christianponte

They'll work, don't worry. It's just folders of MP3 files and other stuff, rather than an audio CD.

Was this on Reddit a while back? I'm like 80% sure I've seen this! :P Anyway, pretty good start :) EDIT: I DID see this on Reddit! But it looks like you deleted your account since then?

Just a reminder that if anyone is going to this event and would be interested in being a proxy for us, or if you know of or hear of anyone going who might be interested in earning some money by being our proxy, please let me know ASAP. I've taken all the hard, organizational and planning work out of everything by taking care of all of that in advance for you, and your fee should easily be enough to cover the items you want to get for yourself as well.

It depends on our proxy (we still need someone to step up), and how soon they'll need the money. Since the orders go through me so I can account for every cent of every transaction, most of the time our proxies prefer enough time so that the funds can clear international transfer from me, and then they have enough time to withdraw it from their bank, etc., and since this event is right after the Christmas holiday, who knows how that will affect their ability to withdraw the money in advance. Other times, our proxies will just pay for everything out of pocket, and then just worry about making sure the numbers line up afterwards (not recommended). To be safe, let's say by Monday the 14th or whenever we have a confirmed proxy, whichever is the later of the two.

Thanks, fixed! I mostly just copied and pasted those from the older threads. I probably have to update the prices, too.

While it feels weird to start compiling the Comiket 91 shopping list while our Caravan orders are still in the mail, December 29th is almost here! As with Comiket 89, Cipher Sai 2016, and Cipher Caravan, we will be attempting a group purchase via one or more proxies. We have not finalized a proxy yet, but if and when we do, we will do our best to get as many people some of the items on their wishlist. Below, you will find a list of items that will supposedly be available, as well as information on ordering and stepping to be a proxy. I hope we can find someone to go to one or more days of the event and pick up items for the group. Otherwise, we'll all have to seek them out on auction sites for at least 2x, 3x, or more times the retail cost. The following items will be available. USD prices are estimates as of the December 5th conversion rate, and may vary significantly from the conversion rate throughout the summer. The final conversion rate on your items will be determined on the date of purchase, and your shipping conversion rate will be determined on the date of shipping. The Merchandise [spoiler=Items and Prices] [spoiler=Sounds of Fire Emblem from Cipher Caravan CD Video]https://youtu.be/9ajuHpb2_tA New Items Available: Fire Emblem 0̸ Artworks V (Illustrations from the cards) - ¥2,000 (US$17.60) Fire Emblem 0̸ Artworks VI (Illustrations from the cards) - ¥2,000 (US$17.60) Players Box Character Set - ¥4,000 (US$35.20) Players Box Dot Set - ¥4,000 (US$35.20) Can Badge Set Yellow - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Play Mat (Xander/Ryoma) - ¥3,500 (US$30.80) Play Mat (Tiki) - ¥3,500 (US$30.80) Paper Die-cut Badges - ¥500 each (US$4.40) Sounds of Fire Emblem from Cipher Caravan CD - ¥2,500 (US$22.00) Returning Items: Can Badge Set Purple - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Can Badge Set Green - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Can Badge Set White - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Can Badge Set Black - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Can Badge Set Blue - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Can Badge Set Red - ¥1,500 (US$13.20) Additionally, a promotional Cipher card featuring Lyndis will be distributed to guests. You can request a card, but as these will be difficult for us to obtain multiples of, please only request if you really want it, and know that it's even moreso of a non-guarantee than any of the above items. Again, US prices are estimates based on the December 5th exchange rates. The final exchange rate you will pay will be determined on the date of purchase. If anyone can go, I'm going to need the one each of the new items, perhaps multiple of the CDs (since music is my life). Some items from Cipher Festival, Comiket 89, and the 25th Anniversary Concerts will be sold through other retailers. See below: 25th Anniversary Fire Emblem Festival/Concert DVD - ¥5,370 Fire Emblem: Awakening Original Soundtrack (Fire Emblem Best Collection Series) - ¥3,056 One Hundred Songs of Heroes - ¥10,424 Renka, "IF ~ One's Thoughts" (Limited Edition w/ DVD) - ¥1,700 ============================================================== Placing an Order See something you want? Leave a post below with the items you are willing to buy, along with your country and currency (if not the usual USD, CAD, or GBP for your country). Be prepared to pay for your item, an additional 10-15% for our proxies, $5-20 for shipping, plus a little extra for things like PayPal fees, unexpected spikes in exchange rates, etc. The way shipping will work is that we will ship all items going to the same country to a single location, and split that international shipping cost. We'll then use cheaper domestic shipping to relay the items to individual people. It might take an extra day or two, but it saves everyone some money. I keep a spreadsheet of all orders. Once we have one or more proxies, and once we get closer to the actual event, I will send everyone a PM with the total amount you will owe, which will need to be sent over via PayPal. If we are unable to obtain one or more of your items, you will receive a partial or full refund AFTER all items have been shipped towards their final destination. ============================================================== Interested in being a proxy? Proxies are people who are able to attend the event on behalf of those of us who can't make the trip. In exchange for going through the trouble of waiting in lining, purchasing as many of the items as possible, and shipping them to their final owners, we generally pay proxies an additional 10% of the cost of the purchased items – and we've been known to go higher depending on how successfully as many items as possible were obtained. If you were already planning on attending the event or at least thinking about doing so, becoming a proxy for us is a great way to help out Serenes Forest's fan community in obtaining rare merchandise. In addition, we as a group generally order enough that your 10%+ commission is generally enough to pay for most or all the items you might want as well. If you can possibly attend with additional friends, this is even better – more people at the event can spread out the workload and handle a larger total order. Some people can wait in line, while others "run" any purchased items to a designated storage place before getting back in line for more. We've gone through the group purchase / proxy procedure several times now, from Comiket Special 6, to Comiket 89, to Cipher Sai 2016, to Cipher Caravan, and now for Comiket 91. We've learned some lessons, and have figured out the most efficient way to do things. I keep a spreadsheet of all the orders, and I will handle all the calculations and logistics, and you only need to worry about the actual physical acts of purchasing and shipping. If you are interested in becoming a proxy for us, while we'll obviously adjust on-the-fly as the event unfolds, we ask that you please stick to the plan as much as possible. This includes purchasing as many items on each trip through the line instead of worrying about individual orders, as well as shipping from Japan as soon as possible. If you have any questions about being a proxy or would like to be one for us, shoot me a message and we'll get you all set up.

Yeah, I understand the disappointment in that regard. I gave the green light on it because I knew it'd still be a cheaper price than most online resellers would offer, and we had a very short window of time before the event ended and I had to make the call before most people would've been able to get back to me. If you or any of the others think it's just not worth that much, or you're just against it on principle, let me know and you'll no longer be responsible for buying it. Kisaragi wanted to be the one to absorb the difference in price, but I couldn't let them do that for several books, especially after going through all this trouble for us. If anyone with dibs on a book doesn't want theirs, I'll offer it to the next people down the list, and if no one wants it at the purchased price, I'll offer it to the original people again at retail price and eat the price difference myself.

I'm still in the process of figuring out who will get what and how much refunds will be. Trying to share the wealth as fairly as I can, and I will contact those who paid individually as to what their situation is. (If I haven't contacted you yet, it's because it's currently bad news, but I'm scrambling to try and turn it into good news.) A few things, though: - Artworks IV was SOLD OUT by the time kisaragi (& friend) got to the front of the line. They then took initiative and went out of their way to ask to buy copies (for a premium) from other attendees that had clearly purchased extras. So for the few people who will get Artworks IV, be sure to thank them for going the extra mile. That being said, they weren't purchased at retail cost (¥2000), but rather around ¥3700, so the difference will be deducted from your partial refunds. If that's a bit much for you and you no longer want it, let me know ASAP. - We may have under-collected on shipping again. The plan was to ship internationally in bulk, and then individually domestically, to spread the cost out among everyone. But shipping costs were estimated and divided based on about 25 people placing orders. About 15 people either didn't pay or canceled their order after the start of Friday when I started quoting people amounts to pay via PayPal. However, we may still have enough to cover it, because obviously it will be smaller, lighter, and hopefully cheaper shipments. We won't know until they're shipped. In the event we under-collected, I'll let you know ASAP, as this will either reduce refunds or create additional balances. - If you end up being one of the few people who did pay in full but aren't getting anything due to items selling out and/or us not having enough, you will be entitled to a full refund, including all PayPal fees. That being said, if you would still like to contribute any of the amount allocated as a stipend/gift for kisaragi for making the attempt/effort, let me know and we can deduct some or all of that from your refund. - Refunds will take some time, due to international PayPal transfers being stuck in "pending" limbo for a few days. Full refunds should go out next week at the earliest, when they clear international transfer. Partial refunds will be issued after funds clear international transfer or items have shipped, whichever is later. Overall, the process has gone much more smoothly than Comiket and has been a bit more streamlined than Cipher Sai, so hopefully we've got ourselves a well-oiled machine for future events.

The event has begun, and kisaragi has received both the full total of orders of everyone in this thread, as well as the total of PAID orders up to this point. Priority will be put on those paid up to this point, and the rest will follow, but as always, no guarantees for anyone on any of their ordered items until after the event ends and we have time to do a full and accurate inventory. In the meantime, let's all thank kisaragi (and friend) for their willingness to make the effort to help us all out!

Hey all, I've updated the list up through this post so far. If you've requested an order, please PM me ASAP to find out your total due (this will include your subtotal, shipping, and extra for kisaragi's troubles, etc.) and be prepared to PayPal it over to me ASAP. As with past events, if kisaragi is unable to fulfill your order in part or whole (because let's be realistic: we collectively ordered 118 items lol), your subtotal and shipping costs will be refunded, though the stipend for kisaragi's attempt may be retained (it's only like $10 per person). After the event, we'll do inventory to figure out who's getting what. We'll request shipping addresses from those getting any or all of their orders and arrange for those to be sent. We'll also inform people of any refunds that will be due. UPDATE: First of all, please refrain from adding to your order at this point. We're scrambling to collect funds, and the event less than 20 hours away. If you really need an additional item, then fine, let me know. But if you can live without it at this point, it's one less headache for us. Second of all, everyone's shipping costs are being calculated as if we're shipping everything to everyone individually. HOWEVER, since most people ordering are from the US, and a large number of others are from Canada, and most orders are small, we'll try something similar to last time, where we'll ship all the US orders to one person, and have that person use significantly cheaper domestic shipping to ship the items within the US, and each person would only be responsible for their (cheap) domestic shipping plus their small share of the group shipping to US. Same thing for Canada. If your order is small, this means you'll probably also get a partial refund for shipping costs at the end. Third, I'll give you your total due when you PM me. Don't use the USD conversions in the original post: Brexit screwed the world, so everyone's costs are noticeably higher.

Everyone keeps assuming NX is a home console. Remember that Iwata wanted to make it easier for developers to simultaneously for home console AND handheld to prevent a similar logistical nightmare to developing Smash 3D and Smash U at the same time. In addition, Nintendo experimented with cross-buys with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars and wanted to make it easier for fans to buy a game on one Nintendo platform and get it on others, which would prevent things like having to rebuy all your Virtual Console games for each new platform. And Nintendo keeps referring to NX as a platform, not a console. There's a lot of hints that the system we're getting in March is a home console, but it's starting to sound like NX itself is an operating system that this new console will use. And it could very well be the operating system used by the successor to the 3DS. Meaning when we get Fire Emblem on one, we get it on the other just like when you buy an iOS app, it usually works on both iPhone and iPad via separate builds. In this case, the console version of a game would be in HD (or 4K), while the handheld version would be optimized for 3D and StreetPass, etc. Given the fact that Nintendo basically forced Intelligent Systems to shift Fire Emblem to handhelds after the commercial flops that were Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, this is really the only way we get FE on a home console in the near future if it works on both because of a unified operating system. With Wii U on its deathbed, and console NX being unproven, handheld is the priority for the next Fire Emblem.

This is less than 90% of the current collection. Ran out of room in the photo for some 25th Anniversary stuff (tumblers, bags, etc.), almost a dozen posters that have yet to be framed, and more. Hopefully the Cipher Caravan stuff will be added by the time I take the next collection photos, assuming I continue taking still photos... ;) Normally, I break up the collection into smaller groups of items and take photos of those, just to give everything a closer look, since there's so much in the big collection photos like these that it's hard to see everything. Instead, I'll be starting something new, which you'll all get to see once I finish editing. :)

Tried to take an updated collection pic a couple days ago. Apparently I no longer have a blank wall large enough to use as a backdrop for my collection. Even if I did, I don't have a room large enough where I can back the camera up enough to be able to get everything in the frame. I don't really want to do an outdoor shot, because none of my stuff is protected from UV radiation, and it's summer. Maybe I'll box it up and take it all to work - I'm a high school teacher, and maybe I can take a pic in one of our three gyms or maybe on stage in our performing arts center. But if I attempt to take an updated shot at home, I either wouldn't be able to fit everything into a single shot, or several items would have to overlap others fairly significantly...

I literally wouldn't worry about that until September. Auction prices are going to be massive rip-offs right now because everything's new. By September, all the events will have taken place and people will flood the market enough that the prices will come down significantly.

I'm not disagreeing that a console Fire Emblem game can be successful. I'm saying that Nintendo doesn't make development decisions based on how good a game can be, they make decisions based on what's financially responsible. FE12 was pretty good, but why didn't Nintendo of America release it? Because FE11 bombed and the DS was halfway out the door. Wii U will get no major exclusive Zelda games. Why? Because HD remakes and spinoffs that would ultimately get ported to the 3DS were less riskier an investment, and with the Wii U on life support, the smart decision was to also make Breath of the Wild a launch window title for NX. There are several other major Nintendo franchise that haven't been touched on the Wii U (and some not even since before the Wii), and it would be pointless to release them for a platform with under 13 millions users worldwide and the NX around the corner. IF we get a new, non-mobile Fire Emblem game within the next two years, I guarantee it will be on a handheld. Maybe 3DS, maybe the 3DS's successor (be it NX or something completely different). If we're lucky, the NX will indeed be a cross-platform OS, meaning we'll be able to play it on the go and perhaps in 3D (assuming backwards compatibility with 3DS) on handheld, and resume our games it via cloud saves in HD on home consoles. But if the NX is not a cross-platform OS, then I just don't see Nintendo letting Intelligent Systems commit to a console-only Fire Emblem game until they're sure the NX is commercially viable. I'd guess 7 million units worldwide by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2018 would be roughly the minimum before Nintendo starts putting more of its chips in the pot. Something like the Xbox One's 10m would be "safe," and something like PS4 or Wii up around or above 15m would be ideal. But if it's around 4m like the Wii U again, expect third parties to quickly jump ship, and don't expect Nintendo to truly support their system either – they'll release games the satisfy the fans that bought it, but they won't invest hundreds of millions of dollars to develop dozens of great new games that no one will be around to buy.