Covet pink: Oshare Majo Love and Berry DS Collection Special Pack: The deception (part 1)

(tags Dual Screen Lite, purchase, ECsite, deception)

So yeah, my main target was the Oshare Majo Love and Berry DS Collection Special Pack, not a Wii pre-order.

Armed with that Famitsu Magazine from last week, I started the horrid quest with Toys 'R Us. I asked the clerks if it was available and they answered yup. So I kept my place in the line. I then got a Wii pre-order slip then saw another bunch of people getting a different slip and I proceeded to ask again while pointing to my magazine, you know because it's a DS Lite. Yeah, you can buy that with no problem. Do I need that slip to buy it? No, they answered. So I got back into the main line without a regular DS Lite slip.

So the store opens and I'm thinking I need to get some kind of plastic case or slip in order for them to ring me up with it. I head to the back of the store trying to find the pile of Oshare games and I had to go back to front to one of the clerks who then personally shows me the display. But it gets ugly here because the cases are the normal version. Clerk is still standing there so I ask, "The system comes with this one right?"

"Yup".

So I head to checkout with a plastic box of the regular version. All the while the grown women behind me were laughing and knowingly saying to each other "Love and Berry, desho"? As if it wasn't for their daughters (did they even have daughters?). Hey whatever floats your boat. I can't judge you, I'm too far gone. I finally arrive at the register, the girl starts to ring me up, I confirm that I can get this special pack, and she says "whoa, OMG, exception, let me ask". People behind me are mumbling, let them eat cake. Finally some guy who wasn't manning the megaphones outside the store tells me that they're sold out because they only got 15. This is me at 10:02 ahead of a lot of people.  Ha. Figures. I never did verify if those were pre-orders or not, it doesn't matter because what's gone is gone. I don't lose it, but I am infuriated at those front line clerks. But I'm not wasting my breath and energy on them when I have a bunch of candidate stores lined up.

I jumped to the second store, Sofmap, and by golly it's there, 2 of them ripe for the picking. I scoop up one, which is a real box and not an empty, but the gal at the register reaches into some big box to hand me the one for sale. Hot diggdity. Sofmap FTW. The box is way bigger than the 40 boxes that I saw yesterday. I also grab a 5 sheet screen (and other) protector. Hm. Why was Sofmap open at 10:45 when it's normally open at 11:00? I have no idea. I exit the store and eye the clerk that gave me the 404 yesterday. I remember him as the guy that usually takes my anime/DVD purchases. Maybe I should be more friendly and end conversations with a laugh? "Arigatou gozaimasu mata o-koshi kudasaimase." "Ha ha."

Just because I have some time, I canvassed the rest of the stores on my now unneeded route. Gamers, no. Seiden, no. Tsutaya, no. Joshin, no. That small store in Sun Plaza with no one in the store, yes. Hm. Two stores in downtown Kobe, and both of them pretty easy to get the system. Crazy.

So am I angry enough to avoid Toys 'R Us because of the "bad treatment" and "deception"? No, I'm a tool, a maniac, a consumer , an "otaku". Anyways the one that got away will always show up in some used item display for 1.25x to 1.5x list price, and I don't have any qualms about picking it up for that. (Really? Liar. I balked at buying that limited edition Final Fantasy III DS Lite pack, only 40000 yen used and it's not question-my-masculinity pink.)

Next related post will be about the device and the game.