Good morning from Japan!

I've enjoyed getting my collectible news from you for a long time now, and really like your new look!

I've been noticing a few things recently about availability of Nipponia. I'm not honestly sure what to make of these observations, but they might interest you and your readers...

When Nipponia was first released, they were in about 1/10 of the stores that got Sakura shipments. This alone was quite a shock. Most shops said that they weren't planning to sell Nipponia because of the large (about $1500) amount of other stock Ty Japan was requiring them to purchase in order to get just a few Nipponias. In their view, customers buy the exlcusive bears (and whatever else they have to buy in order to get them--bundling is common) but not much else, so many shops have decided not to deal with the hassle of exclusives this time.

Nipponia has now been "available" for about 10 days. On Yahoo Japan auction, as of this morning there were 94 items listed for Nipponia. All in-hand auctions, and most for only one bear. So, domestically, we have less than 100 bears available for auction. The average price for Nipponia on the secondary market in Japan is $90. On ebay, as of this morning there were 157 items listed, many of them pre-sells for 12 bears per listing. The average price for a pre-sell seems to be $40-$50. In hand Nipponias are going for just a bit over $100, or very nearly the same price it would cost to buy the bear in Japan, where theoretically everyone has the possibility to buy one at retail.

Like I said, I don't know what this means, if anything. But it raises some questions?I think. Is Nipponia actually much rarer than it's US price reflects? Are people simply assuming that it will follow the same pattern as Sakura? Are Japanese dealers simply skipping the middleman (collectors in Japan) and selling directly to secondary dealers overseas? If so, why would a anyone sell a bear worth an easy $90 in Japan (no language hassle, cheap shippng) for less than half that price (or lower, if the pre-sellers are expecting any sort of profit) to overseas dealers? It doesn't make sense.

In any case, Nipponia is a cute bear--his blue is closest to the face on Blue Face Spangle, and I'm glad I got one. I only wish I could get enough to satisfy all my overseas friends. Perhaps it's a sign of the times, but a Japanese friend just asked me to get her one of the cheap pre-sell Nipponias off ebay!

Anyway, thanks for being in cyberspace--you are always a bright spot in my day!

Barbara
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I wrote to Barbara and thanked her for her note and said I would share it with my readers. This was her reply.

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Hi Janie,

Thanks for passing on my observations. Here it sounds like the huge chain that has been refusing to carry Nipponia is going to start in December, and then we might have the large numbers as we did with Sakura. Who knows? I guess Ty does, but he's not telling :-)

By the way, have you seen Nipponia yet? I found it much cuter than I thought it would be. It makes a nice addition to the Britannia, Germania, Maple series, just as Buckingham and Chinook have made Sakura into another type of country exclusive series.

Take care,

Barb

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The opinions expressed are that of the collector and not necessarily myself. I always enjoy sharing news from abroad. It helps to keep the hobby interesting and challenging!
Ms. Janie