-three years ago when Volks 79 is dated from Summer 2018... recent and short lived.
I searched this forum and looked at Volks News 83-84 threads but I didn't find any complaints. Where was that even announced, I mean, if it's starting with this very issue?
Also, yeah, I figured it wouldn't be easy to rip as it was using flash or something.

Do you mean where was the discontinuation announced? I had the same question after this issue didn't show up online, and got the answer, back on page 3 of this thread. The announcement is only in Japanese and is here, the box at the top of the page: https://www.superdollfie.net/dollfie20th/volkspress/

It says as of 05/31 it is canceled, so that's probably when they were all taken offline. So they had five issues, one year's worth, and I guess it was part of the 20th Anniversary events, but as the anniversary year is this year, it's strange they didn't at least do all the issues for this year.

Thanks. Looks like I didn't check the thread at all...

I found that the web version didn't start with volume 79 but 77 (Spring 2018). It was announcing the Memorial Year, which makes sense. Seems like it was really a one year favor planned from the start and not just some discontinuance forced by outside circumstances. Too bad they didn't find the experiment was worth maintaining.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Sechs

Seeing that Vol.77 cover that was definitely the first one; sorry I got that wrong. I should've checked further, I just looked at what still showed up in my browsing history.

I do wish they had continued, or as was suggested even had an online subscription for a small fee if doing it as they were for free wasn't feasible. I like looking at the magazine but not enough to buy the physical version generally. I also wish they had kept them online; the one issue that had all the charts and information on compatibility between DD body parts, wig sizes, hands, clothing, etc. was a really good reference.

A few items from the online after event that were sold out by Saturday morning are showing in stock again in case it's anything someone here was looking for.

I didn't know whether to put this in the LA Dolpa thread or one of the others about the items involved, but since the Volks event in this thread is the one with the most heartache over missed items, I chose here.

From a Volks USA email I received today, they will be holding what they've dubbed the LA Dolpa 2019 After Event, which will consist of the things they sold there i.e. the July, August, and September outfit collections, as well (apparently) as Dollfie Icon and some SDs. No page is up yet, and I don't know if this picture will hang around but this was the banner in the email:

I am assuming that the October 1-10 range will be the lottery period for the dolls, and that the outfit lottery will be shorter like the usual 3 days.

Edit: I received my order from the last event a couple of days ago. I haven't taken time to put anything on yet but the two Abyss Black outfits I got look very nice.

Edited September 14, 2019 by cfx

On the white overalls set, you can completely remove the top part of the overalls and you are left with a pair of white jeans. It's just a few snaps in front and back make it into overalls.

 

Edit: A few other observations.

The overalls fit DDS very well, and the straps are adjustable. The inner hoodie thing is too big for DD / DDS. I suspect it would fit SD16 well.

The outer jacket fits ok, but ok in the same way a girl looks good in her boyfriend's varsity football jacket. A bit too big, but somehow it still looks stylish. I've only tried it on DDS so far, and on DD will probably be a more normal fit.

Edited September 14, 2019 by BeyondTime

4 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

On the white overalls set, you can completely remove the top part of the overalls and you are left with a pair of white jeans. It's just a few snaps in front and back make it into overalls.

 

Edit: A few other observations.

The overalls fit DDS very well, and the straps are adjustable. The inner hoodie thing is too big for DD / DDS. I suspect it would fit SD16 well.

The outer jacket fits ok, but ok in the same way a girl looks good in her boyfriend's varsity football jacket. A bit too big, but somehow it still looks stylish. I've only tried it on DDS so far, and on DD will probably be a more normal fit.

I see looking back at the pictures that you can tell it looks like separate jeans, but there was no way to know they actually came apart; that's nice.

I'm not surprised the parts are loose but am surprised the hoodie is that large, since this is a SD/SD13/SDGr outfit and not rated for SD16. Of course, that's for the entire outfit and I'm sure the overalls wouldn't fit there. Looking more carefully at Volks' own pictures, the hoodie looks pretty loose on their SDB model too.

I think that is my one main beef with Volks outfits, is how they fit, or by my standards, don't fit, too often. It's due mainly to their SD compatibility but even then it varies with some things fitting quite nicely anyway. At least usually with their various blog pictures there tend to be pictures of most outfits actually on DDs. On the other hand, I find I know what I'm getting in terms of fit more than with most 3rd parties where it can be a real crapshoot.

Edited September 15, 2019 by cfx

46 minutes ago, cfx said:

I see looking back at the pictures that you can tell it looks like separate jeans, but there was no way to know they actually came apart; that's nice.

I'm not surprised the parts are loose but am surprised the hoodie is that large, since this is a SD/SD13/SDGr outfit and not rated for SD16. Of course, that's for the entire outfit and I'm sure the overalls wouldn't fit there. Looking more carefully at Volks' own pictures, the hoodie looks pretty loose on their SDB model too.

The overalls would not fit SD16.

Jacket is lined with white too, which is nice.