USA Volks Store?...It might happen!

But the manga is still running

 

I'm sorry to hear you feel that way. Demi Moore was a high-profile doll collector for a while, and while I always hoped otherwise, it didn't start a tidal wave of other celebrities to become doll collectors. I suppose it's because adults with dolls are, for the most part, looked down upon and scorned. I was hoping it might make people realize that not all adult doll collectors are barren spinster cat ladies who are morbidly obese or stylish gay men with little dogs.

Perhaps if they ran it like a house of couture and opened their doors on an appointments-only basis, a couple of sales a day could keep it afloat. I'm gonna assume they'll sell accessories as well as dolls. I think that if there's any reason their business would fail, it's that the kind people at Volks will not anticipate the wants/desires of American shoppers. I think they realize that there's some risk involved, from the articles I've read, and are trying to carefully consider the best place to open up a shop and/or what sort of alliances to form.

What the customers do with their products after the final sale is made is irrelevant and doesn't reflect on a business' ability to sustain itself. I'm sure Volks won't mind too much about having stuck-up families for customers if they are able to keep paying their rent.

I guess there could be imitators; I suppose Super Dollfie fandom can't always exist in a vacuum. Target sells American Girl knockoff dolls and it doesn't seem to have hurt Mattel/Pleasant Company that much. Sadly, we don't live in a merit-based society where only the best and the brightest receive Super Dollfies.

The doll show part I can get behind, but Volks at anime conventions is a terrible idea. It would not be worth it. Most people don't go to anime cons to buy dolls. I frequently scour the dealers' room for dolls and talk to the dealers about why they do not bring dolls. Most dealers bother to bring dolls to cons because they don't sell. The interest isn't there. Most of the audience wants to get DVDs and wall scrolls and Pocky and wants it to be as cheap or free as possible. Nerds don't appreciate pretty things. If that changes, I'll be delighted, but that's not how it's been for the past couple of years. A tiny fraction of that audience will care, and not enough will make it worthwhile to pay the costs of renting booth space (plus separate charges for electricity and a phone line at said booth), shipping merchandise to the US (don't forget about paying duties at customs), airfare, transportation to/from the airport, hotel rooms, wages, meals with tips (remember that it's not customary to tip in Japan), and any other expenses. It'd make more sense for them to set up a US office first before they started doing this kind of thing, but that too is an enormous expense to only go to a couple of doll shows and anime conventions a year without any sort of retail support for backup.

 

In the first place; I don't think that the fad-loving whip-out-the-purse girls would find it convenient or cheap enough to bother... Sure the rich parents might spoil kids rotten with something like that, but even Paris Hilton or any of those cheesy super-stars would find it convenient enough to carry around a doll.. (aren't they the least bit heavy?)
There's my two cents, I guess ops:

 

you might want to be VERY careful about calling those companies knock offs.

becuase they are very much not knock offs.

 

But in Volks eyes, aren't they?

 

Volks thinks EVERYTHING is copying them. ut LEGALLY. which is the point here.

none of the comapnies have been legaly proven as knock offs only ONE company Forever doll.

but think about it there where BJD BEFORE Volks came out with their dolls.. so wouldn't they be considered copying the originial BJD type dolls.

wacth what you call a copy and a knock off. knock off in generla often refears to lower quality. which all the other companies are not lower quality. they have many interesting and veyr beautiful face molds and body molds.

they are no better or worse, then volks. and volks is no better or worse then them.

 

ROFL.. oh, the jokes that could be made from that. XD

 

Kool-Aid man says "Oh yeah!" to that one. :wink:

 

Uh, hi. ops: While I agree with most of your post, this comment sorta bugs me. I'm pretty geeky myself, and I love pretty things. I really got into anime because of the pretty things.
I met my first BJD at Otakon, and if there had been a doll dealer there, I would've bummed money off Ryan, and used all of my own cash to buy one. *nod*

... and look at the bright side, Zev: if Wall*Mart/Target/whatever started carrying ripoffs, it'd be that much easier to find clothes!

 

I don't think you're the kind of nerd Mara is referring to.

 

I'm kind of torn between being all "YAY" and being not... yay.

I try to see the good side of everything, so I'm going to atempt to do the same here... Perhaps it would make getting shoes, clothes, etc a little easier. I don't see it exploding as a trend, but then... Barbie, Gene, Tyler, Cissy, etc etc can get pretty pricy and they're enormously popular among "traditional collectors." I would hope that Volks could see that international customers (not just Americans, I know that we're not the only non-Japanese that love these dolls) are rather devoted. I know a lot of people, including myself, would go to the effort to see the store in person. I mean, when I go back to Japan I'll go see the stores there, but I can't make a whole trip dedicated to going to pick up a doll, where as in the US I could actually manage to say, go out to LA, stay with some friends, and go get the doll. In New York I'd just harrass family to let me stay with them, etc etc.

Of course, we don't know exactly what _kind_ of store they'd be setting up. Volks sells more than just Super Dollfies... they have the 1/6 models, garage kits, and other things too. So, I think that if they do set up shop here, I don't think it will be just SDs, it will propbably be mostly the other things, with SDs included as well.

Just my two-cents : )

 

Guys, guys. PLEASE let's NOT bring up the "knockoff/not knockoff" debate here ^^;;

Anyway, I'm very excited to see how all of this unfolds! I think Volks even CONSIDERING opening a store here is a huge sign of how dedicated they really are (or want to be, at least) to overseas fans. Opening up a business in another country is a really big step!

As far as the "BJDs becoming mainstream" issue goes...despite Volks being based in Japan and having several stores, SDs aren't mainstream there. The majority of Japanese people would look at you weird if you tried to strike up a conversation with them about SDs as if they knew what you were talking about.

So don't worry so much!

~Megan

 

Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or insult any of the Korean companies. I don't think I feel the need to defend myself or what I said, because that's not what I meant, and that is not the intention of the thread. I try to be objective in my posting.

 

Since Paris Hilton carries that dog of hers everywhere, then I don't think she'll have a problem with carrying a doll.

From everything, its seems to me that if VOLKS does open a store, it'll probably be in NY.

 

I'm not saying one is better then the other. Hell, I'm getting a DOD. I just thought you sounded very hostile and wanted to point that out.

*skips away*

 

Hahahah do'nt worry about saying this kind of stuff... everyone has their way of expressiing themselves and at web sometimes we sound as we don't want to... ^^
I agree with what Kai said btwn (and, oh, don't worry, I'm not saying you didn't or anything like that, I'm just commenting ^^''') no one is better and no one is worse. Everything is about TASTE! My favorite store ever is DOD huahahah I just wish they could come to Brazil. I'd work for them for freee! ok... maybe not but.... I'd do everything to help!
I also don't think earth-chan meant to say that even i have no idea what knock-off means. But it is nothing that should be discussed here (sorry if I'm writing wrong btwn, I'm doing homework and it is harder to write in english when i'm doing something in portuuese XD)
I just wanted to say you don't have to worry pointing out it, at least I think, you are just warning Kai that maybe she sounded something that she doesn't want to and at least to me that is a very good thing :grin:
I'm sorry, I'm talking too much about stuff that doesn't need it!

Kisses

Cacau

 

Okay, here's my opinion:

Pros:
- Assuming they carry BJD items as well as their models and 1/6th dolls, prices would likely be better for us.
- We fans would be more likely to participate in Volks' activities (if they held any here) because they'd be more accessible.

...That's honestly all I can come up with.

HOWEVER, the cons are numerous:

Cons:
- I really don't want people working for Volks who don't have a passion, y'know? It seems that in Japan they have people working for them who genuinely believe in the dolls...
- I don't think they would do FCS here. I see them allowing you to ORDER FCS through the store, but the dolls would be constructed elsewhere. So instead of going through a shopping service, you go through the store here.
- I think they might bump the prices up. Think of Dream of Doll-- their prices looked great before they opened their store in English, and then we noticed they raised their prices for us foreigners. I think that the prices of items set up in a shop here might relate the extra fees to get those items here... :\

There's my piece. I'd appreciate any comments.

 

DOD's prices were raised because the value of the dollar went down, not because they're biased towards us foreigners :3
You're right though, as far as we know, Volks is not planning on opening a "factory" overseas, which means everything will still be made in Japan. So it's uncertain whether prices will be any cheaper (when you consider their goods will still have to be shipped overseas.) But they will be more accessible!

~Megan

 

I apologize if this sounds antagonistic, but what makes you think Americans would be less enthusiastic in their work with BJD than Japanese? ops: If this board is any proof at all, it's that there's a great deal of passion for dolls in the West and that there are plenty of people here that would be thrilled to work with such high quality dolls. They definitely would put just as much effort into them as any of their Japanese counterparts.

Personally, I don't really see any problems with Volks opening a store in America. I would love to have their products more readily available, even if that means knock offs will be created or that the 'original' will become more mainstream. As far as a knock off goes: Sure, you can get something cheaper, but if you REALLY want the quality of, say, an MSD then you're going to buy an MSD. I mean, the other brands that appeared after Volks haven't really hurt its sales too badly, have they? ops: Not that I'm saying the quality is less, but just that the variety isn't deabilitating.

 

I only meant that...from what I've seen the Japanese seem to respect the dolls a bit more. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure there are tons of people over there who hate the dolls. I just feel like Americans might not..respect them as much.

I just want the company to be able to hire people who are passionate about the dolls, y'know?

For example, I believe Janne said awhile back that when she went to the Super Dollfie Convention in Texas, one of the Volks reps there was pleased to see that Janne and her daughter brought Licht and Leona. He said he considered them to be his children, of sorts, because he was one of the main supervisors when they were produced.

>_>...I think I butchered that story, but I tried.

That's all I meant. :grin: It'd be ideal for people who love the product they produce to be working for the corresponding manufacturerer, no?