Ayumi Hamasaki Tour/Concert DVDs

[AyusakiFan]

Hello. I'm currently looking into buying Ayumi's concert DVDs but I want to make sure I avoid getting bootlegs. If it's listed as region free, should I automatically assume it's fake?

[zoomzoom]

Yea, Japanese releases will be region 2, overseas region 3. Unless they're VCD.

[Ranma Matsuri]

Yes. Countries put restrictions on DVD's to restrict trade outside of their country. So pretty much anything region free is a fake. All of Ayu DVD's are going to be either Region 2 (Japan) or Region 3 (Taiwan). If your laptop's DVD drive is Region Free then you can watch them on there, if you wanna watch them on your TV you need to either a.) Buy a region free dvd player which YA and Amazon sells or b.) rip it to your hard drive and copy it onto a DVD.

[AyusakiFan]

So are YesAsia, CDJapan, and Play-Asia trustworthy sites to buy DVDs?

[zoomzoom]

YesAsia and CDJapan are trustworthy, yea. You can click the links at the bottom of the front page of AHS to support the forum. Play-Asia should be trustworthy too though.

[AyusakiFan]

A couple of days ago, I did a Buy It Now on eBay for her Complete Clip Box but I just checked the auction and it says it's region free so I'm assuming it's a bootleg. I didn't pay for it yet so I requested for the transaction to be cancelled. If the seller gives me a hard time about cancelling the transaction, should I let them know that I know that they're selling a fake set and could report them to eBay?

[Polyrhythm]

Yes you should.

[AyusakiFan]

Thank you everyone. From now on, if it's not stating as a region 2 or region 3 DVD, I'm not buying it because I don't support bootlegging.

[AyusakiFan]

The seller sent me a request to cancel our transaction with no problems. I'm so happy because I did not want to feel obligated to buy a bootleg or have a conflict with the seller over the transaction. From now on, I'm going to avoid eBay as much as possible when it comes to buying her DVDs. I got burned once buy a seller who sold me a bootleg concert set so I won't be falling for that again.

[KarenPang]

yeah use Ebay only as a last resort to get items

sites like YesAsia , Play-Asia , HMV HK are trustworthy sites as they're established/reputable

on Ebay , you're basically taking a risk & you don't know if the other party's trustworthy to begin with or not

[AyusakiFan]

I completely agree with you. I've purchased items from YesAsia, Play-Asia, and CDJapan before with all good experiences. I haven't tried HMV HK so I'll have to look into them too. And if I HAVE to use eBay as a last resort, I'll always go to the Ayumi Hamasaki Seasons website and post here if I have any questions. Because honestly, you all saved me from possibly getting scammed twice and made me aware that I was scammed before with a bootleg of Ayumi Hamasaki's Next Level Tour. If I would have found this site before, I probably wouldn't have gotten scammed the first time. But at least I can prevent that from happening from now on.

[nanakopy87]

ya.i bought a bootleg before i join ahs.and i became clever once after i joined ahs XD
by the way,play-asia is having some sort of 'promotion' Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2009 A - Next Level [3DVD] at Play-Asia.com for USD 27.40
I bought it on the release date and i need to pay USD28.90
i should wait a little longer XD

[KarenPang]

I have relatively poor experiences with YesAsia . I prefer HMV HK by a long shot as to me I feel they're faster & more efficient

the downside's that HMV HK only accepts credit card for online payment but other than that , I have no further complaints . I get my items from them in 5 working days & fastest was 3 days for me & I didn't even use EMS . I just select registered airmail at their end

I'm lucky that I never got duped in to buy bootlegs items before but as they say , it's all part of learning though experience

[AyusakiFan]

Thank you so much for posting the link! I'll definetely be buying it as soon as I have some extra money for it. I have some stuff to sell on eBay so hopefully I can use the money I make to pay for it. It's weird, I always want something when it's first released but then I know the prices usually go down a bit once it's been out. So sometimes it's hard to juggle either having it when it just comes out or getting a cheaper later on.

But as far as YesAsia, they can be pretty slow but I'm never in a rush to get anything unless it's a new release. I've never purchased newly released items from them and I probably wouldn't if it's something that I want as quickly as possible (like I'm definetely looking into CDJapan for the MOON/Blossom release since many have said that you can get your preordered item quickly once it ships).

I wish I was never duped in the first place but as you said, it's a learning experience. If I had to get duped at all, I'm glad it was just once because I'm sure there are people out there who've been purchasing bootlegs on more than one occassion and don't even know it.

[KarenPang]

You also can get things relatively fast though HMV Japan , not just CDJapan

most recently , I ordered BREAKERZ LIVE TOUR 2009～2010 “FIGHTERZ” DVD though HMV Japan

the DVD cost 6,980 Yen inclusive of tax X_X but because I'm a HMV Japan member , I only paid 5,252 Yen for it excluding shipping

HMV Japan only has EMS as its shipping choice mode & they only take credit card but it's such campaigns they organised , special discounts they offer to online members which makes me even more willing to use their services more than CDJapan

if I order the FIGHTERZ DVD though CDJapan , even without shipping , it's 6,648 Yen & it's even more than what I paid for in total from HMV Japan

& oh yes I forget to say that I got the DVD on the same day as it was released in Japan which was this Wed . HMV Japan mailed out the DVD to me on Mon & I got it on Wed