Who owns Shiina stuff?

[Ringo~Bingo]

15.000 yen (£70.00) seems pretty good for all that stuff seeing as they are all factory sealed!! you'll probaly be able to get a lot more for them in the future ? I find it hard to understand the real value of things cause it's my Dad's money like if some guy was selling that on E-bay for £150.00 I'd probaly think 'bargain' and snap it up!! it's probaly a lot more satisfying getting stuff for a good price when you've personally earned that money and understand it's real value ?? for me at the moment it's just 'numbers' on a screen to play about with.. I suppose I'll have to wait until I'm older before I can fully grasp such a thing ? though I am getting a little more wise about throwing the cash about!!

[Glathannus]

I feel fairly good about my job because I've held it for nearly 3 years now, and I'm making significantly more money than when I started. I also just recently got business cards with my name on them (something I've wanted for awhile). Earning the money it takes to win the auctions is only half the satisfaction though - the other half is finding the items no matter how obscurely some of them are listed, and participating in the auction as early or as late as possible (depending upon which timing will shut out the most competitors).

A lot of Shiina Ringo fans sneer at the volatile nature of auction sites, and I'm not gonna say they are right or wrong to feel that way - I'll just say I got involved with online auctions at a fairly young age, and I've since then got most of the dynamics down to a science, so I embrace the drama when I've won something and for less than my competitors think I should have paid (the 90% prevailent outcome), instead of fear the drama. During none of the auctions I've lost, have I ever felt like the seller should have paid even more than they did, because whenever anything has ever been 'unfair', it has always been slanted toward my benefit. It's not to say I'm one of those losers who bids a low maximum on every auction they find, knowing that at least a couple of those auctions are bound to go unnoticed - I'm at least one step up from that.

I place one medium-high bid on each item I want, and at the last minute. I expect to win nearly everything I bid on because I'm not short-term cheap. I 'snipe' auctions not because I expect each one to close for cheap - I snipe auctions knowing that statistically, some of them are bound to close for cheap, and I'll never know which ones until they are over. So the average price I pay, ends up somewhere around medium-low, but I know I can't win everything I want at that average unless I'm actually serious enough to pay at least medium-high, because that's actually how much it's going to take to win some auctions, but I'll never know which ones until they have ended. And that's why I'm not afraid of most competing bidders.

I'm completely comfortable with eBay - I've manually placed bids on the zeroth-remaining second, on dozens of auctions, but most of the time I try to aim for the last three seconds. There is nothing sleazy about sniping, because if it turns out that my bid isn't high enough to win, it's because someone else's bid was already higher, and now I have no time to change my mind and bid any higher. On the otherhand, if my original bid is higher than anyone else's original bid, then nobody else has any time left to change their mind either. This has played out in my favor, far more often than not. I know some of these people must hate me because they were willing to pay $20, and I won something for $21, but the fact was, I was actually willing to pay $35, and they'll never know that. I'm not stupid enough to bid early, so their perceived value of the item could mutate based on seeing my higher bid. I'm not going to give them a time window to place a maximum bid of $21, oh OOPS, turns out that's not enough to get ahead... Let's try $22... Oh, OOPS! Let's try $23! THAT shit actually makes my blood BOIL. People who do that against me (if I allow them to), are either not going to win, but only raise the price that I have to pay, or, they win because they have no self-control, and now they have to pay more than anyone should. Even if I could laugh at them for that, I'd get more longterm satisfaction out of actually winning the item for $21 than letting someone else have it for $36, even if they are paying too much.

Yahoo! Japan Auctions can get very scary for someone like me, because most auctions have auto-extended durations, whenever anyone places a bid during the 'final' 5 minutes. This means if more than one person is watching an auction until the very end, they can keep leapfrogging over each other's new maximum bids, as many times as they feel like. Fortunately for me, most of the nonBuyItNow auctions I'm interested in, do not have competing bidders dedicated enough to watch the auction during its last minutes. So even if they potentially can counter my snipe, most of the time they don't, and I still get a lot of bargains. I have experimented with bidding during the very middle of an auction and just letting it be, and let me tell you, Japanese bidders are just as impulsive as the humans throughout the rest of the world, so I don't fool around with them anymore. But those 3-5 super-serious bidders I was referencing before - they will actively watch the last few minutes of any auction they bid on, and they will re-bid as many times as it takes to stay ahead. But they mainly go after the super-duper rares, so I'm mostly left alone in my conquest for the super non-duper rares.

But to get back on-topic, this is what the ZCS audio cassettes look like:

[Ringo~Bingo]

they look really nice!!! I want them too

though there are probaly better things to get ? I'm really keen to get all the issues of the RAT magazine/paper!!! do full sets ever come up on SMJ? (I'd battle for them)

I don't like the sound of the auto-extend on the auction, it's stupid and kinda defeats the purpouse of the auction having a set time at all!! it sounds like it robs the fun and urgency from most sales ? like if you don't bid within the alloted time then tough!! that's what an auction is meant to be like!! that would drive me mad if I encountered it. I'd just bid so high that no one could mess up the sale.

[Glathannus]

I've seen one-auction complete sets of RAT show up nearly a dozen times. Either they debut for 4500-6000yen and don't quite attract any bids, or they open for 1000-2000yen, and get actual bids all the way up to 3300-3900yen. I've been mostly steering clear of that, because I've discovered a secret:

It is more economical to win auctions that feature nothing but multiples of the same one issue of RAT, because those don't get a lot of competition. So that has been my protocol, and I'm just waiting for multiples to show up, for the one or two issues of RAT I don't have yet. That could be awhile. You will sooner find another whole set packaged together on Y!JA, than I will ever complete any set(s) of my own.

[Ringo~Bingo]

I'll keep my eyes open for a full set every other day or so and hope to get lucky!! your method while more economical would literally kill me with all the waiting

I'll hope for the full set turning up then just strike high and quick instead of any protracted auctions! I don't know where you get the patience to sit through all those auctions Glath ? (I'd go mad)

if you do happen to come across a full set auction, please mention it here if I myself have not said anything, or if you don't plan to buy..

[Glathannus]

One reason I don't try to go after entire sets of RAT packaged together, is because new issues gradually get released.

Take this one, for example:

[Ringo~Bingo]

Though they get released every so often I'd still like to get the first 12 then pick up 13 & 14 as they came out (I'm not exactly sure how many issues are out are that was just for examples sake) still we'll see what happens I guess ? if they don't all come up maybe I'll have no option but to get them a bit at a time!

all I seem to do is complain about the lack of direct availabilty on this stuff give it a week or so when I'm cashed up again and I'll see if I can go through a few auctions ? I guess persisting in this kinda stuff is the mark of a real Shiina Ringo fan eh ? cash alone is not enough.. it needs effort! gah!! it's garbage living so far away in Scotland, it's all mail order and auctions!! that's reality I suppose. maybe in time I'll be as tempered as you when it comes to all this stuff ? than again knowing my personality, I probaly wont.

[Ringo~Bingo]

what is the ultimate Shiina rarity/colelctable out there ? I was thinking about the usual CD/LP/DVD/Tickets/ect but there must be something out there that is the Holy Grail of Shiina memrobilia ?? personally I'd like a photo taken with her!!! but what does everyone else think would be the ultimate Shiina prize ? (apart from her herself)

[Orenji]

Originally Posted by Ringo~Bingo

what is the ultimate Shiina rarity/colelctable out there ? I was thinking about the usual CD/LP/DVD/Tickets/ect but there must be something out there that is the Holy Grail of Shiina memrobilia ?? personally I'd like a photo taken with her!!! but what does everyone else think would be the ultimate Shiina prize ? (apart from her herself)

Maybe her Vivienne armor rings or... HER MOLE! lol

[Ringo~Bingo]

Originally Posted by Orenji

HER MOLE! lol

I don't want that!!!!!!