Rin and Ranko Dollfies

Hopefully as the Japanese economy collapses, they do close their doors. (I don't wish the JPN economy to collapse but Volks can bear the brunt of it for all I care.). Rather them than Toyota or some other more worthy company.

 

Volks should just cut the pretense of the lottery and sell their items wholesale to scalpers and resellers who can add 200% markups. But never mind, instead of Ranko I spent the money on some Kruggerands today. Paul Kruger looks much nicer and will keep more of his value anyway.

 

Obviously I am venting and not happy with the domestic Japanese way of running things. Wish the French made some nice BJD products. (And maybe I'm just more peeved off because I had my second Volks SD fail.)

Edited May 31, 2014 by Guest

volks is closing doors? when did this happen

 

They may as well. They are of the same utility whether functional or defunct.

Volks should just cut the pretense of the lottery and sell their items wholesale to scalpers and resellers who can add 200% markups.

I can understand your frustration with Volks' supply practices. And it really is just the supply of Dollfie Dream, not really the lottery system itself. Japan in general loves lotteries and runs so many things using that system; it's true that you don't win everything, but in general for non-DD things I feel like I win my fair share or more than my fair share of the time. This is because normally supply better matches demand; for instance out of a fictional 20 people, say 16 will win and 4 will leave disappointed.

 

For Dollfie Dream it's the opposite of that, judging by the Japanese in-person events: of each 20 people present, 2 will win and 18 will go home disappointed. With supply constrained that tightly, it's no wonder that a strong secondary market exists. It encourages people to resell if they do manage to win.

 

Interestingly, Super Dollfie isn't the same way. The supply of SD better matches demand for most of the SD dolls. Unless it's a reprint of a well-known coveted doll (Charlotte, Lieselotte, for instance), one can almost always get the SD they want. Funny how that works. I'm not sure if the resin market is in a slump or if Volks just makes more SDs because they're supposed to be the flagship.

 

So, yeah, sometimes I do get very frustrated with the lack of DD supply too. I can identify with your feeling of wanting Volks to burn sometimes, for teasing you with an unattainable item. I wasn't expecting ragequitting the hobby to be a danger when thinking about dolls, but apparently it is!

 

Even though I already have a Ranko Kanzaki from the dolpa event hall, I did want another one to shell a different character and never could get it (now that we're out of chances). Getting just the one Ranko was hard enough, especially since she's way behind schedule in production. I'm surprised they have to wait nearly two months to send out the online AE wins. End of July, sheesh! All those Miku preorder dolls must be slowing down the speed at which they can make that semi-white skin for other dolls.

 

So, yeah, I hear you. Low DD supply is frustrating. Hmm.. at least if you do choose to grab Ranko on the aftermarket in the future, you'll probably be happy with her - I think she's pretty spiffy in person, not just in pictures.

Well I imagine one of the main reasons they meet supply for SDs so easily is because there's over a hundred different companies producing resin dolls and many people prefer other companies' sculpts or lower prices, since Volk's resin range is particularly expensive for what you get. Dollfie Dreams only real competition is azone/obitsu, who aren't always known for their quality.

I can understand the frustration as well, especially the click wars are impossible to win as a foreigner.^^" (As already mentioned :'D")

 

Well I imagine one of the main reasons they meet supply for SDs so easily is because there's over a hundred different companies producing resin dolls and many people prefer other companies' sculpts or lower prices, since Volk's resin range is particularly expensive for what you get. Dollfie Dreams only real competition is azone/obitsu, who aren't always known for their quality.

 

Thats one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Danny Choos Dolls. Maybe Volks will wake up a little when they see other people around producing dolls like that.^^" And maybe more people try to do there own

I can understand the frustration as well, especially the click wars are impossible to win as a foreigner.^^" (As already mentioned :'D")

 

From what I understand they're just as hard to win even if you're in Japan. =/

 

At the end of the day it comes down to Volks ability to manufacture enough for everyone and I don't think that would work out. Along with the pre-order project Volks releases about 10 limited DD's each year with maybe as much as a 1000 each. That's 10,000 limited dolls plus the pre-order project, the various outfit sets, the standard release dolls, the body parts etc, and then they have the SD line as well! That's probably vastly more than any other doll company out there. As it is they can barely manage with just one pre-order project in a year. Making just a single limited DD is a pretty complicated/expensive process that takes time which is why they cost so much.

 

Sometimes there's no way to know which dolls will be more popular than others and if they were to over produce on dolls they could make a massive loss. Also if the market gets too flooded their collectable value will drop and many collectors might leave the hobby possibly bringing further losses. In the end Volks is a business and they want to make sure they not only make money but cultivate the market so they can make more money. Also they need to keep all their workforce/machines active 100% of the time or they loose money. DD's are popular right now but who know's how long that will actually last and Volks intends to last more than just a few years I hope.

 

I agree it is really frustrating when you don't win the doll you really want but hopefully you'll be able to find her in the aftermarket, make a custom, or find another doll? ^^;

In the end Volks is a business and they want to make sure they not only make money but cultivate the market so they can make more money. Also they need to keep all their workforce/machines active 100% of the time or they loose money. DD's are popular right now but who know's how long that will actually last and Volks intends to last more than just a few years I hope.

 

I agree it is really frustrating when you don't win the doll you really want but hopefully you'll be able to find her in the aftermarket, make a custom, or find another doll? ^^;

 

Not to derail this whole thread (so take my reply with a pinch of salt lol. I'm hyped up on caffeine way later than I should be... XD)

 

but how do other doll companies do it? I mean for sure Volks is the top of the heap, but there's other companies that do the preorder route with materials that are, presumably, much more involved to produce in say the resin BJD world (Luts and Soom come to mind). At some point Volks can't have their products be so excessively hard to get for too long, otherwise the realization and high after market cost might make people just stop caring about DDs as much.

 

I still love DDs the most but the recent releases and the super dismal lottery turn outs for the majority of people.. couple that with the gross aftermarket 3rd party dealings on YJA and forums.. at some point something has to give. I could see Volks doing a very limited run of preorders, like a few days or a week and items have to be paid in full up front - that could prevent them from making more than they need, and they still could increase in value after the fact for those that couldnt get in on the preorder originally - they don't have to be months long preorder things like they did for Miku. That's taking it to the extreme I think, gotta be some way for them to find a balance should they ever want to do that (Which, spoiler alert.. I'd be 100% for that.. even if it was waiting months for a gal, I'd love to get a gal at retail vs x2 x3 x4 retail).

 

it happens on the resin side of BJD all the time, but they are smaller than Volks. The way it sits now with DDs, scalpers can just get x-amount of entries then only pay on the ones they win. In a very limited preorder (where say you only can get 1 or 2 dolls per person) and require people to pay all up front it could, possibly, make the whole 3rd party market shrink a little (which I'd think is a good thing.. unless everyone here is a-ok with always paying 1,100+ and rising for gals that cost 650 to start lol) or maybe it'd do absolutely nothing.. but at least it'd let more people get in on the items they want and give Volks the opportunity to take more of our money. Currently all the 3rd party dealings doesn't help Volks - it creates buzz but they don't see that extra revenue, scalpers/aftermarket people do.

 

...phew no more Vanilla Coke for me after 12pm o__o I hope that wasn't too soapboxy lol.

 

I hope everyone that went in for rin and ranko had a fighting chance - the Idolm@ster girls are always in such high demand... (xcept Haruka.. XD)

Is Volks even able to increase manufacturing numbers though? The one thing that is very different about DDs vs anything else, even Volks' own SDs, is that they are licensed collaboration projects. As such the decision on numbers isn't 100% in Volks' hands.

I really want some Vanilla Coke. >_<

 

From Volks' point of view, are they losing anything by operating this way? Popular things sell out. They could profit more maybe if they made more but they might need bigger facilities. I heard they were upset too that scalpers get so much of the stock. I like the idea of a credit card hold. Lottery farmers would in theory have a harder time making multiple false identities to enter the lottery dozens of time.

 

I guess Volks could make more unpopular DDs and slow the market. I always feel sad for the ones that don't sell out.

Shiburin was shipped this fridaay, I can't wait!!!!

Does anyone know why ranko is getting shipped in the end of July and not June??

Does anyone know why ranko is getting shipped in the end of July and not June??

 

Not sure but my guess is a production delay of Ranko as she is sws like Miku.... Probably problems to produce all those sws girls.

The brand they have and the image of Volks is already at premium, If they want to earn more than the scalpers. dont go on the limited release route. just sell it as it is but from the company scale that looks premium their production doesnt seem to be so big, they could go globally and expand properly but to say I dont think they're not ready yet.

 

I talked with them before, I'm in branding and offering them a campaign for north america for releasing e:g photobooks, advertising, production etc etc they seem to be interested at first but stopped communicating , saying they were busy with the currenct dolpa, I understand but just by that, it just say how small is the footprint of the company that cant globally scale with someone willing to work with them, since I believe they lack rescource or the people to talk with such things.

 

they have a market here but they dont want any headache. I like the 2 girls and I would buy but dont want to hassle myself signing for a 3rd market auction in japan. I want to buy it with the same price.

 

Its easy for them to make money, from this site alone, contact the admin create nda on agreement of promoting and possibility of buying/ ordering from this site. since the market (buyers) is here already, they can even give a small percentage for the admin. and can also offer 3-6 months latyaway because the small production they have. just to put out an order. orders are secured and can be trackable. people just dont know how to connect good bussiness sometimes there's to many how and buts.

 

Volks is small but can be bigger and better in regards to delivering faster products but because of the aftermarket price they have, they look like running a premium company. that produces gold.

It seems like Volks is running at capacity so to speak. Sure, if they made more DDs, they could sell more and make more money, but it would mess up their schedule, etc. So rather than risk ruining a good thing, they make and sell what they can. They want to run things smoothly and not make a reckless cash grab.

 

Other BJD companies make things as they are ordered pretty much because they have to. If they made 100 dolls all at once, only a few of them would sell, and the rest would sit on a shelf yellowing and wasting money. For example, people generally say Luts is a "big" company, but their limited doll Vega has been available for years now... He is limited to 200 dolls, and in all that time he still hasn't sold out.

Here is my Shibuya Rin. She's really stunning for me. I'm in love with her.

 

Apparently the after event lottery ranko's are starting to get a move on, so beware of the second wave hitting auction sites, etc..

My Ranko was sent on friday, I hope she arrives soon >__

Ranko is lovely ^__^