Volks USA Lottery Delivery Time

Hi, hopefully this is an easy question. I know a few people who won the lottery for Saber Lily from Volks USA, and they're all still waiting for her. I'm hoping to get Beatrice next month, and I'm wondering if I should expect such a long wait for her if I win the lottery, or if that was a unique situation for Saber.

If you don't mind the current exchange rate and cost of shipping from Japan, you can enter to win one or more DDs at the Volks International lottery. If you win one there, she would arrive a lot faster if she comes directly from Japan to you. Volks will announce details of limited item lottery from Kyoto 8 on the After Event page after Kyoto 8 is over.

 

Here is the Volks International DD page in English:

http://www.volks.co.jp/en/dollfiedream/index_dollfiedream.aspx

 

Right now the Volks International DD page has information on the DDs to be released at Kyoto 8. The page changes as new event come up.

 

Here is the Kyoto 8 page:

http://www.volks.co.jp/jp/event/htd_kyoto8/index.html

 

With the current exchange rate, Beatrice would cost almost $700 from Volks International not counting the fee (tax) and shipping. Volks USA is great about evening out the exchange rate. For example, the Dollife Dream Compilation book sold in Japan for 2,100 yen. When it came to the U.S., it would have been more than $25 but they charge $22 for it. Similarly, White Christmas Alna sold for 50,000 yen in Japan which would have been $600. Volks USA charged $550 for her. The exchange rate factor is more significant with big purchases. I hope they keep it up.

 

If if you live in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, you can enter to win her at the Volks USA lottery. The wait is 2 to 3 months to get her, but it costs less.

 

Everything including the release of regular items (outfits, shoes, etc) from a Dolpa or Outfit Event takes 2 longer to come to the U.S. For example, Dolpa Tokyo 24 was held in December, but the regular items won't come to Volks USA till early March.

 

Volks USA will note on the lottery page when to expect your item to be shipped.

Thanks for the help! Yeah, I understand about the International lottery. The reason I'm concerned specifically about the USA lottery is that I was under the impression it's generally held earlier than the international one, so I feel like I should enter it first, and then enter the international one if I don't win the US one, in order to maximize my chances. Maybe I'm being over-paranoid, especially as I have somebody else entering with me, for a total of four possible chances, but I don't want to miss out and spend the next few years looking at $1500 eBay prices and sighing about missing my chance.

 

The exchange rate issues aren't that much of a problem for me. I'm in CA, so I'll be stuck paying tax if I order from Volks USA, which will wipe out most of the savings I'd see from the item price itself.

Most of the time the US lottery is first and results are in before the international but not for Tokyo 24. They were at the same time. A lot of people just entered both. If you end up with two girls, you can probably sell one easily especially if you sell her for what you paid. Baldylox said his friend really wanted Saber Lily and was going to have the both of them enter the US lottery to increase his chances of getting her. In the end, I think the friend just enter both the US and international lottery. I think he even won both and canceled one of them.

Oh, you can cancel? I was under the impression that if you entered and won, you were stuck buying.

 

I'm definitely OK with selling one if I get two, I'll probably try to find somebody who didn't win the lottery and sell it at a decent price since I don't want to feel like a scalper, but I'm in trouble if I end up with like four, haha. If I can enter the US lottery, win it, and then enter the International and cancel my US if I win that, I'll do it that way.

Mitsuki is correct. I could not afford a Saber no matter how much I wanted her. But a good friend was all about getting her and I had offered to try and go after her in the lottery to up his chances. That way we would go thru a proxy in Texas called Kerby Lane Doll Shop as well as Volks site itself. So like you stated, 4 chances instead of one.

 

At the last minute, he told me not to worry and that he figured he was going to get one anyways so I didn't have to try. It was a good thing too because I entered for Sabers Maid Outfit only and won it thru Kerby Lane. My friend put in for the maid set and Saber thru Volks and Kerby and won all of them thru both places! So he dropped his wins from Volks in order to give Kerby the money since they are so nice to us with sales and such.

 

Had I entered and won a Saber, it would have been bad because I did not have the money to pay for her. I would have had to get a loan or something to pay for her and then sell her off later. That would have sucked.

 

But yes, you *can* drop your win from Volks because they don't have you make a deposit on the dolls before the lottery is announced. Since no money gets exchanged, you can tell them no and they will give it to the next person on the list. At least that is what I was told by Kerby Lane and my friend.

 

Whichever way you go, I hope you win Beatrice as she is beautiful.

 

 

Billy

Thanks, it's good to know that I have the option of canceling if needs be. Is there any worry of being blacklisted by Volks for doing it or anything?

I hadn't heard about anyone getting blacklisted for entering multiple ways. Volks probably doesn't want to lose customers who are willing to buy DD (especially ones as expensive as Saber Lily). If there are any DDs left after the After Event, the link to order them stays active.

 

For example, there are still some of Miu from Osaka 6 available. If you click on the "click to order" link for Amaha Miu, you get a window asking how many you want to order:

http://www.volks.co.jp/en/event/htd_osaka6/limited.html

Well that's cool then, if they do a simultaneous US/Int'l lottery I'll enter both. Normally I'd just deal with the 3 month wait, but I'd really like to have it in time for FanimeCon. (And who am I kidding, waiting three months for an $1000 purchase still sucks.)

 

I hope shipping goes fine. Somebody I know ordered a bare body and some supplies from Volks International last week, and the tracking hasn't updated since the shipment left Japan over 48 hours ago. Hopefully this isn't related to the whole 1lb limit thing, I though Volks was exempt since they're a business.

This is good info. I'm thinking about maybe jumping on the next lottery.

 

The idea of entering more then one to up your chances is a good idea. I didn't know there was a US and International drawing.

 

Though, I worry that they will want to hold the money for both. If you can only afford one then you're kinda limited with amounts of entries.

 

But I'm curious how limited are these? What are your chances? Is it really small or do people generally win, especially with more than one entry?

This is good info. I'm thinking about maybe jumping on the next lottery.

 

The idea of entering more then one to up your chances is a good idea. I didn't know there was a US and International drawing.

 

Though, I worry that they will want to hold the money for both. If you can only afford one then you're kinda limited with amounts of entries.

 

But I'm curious how limited are these? What are your chances? Is it really small or do people generally win, especially with more than one entry?

 

It depends on the run size. Also, they're both run differently: with the US lottery, they hold your money (and if you put both of your entries on the same credit card, they WILL cancel any winning entries), but with the international lottery, no money is sent unless you win the lottery.

 

I entered the US lottery for Noumi and the international lottery as well and lost both. For Saber Lily, most people I know that entered won, but Beatrice and Noumi seemed to have had much smaller run numbers as out of the 30-40 people that I saw that entered for each, maybe 4-5 people actually won. I'll continue to enter, but it'll be a last resort rather than my main method for getting Dollfies; I'd much rather continue going through Dollfie World and paying an extra $100 or so to her to guarantee I get my gals instead of playing aftermarket games like I had to do for Noumi and wound up paying an extra $200 or so.

 

Also, since we're on the topic of lotteries, don't forget about the clothing item lotteries as usually those items are fairly easy to get on Volks USA if you're fast enough and are a good $10-20 cheaper per item than Volks international, so you can save a lot of money by waiting for limited clothing items to hit there before buying them.

It depends on the run size. Also, they're both run differently: with the US lottery, they hold your money (and if you put both of your entries on the same credit card, they WILL cancel any winning entries), but with the international lottery, no money is sent unless you win the lottery.

 

Also good to know. I assume, however, that it's okay to order two different items on the same credit card?

So they check for the same credit card between Int. and US lottery orders, but not name/address? Seems odd.

 

Is it also correct that you need to make a separate "order" for each item? That goes for clothes as well, I guess.

It depends on the run size. Also, they're both run differently: with the US lottery, they hold your money (and if you put both of your entries on the same credit card, they WILL cancel any winning entries), but with the international lottery, no money is sent unless you win the lottery.

 

Also good to know. I assume, however, that it's okay to order two different items on the same credit card?

So they check for the same credit card between Int. and US lottery orders, but not name/address? Seems odd.

 

Is it also correct that you need to make a separate "order" for each item? That goes for clothes as well, I guess.

 

You can have multiple items on the same card and you can use the same card for both lotteries (you don't even put in info for the international unless you win), what I was referring to with the double entries was with the US lottery. I've seen people put two entries in two different names, but on the same card, and have them both be canceled. Also yes, you have to make a separate order for everything for the most part with the international website; each doll and their multiple outfits has one page and you are only allowed to enter once per page and each entry is a separate transaction that I don't think can be combined.

I think the chances of winning the Volks USA lottery are pretty good. Of the last 7 girls I entered for, I got 5. The number might seem higher because Miu wasn't so popular. The poor leftover Mius were even available for direct purchase on the Volks site for months after. Saber Lily was really popular, so I lost her.

You can have multiple items on the same card and you can use the same card for both lotteries (you don't even put in info for the international unless you win), what I was referring to with the double entries was with the US lottery. I've seen people put two entries in two different names, but on the same card, and have them both be canceled. Also yes, you have to make a separate order for everything for the most part with the international website; each doll and their multiple outfits has one page and you are only allowed to enter once per page and each entry is a separate transaction that I don't think can be combined.

 

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Good thing I have more than one credit card.

 

 

@mitsuki: Good to hear. I just figure I have bad luck. I also think these next two will be pretty popular. Not Saber Lily popular, but still, decent enough.

Is it also correct that you need to make a separate "order" for each item? That goes for clothes as well, I guess.

 

On Volks USA when you enter items for the lottery you can make one big order with each of the items that you would like (one of each obviously) and enter it that way. So for example: there are two outfits you want, a pair of shoes and a DD. You can put all four items in a single order and it will be valid.

 

When I entered the Volks USA lottery for Saber Lily I entered personally and had two of my friends also enter (using their own credit cards and addresses) and out of the three entries I was fortunate enough to have one win. However I was unable to win Avalon on any of the orders and went through Dollfie World to get this item.

 

I would take my chances on the lottery again, depending on item desire I would either just do my own single entry and leave it up to chance or do multiple entries and hope for the best. It's an interesting way to approach it, leaves an element of uncertainty which makes a win even more thrilling.