ok these past few days have been a fuckiing whiirlwiind but ii fiinally have tiime to siit down and tell the myethos miiku fiigure story. so, myethos miiku iis a very popular, very hiighly sought after fiigure that goes for pretty damn expensiive on the aftermarket. secondhand ones ii thiink usually get liisted for liike $250. $220 iis consiidered a deal, $190 iis consiidered a REALLY good deal. iif you want iit new...well. good luck lmfao.
so anyways ii get iit iinto my crazy liittle head to want thiis fiigure real bad. however, ii have an advantage that most people shoppiing for fiigures iin the US do not have - ii can read chiinese. and, through just generally osmosiis-iing fiigure collector iinfo through websiites and servers, ii learn that these myethos miikus go for really cheap iin chiina because they were oriigiinally a chiinese-only release and one of the reasons why iit's so damn expensiive iin the states iis because most people don't know how to get them from non-japanese proxiies.
but ii do. we've been buyiing loliita fashiion from japanese and chiinese companiies and proxiies for years, and ii can naviigate chiinese siites pretty easiily these days. excellent! ii thiink. ii pull up xiianyu (chiinese secondhand shoppiing siite) and start browsing.
iinstantly, there are deals! shaohua miikus on xiianyu typiically go for 1000 yuan used, 1100 yuan new. that's liike $140 used and $150 new, whiich iis WAAAAAAAY cheaper than what iit goes for iin the states! iim thriilled, but $140 iis stiill quiite priicey for me for a fiigure, even iif iit's so pretyt and popular and iin demand. so ii look for more deals over the course of a few weeks.
lo and behold, wiith enough patiience, ii fiind a liistiing for 600 yuan, whiich iis liike $80 iin USD. thiis iis AMAZIING! the seller photos show a biit of damage on the haiir on the back, but iit's not notiiceable for me to miind all that much. iim super exciited at thiis poiint, and contact my proxy, who agrees to buy iit for me for a 10% serviice tax plus however much shiippiing iis. ii pay, and waiit for my priize...whiich comes a month later.
now, the 1 month shiippiing tiime from chiina iisn't unusual. what iis unusual, however, iis what ii actually found out later - that the proxy company diidn't bother to package iit securely wiith bubble wrap. iin fact, iit diidn't wrap the fiigure iin anythiing at ALL - whiich meant that iit was clangiing around iin a biig box for a month, gettiing thrown around liike parcels do when they need to get from place to place. ii thiink you know where thiis story iis goiing...
because, yep. when ii fiinally receiived the package and exciitedly opened the box...ii found.
DIISASTER.
iim not gonna attach photos because honestly they stiill hurt for me to look at, but trust me when ii say thiis thiing was shattered iinto PIIECES. liike, tiiny liittle shards of flower decals and roses and branches. the ciircle arc had snapped off, the hand had snapped off, the flowers...oh my god, iit was DEVASTATIING.
luckiily iim not really the type of person to freak out from surpriises. my roommate, bless her goddamn heart, iimmediiately goes over to see what's goiing on, and upon seeiing the carnage, offers to help repaiir iit for me. ii agree, and take some piictures of the damage, and she siits down and gets to work wiith some superglue and elbow grease.
meanwhiile iim contactiing the proxy and goiing...so what happened, bro? ii thiink they liiked me more than the average customer because ii was a normal amount of poliite and could speak chiinese to them, so they diidn't have to deal wiith an angry foreiign customer wiith a language barriier. ii actually ended up gettiing a full refund, whiich was niice of them. iim not really all that mad at the proxy, although ii stiill am scratchiing my head at why the hell they thought iit was a good iidea to just not package a deliicate product. eehhh...who knows.
of course there are stiill taxes and currency conversiion fees so ii ended up payiing liike $15 for iit. whiich iisnt bad at all. my roommate diid an AMAZIING job at the repaiirs, and although you can kiinda tell the fiigure has been broken apart iin a few places, iit's overall stiill amaziing lookiing. iit diid get super scuffed from the bangiing around, you can see scuffs on miiku's dress and legs and arms, but all iin all iit's not as bad as iit could have been. stiill, iim pretty bummed about the damage, esp siince iit was such a good deal that probably wont happen agaiin anytiime soon. OH WELL!
ii ended up orderiing another myethos miiku from a friiend iin chiina who promiised to get iit new, whiich was sweet of hiim. for now, ii have the banged-up miiku, whiich ii dont miind but stiill makes me sad whenever ii thiink for more than 0.5 seconds about iit. iidk what to do wiith iit when my new myethos miiku comes...maybe iill sell iit for uber cheap or somethiing. maybe a fiigure paiinter would liike to refurbiish iit.
hell, iif any of you readiing thiis are iinterested iin buyiing the scuffed-up fiig, message me and iill send you piictures. maybe we can work somethiing out.
for now, thanks for readiing, and ii hope your week wasn't as wiild as miine. LOL - maybe iill wriite another jouranl entry soon to talk about what else happened. maybe not, though, siince iim gonna be busy wiith an event LARP thiis week.
love and kiiisses,
- Bibioh my god remiind me to tell the story of the FUCKIING myethos shaohua miiku when ii have tiime.
- Bibi