So yay! My album arrived safely via YesAsia (and FedEx). That being said, I've been lagging the actual unboxing post and trying to figure out which pictures to post and whatnot. Hopefully the actual unboxing post will be up in a few days or a week. Or so...
This post will serve to explain my ordering mentality...at least in terms of CDJapan vs. YesAsia.
My usual pre-order site for Japanese releases is normally CDJapan. I choose them because they usually have nifty bonuses for first press orders. For many artists, bonuses commonly translate to posters. For the GazettE, posters are normally a really good size. B2-sized paper, to be exact. Measurements are about 27.8 inches x 19.7 inches. Right. Moving on to the second reason. Their packaging. I LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. I cannot stress enough how awesome their packaging is. Feel free to scroll through my other unboxing posts labeled CDJapan to visually see what I'm babbling on about. The sturdy boxes. The green packing paper. ♥ *sigh* Anywho, another reason why I am a loyal customer is the overall shopping experience. I have ordered from them many times and almost every time, have been 100% satisfied. The times I've had to contact their customer service for something, I've always received a polite, prompt response. Shipping speed is quite fast, even if you choose the cheapest option. They also ship a day or two before the actual release dates, so that's pretty awesome. Also, an aside: I don't speak a lick of Japanese, so it's great that their staff can communicate in English. \o/
Now, since I usually always choose the cheapest shipping option at
CDJapan, I don't have tracking numbers for my packaged ordered there. I
think I've only had one tracking number from CDJapan, and that was only
because I had to upgrade my shipping because of the weight of the
package. No surprise, it was another GazettE album. Anywho, I can tell you based on experience (for the cheapest shipping anyway) that they usually arrive in about a little less than a week to a week or so after shipping.
However, shipping fees (in general, not just CDJapan) are insane. GazettE is also insane for making the packaging of this album so crazy heavy. I was debating whether or not I should stick with CDJapan and the exorbitant shipping prices the weight of the album necessitated. When I learned that the total shipping costs would range from ~ $35 (3470 yen) to ~ $65 (6400 yen) depending on the shipping option I chose, I flipped a little. The total cost of the album + the first press bonus poster would be ~ $122 (12018 yen) to ~ $152 (14948 yen), again depending on the shipping method. Sans poster, the cheapest shipping option would cost me ~ $19 (1900 yen). In the end, I couldn't justify spending that much money either with OR without the poster, especially since I knew of a much cheaper option on another site, YesAsia.
I have ordered a handful of items from YesAsia previously, but unfortunately this was before I started this blog, so I don't really have any solid photos to show. Every time that I have ordered, I think I've been more or less satisfied. I usually use YesAsia for other Asian music releases. I also use this site to compare prices against CDJapan and all that. I knew that YesAsia had a "free shipping over $39" option, and since they were celebrating their 15th anniversary, they lowered the price to $25. Well. Not like either would have made a difference for the album, with it being so darn expensive and all. Anywho, I ordered from the limited edition from YesAsia (YAY FOR FREE SHIPPING) on October 21st. I received an invoice saying it shipped on October 22nd. I received it on Wednesday, October 30th.
Just a quick comment: even though I chose standard shipping, I was still given a tracking code, which was nice. But me being a doofus, I totally didn't read the invoice carefully and notice those lovely digits until I saw the tracking code printed on the package. .__. Perhaps because my order was expensive, there was a little bit of added security? I'm not too sure on this assumption, but I make it because my other orders from YesAsia certainly didn't have tracking numbers provided AND they were nowhere near as expensive. Reasonable assumption, right? Anywho, looking up the tracking information, I noticed that it was shipped out of Hong Kong on the 28th. This tells me two things: 1) the preparation and shipping process took 6 days and 2) delivery was pretty quick (3 days). In total, it took about 9 days (7 business days) for the entire process (ordering to receiving).
I think this covers the gist of my ordering thought process for BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY. Now to work on that unboxing post...soon...aha.
