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Limited Edition 17" Collector Dolls Information

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Limited Edition 17" Collector Dolls Information
I wish I had more "wisdom" on the European market, Myu, but the only experience I paid attention to was the March Frozen dolls incident, and that was an anomoly :(

However, I must admit this is the first LE release post-Froze craze, so only time will tell how these dolls will really be affected. Not only are there a lot more collectors and scalpers now, there are a lot more collectors who are scalpers (and yes, I'm looking at a few posters in this thread--anyone offended by that statement, I'm pointing at YOU).

To give you a rundown of past releases, Ariel took 2 days to sell out online. She's not only the most popular classic princess, she had 1,000 more units to sell. Before her, Cinderella took 2 MONTHS to sell out in preorder! As far as I remember, though, the in store presales sold out either the first day or the day after, so that Aurora's still available in some stores TWO days later says something. Eric and Ursula sold out in minutes, and mostly to scalpers judging by the amount that flooded eBay. You can still get those 2 at retail, so there you go.

My only advice to new collectors ordering in October--pay attention to time zones!!!! For Frozen, there was only one supply chain for all of Europe, so they all sold to Germany (?) because people got online an hour before everyone else. Don't remember which country, but it was heartbreaking to read everyone's disappointment, so I can only imagine how it felt </3

And most importantly: DON'T FEED THE SHARKS! Seriously, if we just exercised some constraint, there'd be no market for all this insanity. I wish we could come together to collectively end this nonsense. But it only takes a few weak / greedy links to perpetuate the inflation.

Okay, rant over. Sorry, everyone!
 
Totally agree with you! It's hard to believe that some dolls still were available for such a long time. The March release was really crazy, it was sold out even before the approximated time! I got them thanks to some link fairies <3 but i almost did not get them, it was already very late. I hope this was the first and last European doll nightmare!
 
I am sorry to say this but it is the link faires that are causing the majority of the issues by them putting the links up early the dolls are selling out before others have a chance to get them I really don't think its fair.
 
I'm disappointed I missed her. I was so fortunate to deal with the hospital that day and missed everything. Aurora has always been my favorite but I still don't want to pay the crazy prices for her. If I keep telling myself the stuff I don't like about the doll maybe I'll be okay with it haha. It's nice to see that most of the people that wanted her did get her. It sucks being overseas where your only chance is the American online pre-order.
 
On concerns over link fairies being part of the scalping/fast sell out problem:

I've seen people take issue with those who post 'early' links a few times - there was a lot of furious finger pointing after the March UK fiasco in particular - but really I think the problem lies with the Disney site itself.


The links that are posted aren't illicit in some way, they're not even 'early', they are simply the page which has officially gone live at the advertised time: 12:00am. You wouldn't be able to make a purchase with those links if Disney had not officially opened the doors for business (sometimes people find the item page days ahead of time, but there isn't a purchase button yet). Things get tricky because, even though the page is live and functional and Disney always advertises midnight sharp (not 15 minutes later), their system doesn't update to publicly show the new products until several minutes later. And several minutes can be deadly in the world of limited edition.


Personally I grovel at the feet of the link fairies because they are the only reason I have my LE Eric (who sold out just a couple minutes after he showed up publicly on the site). But I do understand how upsetting it would be for people unaware of communities like this where the links are posted, who just trust that the page will eventually pop up like the Disney ads said it would, and then bam. Already sold out. I would be beside myself with disappointment and confusion. I agree that makes it look like those links are unfair. But scalpers have every bit as much knowhow to figure out the address bar and get those very same links as the link fairies do. So without the fairies the scalpers would have free reign to ravage the stock before the rest of us ever saw it and then we'd all loose out. When collectors have the same access the scalpers do at least then they have to fight us for stock as much as we fight them.


In my eyes the problem lies with the Disney Store not making the page publicly viewable at the advertised time - that's where the disparity of access for purchase is coming from. So any frustration would be better directed at them to improve their site so it updates at the correct time, not a quarter of an hour later. And/or allow the page to be public before going live, then all people have to refresh for is the 'add to cart' button which everyone would have access to at the same time​.


That's my (long and ranty) 2 cents on the matter anyway.
 
To be honest I owe the link fairies a lot. Is it unfair that the item is sold out before it's even visible on the page? Yes, probably, but most collectors are able to get these links, which are shared on several social sites. If people only kept them for themselves and emptied the stock, it would be awful, but fellow collectors share the link among them, making it possible for most people to get their wanted item (page crashes of course not included - I didn't experience such issues on the day of Aurora, only that the page froze for a few seconds when I clicked the link, after that it was a bit slow, but smooth - I am not sure why some experienced crashes and others didn't)
Then what about the regular people only checking the disneystore? Well, they lose out and it might sound mean... but that's life. If you really want something, you have to be prepared to the fullest - no half meassures. That's how collecting is. Just like some people have to pay for disney's outrages international shipping prices. For me Aurora costs a total of 208 USD.
 
I think kabe is right – the fault is not in the people who find the links and SHARE them to HELP others.
The fault lies in Disney for not managing what thousands of others sites manage – to provide equal chances for everyone by taking the page live AND having it shown at the same time.
I also missed out on the Frozen LE dolls in March in Europe – because I didn't know of any european sites who shared the links. I only found them afterwards. So what, it was probably also my fault for not looking good enough.
Though I don't understand anything techincal, I keep asking myself if the pages are found by just know how (which would be okay) OR if there are people in Disney who share those links, otherwise not to come by, to "friends" and so on? Because in that case, it would not be okay.
 
The Disney site is pretty horrible. I got lucky and found the link on facebook, and shared it with everyone on the forum here. If it wasn't for facebook, myself and maybe others wouldn't have had a pre-order.

I refreshed the site after my purchase just to see when Aurora would pop up. She showed up on the site at 12:12 PST (3:12 EST). A whopping 12 minutes after advertised. And then was sold out only 3 minutes later.

Why can people see the links before others? IMO Disney should show the link, with the preorder button greyed out. Then at 12, it becomes active and you have the possibility to purchase it.
 
You also have to keep in mind that the number of people ordering from the UK has also grown exponentially since the frozen fiasco.

What do you guys think if Disney limited these dolls to one per guest/household and only opened the preorder window for 12 hours. After those 12 hours, they determine the edition numbers. They can round them up and produce more for security purposes.

I mean, you lose the thrill of having lower LEs, but more people will be satisfied.
 
Did not know that for some people low numbers are that important. I don't care about the numbers as long as i get one.
 
I completely agree with Kabe. The link fairies have helped me get a lot of my dolls that otherwise I might have missed. Like Kabe said, when you do a search for the dolls at midnight, they are not there. That's the problem - the Disney Site!!! I thank the link fairies. :)
 
I agree that the link fairies are very helpful to us collectors, one can not blame them for the dolls selling out. I think that without the link fairies I may not have the dolls that I have because DISNEY takes forever to update their site. Ultimately, it's disneys fault for having such a shotty website.............it's been like that for YEARS!
 
The link faeries get their links easily, if you really want to know how pm me. I'm open to helping members.
 
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chubs191 said:
As long as you know what the item is going to be called, you can search for it on Google and find it relatively quickly. That's how the link faeries go about getting the link before it's searchable on the actual website. I found the Art of Aurora pin just now on Google, despite it not being searchable on the Disney Store website. That should help the rest of you get what you want without the frustrations of waiting for it to go live.
Click to expand...

So it would appear on google before the disney site? That's so weird
 
chubs191 said:
As long as you know what the item is going to be called, you can search for it on Google and find it relatively quickly. That's how the link faeries go about getting the link before it's searchable on the actual website. I found the Art of Aurora pin just now on Google, despite it not being searchable on the Disney Store website. That should help the rest of you get what you want without the frustrations of waiting for it to go live.
Click to expand...

How interesting, I had no idea. I am grateful for the link fairies as well because I don't think I would have gotten Aurora without a link being posted as quickly as it did. I'll have to try the google trick, I would love to know what technicalities make that be, like how google can access it before DS guests can.
 
Hehe ok I have been a bit rough on the link faries because truth be told they have helped me to even during that Snow White Designer doll episode Gosh that was a while now haha well as long as they come to my aide when the Disney Designer couples come up then it will be fine ;)
 
In March the only thing that stopped me getting both dolls at retail was DS stupid website that doesn't at least give you 5 mins to check out like Amazon does. I had them in my cart three times and had entered my info only for it to then say unavailable.

But people who tried after me got the dolls. Yes it was a fiasco that they all got allocated to the ds.de site but DS shopping cart software didn't help either....
 
It's unfortunate that they can't properly code it to be searchable when it's live. Also, I wish they would have a time limit on the items in your cart that it's saved before giving it to the next person. They also could combine it with a wait room feature, that would give high volume items to the first people and then have a wait list if the people don't purchase it in the time frame. They have a poorly designed website that hasn't really evolved in the last few years, especially considering they have a wide audience.
 
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Quasimodo said:
As for the doll itself, she looks really grand in her box, almost like she fills it up more than most of the LE do. I'm not fond of the tinsel in her hair, though. Like someone else mentioned, there's too much of it and it looks messy. I'm hoping the varies from doll to doll and that I can score one with minimal glitter.

The staff at my store said they think it was to emulate the glow from the spindle scene. I think that would be a lot cuter of a theory if her dress were blue like in that scene. I think Disney just loves glitter and will give all golden-haired dolls tinsel.
Click to expand...

I agree that they have made the inexplicable decisions to give all of the long-haired blonde dolls the god strands in their hair. It made sense for LE Rapunzel as the girl with the magic glowing hair, and she was the first to be released. It was confusing on LE Alice, but it works, perhaps partially because the rest of her ensemble is not decked out in an explosion of gems other than the faux diamond buttons on her bodice. For LE Aurora, I think I can easily embrace it for two reasons: 1) It does work on LE Alice without being too distracting, and 2) As the last of the fully hand-drawn Disney animated films (with not even xerox technology which was developed and used a few years later), Aurora's hair in the film has golden yellow lines to outline the curls of her hair, so this seems appropriate. If anything, I think that if there is any connection to the film, it is not with the hypnotizing spindle scene so much as her hair of sunshine gold. Now if only they would give her lips as red as the rose... But yes, I think at the end of the day, the Disney Store does love sparkles and glitter.
 
I like the golden thread in her hair, auroras hair is described as sunshine gold. Either way, I find it beautiful with the golden threads ;-)
 
Frozen_Jane said:
In March the only thing that stopped me getting both dolls at retail was DS stupid website that doesn't at least give you 5 mins to check out like Amazon does. I had them in my cart three times and had entered my info only for it to then say unavailable.

But people who tried after me got the dolls. Yes it was a fiasco that they all got allocated to the ds.de site but DS shopping cart software didn't help either....
Click to expand...

I would suggest saving your info to your disney account, so when the time comes, click twice then done! Goes super quick
 
I can't wait to get my limited edition Aurora doll in October 7. It was a bit of a hassle to convince my mother since she doesn't care about these doll, but in the end it all worked out for me.:p:drool:
 
Couldn't resist and ordered 17 inches LE Ariel on ebay for 215 € (nearly 280 US Dollar). She is so beautiful, cannot wait to see her in person. Don't think that her price will decrease in the future. She is along with Coronation Anna the LE i desire the most. In my opinion LE Ariel is even more beautiful than the Elsa Dolls.
 
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