Zenbu Time again!

darksuzaku · Post by **darksuzaku** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:48 am

mmm, i still don't get exactly how the lotery system works..... Do you mean that if for an item worth lets say 1000Y i place both minimum and maximum bids of 50000Y there are still chances to lose the item? If so then i'll have to let this lotery thing pass as i cannot compromise what it would be a high amount of money for who knows how much time just to find that there are a lot of chances that the item goes to someone else who is willing to pay less than me. If i'm going to lose the item at least i want it to go to someone who is willing to pay more than me. -_-

can anyone explain me if i'm correct or not?

Shampoo · Post by **Shampoo** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:57 am

rayd wrote: hmmmm. im confused, someone decide for me.

Reaaaaally?

I thought you didnt like authority

lol!!

Well I dont think they'll have Lain stuff on there, sooooo... I dont think its worth it.

But thats just me!

Plus like the others mentioned.. its all based on chance and lottery and well.. that doesnt sail smooth w/ me

Marauder · Post by **Marauder** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 12:36 pm

For those interested, it looks like it will not be an auction at all. Here's the quote from their page:

"All listed items are only one of each available. If there are more than two applicants, we will use computer lottery to choose the winner.
This is no auction and all prices are FIXED as shown on the catalogue."

I think that's pretty self-explanitory.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 4:42 pm

fickle-haruka wrote: Has anyone done this before, and could give us an experience they had?

I haven't done it before, but my friend did (this was when it only consisted of a straight lottery system). This was about two years ago. I think he bought three Zenbu catalogs and put in for about five or six items per catalog (a mix of sketches and cels). Altogether from all that he won four or five items.

But I don't know how it would be doing it NOW. Maybe because he put in for sketches that made it easier for him to win then if he went for only cels.

This system works best if you have a trusted cel friend living nearby. That way you could split the cost of the catalog.

birdie · Post by **birdie** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 5:44 pm

I bought Zenbu 20 last year, it was my first experience with Zenbu.

I put in bids on 3 Trigun cels, exactly how much I forget.

About a week after the deadline for notification, thinking I'd lost all of them, I got an email telling me I'd won one of the 3 I'd put in for.

I think that cel cost me about $150 including the cost of the catalogue & shipping.

jenn-b · Post by **jenn-b** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 8:50 pm

Marauder wrote:For those interested, it looks like it will not be an auction at all. Here's the quote from their page:

"All listed items are only one of each available. If there are more than two applicants, we will use computer lottery to choose the winner.
This is no auction and all prices are FIXED as shown on the catalogue."

I think that's pretty self-explanitory.

I know that they state that, but then they turn right around and state:

You must enter both maximum price and lower price
The lower price should be either higher or equal to the fixed price.
You can list as many items as you wish for lottery items, but you can ONLY list ONE item for the first bid choice auction.
If you wish to bid more than one item for the first bid choice, you must purchase another copy of Mandarake Zembu Vol.24.

They say it's lottery, but it seems that they will also sell to the highest bidder

Marauder · Post by **Marauder** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 11:09 pm

Ah, good point, Jenn. I missed that. So I guess for items that are someone's "First Bid" choice, they treat it like an auction for those people (albeit a strange auction where high bidders might not win...?). And all other items that no one chooses as a first choice are given at purchase price in a (not-so) random lottery...

rallihir · Post by **rallihir** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 1:27 am

I imagine that it could be possible that the lottery system is used in case of a tie for the high bidder except in situations where one of the bidders assigns the item as his first priority bid.

Trilogy · Post by **Trilogy** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:52 pm

I thought I understood how it works, but when I wrote asking for clarification (Am I correct that if I buy two copies of the catalogue, I will be able to bid on two items?), I got the following answer:

"Regarding your question, yes, for First Choice Bid you can place a bid for two items if you buy two copies of the catalog. And for the lottery you can select the same items for each try. For example, you chose item number 7285 for one copy of catalog, you can still choose the same item for the other copy. But please note it can only apply for the lottery, not the first choise bid."

I thought like Marauder that if no one had it for a "First Choice" bid, then it would go to someone in the lottery, but why would someone put a bid on it AND list it on the lottery? Now I'm really confused.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:00 pm

I don't know, but I've heard before of some people buying several Zenbu catalogs just to have more chances in the lottery.

That always seemed kinda nutty to me considering how much each catalog costs. lol

Trilogy · Post by **Trilogy** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:18 pm

That always seemed kinda nutty to me considering how much each catalog costs.

I know it! But it looks like they're not adding their usual 10% (if I remember right) buyers premium, so maybe they figure charging 27 bucks for each bid makes up for it. It's still unclear to me whether bidders get first dibs on an item, so it would be doubly nutty to buy an extra catalogue if someone in the lottery had the advantage. Wouldn't it?

I should shut up now. I'm just making myself more confused.

Remi · Post by **Remi** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:25 pm

*tap tap* This thing on?

First thing they will do is process the one time auction bids. They will take the high bidders from that, and use some magical forumla I don't remember to calculate the winning bid for each of those items.

Once that is done, they will use the lottery system *cough* to determine who gets the remaining items that nobody put in for a one time bid.

I would guess most of the really rare, amazing shots will go out via the auction process, while the lesser shots or unpopular titles will be the only ones lotteried

"Regarding your question, yes, for First Choice Bid you can place a bid for two items if you buy two copies of the catalog. And for the lottery you can select the same items for each try. For example, you chose item number 7285 for one copy of catalog, you can still choose the same item for the other copy. But please note it can only apply for the lottery, not the first choise bid."

I thought like Marauder that if no one had it for a "First Choice" bid, then it would go to someone in the lottery, but why would someone put a bid on it AND list it on the lottery? Now I'm really confused.

What they are saying, is that you can use the same items for the lottery for every catalog. So you can write down 7285 in the lottery for one catalog, and then try again for it in the lottery of the second catalog, to double your chances of winning. So if you have two catalogs, you can write down the same 10 items in both catalogs and have double the chances on all of them, or you can write down 20 different items and go for all of those, or some combination thereof.

They are also saying you cannot use the first choice auction bid for the same item in both catalogs. Because the final price is dependent on other people's bids and the lower bid price, if someone understood their calcuations, you could auction bid for the same item twice in order to win it and lower your final price.

So in essence, they are saying you can lottery for the same items as many time as you want, once per catalog, but the one time auction has to be different for every catalog.

Tabbykitty · Post by **Tabbykitty** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 9:55 pm

egah...the whole thing sounds way too confusing to shell out $30 to may or may not have a chance at those cels *coughs eva...pretty pretty eva*If they really want some of these to go via auction bid-why not put them as part of their big web auctions and be done with it? Or perhaps they think that people will be more willing to shout obscene bids by mail? That hasn't seemed to be a problem in the past, judging by the insane amounts we've all seen some of the cels go for.

As much as I love and will drool over those pretty eva cels for as long as they are posted, it's just not worth it to me to buy the catalog and swim through a sea of strange directions to more then likely not get anything.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 11:41 pm

Mandarake said my Zenbu catalog was sent off today (Sunday Japan time). So I'll see what's there when it arrives. The last Zenbu catalog I bought was about two years ago and I didn't see anything in it that I wanted to go for. It could very well be different this time though based off preview pictures and the content of their auctions this past year (not higher quality cels, just which shows they're from).

Elfstalker · Post by **Elfstalker** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:28 am

I guess I am too tired to think straight, but have never seen a more convoluted process of auctioning/ selling a cel!

It's getting more complicated as each Zenbu comes out.

btw, if there are any X/1999 or Rayearth cels, can someone please contact me? Not that I have money, but you know how it goes...

...crawls off to try to study for Analytical Chemistry......