Dakimakuras anyone?

Unfortunately, it isn't as detailed as it should be. Generally listings will show a generic sample image (that they ripped from some website) and a picture of the actual product as it is packaged, which is the case here.

So here's the shot of the actual cover:

http://auctions.c.yimg.jp/img377.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/1/3/8/9/nemuisidarui-img600x450-1303315550sihdcj44804.jpg

It's the auction description that told me the state of the item; I just ran it through Google Translate, so you're free to do so as well and make of it what you will:

"状態：某中古店で購入したものです。私自身は使用しておりません。余白部分に少し汚れ、使用感があります。
洗濯すると色落ちする素材かと思いますのでそのままにしております。サイズは150x45cm、材質は多分、サテンです。(勿論、正規品です。)
中古品ですので生理的に気にならない方、タペストリー等で使用されたい方のみご入札下さい。
中古品という性質上、ご希望でしたら返品(返金)に応じます。【但し往復分の送料・振込手数料は落札者様負担でお願い致します。】"

For 3.6k, it's probably fine. It's all a mental block, anyway. There is no way of telling what the seller actually did with the covers. The two I listed were used, but they were on sale at 6k a piece. I just try not to think of the worst case scenario, of what the previous user could have done with them, when I figure the average price for both of these covers is 20k and 12k respectively. I opened them both up, and didn't notice any damage, so I'm not even going to think of what they could have been through. For your case, the retail was probably 8-11k, so you're getting a pretty good deal.

If you do want to use them, you'll have to use a proxy service. They're pretty easy to figure out, but they do add additional cost to the item. If you're in the US, I'd probably recommend SMJ; they have a ton of cool features, and their YJA rates are comparable to most proxy services.

You can find themhere.

Here's the relevant auction link; you'll need it once you've signed up. You should be able to view it through the SMJ site, but you need a YJA account to view it yourself: http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f97731254


Going back to your note about finding one in better condition. It definitely is possible, but I'd probably expect it to sell in the 9k+ range if it were new/unused. If you want to wait and have me look around, that's absolute your call and I'd be happy to do so. But I wouldn't expect something to pop up in the price range you're looking at anytime soon.

I will definitely bookmark SMJ, haven't come across them. I wish I could multi-rep you for the day. :P

Have you ever used them or anyone else to go through comshop? Do you know how big telecards usually are? There's a bunch from Aojiru I would like to get, but this seems like an impossible task for sure. I'm going to guess all the "X's" next to these items means they're out:
www.comshop.ne.jp/itemKeys/index.html?kid=246431&kv=あおじる&ITEM_LIST_SORT_ORDER=salesDtimeDesc

Just wonder if they're worth it, wondering what the size is. It's weird some of this Aojiru artwork has popped up in artbooks, or in little special image packs with some Tinkerbell games, but there has to be literally like 50 some telecards he's drawn (not in HCG's either) that still haven't been available in HQ, scanned or anything. That's kind of why I want them, since they're so special and not elsewhere. I can only hope Tinkerbell releases another big artbook of his someday. But it'd be fun to own some of these cards if they're worth it.

The box willowywicca got looks huge, although that was a lot of items. I'm still living at home but am moving out later this month hopefully, so I wonder if I should hold off them so nobody here gets suspicious of the package, haha.

But yeah, would love to own that dakimakura just for display, take pictures, etc.

Sorry this is all a tad off topic, but it's just not everyday you get such helpful responses like that back about this stuff. Sigh, if only I lived in Japan I could just walk into stores and look for this stuff... haha.

The link you linked doesn't list anything for me. Some webpage don't like direct link for search terms, but I can still tell you want a telecard is like. Personally, they're a cool bonus for me but I never go out of my way to buy them. They're about the size of a credit card, so very small.

Yeah, that's how things go with proxies. most proxies are willing to hold items for a few months, so we usually tend to stockpile a few items and then request a shipment when we have a lot of goodies in them. ^^ I'll be requesting a shipment myself withing the next week or so and should be getting about 12-15 items total.

Honestly, with as many cover as most of us have, we couldn't use them all if we tried. So display is a more than viable option. These days, I mostly take pictures of new items and then pack them up for storage. I wish I had more room to display them and a pillow that wasn't beat to hell; they do make great tapestries/etc and it really is a joy to sleep with them on a good pillow. So even if it is damaged, I would probably recommend buying it for display purposes only.

Since you mentioned a webshop (comshop), I'd also like to recommend YokattaWeb as a proxy. Their service is pretty hit or miss when it comes to communication, but they have the absolute cheapest rate when it comes to weborders (comshop, toranoana, d-stage, mandarake, etc - pretty much any shop that isn't an auction.)

And no worries, man. We're all here to help; the thread has been pretty dead of the last day or two before you posted, anyway. :P

Sample telephone card size:



For proxy services the main ones I'd recommend are shoppingmalljapan, yokatta and sutocorp. In general, Yokatta is not recommended for auctions due to the price (they are cheapest for webshop orders though), so SMJ or Sutocorp. SMJ offers more convenience (once you setup your account and put in a deposit they have an automated bidding system) while Sutocorp may work out a bit cheaper than SMJ if you aren't in the US (as you end up getting hit twice by currency conversion then with SMJ since they force you to pay them in USD and they apply a conversion rate to the original yen price the item was too).

I like Sutocorp for their customer service (though they speak broken english at times), when I had a problem they gave me a 1k discount for my next order. But you do need to contact them 24hrs before an auction ends to make a bid since they have to manually check your order and place the bid themselves, there's no automation.

As you say, mine was a pretty big box of goodies (in terms of contents, the actual box itself was fairly small, about the size of a box for a moderate sized figure usually), as it was about 2+ months worth of stuff that had been building up at the proxy.

The microfiber bath towel I got:


Telecard collecting is sort of a whole other hobby in and of itself. When going around Japan there's lots of stores (or parts of stores) with cabinets dedicated to reselling them. With prices for rare/popular ones going up ridiculously high to well over 10k yen (when their original value is 500-1000yen).


Edit: Ah Shashin, which character is that Marks cover of btw (if you know), I don't think I recognise her.

Awesome bath towel, she could use a wipe down herself. lol

Thanks for the telecard picture there, that's not bad at all. Think I will try to somehow track down a few if I can. Scanning them to put them on a PC and maybe they can be blown up just a tad without looking too bad. Really though I just want to own a few of the special ones, heh.

I'd recommend checking out Mandarake; they get in a lot of telecards, at a fairly reasonable price, and you can order from them without the use of a proxy. If you want to search a particular series, usually what I just is just google it and copy/paste the Japanese title from somewhere. You can search all the results that way, or just paste in テレカ if you want to be specific.

Is this seriously going for 9,800 yen? lol...
http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w78081435

LOL, how you figure that out, I grabbed 3 pieces( one is for a friend) at 42.5k each. I dunno why the miku this time round was fought to such a degree. To make matters worst, I bought 2 miku vitas again last week. so I'm completely flat now. So I want March but I got to recuperate, resources isn't endless.



Damn willow, your images are huge.Nice stuff by the way.

Because in my experience with SMJ, there's only one other person crazy enough to bid 35k+ on a cover, and that would be me. :P Given that I saw two close with the SMJ account at around the same time, it was a giveaway given your tendency to buy two at a time.

The Miku was actually closing about where I expected. You have to remember that we didn't get in on the first batch of Miku; she was originally sold at Comiket and we purchased ours from the My Wife/other event batch. The first Comiket batch had a few that sold at really good prices (the best was 24k buyout, but my limit was still tied up >.<) but the trend quickly spiraled upward. When there were still a good number left, they were selling in the 38-40k range. With the last 5 or so, things got even crazier and they were selling in the 45-50k range.

You say "again" when you mention the Miku Vitas, so that would be a total of 4? Combined with the three Miku covers, I'd be paying that off for 2-3 months. T_T



It's hard to tell. There are definitely some telecards that fetch a high price. It isn't my area of knowledge, so I couldn't really say what most/rarer ones go for. I will say that YJA is absolutely full of price gougers, in pretty much any product. So it's really a matter of what the buyer is willing to pay for it. There aren't any front end listing fees for YJA, so a seller can list at whatever price they want for as long as they want, without any penalty. So with the system set up the way it is, if they're not in a hurry to sell, there isn't any downside to them for listing at an absolutely ridiculous price level.

Yeah pretty much any time you see a SMJ account bidding big on dakimakura you can assume it's Zengar bidding :P

I actually shrunk the pictures to 60% of the default size from my camera too :3

Also totally unrelated to dakimakura.. Horizon episode 9:

Yah, I have 2 Asian sets , and I got 2 Japanese 3G sets as well. One from playasia and another from SMJ. Best part I bought those miku covers without knowing how they look like, I just based it on one of my fav circles to decide.

Not that it's any of of my business, but what are you going to do with 4 Miku Vita systems? ( '0_o)
You could queue them all up and have a personal Vocaloid pseudo-symphony. Haha. ;)

Regardless, nice hauls, everyone. Can't wait to get some of my goods.
Just got the Urushihara C82 book/cover set in yesterday. The censoring isn't that bad at all. I am actually very pleased with the cover. Having some of the other Urushihara covers, I was expecting much worse.

Looks like TAMA has broken away from Evening Call and has formed her own circle. I've always been a fan of her work, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I hope she succeeds, but I also really hope she's as foreign friendly as Evening Call is, because it would be a shame to have to use a proxy again. :<

The circle is called New Island, and you can see her first cover in production here:
http://newisland.x.fc2.com/sakuhinn.html#hatate

I told myself I wouldn't do it, but I caved and placed a special order for Secreder's Evangeline cover from Sengendo. Taking a look at Secreder's twitter page, I saw that he posted a preview picture of his upcoming cover: http://twitpic.com/amdy8v . And after talking and sharing with Tsuru we found this: http://sengendo.a.la9.jp/tamamo_01.html
SO MUCH WANT!!!

Why would you tell yourself not to, Evangeline is the awesomest 500year old loli vampire around!

The Gisele cover:

I know, but I'm busted-ass broke. I knew I'd just hate myself for passing it up..so I caved. :)
To be over 600 and look like that. I would definitely let Eva suck...the blood from my neck!

Unless I win the lottery, I really hope that Tamamo cover doesn't drop soon.

That Gisele cover is hot! Nice score!

From that page you linked, it says they're accepting preorders until 30th Sept at 23:59 (JST)

LOL I bet that just went up between finding the page and posting it because it was just an image before.
Still a bit soon, but I'm definitely gonna pick it up!

Any reason why TAMA split? Just curious, not really familiar with the different artists in Evening Call.

TID is the main artist behind Evening Call; he does quite a lot of covers and the others are commissioned (at least I think) works from a variety of artists. TAMA did work for Evening Call, and was also the one that attended most of the events for the circle, I think. No idea why they split for sure, but there was a tweet that might hint at it depending on how you translate/interpret it.