Volks USA announces price increase and scheduled closing

http://site.volksusa.com/blog/2012/08/01/price-changes-and-store-schedule/

 

As title says, Volks USA announces price increase and scheduled store closing while update their pricing store wide.

Oh well, knew this was coming......

Should we buy everything before they change the price?

Should we buy everything before they change the price?

 

 

Ha ha, that would be a great idea *IF* they actually had anything in stock that was DD related.

 

 

 

Billy

Yep. I said this was probably gonna happen in the Sendai Dolpa thread.

 

I'm curious what the full range of price increases are. They only showed a few things on that post. And, sure enough, Yukino/Aoi feel like they got an excessive increase.

And, sure enough, Yukino/Aoi feel like they got an excessive increase.

 

 

I don't see how $46 is excessive. It could have been a lot worse in my opinion. $100 would have been excessive. So far the prices they've shown aren't ridiculous so maybe it's getting blown out of proportion a little. It does suck we can't catch the breaks we used to but in reality, there's nothing to buy at these higher prices anyways so what does it really matter? Even when/if stuff gets back in stock, it's not like they're ravaging us for no reason.

 

I take this as a good thing actually. Now that prices here are more in line with Volks Japan and International, that may make those who were grabbing stuff from our lotteries and click wars not do it as much or at all anymore. I'm all for not having as much competition for the small amount of things we get during those events. Maybe having the same pricing and having to wait for 3-4 months extra will drive away more people not in North America.

 

 

 

Billy

Should we buy everything before they change the price?

 

 

Ha ha, that would be a great idea *IF* they actually had anything in stock that was DD related.

 

 

 

Billy

That was my thought. What's left to buy? 3-3 WS heads and a couple pairs of DDS legs? I understand that it makes a lot of sense financially from their point of view, but it's sad and frustrating at the same time. I'd almost hoped they might go so far as to set up an extra production facility there, the Kami know they could use it, but so it goes.

The price increase doesn't bother me so much. It sucks, but it was predictable.

 

When I saw the title of the thread my heart jumped as I thought that the Volks USA store was closing permanently! >___<"

 

THAT would be even worse!!

The price increase doesn't bother me so much. It sucks, but it was predictable.

 

When I saw the title of the thread my heart jumped as I thought that the Volks USA store was closing permanently! >___<"

 

THAT would be even worse!!

 

I did that on purpose

So far the prices they've shown aren't ridiculous so maybe it's getting blown out of proportion a little. It does suck we can't catch the breaks we used to but in reality, there's nothing to buy at these higher prices anyways so what does it really matter? Even when/if stuff gets back in stock, it's not like they're ravaging us for no reason.

 

I take this as a good thing actually. Now that prices here are more in line with Volks Japan and International, that may make those who were grabbing stuff from our lotteries and click wars not do it as much or at all anymore.

 

 

I agree very much with you Baldylox, I find their reasoning and price changes very reasonable. I knew this hobby wouldn't be an inexpensive one because I looked at BJDs about five years ago and saw rather quickly that they started at $500 per doll before all the extras. At the time Raven couldn't see how it could be justified for merely a doll so I wandered away from the whole thing. So when Raven showed me Danny Choo's show with the DDs and I asked how much they were and he replied that they were expensive. I automatically thought back to the BJDs, and I actually got really excited that the DD are higher end dolls.

 

For what I personally gain on an emotional level from our DD kids is so much more worth to me than the $1000 to $1500 it takes to have a finished one in my hands. Raven and I have easily blown much more than that on video games without blinking when we could (my addiction for the last 10+ years has been the Sims, and EA is a cash sucking leach...) and in the long run it just leaves me feeling empty after a while. With Tamayuki, his story changes and grows on a daily basis and giving me unimaginable happiness in return. I have always had closer friendships with my dolls than even with my own family because they help me keep my sanity (although to some it may not seem like it). After struggling very hard for most of my adult life with severe and debilitating depression it amazes me how little it costs to gain so much happiness. My other option would be to stay drugged up for the rest of my life, and prices in the US for medications being severe enough to put my family into debt. Yes I am fully aware that this is a very extreme view of "what a DD is really worth" but from where I stand it is a very valid one.

 

One of the things that has been bothering me once I started to find out that there was the price discrepancy for the same dolls between the Japan and the US, is knowing that someone was having to pick up the slack somewhere. To me it was painfully obvious that it was Volks taking the financial undercut. Knowing this upset me a lot because I really love the work that they do and I believe that they should be paid what the dolls are worth. I'm happy to pay the small increase in cost if it means that they stay in business. And yes I mean this for each and every DD that I want and at the moment there are 13 on my basic list (not including Tamayuki and a couple others that I may want to do after that). In my view of things it seems that Volks has been working very hard to get the mass of Saber orders done, trying to get the cracking issues dealt with (they could have made some excuse that it wasn't their responsibility), releasing the 07 head, as well as the DDIII, DDSIII, and the MDDIII... and I could go on and on. I am very glad that they chose to raise the prices a little instead of making the choice that making DD for markets outside of Japan were not financially feasible, and thus closing the US store.

 

When I am excited about something I am the least patient person in the world. Having even the option of thinking about buying something from Volks completely cut off the last few months has been beyond frustrating. I still feel like one of the new kids around the forums so without a year or two worth of hindsight to temper my impatience, the Volks production issues feel more volatile than perhaps they normally are. It is a daily battle with myself to not give up on even getting the other two bodies Raven and I need to have our original four DD stand in a single picture together. A lot of this is why it frustrates me when people think that somehow Volks is just trying to be greedy or mean, changing the prices just because they can. I had personally hoped to do a lot more this summer to save up for the next few things on my DD wishlist. Instead I've had to rethink some of it so I will have a better long range plan that will work better for some severe health issues I have every summer. The point of this is that I don't take the cost increase lightly. For Raven and I we have had to make some significant sacrifices to be able to get our current DD, but even then, having them here is all I need to know that it was worth it.

 

When I saw the title of the thread my heart jumped as I thought that the Volks USA store was closing permanently! >___<"

 

THAT would be even worse!!

 

I did that on purpose

 

That was so mean...

 

~Sister Kyoya

Volks US store price was too nice compering with their international store's. I am not sure when this happened, but we are watching the end is coming. I feel the price difference is due the different markets: the North American market is relative smaller comparing with Japanese one. Volks may use the lower price to attract new customers. Yes, it is like a promotion. Now, the market is more mature and they have reach their goal. It is time to raise the price.

 

The retail price is not their "real" value and I do not think Volks US store was losing money because their price was lower than the mother store's. However, someone might take the advantage since we all know how difficult to win the US lottery and the Saturday click wars. Consider the global economic environment and weak US dollar or strong Japanese yen, they have to raise the price for many reasons.

 

It is sad to see that almost everything around us is raising their price except our paycheck

Edited August 2, 2012 by Guest

ugh... honestly I wondered why they hadn't had higher prices from the start. Especially since the dollar is literally 70-75 cents to 100 yen. The outfits with the original yen pricetag were surprisingly close to what they charged in dollars (if you move the decimal over two spots).

 

My hope is with the price increase that at least means they're getting some more flipping inventory. And not to be really beechy but considering they only have that one small store, you can't tell me that they couldn't keep their shop website more up to date? I mean the limited Dolpa clothes usually are removed pretty soon and if they are still up on the site they remove the option to add it to the cart. Very very frustrating when you click 'add to cart' then have to make sure there's no surprise message on the cart screen of 'blah blah blah is out of stock.'

My hope is with the price increase that at least means they're getting some more flipping inventory. And not to be really beechy but considering they only have that one small store, you can't tell me that they couldn't keep their shop website more up to date? I mean the limited Dolpa clothes usually are removed pretty soon and if they are still up on the site they remove the option to add it to the cart. Very very frustrating when you click 'add to cart' then have to make sure there's no surprise message on the cart screen of 'blah blah blah is out of stock.'

 

This drives me a bit batty as well, most especially with the EB and EB Mini boys. They were discontinued a year or two ago, and yet the product page is still there for the EB Mini F (that's what Dolly is) and I bought the last two about four months ago... I keep checking just in case they might find another hidden in the stock room.

 

As for why it doesn't say if it is in stock or not until you use the shopping cart, it could be because it is done through the yahoo shopping cart and not completely integrated into the the webpage (like how Amazon works for example). Basically the shopping cart page knows what the inventory is, but the actual Volks USA page is kinda stupid and has no clue, it's just a pretty face with an easy to use button.

 

~Sister Kyoya

It makes sense, the USA store was so cheap compared to the international one.

This makes me so glad I got everything when I did! I just hope we don't see too much of an increase on the outfits... no outfits were listed on that price change page so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So long as they freaking restock then I'll be happy >_

Maybe having the same pricing and having to wait for 3-4 months extra will drive away more people not in North America.

 

Well, I'm in North America, but this is making me have no incentive to buy from VolksUSA. Now it's making me want to just go ahead and buy from Japan, potentially taking away items from the international people who don't have VolksUSA as a legit (without proxies) option. I mean, it'll cost me more or less the same and I'll just get it sooner.

 

I definitely understand their reasons for it. A combination of DD interest growing in the US, VolksUSA probably not necessarily getting more stock from Japan, and people proxying from outside of the US has made things very, very difficult to get from VolksUSA. Plus the discount, exchange rate wise, had lasted a long time. But it's still not necessarily helping make things more fair for everyone. I'm sure I won't be the only one who figures may as well buy from Japan to get it sooner.

 

It makes sense, the USA store was so cheap compared to the international one.

 

Exchange rate wise, yes. This is more fair. Actual percentage of an average person's income, no (US vs Japanese). But that's another topic entirely and I'm not going to get into that. Plus Volks doesn't care anyway.

 

ugh... honestly I wondered why they hadn't had higher prices from the start. Especially since the dollar is literally 70-75 cents to 100 yen. The outfits with the original yen pricetag were surprisingly close to what they charged in dollars (if you move the decimal over two spots).

 

It's 78 to the dollar. It's been hovering between 78 and 79 for quite a while now. It's a combination of the dollar being weak (the Federal Reserve keeps printing more actual dollars) and the yen being strong in general (it hurts Japanese corporations due to exporting being so expensive but it makes things cheaper for the large elderly population in Japan cheaper to buy - their yen can buy more stuff).

 

And again... Like I alluded to in the last post I quoted, yen and dollars are different. Even if the yen was 100 to the dollar, so 10,000 yen would equal $100... 10,000 yen is a different percentage of the average Japanese income than $100 is for the average American. Let's just say that the price of a Volks doll is cheaper to the average Japanese person than it is for us. Even pre-price increase.

I'm not surprised this happened, but I am disappointed. Especially now at the Sendai dolpa with good stuff coming out.

 

The prices were as they were for a long time to keep the cost burden in percentage of income relatively constant for US buyers and Japanese buyers. Even if Volks is a luxury product, you don't want it to necessarily be harder for customers in one country to afford than another, as long as both countries have similar income levels (as the US and Japan do).

 

Now with the enormous price hike (doll +$200?!)... It does match the Dollar/Yen exchange rate better, BUT it makes the cost for US buyers much higher. $800 to a US person is a lot more than Y59,000 to a Japanese person.

 

The Yen/Dollar rate will eventually get better. I want to see if VolksUSA will lower their prices when the exchange rate finally fixes itself.

And, sure enough, Yukino/Aoi feel like they got an excessive increase.

I don't see how $46 is excessive. It could have been a lot worse in my opinion. $100 would have been excessive.

Well, between the previous price hike for Aoi/Yukino when they got their DDIII bodies and now the $46 price hike, the cost of Aoi/Yukino has risen nearly $100 in the last year. It really does feel excessive that the baseline, no-frills non-limited DD model is now over $500.

 

So far the prices they've shown aren't ridiculous so maybe it's getting blown out of proportion a little.

I disagree.. A 10% price hike in one lump sum is pretty ridiculous on something so expensive as DD. They could have been subtle about it and just adjusted the rate a few yen at a time per collection release until it reached the same level. End result is the same, but like the story of the frog in the pot of boiling water, it works better psychologically to raise the temperature a few degrees at a time.

 

Important to note that I don't blame VolksUSA, since I doubt it was their own decision on what to do or how to implement it.

 

Now that prices here are more in line with Volks Japan and International, that may make those who were grabbing stuff from our lotteries and click wars not do it as much or at all anymore.

It also might make some people inside the US not buy from them as much or at all anymore ^_^;;.

Bottem line is volks lose nothing by doing this. Plenty of people in the us entered international lottery because they lost the us one, showing that they are willing to pay the rate in Japan. I'm pretty sure acquiring the dd of your dream is significantly more important than losing both lotteries and having to pay that aftermarket price. International comes after us lotteries, so if you are dead set on going international, you are losing a chance to win(or 3 if you include dealers). Having a product adjusted to another country's income makes sense if you are trying to expand your sales. However this doesn't make any sense for volks since most of their stuff is limited, where making more is counterproductive.

The prices were as they were for a long time to keep the cost burden in percentage of income relatively constant for US buyers and Japanese buyers. Even if Volks is a luxury product, you don't want it to necessarily be harder for customers in one country to afford than another, as long as both countries have similar income levels (as the US and Japan do).

 

Now with the enormous price hike (doll +$200?!)... It does match the Dollar/Yen exchange rate better, BUT it makes the cost for US buyers much higher. $800 to a US person is a lot more than Y59,000 to a Japanese person.

 

Warning, implied math.

 

On similar income levels and to prove your point about it being a big increase. Using the 2010 numbers, which are the most recent I could find, Japan's average income was over $79,000 (6,248,304 yen) whereas the average American earned a little over $26,000. That's a pretty big income gap with the average Japanese person earning 303% of the average American's income. So a $500 DD is 2% of the average American's income, whereas a 59000 yen dd is .9%. Thus, an $800 DD is 3.1% of an average American's income.

 

However this is not normalized for disposable income. According to the census bureau, the average American had ONLY $11,380 disposable annual income. Suddenly that $800 limited DD is 7% of that person's income. The average MONTHLY disposable income as calculated by the Japanese statistics bureau is 429,967 yen, thus, the annual disposable income is 5,159,604 yen. Again, that DD is still only about 1% of that total.

 

In comparison, the average 2010 annual income in Canada was 32,100CAD (32,144USD). I can't find the actual average disposable income number. So it would have been 1.6% and 2.5% of annual income respectively.

I'm not sure where you got your numbers, but here are the numbers I found:

 

The average household income in Japan was only 5,475,000 yen for 2009-2010, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. Source: http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/wp/wp-hw4/01.html

 

The median household income in the USA was $50,022 for 2009-2010, according to the United States Census Bureau. Source: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/statistics/index.html

 

The percent of income is not that different. Rise (59,000 yen) would be 1.08% of your average Japanese household's yearly income. At $811, she'd be 1.62% of your median American household's yearly income.

 

[Please note: Japan uses averages and the US uses medians, so even these numbers are not an accurate comparison to one another. Average and median are different numbers. Without the raw data, it's impossible to say if the Japanese median would be above or below the US median.]

 

I don't think it's necessarily correct to compare "disposable" income, because you don't know how the US calculates that number or how Japan calculates that number, and if they're using the same method or not. What they include as "non-disposable" income can very greatly, and have a huge impact on the numbers, so without knowing that information you really can't claim it's an apples-to-apples comparison.

 

However, percentages don't actually matter (in my opinion). Just because your average American might earn a little less doesn't mean the product costs any less to design, manufacture, and ship. It doesn't mean the company needs any less income to function. There's no reason price should be tied to a country's average income at all.

 

(By the way #1: The 11,380 number was pulled from a table that says: In billions of dollars (5,801 represents $5,801,000,000,000). So the 11,380 number means there are 11,380 BILLION dollars of disposable personal income for the entire country. Not $11,380 per person per year.)

 

(By the way #2: I finally tracked down the source of the 6,248,304 yen number -- it comes from a survey of only 9,000 households (all with two working adults) in Japan, and is not representative of the average household income for the entire country.)

However, percentages don't actually matter (in my opinion). Just because your average American might earn a little less doesn't mean the product costs any less to design, manufacture, and ship. It doesn't mean the company needs any less income to function. There's no reason price should be tied to a country's average income at all.

 

 

This is what makes the most sense to me. I find the "country average income" argument to be an interesting but curious one. If that was something done all the time I wonder how things would be different.

 

I really like Volks and the products they offer and it makes me happy to support the company. If they make the decision that they need to raise prices (because it doesn't seem really arbitrary to me) then that is what they choose to do. It doesn't change my view, want, or love of the DD.

 

~Sister Kyoya

The only reason I could really see pricing within a country by average income would be to maintain approximately equal demand between regions, but even that doesn't take into account differing cultures/regional interests/varying costs of living/etc. So really, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless the regions are drastically different and the company desperately wants to infiltrate that particular market, something Volks doesn't seem to need to worry about with North America.

 

To be honest, I'd rather see prices on a lot of luxury goods more normalized around the world if that would help get rid of silly things like region locking games and media. I always found it rather odd that Volks USA was so much less and it actually confused me quite a bit. It also made a lot of the third party stores, such as Leeky World and Dollmore seem more expensive by comparison, so maybe this will help them out a bit, too?

I don't like it, but it's only fair. Now will they start shipping with the same schedule as JP/international sales or will we still have to wait several months afterwards?