DDS Ranko Kanzaki 2nd Ver.

I hope they wait until at least March for a US lottery for her.

 

It’s almost certain to be January, but early March sounds right for delivery. 

1 hour ago, Gabriel said:

I hope they wait until at least March for a US lottery for her.

Ranka is looking for her not-quite-namesake to join her idol group?

Volks Japan's after event lottery or clickwar would presumably be in January, but Volks USA is typically later at least a bit. I'm hoping for that so there's the chance to try to get her from Volks USA if I miss her from Volks Japan. I know last year they started doing the events closer together, and if I recall, Matoi's event periods overlapped.

Hadn't thought about delivery. Typically that's also been pretty quickly after the lottery or clickwar, but there's the Nier delay going on, plus DDs they've handled a bit different like Luka and Matoi.

Edited November 18, 2019 by cfx

I wonder if Volks will lottery her ahead of the Dolpa like with Rapunzel, or if that is just a Disney thing. 

I bet that's a Disney thing, and perhaps connected with the timing of the later sales at the Disney store. But these days with all the different things Volks has tried, anything is possible. Rapunzel's lottery starts in less than a week, and if they were doing the same with Ranko I would expect the info to already be available by now because the one thing I think Volks is consistent about is giving enough of a lead time between when they announce an event and when it occurs.

I was pretty sure the Rapunzel lottery being before Dolpa was a method to reduce scalping and the probability of her falling into the hands of recasters. Unfortunately it’s probably going to happen anyway

Site is up: https://www.volks.co.jp/cinderella_girls/dd08/

They were really quick this time. 

Does the after event blurb in "how to purchase" mean it's a clickwar or is that just vague wording that means nothing, yet?

That Volks machine translation is so poor. It doesn't even get "Kanzaki" right.

32 minutes ago, cfx said:

Does the after event blurb in "how to purchase" mean it's a clickwar or is that just vague wording that means nothing, yet?

That Volks machine translation is so poor. It doesn't even get "Kanzaki" right.

It just says to wait for further details, we likely wont know until after Dolpa. For some reason I don't have high hopes in them going back to lottery, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do.

I'm really happy she comes with the black dress and parasol. Hoping it's a pre-order and not lottery.

31 minutes ago, qudoll said:

I'm really happy she comes with the black dress and parasol. Hoping it's a pre-order and not lottery.

I would be quite happy if she and Arle were handled like Luka. Not going to hold my breath on that though. 

I’ll just be grateful if she isn’t clickwar.  

1 hour ago, qudoll said:

I'm really happy she comes with the black dress and parasol. Hoping it's a pre-order and not lottery.

Pre-order like Mash, Gudako, Saber, Jeanne, 2B and 9S? Zero chance of that. Gudako and Mash are the pair for this year and those are always announced as the "Dollfie Pre-order Project."

Limited short-term preorder like Luka was? Possible, but unlikely as so far that looks like an experiment that Volks decided wasn't something they want to do again.

Given how they've handled dolls for the past year, she will probably be clickwar, though I'm desperately hoping for lottery instead.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

I would be quite happy if she and Arle were handled like Luka. Not going to hold my breath on that though. 

I’ll just be grateful if she isn’t clickwar.  

Over on MFC for her listing a user commented that they HOPE she's clickwar.

I wanted to post, "ARE YOU MAD???" but I resisted the urge.

 

I believe I've seen that sentiment expressed somewhere else before.

Pointless babble follows:

It may be they're mad (seems likely ) but I also think maybe some people don't think it through or understand how it really works. Whether Volks has a lottery or a clickwar, the amount of dolls they're going to have available will be the same number. Aside from some subset of potential owners that might just say they won't bother with a clickwar due to the ugliness of the experience or the longer period of a lottery perhaps allowing for some more entries, the number of buyers who want her is the same too. So the same x% of the people who want her are going to be happy no matter which way it is done. The lottery just gives everyone the same chance to get her; it doesn't depend on how fast you can click a button, how good or bad your internet is, how good or bad every step of the connection between you and Volks servers is, whether 3D Secure decides to reject your credit card that day, etc.

Maybe some people who have really fast internet want a clickwar because they think they have some advantage over me with my 10mbps connection. Perhaps they do, but I suspect the real constraint on any of that is more related to what goes on between the customer and Volks in terms of internet infrastructure.

I guess, if you succeed in a clickwar you get more bragging rights, because you can claim you won because you're awesome and did something to win as opposed to just being lucky, or not, in a lottery.

Edited November 20, 2019 by cfx

I think a lot of people who hate lotteries are only familiar with the older type of lottery with lower win rates and think it makes the doll much more unobtainable than any other sale method. Was trying to explain why a lottery is preferable to a clickwar to the person on mfc that was mentioned because unlike Gabriel I couldn’t resist the urge.

unforunately I expect it’s that misconception about the lottery making dolls harder to get that led to enough complaints to make volks do the switch to clickwar. Maybe more people should complain again lol.

Another reason I dislike clickwar is that it’s unfair on certain time zones. I’m lucky and only two hours ahead of Japan (when it isn’t daylight savings I’m only one hour ahead), others have the sales happening at night (which is also convenient) but there are still people who have it happen at extremely inconvenient times, needing alarms to be set - and then when the site crashes and forces them to stay up for hours (sometimes with no reward) it’s much worse.

26 minutes ago, Monty said:

I think a lot of people who hate lotteries are only familiar with the older type of lottery with lower win rates and think it makes the doll much more unobtainable than any other sale method.

I suspect that too.

26 minutes ago, Monty said:

Another reason I dislike clickwar is that it’s unfair on certain time zones. I’m lucky and only two hours ahead of Japan (when it isn’t daylight savings I’m only one hour ahead), others have the sales happening at night (which is also convenient) but there are still people who have it happen at extremely inconvenient times, needing alarms to be set - and then when the site crashes and forces them to stay up for hours (sometimes with no reward) it’s much worse.

That was the other thing I was thinking of. I used to miss the outfit clickwars sometimes just because I'm stupid and couldn't figure out when the events actually started in my time zone. Even if it's normal daytime for someone, maybe it's work hours, or the day they have an important doctor appointment, any number of things.

Of course, the ideal thing is everyone can get the doll they want, but outside the preorder dolls that isn't happening, and with limited production, the lotteries are by far the best of the available options.

If Ranko and Arle end up being clickwar again, I at least hope for two things. First, that they space them apart, and maybe more than the two hours that seems typical. If the website functions well, then two hours is probably more than enough time to sell out of whoever goes up first, but if the site is unresponsive again, it certainly isn't; as I posted in the earlier clickwar thread when I was trying to buy Abyss Black outfits, I checked out at nearly 10 hours after the event started, while I didn't try continually for 10 hours, I tried checking out every 15-30 minutes or so, and browsed other things in between. And I know it wasn't just me; people trying to buy Rem and/or Ram were posting here in frustration as well. Those dolls went up I think it was two hours after the clothing event started.

That's my other hope, that this new website won't be the same disaster during a clickwar that the old one was. So far it seems more responsive just browsing, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a clickwar, and the checkout process may or may not be any better; it's still the same processor (EC).

Edited November 20, 2019 by cfx
speeeling

Well, the thing with clickwars is, that from a internet structure thing, people closest to the actual server are always at a bit of an advantage. But like it was pointed out, you might have a 100meg fiber optic connection *cough*, but it wont matter much if the end machine is on a 36.6k dialup. But my limited knowledge of networking would say in this situation the people closest in terms of network nodes would be at a even better spot.

My personal suspicion on shelving the lottery might be due to the imposed 10k yen deposit for even entering, and some credit card companies maybe not really willing to play ball with the refund in the case of losing causing more complaints, or the mass cancelling of payments causing problems for them from their card processor.

So in that sense its the smallest headache, even though their server has a meltdown four times a year.

but shall see.. if funds allow, which they apparently aren't, was hoping for a lotto for arle.

Edited November 20, 2019 by finnleo

1 hour ago, finnleo said:

My personal suspicion on shelving the lottery might be due to the imposed 10k yen deposit for even entering, and some credit card companies maybe not really willing to play ball with the refund in the case of losing causing more complaints, or the mass cancelling of payments causing problems for them from their card processor.

As I've never entered a doll lottery, I forgot they had started doing this, though I know why it is necessary. I suspect this may be the main reason why too. That's a lot of extra work for Volks doing those refunds, plus as far as I understand it, a not insignificant expense. Card companies charge whatever percentage for each transaction to a merchant, and I assume those fees occur even for charges like this that Volks doesn't benefit from, and there's probably a fee for the refund transactions as well.

13 minutes ago, cfx said:

As I've never entered a doll lottery, I forgot they had started doing this, though I know why it is necessary. I suspect this may be the main reason why too. That's a lot of extra work for Volks doing those refunds, plus as far as I understand it, a not insignificant expense. Card companies charge whatever percentage for each transaction to a merchant, and I assume those fees occur even for charges like this that Volks doesn't benefit from, and there's probably a fee for the refund transactions as well.

As for refunds, how that affects credit card transaction fees depends on what terms exist between the merchant and the card company. I was a bookkeeper at one of my old jobs. I was able to see how AMEX handled refunds because I needed to add up all the credit card transaction fees to close out the month. My former employer's deal with AMEX was lousy. After issuing a refund to a customer, AMEX kept the fees from the original purchase. (I only noticed this with AMEX. I didn't see in hard numbers how refund transactions worked if the customer used a Visa, MC, or Discover instead.)

As for Ranko herself, I'm not sure what I want to do at the moment. Of course we don't know what kind of a shape her availability will take yet (via clickwar, lottery, etc). Is she a doll I would like to own? Yes. I then ask myself how badly I want to bring her home. No matter how her sale will be handled, whether it's a lottery or clickwar, me entering the fray means I'm going to reduce the odds of someone else who wants to give her a new home more than I do. I wouldn't consider that idea at all if she's a pre-order doll anyone can buy. I also wouldn't consider that idea at all if I wanted to welcome her into my home badly. While she's a doll I would like to welcome into my home, at this time, I don't want to welcome her badly enough to be absolutely sure that's what I want to do. Since I'm waffling here, I would rather have someone who does want to welcome her into his/her home badly win the clickwar/lottery/whatever without me reducing that person's chances.

Fortunately, I have some time before I need to make a decision.

Well, my plan (and anyone who has read my posts knows just how well I stick to plans) is to put a freeze on spending and save up for Ranko.

If Volks USA does lottery for her, then I'm in.

If it's clickwar, I'll whine about it, but I'll find something else to do.  I don't have time for clickwar BS.  I'm sure Ranko will be like a new Bandai Macross Valkyrie toy and sell out even before the "Add to Cart" button is available.

I don't think there's anything to worry about in terms of Volks USA doing clickwar. As far as I'm aware, they've always done lottery for DDs, or at least for the post ~2 years that I've been here.

I just realized that our above discussion didn't really diffrentiate well, but everything I wrote is in reference to Volks Japan. I tend to prioritize dealing with, and think of them, first. In this case, even though I hate the clickwars, even if she's that, I'm going to "cheat" and first try to get her from Volks Japan and if that fails enter the USA lottery for her, assuming the two events are timed such that is possible, and if Japan is clickwar it likely will be possible.

OTOH I have just ignored those Macross toys too. There's a Bandai Valkryie or two I'd liked to have, but I don't pay enough attention to even know when those are coming out; I usually learn of their existence when they're on Amiami's front page, already showing as sold out. My desire to have a VF-1S Strike Valkryie will forever go unfulfilled.

5 hours ago, Gabriel said:

Well, my plan (and anyone who has read my posts knows just how well I stick to plans) is to put a freeze on spending and save up for Ranko.

If Volks USA does lottery for her, then I'm in.

If it's clickwar, I'll whine about it, but I'll find something else to do.  I don't have time for clickwar BS.  I'm sure Ranko will be like a new Bandai Macross Valkyrie toy and sell out even before the "Add to Cart" button is available.

I maybe wrong, but I read somewhere that Ranko will be for pre-order. Not the clickwar.

Tfw no big tiddy goth dds. 

: (
She's cute but I'll pass. Also I just wanted to say the thing.

In contemplating alternate (black) outfits for Ranko, I realized Mash's extra outfit might be cute on her, without the brown boots:

https://www.volks.co.jp/fate-go/2019/en/drs_mash01.html

Thos plaid bits will probably stick out a bit but it might work.

Clickwars are an absolute trash, just do the lottery. I'll still complain but at least I'll feel better than losing out due to the volks website being the one at fault. As i'm not interested in Ranko, I'll at least be freed from this struggle.

Edited November 21, 2019 by mayaiincho