shenmueman,
The item you have mentioned is quite a rare item indeed, even in
Japan. It was never available to the general public; the only way to
get it when it came out was to buy the Hikaru Utada CD Deep River,
send in the entry form that came with it, and hope to be one of the
500 people chosen in a random lottery to receive it. The Utamaga
Special contains all of the material from the Utamaga 1-6 series, plus
special bonus material available nowhere else. I can see why a true
Hikki fan would want this!
It's unfortunate that you were outbid in the eBay auction for this
item. But, there are still 499 others available, and a couple of them
happen to be on sale on the Yahoo Japan auction site, the largest
auction site in Japan.
The first auction ends in around five and a half days, and starts at a
minimum bid of 1000 yen:
http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e18176588
The second auction ends in around three and a half days, and starts at
a minimum bid of 3700 yen:
http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c24589433
The second auction also has a "Buy Now" price of 5500 yen, for which
the person will sell the item outright.
Unfortunately, getting these items will not be easy. Both sellers have
specified that the items will only be sold domestically, meaning that
you cannot bid on them directly (and even if you could, the
conversations with the bidder would have to be in Japanese) What you
will have to do is use a service that acts as a go-between, bidding on
the auction for you, receiving the merchandise if you win, and
shipping it to you once received.
A good, reputable site that provides this service is Celga. The
online anime service Celga specializes in acting as a go-between for
foreigners wishing to participate in Yahoo Japan auctions. You let
them know the auctions you are interested in and place your bid
through them, specifying a maximum price in Japanese yen you are
willing to pay, and they will act as the bidder for you. If you have
the highest bid, they then receive the item and ship it to you. They
charge a minimum $5 markup fee and a slight premium on the dollar/yen
exchange rate.
If you read the Celga site description, they place the bids for you,
and they automatically do it at the "last minute" to try to get you
the cheapest price. In fact, do NOT send your bid request to them at
the last minute, because they are not staffed 24 hours a day, and may
not be able to get your bid in for you in time. From the Celga site:
"...we usually wait until the last minute to bid. This often results
in lower prices for you, the buyer. But it does mean that your bid
will not show up until the last day of the auction... so if you don't
see it, but you have received a confirmation email from us, don't
panic! We're just waiting for the best possible time." Please see
http://www.celga.com/shipping.html for more details on this.
Please note that you must have a Paypal online payment account, and
you must send Celga a deposit for at least half of the maximum amount
of your bid before the auction ends. If you do not win the auction,
you are eligible for a full refund of your deposit. Unfortunately, if
you do not have a Paypal account already, you may not be able to get
it set up and funded in time to make your payment. Celga does accept
United States Money Order, but again you they may not receive it in
time for you to bid on these auctions.
For more information on Celga and answers to frequest questions, see
http://www.celga.com/faq.html or send email to Bustakei@yahoo.com
Good luck with your quest!
Sites cited:
Celga
http://www.celga.com
Yahoo Japan Auctions:
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp
Paypal
https://www.paypal.com
Google search terms used:
Yahoo Japan auction go-between
Google Japan search terms used (terms in braces used kanji instead of
text):
{utada hikaru} {utamaga} special |
