Get your first Dollfie Dream in 5 Easy Steps

Seeing that this post has been extremely popular on http://dollfiehome.com for the past two weeks, I have decided to post it here ~

Are you dying for a Dollfie Dream, but have no idea where to start ? You’ve probably Googled all over and bombarded your mind with Dollfie information. Now you just want to get one ! Here we get straight to the point and provide you with 5 easy steps to obtaining your first Dollfie in the quickest, most efficient, and safe manner!

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UPDATE:

I have spotted Wolfheinrich’s blog and saw that he had already written a superb article for beginners obtaining their first Dollfie. The following guide below has much less detail compared to his, but focuses more on the YJA and bidding agency process (basically it takes you from start to finish), so if you don’t fully understand something about dollfie basics here, such as information on what the doll is or the doll party/lottery system, please refer to his post above.

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Now! FIRST, be ready to dish out $400-$600 US if you’re looking for more common models or used dollfies, and around $900-$3,000 US if you’re looking for something like a new Rin Tohsaka or Saber for your first doll. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice that amount, you can stop reading this post ! Doll collecting is an expensive hobby.

This article focuses on getting a Dollfie Dream. If you’re interested in Super Dollfies or dolls by other companies, only some parts of the article may be relevant to you.

Also, I am aware that it's possible to build your dollfie from buying separate pieces and it could be much cheaper that way, but because this article focuses on speed and precision, we shall leave custom building for another time.

Anyways, let’s get started !

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We first take a look at every single Dollfie Dream created in existence and learn a little more about what exactly is it that you’re going to buy !

Company Volks is the only maker of Dollfie Dream dolls.

There are 2 Standard Models that are currently being sold. And then there are tons of “limited edition” dolls that are long sold out.

GO HERE : List of the current two Standard models and Original Limited Character Dollfie Dream dolls by Volks

AND HERE: List of Limited Dollfie Dream dolls by Volks (all the anime character ones)

The websites are in Japanese, but it’s fine, you just want to get familiar with the faces. As for the game/anime dollfie list, here is a translation of all the dollfies on that page:

Apart from the faces, you’ll also notice they are categorized under 4 different body types: Dollfie Dream, DD Dynamite, Mini Dollfie Dream, and Dollfie Dream Sister.

The specifications of each type are HERE. And here’s the USA site with less updated information, but it has English. In general, they’re just sizes of the bodies. Like if you wanted a Dollfie Dream Rin Tohsaka but realized she won’t fit in your tiny room, then you might opt for an Mini Dollfie Dream Illya instead. Each type has a different body figure too, the pics in the links should be self-explanatory.

If there’s a specific doll you’ve seen and it isn’t here, then either a) the person put different clothes/wig on her, or b) it was a heavily customized Dollfie Dream, or c) it wasn’t a Dollfie Dream.

So now that you know what you want, let’s head onto the next step!

Okay, to be blunt, there are only two main places where it’s almost guaranteed you can quickly and safely get a Dollfie Dream without any hassle and experience. (There are tons of dollfies being sold on forums and groups all over the Internet, but it’s difficult to find out if they’re trustworthy if you don’t know them. So, if you’re completely new to the scene, and developed a good sense of dollfies but haven’t had time to dedicate yourself to a forum or group yet, I highly recommend the following Two Main Places.) Lastly, there’s eBay, but most of the dolls on there are way overpriced in my opinion (is that Illya doll still up there for $3999.99 USD??).

Anyway, the two places are:

1. VOLKS themselves

2. Yahoo Japan Auction (YJA)

Usually, one uses VOLKS to buy the current Standard Models and the newest Limited models that are being released. For older models, since VOLKS does not sell them anymore, people turn towards the secondary market, Yahoo Japan Auction.

For the two standard models, very easy, just go to VOLKS USA shop, online shopping, and you’re done.

For the NEWEST, UNRELEASED, LIMITED Dollfie Dream dolls, camp at the Tenshi-no-Sumika in LA Blog at the VOLKS USA website for new release information. The newly released Dollfies are lottoed, meaning you can’t just buy them, they draw from a lottery, and whoever wins get to buy them. There are sometimes leftovers from the lottery, and you can buy them similar to online shopping until they are sold out. Just keep reading that Tenshi-no-Sumika Blog for updated information and follow their instructions.

NOW, for the hardcore, the OLD Limited models, basically the stuff that VOLKS no longer sells (sold out), A.K.A the majority of the stuff you saw in the Dollfie links above (Rin Tohsaka, Yoko, Saber, and pretty much everything else), you will need to pray for it being sold on Yahoo Japan Auction.

It’s intimidating at first, but it’s not.

First, go to http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/

Then follow the instructions in the images below:

And you’re here! Feel free to bookmark that page.

I’d have given you the direct link, but the link is kind of bizarre looking, and it’s better to learn the Japanese characters and get here from the main page incase the site link or format ever changes. By recognizing more kanji, you can browse other sections too. Nonetheless, with this method, you can still bookmark the link when you get to the final page.

Anywho, you can now browse the current Dollfies on sale; there are page numbers near the top and bottom of the page. In the above screenshot, there are 5 pages total, showing 25 items on each page. Clicking on the photo of the product will bring you to the details page for the item shown below.

Quick info about the above screenshot:

42,002 is the current bid amount in yen. Meaning you would have to bid and pay an amount higher than that to win the item.

The “2″ right below that means there’s 2 days left until the auction ends; item will go to the highest bidder.

See the “277″ on the right hand side in the blue box? That’s the seller’s rating. The higher the better. Usually if it’s above 100, you have nothing to worry about. But more importantly, click on the link in brackets right next to “277″. You’ll get this screen:

For those who have never played with online auctions before, notice the math: 277 – 0 = 277

If that “0″ (zero) number is 6 or greater, (e.g. 277 - 6 = 271), then I recommend you not to bother with the seller, you are likely to experience problems. Make sure it’s 5 or less.

Now, go back to the previous page with the product details:

If you scroll down… you’ll usually see a bunch of photos of the item being auctioned, then below the photos, tons of Japanese text. Here’s an example:

Pray they don’t use blinding pink on you. Read what I wrote in the image above. Also, try to learn to recognize the Kanji in the section titles; you’ll be seeing them a lot.

Here’s another shorter example:

HOW TO TRANSLATE: There are auto-translation sites, but many of them tend to use direct translation and will cause misinterpretation. E.g. there was a putty brand for attaching doll eyes to the head, and the brand’s name had the kanji character “bug” in it. The translator literally said that the auction seller was selling bugs. Anywho, I personally use http://www.freetranslation.com and just copy and paste sentence by sentence. The results seem to be more precise that way.

Once you’ve found what you want — actually, BEFORE you find what you want, you should now do STEP 4! That is, to REGISTER an account at a bidding agency/proxy service (you can’t bid on these things yourself)! Since setting up an account and stuff could potentially take more than one day depending on how you deal with your bidding agent/proxy service, it’s important to do it as early as possible so you don’t lose out on auctions that are going to end soon.

You must use a bidding agency to help you bid the items on Yahoo Japan Auction. Setting up your own YJA bid account is a completely different area of expertise (you must have a bank account in Japan I believe).

I shouldn’t be suggesting which service to use, but since we must get to the point, I am going to show you exactly what I did for this step.

I use Shopping Mall Japan to help me bid on Yahoo Japan Auction. They are reliable. I have made around 20 transactions with them over a period of one year that included several dollfies for over thousands of US$ and they all got to me safely. They respond to your questions within 12-20 hours, personally.

So, we go to http://shoppingmalljapan.com

I highly recommend you to look at their left-side menu bar, and click and read all the links under “General Info” and “Resources”. They explain how to use the website, how to register, how to bid, etc.

Here's a basic understanding of how a bidding agent/proxy service works:

1. You deposit some $ into your bidding agency account.

2. You use the bidding agent to bid items you want on the auction.

3. If you win, the bidding agency deals with the seller and gets the stuff you won.

4. You pay the full amount to the bidding agency.

5. Bidding agency ships goodies to you.

So, after you have read all the instructions, register an account on there and they will ask you to confirm your e-mail. After you confirm your e-mail, they will eventually send another e-mail asking you to make a deposit. What I like about the service is that you get to bid five times the amount you deposit IF you use Paypal instead of credit card. (I’m not sure how it’s like with other services, but I know some you have to deposit an exact bidding amount).

So, say you wanted to get that used Louise dollfie currently at 42,002 yen.

When they ask you via e-mail to send a deposit, you would follow their instructions and send a deposit via paypal of $200 US, this allows you to bid up to $1,000 US (which is 110,000 yen) (this does not apply with credit cards).

Either way, usually new Dollfie Dream dolls are sold at around 70,000 to 110,000 yen. If you’re going for Saber, I think she’s sometimes up on auction for like 200,000 yen or something, then you would probably deposit $400 US for $2,000 USD which is like 220,000 yen for bidding.

Note: If a doll is being sold around 15,000 yen or something, and no one seems to be bidding on it, then it’s probably NOT the full doll (e.g. just selling the body without the head). You’d want to avoid those (cheaper and safer to get it straight from Volks anyway). You’ll really have to translate the info given and use your judgment.

Either way, just read the e-mails your bidding agency sends you, all the information is in there. The above is just what I experienced.

After they receive your deposit, which may take a day or so, they will send you another e-mail to inform you that you can now bid ! (By the way, you can always increase your deposit amount afterwards to bid on more expensive stuff.)

Now, you must repeat Step 3 (unless you bookmarked the page or something), and find what you want. Go to the details page of the item you want to bid on, and find the Auction ID shown in an example below:

Each auction has a different Auction ID.

Copy the Auction ID for the item you want, and go to your bidding agency page and follow their instructions on how to bid on an item (you should know this by now if you read all the stuff earlier).

When you bid, you will need to input 3 things:

1. The Auction ID — so that they know what you want to bid on

2. The maximum amount you’re willing to bid

3. In the case of shoppingmalljapan.com, they’ll ask for your password that’s given out to you in an e-mail.

BTW, if you don’t use shoppingmalljapan, make sure the bidding agency you use HAS AUTOMATED BIDDING instead of manual. I’m not going to explain why, you can Google this if you’re interested in knowing.

Anyways, after you bid, sit back and relax. I usually have my deposits deposited way ahead of time, and then bid within the last 30 minutes of the auction.

If you win, your bidding agency will send you an invoice of the full amount you need to pay. They’ll receive the item from the seller. You pay. They ship it to you. Congratulations! You have your dollfie !

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Once you have your Dollfie, you may also want to get her clothes.

Thanks for reading !

Posted on http://dollfiehome.com