Fall 2019 Update

Finally, some time to sit down and give a proper update!

Group Orders

This time I'll be covering all information about the Shining Store, from the first Shopping Service in August to the current group pre-orders. So if you signed up for any of these, the information probably applies to you!

• Shining Store Shopping Service (from August): If you had any "sold out" items in your invoice, I'm retiring store pickups so that I can focus on the online group orders and trading items. If there's anything you didn't get that you still want to buy and don't mind waiting until February/March of next year, please sign up for the Shining Web Store group order!
• Shining Web Store Trading Item Group Order: If you signed up before September 10th, I've picked up some trading items from the store already so I can have more time to exchange for requested characters. My next visit will probably not be until the end of this month, but I aim to pick up more at that time. If you only ordered trading items and I finished getting everything you asked for, I can send it sooner than the posted February/March release.
• Shining Web Store General Item Group Order: I'll start sending invoices this weekend. If you pay before the end of September, I may be able to pick up items from the pop-up store. If I get everything from your sign-up, I can send it early; if not, I'll hold what I have and combine it with the online order. If you ordered trading items, it may take extra time if I haven't finished trading.
• Other Group Orders: Broccoli Girls Shop (Color Ribbon series),  anime Japan, and Heavens Garden items came in a while ago. I'm holding orders for anyone who also bought merch from Dream Star Live and Secret Garden Party, which isn't in yet. All of these orders are NOT eligible to be combined with Shining Web Store, as I'm trying to send everything out by the end of the year.

If you haven't signed up for the above group orders, you can find the sign-up forms in my Group Order Information page. The deadline is coming up soon on Wednesday, September 25th.

I don't know what UtaPri will come up with next, but right now I don't plan to host another group order for the rest of this year. If I do, the new combined shipping period will start AFTER I ship all of the Shining Store stuff to everyone.

Other News

• I've just recently set up a Google Pay account and I'm looking into how the payment procedure works. So far I want group orders and shipping invoices to go to PayPal, and general sales (items in my inventory for instant purchase) to go to Google Pay or some other payment method. I had one person test this so far and they ended up downloading the app, but I would prefer for people to be able to pay the invoice without having to download anything new. Hopefully I can figure things out by the end of the year!
• Congratulations to those who were able to see Maji Love Kingdom in North America (or are seeing it soon)! I've seen a few tweets from people who want to petition for a UK screening, I hope that happens!
• I recently went to Tokyo Game Show, and sadly there wasn't anything other than a display for (yet another) release of Repeat for the Nintendo Switch. I was there for other reasons anyway but I did take a picture (seen above).
• Some of you may remember a post I made on my Tumblr last year about popularity rankings when it comes to trading. I've been doing a lot of trading this year and noticed some changes ever since Maji Love Kingdom, and I found it very interesting so I hope to write about it soon!

For now that's all I have to report! With only two pre-orders left this year I'm hoping to have time to reorganize everything for next year, but for now it looks like I won't have to quit hosting group orders completely!☆

Shining Web Store 2019 Purchase Guide

As you may know from previous blog posts and social media, I've decided to slow down on doing orders and shopping services for early next year. That said, I won't be hosting a full group pre-order for this year's Shining Web Store.

I know for many of you this makes it a little more difficult to get items, but I've written up this special blog post to help out, so I hope you find it useful!

First, please check my general guide on searching for and ordering UtaPri items using a proxy service. I recommend using FromJapan, and if you sign up using my referral link, they'll give you 500 pts (equal to 500 yen). If you're comfortable navigating Japanese websites and have an eligible credit or debit card, you can sign up for a forwarding service like Tenso and use the mailing address and phone number they provide you with to make an account with the online shop and order directly.

Once you sign up, here are the three different shops for the Shining Web Store:

• Broccoli Official Store "Main Store" (For My Favorite Things and PRINCE CAT)
• Movic Online Store "Annex" (For Be With You, KumaPri, and Shining Store Lot items)
• Broccoli Official Store "Q☆UP Collaboration" (For Q-Pot items)

Please note that Prince Cats, Special Prince Cats, Mini Prince Cats, and Tiny Prince Cats will NOT be available in the Shining Web Store! The Shining Store Item List does mark them as 通販 which means that they should be available for online sale at some point, but it's not certain when that will be.

Next, keep in mind that there are purchase limits per order. For example, My Favorite Things Can Badges have a limit of 20 per order.

So if you want to buy 40 can badges, you have to make two orders for 20 can badges. Likewise, if clear files have a limit of 3 per character and you want to order 4 Tokiya clear files, then you have to split the quantity to stay under the limit. Broccoli will charge about $5 shipping for each order you make. Movic charges about the same, but offers free shipping for orders over 8000 yen. Movic also gives purchase points that you can use to buy items from their points exchange page.

For anyone concerned about trading items, I'm hosting a group order for those to help people get the characters they want. As usual, the requested characters aren't 100% guaranteed, but hopefully I'll be able to gather as many as possible. The sign-up link is here.

All Shining Store items this year are estimated to be released from mid-February to early March. So if you plan to order from two or more of the above shops, the proxy/forwarding service that you use should be able to combine those orders for you (most services hold orders for up to 30 days). But keep in mind that these services will either charge you for extended storage time, or they'll discard your items! So make sure to check your e-mail often when the release date nears.

I may host a group order for other items, but I can tell you that if you do the work yourself by using a proxy or forwarding service, you might end up saving some money on big orders. Hope this helps and I'll add any information that I might think is important!

UPDATE 2019/09/13: I have opened a group order for other Shining Store items! Please note that I've set purchase limits for certain items and other items are excluded, so if you plan to make a large order it may be beneficial for you to use a proxy service.

The sign-up form is here!

Mid-Summer 2019 Update

I've had this update sitting in my drafts for so long because I've been so preoccupied...I should probably provide some insight as to what's been going on recently:

☆The items from April to July (Maji Love Kingdom, Prince Cat Winter Holiday, VR Zone STARISH Secret Party) are finally finished!!! Unfortunately I'm sure a lot of people who requested Tokiya were disappointed to find that they didn't get some of his trading items. It's been incredibly difficult to trade because it seems the movie has made his popularity skyrocket. Also, I don't really follow Japanese voice actors but I do know that Mamoru Miyano (Tokiya's voice actor) has broken into Japanese mainstream television, to the point where even people who don't normally watch anime or movies know who he is and have probably learned about UtaPri recently. So if you are a Tokiya fan requesting him for trading items, not only will it be competitive among other people signing up for the group order, but it will also be competitive while I trade with Japanese fans...　(On a side note, Ranmaru has also been especially difficult to get!)

For people who request trading items often, I'll let you in on a secret: The more you order, the more likely you are to get the character you want. If you order only one can badge and request Tokiya, if I have enough then I can accommodate for your request. But if someone else orders ten can badges and one of the requests is Tokiya, I may give them priority.

In addition, naming other characters doesn't mean I'll automatically give your top priority to someone else! If you request Tokiya, Otoya and Masato, and someone else only requests Tokiya, it doesn't automatically mean I'll prioritize them over you. Naming second/third/fourth priorities just means that if I can't get the character you want first, I can try to make sure that the character you get isn't totally random.

☆Next, I just recently wrapped up Dream Star Live and Secret Garden Party orders. Some people have received their SGP items already because I was able to pick up their entire order at the last pop-up shop in Tokyo. I'll be holding everyone else's items until the online order arrives this fall. My apologies to anyone who missed the above orders because they were so quick, Recently it's been difficult for me to get out information and links all at one time.

☆In case you haven't noticed on Tumblr and Facebook, I recently started taking requests for the first Shining Store shopping service, and a lot of you already signed up!!! I'll do my best to pick up as much as possible. I'm still debating on whether to host online orders because of the timing of their release (February of next year, during which I'm hoping to move out of my apartment) but it seems the dates for the Web Store have already been posted. PRINCE CAT is by far the most stressful order to take care of because of the size of the packaging, so I'll be thinking about that one that most.

You can find the links to the sign-up forms on the Group Pre-Order Status Page!

☆Thank you to everyone who provided feedback via the survey that I linked a few months ago! Here are some thoughts on the results I've read:

It comes as no surprise that many of you like the benefit when it comes to trading items. While I wish I could just get everything that everyone requests, I'm glad I can at least increase the chances! I'm also glad to know that many of you feel comfortable working with me rather than with a proxy or forwarding service.

Unfortunately, while many of you do like the combined shipping, this is actually the most difficult for me to accommodate. Keeping items for months at a time takes up a lot of space and makes it harder for me to work, and the longer that I hold onto something, the worse my memory becomes. I've invested in some supplies to organize items better, but right now I'd like to focus on other activities.

Some of you noticed already that I've been changing the way I collect payments and set deadlines, thank you very much for your understanding as well as staying alert when an invoice is sent! Now that I have some of my own money in the bank, and because many of you stay on top of making payments, it's a little easier for me to order faster and collect payment afterwards.

Even though I've had a little time to breathe in the last few weeks, it's still very difficult for me to keep up with my online activities, as you may have noticed from how quiet my social media has been. But I'm eternally grateful for all of the support and encouragement I've gotten from everyone, and that's why I'm so determined to help in any way I can!