Let Me Be Clear - All Our Japanese Imported Products Are Perfectly Safe

Considering that we have gotten at least four dozen inquires over the last few days about the safety of Japanese products, I feel like I need to make a public post to address the issue. I want to assure everyone who has any possible concern that there is absolutely no danger regarding radiation levels from anything we import from Japan, and I just want to make a couple of points about that:

1) Anything that we currently have in our warehouse was either already here or was in transit via ocean freight before the crisis in Japan occurred. This will be the case for anything new arriving here through at least mid-April.

2) Due to the odd nature of the Japanese Anime industry, almost none of the products we carry are actually made in or originate from Japan. For example: all domestic DVD's and Manga are obviously made in North America.  Most US Anime character merchandise is made under license by subcontractors in China and exported directly to the US. And since we deal directly with the big character figure firms in Japan (like Max Factory and Good Smile), and only import what they authorize for sale outside Japan, just about all our figures and toys ship directly to the US from the subcontractors in China (usually via Hong Kong) where they are produced and never see mainland Japan. The Japanese moved character item manufacturing to China a long time ago.

3) The only items that we get regularly from Tokyo are R2 DVD/BD's, Music CD's, and imported books like Magazines and Illustration collections. There are also a few character items that may pass through Japan on it's way to us. Any shipments of these items made after March 16th (to make everyone feel better) will be double checked on our dock with a digital meter (yes, oddly enough, we do have one) prior to going into stock here at our warehouse.

Frankly, I feel a little silly to even make this post, but too many people are writing in about it. There is clearly a lot of underlying concern, and I hope this helps put every one's mind at ease. Nuff said.

Have An Amazon Gift Certificate? You Can Spend it at RACS like Cash!

Several customers have inquired recently about how they might redeem an Amazon gift code or certificate here at RACS, so I though I'd do a quick post about it.

First, can you redeem an Amazon gift certificate or gift at RACS? Why, yes, I don't see why not (though our FAQ doesn't specifically mention this right now). Now obviously we cannot setup the store to automatically accept an Amazon gift code, but, you CAN spend an Amazon gift card here at RACS via mail order. Do you have something that looks like this laying around:

We will treat your valid, unredeemed Amazon gift certificate or gift code just like cash at full face value, so just place your order and select 'check' or 'money order' as your payment option, and then mail in your Amazon gift certificate or gift code (make sure we know the amount it's good for) to us along with any balance that might be due (via check or money order) and we will apply it your our order just like it's cash. Also, don't want to mail them, you can just drop the Amazon claim code # and dollar amount from the gift certificate into the comments box on the order form, or e-mail it (them) to us  (be sure to include your order #) after you place your order and we'll apply them to the order balance. This would work for credit card orders as well as long as you don't mind us adjusting the balance of the order by the amount of the gift certificate on our end AFTER the order is placed. How's that sound? :-)

Summer Wars 'O-Card' Available Directly from Funimation

As many of you know, FUNimation shipped the latest batch of Summer Wars DVD's without the 'O-Card' (which is the slip cover). Since we ran out of the first press versions about a week ago we have started shipping these non cover copies to customers over the last few days.

These non-first pressing versions do not include the special art card pack in, but they were supposed to  still come with the 'O-Card' slip covers.

If you received a copy of Summer Wars from us without the slip cover, you can request it from FUNimation directly, just fill out the form located here. And don't forget, be sure to select your 'place of purchase' as "Robert's Anime Corner Store". :-)

Average Transit Times - Various Postal Delivery Methods

I was looking over some of our aggregate delivery statistics for the last 30 days and wanted to give you a glimpse of what delivery time averages look like taken over a couple thousand shipments.

Here are the time in transit averages for RACS packages to all destinations:

This sample represents about 1,760 postal shipments made over the past 30 days from our warehouse in Winchester, VA. Not bad really considering all the recent weather events we've had. The anomalous 'maximum' packages, which are less than 1%, are probably stuff that got stuck during one of the big snow storms in January. Those parcels can be delayed by other things too, like when a customer gives us an incomplete address, so it's not always the post office's fault.

The 'International' tab reflects Airmail and Air Parcel Post shipments. 6-9 days is pretty good, but not quite as good as the Post Office would have you believe. This is why we recommend FedEx International, which is 1-3 days and is fully trackable.

'Priority Mail', billed as a 2-3 day service by the post office, is not actually quite that good, with 'First Class' mail actually having a slightly better time in transit ratio. This is why we use first class mail for all postal shipments under 16 ounces. When the post office is concerned, you don't always get what you pay for.

'Package Services' covers the mail classes we frequently use for economy and super saver shipments. As you can see our super saver shipping option, free over $50, is an awfully good value proposition as far as time in transit is concerned. Often the difference between 'free' super saver and $12 or $14 for Priority Mail ends up being only 1 or 2 days in transit. Of course, that's all the difference if you are ordering on Wednesday and want the stuff for the weekend, isn't it? :-)

GETTING SOCIAL WITH RACS IS EASIER THAN EVER!

Just FYI folks, we've made it easier than ever to get social with RACS! You can use the following easy to remember links to find us on Twitter, Facebook, or our official blog:

To find us on FACEBOOK just use:
www.animecorner.com/facebook

To follow our TWITTER feed just use:
www.animecorner.com/twitter

And of course, you can find our official BLOG anytime at this address:
www.animecorner.com/blog

Be sure to share these links with your friends too - THANKS!

Weather Alert - Expect Time in Transit Delays

We have managed to dodge the bullet so far here are RACS HQ with only ice out of this last big winter storm, and it has not effected our daily operations too much. In fact the problem hasn't really been getting orders out, as much as getting new stuff in from the vendors. For example, even though Funi is in Texas, all their product ships out of Navarre's warehouse in Minnesota. Think about that.

Anyway, because so much of the country is getting slammed by so much snow, ice, and blizzard conditions, especially to the North and West of us, I thought I'd better post a little something about it. So here it is:

Due to severe winter conditions in the Mid-West and North East region of the US, some delays may be expected during the usual in transit time of your orders. Please allow extra time for the delivery of your orders, even if you live in an area not effected by the winter storms. Because of the scope and extent of the storms, it's likely that freight schedules will be effected nationwide.

Winter Wonderland Closing Notice

It's officially a winter wonderland here today after a blanket of around 12 inches of heavy wet snow covered the landscape.

RACS HQ and warehouse will be closed today while we dig out, but we'll back in bright an early tomorrow morning - I'm even going to post some updates from home later today - so keep those orders coming and we'll get them out to you as soon as we can!

RACS Store Site Server Maintenance / Upgrades Notice

Just and FYI folks.

We'll be performing server maintenance and upgrades over the next day or so.

Most of what we are doing will be transparent to you and and will not effect the live store site, but if you run into any anomalies on the store site (especially late this evening or overnight tonight), this is probably why.

We'll try to keep all the weird animal noises to a minimum while we're working... -_^

New RACS Shipping Rates - Economy Shipping Now Free Over $49!

We've been revamping our shipping rates and schedule to be more compatible with our new (slightly heavier) eco-friendly packaging material, and to try to deal with the massive rate increases imposed on us by both UPS and the Post Office starting at the beginning of the year.

So here are the changes we've made, in a nut shell:

RACS SUPER SAVER (ECONOMY) SHIPPING IS NOW FREE OVER $49!
Super Saver (economy) - In exchange for slightly higher Priority Mail rates, we have LOWERED the threshold for our Super Saver free shipping option in half DOWN TO ONLY $49 shippable total, and we have made economy shipping our DEFAULT shipping method. It's what 63% of you already choose anyway, so I think this just makes sense. Super Saver orders will ship either standard mail or ground service (at our discretion). We are getting an average delivery time of 4.3 days for standard mail anyway vs. 2.8 day for priority mail, so again, this just makes sense.


Priority Mail - This is the biggest change. Priority Mail will remain available but will no longer be our standard shipping option - meaning you'll have to select it now at checkout. Our Pri Mail shipping rates have been increased, especially for larger orders, to reflect the reality of the Postal Service's recent rate hikes (again). The post office has increased transportation costs across the board, has now added the zoning of all weight classes all the way down to 1 lb, and has implemented even stricter dimensional size restrictions with extra charges for even what we consider small packages. A regular 2 lb parcel (that's 3 manga, for instance) to the west coast is now costing us $9.55 in postage alone for Pri Mail, and it's clear the post office is trying to discourage people from using the service as their Pri Mail rates are now comparable or higher for us than 2nd day air with a commercial carrier. Please keep in mind we have not changed our Priority Mail rates through 4 years of rate increases, and these adjustments are really way overdue.

FedEx - Our FedEx Air and FedEx Ground rates have stayed the same. FedEx 2nd Day day air is still flat rate $16.98 any order. FedEx ground (home delivery) is still flat rate $12.98 any order. All FedEx parcels ship fully insured, are fully trackable, and FedEx ground still delivers ground parcels on Saturday at no extra charge.

UPS - Our primary ground carrier is FedEx, but we know some of you like UPS. UPS ground service is still available but is no longer flat rate. The new cost now $9.95 + $1 per lb anywhere in the continental US. This change helps us deal with their new dimensional weight requirements for all parcels larger than, well, basically a snuff box. All UPS parcels ship fully insured and are fully trackable. UPS air freight service is not available, but wasn't before either. All RACS air parcels still ship FedEx.

Overseas - For international shipments, our Canadian rates have been increased slightly but are still very competitive. We haven't raised those rates for 4 years either, so we really needed to bring them in line with reality. I'm looking into a free shipping threshold for Canada also, so we're looking into a few different shipping options we might be able to use to make that possible. EMS and FedEx International rates are unchanged except to Australia, where they have increased about 4 1/2% to offset the additional remote zone delivery fees we are now incurring to that zone. Most of that increase effects smaller parcels under 5lbs, and rates for over 5lbs to that zone have hardly changed at all.

That's about everything. We've done a lot of testing prior to making these new rates live, but if you experience any 'glitches' while trying to place an order, please let us know. :-)

Slight SNAFU With Postal Tracking for Holiday Shipments

I just want to make everyone aware of a problem with postal tracking that isn't really a problem, but has been a cause of concern for folks that are getting nervous about the shipping of their holiday orders.

The postal folks at our local sort center here in Winchester, VA are so busy (or so under staffed) this year that some of our parcels are coming off our truck and going right into local sort and loaded into outgoing trailers without getting scanned. Since the post office really only offers 'delivery confirmation' anyway instead of real tracking, it's OK for them to skip this step to save time when they have to, but it does mean that some of our tracking numbers for priority mail and standard mail shipments will come up as 'invalid' online even though we've shipped them out. I expect this to continue through next week, so don't be too concerned if you get a shipping confirmation from us and the postal tracker shows 'invalid' for a couple of days.

Don't worry, we really did ship it (every shipment here goes on the truck the day the tracking number is generated), it's on the way, and it will pop up in the Postal Service's tracking system the first time it gets scanned somewhere in route - or when it gets delivered, which ever comes first.

Store Outage - Resolved!

Just a quick FYI to everyone who had trouble getting on the store Saturday afternoon. And no, it was not network overload - I wish!

We use Yahoo's servers in Houston (with a backup in San Diego) to host the primary store site, and they experienced a pretty nasty DoS (denial of service) attack across their whole infrastructure today. Our store is one of the big ones and sits across a distributed network so I'm not exactly sure how long it was down for any one DNS, but it looks like the attack caused the RACS store to be at least intermittently down for about 3 hours between around 12:50 pm and 4:02 pm PST (that was around 3 to 6 PM here).

Anyway, their engineers at the NOC center in Houston did a great job and have now resolved the issue and we are back up and running.

Apologies to anyone who could not get on the store, or was trying to place on order during that short window on Saturday.

PS: And yes, it's 1:58am and yes I am just finishing up my day. Thanks for asking. :-)

UPDATE: Looks like the DoS attack that took down Yahoo's e-comm servers was related to Operation Payback. I wonder if these people actually know who they are hurting when they do this stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Just wanted to post a reminder that we will be closed for business tomorrow, Thursday, November 25th for the Thanksgiving holiday, but we will be back at it on Friday filling and shipping all of your holiday orders and answering e-mails. Most of the other online Anime stores will be closed on Friday, so if there is anything you need we can take care of it for you.

While you are giving thanks this holiday season, and taking advantage of all the big box mover excess inventory giveaways, try to take a moment and think about all the small business people in America trying to hang on to their dreams during this resession. It's been another tough year, but we still have each other, and that's a lot to give thanks for. Stay safe this weekend, and enjoy your Anime!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :-)

Japan Post Suspends Air Parcel Shipments to the US - Sort of...

There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of days about Japan Post suspending all Airmail and EMS shipments between Japan and the US that are over 16oz (1lb). Frankly, the press releases made by Japan Post have been somewhat contradictory regarding this, but as of this time the reports coming out of Japan look like this:

The Japan Post Office announced November 12 that from November 17 it would indefinitely stop accepting mail parcels to the United States weighing more than 453 grams. The Post Office has at this time given no indication of how long this suspension will last only saying that it is “for the time being.” This suspension includes all regular international airmail parcels, as well as EMS. The Japan Post Office (JPO) has cut Japan off from the US entirely, at least as far as airmail parcels over a pound in weight go. The reason the JPO gives for this action is that following attempts to send explosives through air cargo from Yemen to the US, American security measures for air cargo have become increasingly severe. America and Guam are included in this provision, raising the strong possibility that Christmas and year end parcels will not be able to be sent from Japan to the US, which is likely to cause massive confusion.

Another reports says this:

The Japan Post Office announced November 12 that from November 17 it would indefinitely stop accepting mail parcels to the United States weighing more than 453 grams. The Post Office has at this time given no indication of how long this suspension will last only saying that it is “for the time being.” This suspension includes all regular international airmail parcels, as well as EMS. The Japan Post Office (JPO) has cut Japan off from the US entirely, at least as far as airmail parcels over a pound in weight go. The reason the JPO gives for this action is that following attempts to send explosives through air cargo from Yemen to the US, American security measures for air cargo have become increasingly severe. America and Guam are included in this provision, raising the strong possibility that Christmas and year end parcels will not be able to be sent from Japan to the US, which is likely to cause massive confusion. According to the Asahi Shinbun, parcels to the US from Japan now account for over 15% of international mail, and approximately 200,000 parcels are sent monthly from Japan to the US. Private consumers will be affected by this ban, however individuals and businesses with JPO commercial accounts will not be affected. As of this writing, no other post services has announced similar measures, and the United States Post Office has not reported plans to limit the weight or shipment of air mail parcels to Japan. At the beginning of November when Greece had several bombs sent through the mail, airmail was stopped in Greece for two days. No other major postal service in the world has ever announced an “indefinite” ban on airmail packages. Since privatization the JPO has been the object of a political tug of war between those who want to entirely or partially end its privatization and those who support continued privatization. The management at top levels of the JPO has drawn censure across the political spectrum, with the problems of the Japan Post’s 'Yu-pack”'deliver system drawing particularly harsh criticism. Foreign users have complained about the proliferation of required documentation for mail and packages to and from foreign countries that did not previously exist and question their necessity. Banning all airmail packages over 453 grams to the US from November 17 will cause wide spread inconvenience and resentment, particularly among smaller business and individuals.

If this is true, and it's hard to believe that it is, the Japanese Postal Service has effectively cut off all small parcel business from Japan to the United states.

And while this will not effect us (as a business we have an import license and use commercial carriers for all of our import shipments), it will most certainly ruin the day of anyone who likes to order character figures or other Japanese goods, or even manga and large DVD or BD shipments directly from Japanese vendors. Japanese vendors will have to use FedEx, DHL, or UPS for small parcel shipments, and that will be quite a bit more expensive. This would also totally screw most of the small US shops that sell Japanese character figures as they tend to import directly from Japanese retail stores in small lots.

This story is still developing, so I'm hoping to have an update later today.

UPDATE: More here.

UPDATE 2: I have now heard from several vendors in Japan who have confirmed that the new restrictions will not effect shipments from Japanese businesses that have commercial mailing accounts, though they all did agree that Airmail and EMS deliveries from Japan will now take longer now that US Customs is going to step up inspections of inbound parcels from Japan.

None of the new rules will effect our business operations or RACS customers.

Encoding Error Notice - DBZ Uncut Set #3

Funi has informed us of an encoding error in most recent production run of the Dragon Ball Z Season 3 Uncut DVD Set. (The second disc contains episodes from the fifth disc.)

Now, I do not think RACS had actually shipped any of the defective boxes to our customers before we were able to pull the defective inventory. We use first in / first out inventory, so boxes from the last batch shipped to us probably hadn't yet made it up front in the pick cycle.

Never the less, if you have purchased this box set in the last few weeks and are effected by the issue, just contact Funimation directly at 972-537-0871 or email them to have a replacement disc sent to you.

Have you noticed there are a lot of QC issues coming out of Funi lately? Not sure what's going on with that.

Hobby Search Gives Away Customers Credit Card Numbers

One of our competitors in Japan (Hobby Search) sent this notice out to their customers recently, forcing thousands of people to cancel and have reissued their credit cards used to purchase Anime figures and merchandise directly from them in Japan:

Dear Hobby Search customer:

We are writing to let you know of a hacker or hackers that penetrated our computer system and accessed customer data including credit card information.

At the time of writing, we do not know of any of this information being available publicly. It is important to us that you, the customer, do not experience any monetary damages because of this incident, and have provided the information of all the cards that may have been involved in this incident to each of the credit card companies so that they may monitor the activity on these cards. If you have any concerns about the security of your card, please contact the card company (via the number on the back of your credit card).

Also, although we have switched to a more secure credit card transaction system that only stores the last four digits of your card on our databases on July 7, 2010, we have disabled credit card payments indefinitely.

The credit cards involved in this incident are those used in orders prior to July 7, 2010 (a maximum of 23,526 cards), and we are notifying those affected with this email.

The information that may have been accessed - Credit card numbers, expiration dates, cardholder names

We do not store personal verification passwords or security codes on our databases, so these have not been accessed. Again, we have switched to a more secure credit transaction system on July 7 that only stored the last four digits of those cards and cannot be abused by a third party. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience or concern that this incident may have caused.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, my opposite number over at Hobby Search, cannot be pleased.

Now you all know it's a bit of a pain to re-enter your order data on our store site everytime you place an order with us - in fact, I write about it here on our FAQ - but when you do you can rest assured that because we don't maintain a public server that stores customer address and payment transaction data, the information that you give us can never be stolen or accessed by outside parties.

Anyone can tell you their public servers and/or payment platforms are secure, but are they really? How can they ever be sure? We'll, we're sure here, because we don't ever give hackers a chance.

Authentic vs Counterfeit Figures & Holo Stickers

Everyone who's been around here for awhile knows I HATE bootlegs. Well, I've been reading a lot of forum comments lately posted by so called 'expert' collectors regarding how to tell authentic Japanese Anime figures from counterfeits made in Hong Kong or China. Some folks seem to think that all Japanese figures without the little foil Holo stickers are counterfeits, but this is just not true - it's a little more complicated than that.

The foil holo stickers are not affixed to a figure as a certificate of authenticity, they are actually little Japanese tax stamps. You see, virtually no Japanese figures are actually made in Japan anymore, their manufacture is usually outsourced to China by the Japanese marketing companies (like Good Smile or Alter for instance - and no, the irony does not escape me), and then they are shipped into Japan often via Hong Kong. When they enter Japan they need to have the foil sticker affixed to show that the Japanese taxes have been paid, but this only applies to units originally destined to be sold on the Japanese market.

Figures that are allocated to the export market (i.e. - to us) can come two ways. First, we may get inventory that was left over or part of a batch originally intended to go to Japan (in which case they will almost always have the stickers), or we may get inventory that is specifically allocated to ship directly to the United States from the factory. These figure usually will not have the foil stickers, but are no less authentic than the ones that go to the Japanese market. In fact, they are exactly the same unless they are a specific series or variant exclusive to the export market.

So the manufacturer stickers or stamps depends on the point of origination, primary destination, and varies by manufacturer. For instance, Good Smile usually ships us inventory left over from Japanese destined production runs, while Megahouse usually allocates inventory directly into the export market that bypasses Japan. This explains, for example, why few of the One Piece figures we get have the foil stickers (well, at least the EX versions, the Bandai ones usually do). No matter if they do or don't, it's only a result of the where a particular product batch gets sourced by the manufacturer.

So the theory that the foil stickers automatically represent authenticity is a fallacy. Not only do many of the good counterfeits out there have the holo stickers (I've seen them), the presence of the stickers does not in any way influence the value or 'collectability' of an authentic release.

Remember, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. The best way to ensure that you are always getting a 100% authentic product, and not getting ripped off, is to only source your figures from a dealer that offers a 100% authentic guarantee. Someone like us for instance. :-)

Funimation's New Release Format

Funimation has decided to return to offering collector editions for anime titles starting in January, which will include a rigid box and a premium item. These premium editions will be available for the FIRST PRESSING ONLY and cost US$5 more than the regular editions that will be a plain cardstock box, slim case DVDs, and no premium item.

The first batch of premium first pressings include:

Black Butler Season 1 Part 1 DVD Collection (Eps #1-12)
Premium Item: TBA

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom DVD Collection #1 (Eps #1-13)
Premium Item: A bullet chain necklace

Sacred Blacksmith Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)
Premium Item: 32-page art booklet with centerfold

The two editions will be created for complete 13-episode series releases and for the "Part 1" of two-part (24 or 26 episode) series releases.

We will be shipping the new premium sets to all customers who pre-order these titles, and then whatever we have leftover until they are sold out, at which time we will switch to the standard editions at the slightly lower price, but we won't be offering the standard editions for sale until the premium edition is sold out.

In addition to the new premium sets, Funi will launch a new line for its anime titles called "Anime Classics." This will become their other 'end of life' label and will take it's place beside their S.A.V.E. edition economy sets as the final and last stage release version of a series. The first title under this label will be the Gantz boxed set being released in January.

Media Blasters / Allegro Media Partnership

Media Blasters made the announcement this week that they have struck a deal with Allegro Media (a small entertainment media firm that hasn't updated the news section of their website since January) to handle sales and distribution of all Media Blasters Anime and movie labels starting in December. That includes everything published under the Anime Works, Tokyo Shock, and their other live action movie labels. Interestingly, Kitty (their adult Anime line and no doubt their most profitable) will remain in house and will not go out to Allegro.

Most of you guys probably don't know this, but Media Blasters closed up their New Jersey distribution warehouse over the summer (and sadly layed off all the staff there), and outsourced all of their retailer fulfillment to Brand X's wholesale warehousing and shipping service. That was shortly after they shut down their manga division. This transition has been one of the big causes of all the MB backorders and stockouts since July. Now, it seems, they will be moving their inventory again out to Allegro's warehouse over the next few weeks - all of this going on during the busiest selling season of the year. While MB was making a lot of promises to us back in September that weren't filled , I now expect the major stockouts and shortages to last well into January, which can't been good - especially over the holiday selling season.

Regarding the move, John Sirabella (President of Media Blasters) said that this arrangement:

"frees up Media Blasters to focus on localizing properties for the US market, developing new features and series, and producing the highest possible quality DVD, Blu-ray, and digitally distributed releases."

Really? And it has nothing to do with cost cutting due to declining revenue and market share? We'll, no one can ever say THAT publicly - except me - it seems. I've been around this business for a LONG time, and have seen a lot of Anime companies come and go. One thing I would make an observation about is that when a studio outsources their retailer fulfillment, it just means they are trying to cut costs, but when they outsource the outside sales function too, it usually means the company is either going down the tubes, or is no longer planning to pursue that aspect of the business. If you are interested in staying in the Anime business, you keep your sales function IN HOUSE. Period.

We were informed of Media Blasters deal with Allegro last Friday afternoon, before it went public on Monday. I was tempted to fire off a quick blog post to 'break' the news, but I decided to hold off for a few days - frankly because it was a little depressing and I just didn't feel like writing about it at the time. At the end of the day, I hope Media Blasters is not ending up just another casualty of the R1 downturn. Hopefully this is not the case.

Nowadays, MB is the only company left with the guts to license titles like Kanokon or Queens Blade. Come on John, stay with us man, the Anime community needs you.

RACS 'Sustain the Industry' Video Challenge

In last weeks newsletter I highlighted how a small movement has appeared via YouTube titled "Sustain the Industry," in which fans detail their monthly anime-related purchases in an attempt to encourage fans to purchase anime DVDs, manga volumes, and/or merchandise.



We've decided to take the original concept to the next level, and offer a $25 merchandise coupon to any RACS fans who posts a YouTube video in that thread highlighting what they purchased from the Anime Corner Store. We're calling this our RACS 'Sustain the Industry' Video Challenge.

The rules are very simple. All you have to do is place an order on the Corner Store, create and post your video (remember, you have the show the receipt in the video - and make sure to show your stuff too!), and then e-mail me with your NAME, the video's LINK (the URL) AND your RACS ORDER NUMBER and I'll e-mail you back with a $25 Anime Corner coupon code that can be used on your next order.

One code per customer please. Order highlighted in your video must have been placed on or after Sept 1st, 2010. Offer is good for video's posted through the end of October, so crank up those video cameras and get some free Anime from RACS!

UPDATE: Obviously, in exchange for the coupon credit we want you to plug what you purchased at our store - AND ONLY OUR STORE - in your video. Please do a separate video for stuff you might have purchased somewhere else - you know - at one of those lesser establishments. Thanks! :-)

Media Blasters Update

With all the date pushes and missed street dates recently,a lot of you have been writing in asking me about what's going on at Media Blasters. Well, the rumors floating around of their demise (like those of mine) are grossly exaggerated.

What is actually going on is that they have outsourced their warehouse operations, and moving their huge inventory plus ramping operations at the new facility is taking longer than they expected. Not only is this the reason for the recent date pushes, it's the reason for the late arrivals of several titles. Moves like this are supposed to be transparent to the customer base, but I can tell you (having done them) they NEVER work out that way.

I know this has been very frustrating for some of you, but I talked to the folks at MB in length yesterday and got a pretty good idea of where they are at with the move and what's going on with some of the titles you have been asking about. The two current late titles Genshiken DX and Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny, Vol #3 are both scheduled to start shipping late next week. Also, titles that haven't been available for awhile like the Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan Special Edition and the Ah My Buddha Complete Boxed Set are finally back in replication and should all be back in stock by the end of the month. Considering the difficulties they have experienced changing over their warehouse operations it's probably a good thing they did it mid-year so that everything will be back up and running before the holiday season kicks off next month (that's around mid-October for us).

So please continue to be patient a little longer while they get their schedule back on track.