Hi all! Lucky Pack season is upon us! I have been getting many inquiries about Lucky Packs, so I wanted to address them. Please have a look at this entry to see Q&A for LP shopping with my service!
1. Q. What is a Lucky Pack?
A. A lucky pack, also known as an LP, Happy Bag, or Fukubukuro (the Japanese word) is best described as a “grab bag.” Traditionally, you buy items in a bag which you cannot see before purchasing. The items are deeply discounted, but you don’t know what you are going to get. More often, with a lot of lolita fashion brands, they give you a pretty good idea of what you will get, however you might not get to choose color, cut, etc. Size is generally one size fits all, although some brands do sized LPs. Each brand is a little different!
2. Q. When do Lucky Packs go on sale? How do you buy them?
A. Traditionally, January 1st or 2nd, depending on the city, stores open very early to start New Year’s sales- depending on the store, the first day/opening hours may be dedicated solely to LP sales. You must go early in the morning and wait in line for some time to be let into the department store in small groups. Later in the day the stores will transition into discounts on in store stock if they run out of their LPs. In my city, LPs go on sale from the 2nd, and I shop in store for LPs on this day.
In the past years, many brands have started do reservations weeks before the new year for the LPs. For example, at the time of this post, the very popular brand Liz Lisa has already started taking reservations online. I will also happily pre-reserve LPs online! Sometimes there are different LPs for online and in store- some being limited to the website only and others being limited to in store shoppers only. So you might want both!
Most people are contacting me at BTSSB/AatP and Angelic Pretty LPs. If the pattern follows past years, these brands will also do a reservation ahead of time, although there is usually competition. I am willing to try online and in store for these brands. Today, BTSSB/AatP released the news that their preorders for 2015 LPs will start from December 10th.
Regardless if the LPs are reserved in store or online in advance, the LPs do not actually arrive or ship until after the New Year. They might not arrive a few weeks later, as I usually have quite a lot of LPs to process and ship post New Year.
3. Q. How much do LPs cost? What about your fees?
There is no easy answer to how much LPs cost. There are usually several price points even within one brand. Please check out the LPs of the brands you are interested in!
My fee for LPs is something I determine each year. LPs are a lot of work but priced cheaply, which makes my commission lower despite the all extra work that goes into the LP shopping process. This year, my commission fee for LP shopping will be 10% or $10 per pack ordered, whichever is the greater value. Other non commission related fees are as usual: with online orders, as always, there may also be domestic shipping and ATM/COD fees, where as with in-store LP shopping there will be the usual transport fee. In store LP shopping may include a small extra fee to cover potential taxi rides, multiple trips, and delivery service fees incurred getting the massive amount of LPs purchased back to my home where I can process them.
4. Q. I want an LP!! How do I request one?
Just like any other claiming, such as with original print releases, before you can claim a spot for LP shopping, you must be able to tell me what LP you want me to try for. Depending on the brand, this will mean that I need a price point/type, color, cut/style… I cannot take blind claiming. So, for example, you know you really really really want an Angelic Pretty LP, but you don’t know anything about the kinds of LPs they will offer yet. So, you cannot yet claim a spot. However, when AP releases information regarding the type of packs and their prices, and you are 100% committed to a certain LP, you may send me a request, and I will lock you in for an attempt at buying that LP.
I take LP requests in the order that I receive them. If more than one person wants the same LP, the first person to contact me has priority, and other people wanting that pack will have to line up in order after that.
Please do not contact me requesting an LP until you can give the details of an exact LP you want to claim. It is very useful to have a picture or link to go along with your request. You can use the Shopping Forms under In Store and Online Shopping to find the form used to request shopping (not just LPs, but all shopping!)
5. How much will an LP cost to ship to me?
I am sorry, I cannot tell you in advance how much shipping will cost from Japan to your home country. LPs come in all different sizes with all different kinds of contents. Remember, LPs are usually packed with clothes so can be both heavy AND bulky, which means it is not possible to send full LPs via Airmail or SAL in many cases. Please leave a little buffer room in your LP budget to accommodate international shipping costs.
I will be posting more news to the Tenshishop blog and Facebook, so please be sure to check both out!
Dec05