Limited Dollfie Dream Pricing History and Trend
About 6 months ago I wrote my first "educational" type Dollfie Dream topic "Where to buy a Dollfie Dream - A Beginner's Guide" and it has been one of the most popular Dollfie Dream related hit to my blog ever since. Today I am going to bring you a second installment to this "educational" type topic, which deals with pricing history and trend for some selected limited Dollfie Dream.
Ever since I began collecting Dollfie Dream some years ago, it has always bothered me that some of the very crucial information such as how to go about acquiring a Dollfie Dream, and how much does it cost to actually get one are often difficult to find, especially for someone new to the hobby. As most of us who are familiar with the hobby know, the distribution mechanics for limited Dollfie Dream is rather unique or should I say, highly time sensitive. Once we missed the boat initially, collectors old and new most likely have to end up dipping into one of the most popular aftermarket distribution channel, also known as Yahoo Japan Auction. Now, let it be known that I have always have a strong distaste for online auction for goods with limited availability, because once the availability of the said good is determined to be rare, it becomes a highly seller oriented market, which is bad for most of us who are looking to acquire the said goods.
I could go on and on for pages on why I don’t like these auction marketplaces, but I am not going to do that since doing that would be similar to barking at the wrong tree. Instead, I have been secretly collecting pricing history and trending for some of the highly popular limited Dollfie Dream, my goal here is to bring some knowledge and transparency of this marketplace to someone new to this hobby so they wouldn’t end up paying more than what they absolutely had to.
My assistants for this particular project are DD Saber Lily, DD Saber Alter and DD Rin Tohsaka; arguably three of the most popular Dollfie Dream in recent years.
Disclaimer: The information provided here is only for reference purpose. All of these pricing information collected for this blog post were taken from completed Yahoo Japan Auction at the respective date.
First we are going to take a look at DD Rin Tohsaka~
Based on the data collected since June of 2010, a used DD Rin is fluctuating between 80k yen to 100k yen. A brand new unopened DD Rin is between 118k to 150k yen. The purple line represent a brand new unopened DD Rin along with the alternate school uniform, which is not exactly a very popular auction and has been trending down ever since.
For those of you who are interested to see the full coverage of this blog post, please feel free to visit my blog for Limited Dollfie Dream Pricing History and Trend at Wolfheinrich.com
I was one of the highest on your Saber Lily chart I think ._. (200k in december)
I see someone paid 225k though!
Well, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Let me explain it to you, if you were going to get a first day event item, it's going to cost a bomb just because it actually cost a bomb for the seller to get it! Think about it, the seller would have to live in Tokyo or he would have to travel there, spend the night waiting outside in the cold, and have purchased a stack of guidebooks. All that stuff cost money, if you put it all together, it's not necessarily a bad deal.
Ahah.... I remember Tokyo Doll Party in last winter...... T.T
It was a difficult experience ..... OTL
I can imagine that, being in the middle of Winter T.T; must be a tough event.
Indeed!
Although, now I have more experience with the Dollfie Market, from now on I will wait it out a little longer next time there is a release I'm after ^^
Good read for newcomers Wolf. I was also wondering if it seems that Saber Lily DD has taken precedence over the original Saber DD in terms of price. Guess it is a preference thing.
You're welcomed! Personally, I am a much bigger fan for Lily because I like the more expressive/mature/sexy faceup for Lily compare to the younger/chubby face of Saber. Lily's overall package is a much improved version of what you would find in Saber as well. The availability is also a big factor, Lily is widely available compare to Saber. There hasn't been very many Saber transactions lately, and she has never too overly contested in auction either.
Good info thx Wolf (^^), thou I don't think I will ever be able to afford a Saber Alter
The price is starting to trend back down recently, it's going to touch down below 200k again.... even still, unless you really really want a Saber Alter for what she is; you can always make do with a different girl..
191k now.. everytime I bid on one it goes through the roofs... that record high one... I actually bid on that.. my luck
I love the way your daughters pose for the camera. I'm still working on getting Lily to pose in various ways.
It takes a fair amount of effort in order to get the proper framing for a DD, it doesn't happen instantly for me either. I practice a lot and also spend a lot of time constructing each frame.
This is something I've been curious about myself, but I've refrained from collecting data because seeing all these DDs when I can't afford to even bring home a standard doll right now is excruciating. XD Interesting that overall Saber Alter and Saber Lily have been gradually falling in price. Now, I have to ask though--does this include all listings, or only ones that sell? *thinks of the Fate T. Harlaown and Nanoha BiN listings that have been there for at least a year and a half*
Under the disclaimer section I have mentioned all of these are actual completed auction, these are no list price :P
Just because an auction is listed at ???? dollar has bearing to the actual value of the goods in question. What I am doing here is to make this market data available so that we all can make an educated decision on whether an auction is priced fairly.
Gotcha, must have just missed it. ^^; Finals are frying my brain I think. XD Yeah, I suppose it's true that even if an auction is BiN only and ridiculously high priced, someone else listing the same item has only that for a current benchmark, and may not realize that that same item's been there for over a year. I personally *hate* coming up with prices when listing auctions, even in WoW where you don't even have to worry about listing an item's condition or someone's feedback. (Don't know if you've ever played, but if you haven't, you can't sell most items to other players in the game if they're used.) I guess I can understand ridiculous pricing to *some* extent in that case, but you'd think YJA would have implemented fees for unsold auctions by now like eBay does--there's definitely plenty of revenue they're missing and economic weirdness that could be averted.
interesting! *continues saving pennies* (lol)
I saw over at your site, it was really interesting to read! Tho it must have a been a pain collecting that data :)
Hey Wolfheinrich,
Is there any chance you have been watching the prices for any of the DDS? I'm thinking about picking one up on Yja but I can't imagine at what point is the price just madness...
I have not collected any market data for them, but I believe a fair price for the DDS right now would be about 80k yen.
Thanks for the information about DD pricing.
This benefits everyone especially if they are looking for a particular DD.