Sugary Carnival aftermath

Saturday the 26th of March 2011- I was preparing for a frilly day of fun with my local lolita group. I was all dressed up in my dream print and had such a great time. I was completely oblivious to the increasingly frenzied activity happening online. I came back home roughly 7 and a half hours later. What do I find? Yes, you guessed it- Angelic Pretty had re-released Sugary Carnival and had already almost completely sold out.

I think this just shows how immensely popular Sugary Carnival is. It only took just over 7 hours for the news to spread and for Sugary Carnival to come and go. Why do these things always happen when I go out?

But what exactly has this re-release done?

I guess the people affected the most by this event would be those who paid an excruciatingly high amount to get hold of this print. Suddenly, people were buying Sugary Carnival at retail price again. My sympathy goes out to you if you are one of these people. A re-release usually affects the re-sell price as well. So has the value of Sugary Carnival lowered?

The answer is probably no. I had a quick look online and I found a Sugary Carnival set (JSK, bow and socks) being sold on a Japanese auction site. The starting price for this auction is 80,000yen. That works out roughly at £590 or $952. Of course, we would need to consider that the seller may not be able to sell the set for this price. Another seller was selling just the OP with bids starting at 33,000yen. It is currently at 33,500yen with 2 bids on it but it still has a lot of time to go. The retail price for the OP was 27,090yen. So the OP seller is still selling above retail price and already has bids on it. It will be interesting to see how much higher the OP auction will go.

Although some people may be annoyed that they spent a lot of money only for the print to come out again, it is worth noting that you may have missed out on getting the print cheaply anyway. I don't know the exact quantities that were available for the re-release but there are still lots of lolitas out there who have been left empty-handed. These people will probably end up spending a much larger price anyway. The most important thing to do is look around. Some people may have purchased this dress intending to sell it straight away at a marked up price. Just look at the 2 auctions I mentioned above- the prices are very different (I should point out I am not suggesting that the sellers from these 2 auctions are marking up their prices deliberately).

Another interesting part about Sugary Carnival is the recent replica released by Dream of Lolita. I feel it is important to mention to any replica haters out there, that despite this replica being made, Angelic Pretty still managed to sell out of this print for a 2nd time. I am not going to go in to the replica debate right now but if this event has proved anything, it is that Angelic Pretty is a strong enough brand to withstand some replicas being made. Angelic Pretty has many loyal fans. I am NOT trying to justify replicas but Angelic Pretty's sales have not been dented by the replica. If we were talking about a different brand, the outcome could have been different.

So if Angelic Pretty have managed to sell well, what about the replica sales? For starters, there was a group order event held for the Dream of Lolita version. Whether you like it or not, some people are never going to pay for the original regardless of the retail price. Dream of Lolita's version has had some mixed reviews but I know there has been some positive response. Due to how quickly AP's version sold, Sugary Carnival fans could start considering the replica. It depends how many Sugary Carnivals become available on the sales community. Sugary Carnival is so popular that I doubt Dream of Lolita will be affected either.

So Angelic Pretty have been successful with their print re-release, the demand for the print will probably only decrease slightly and Dream of Lolita is also likely to make a lot of sales. It is far too early to see the long term effects but in my opinion, it doesn't look as though much has changed. You will probably end up paying a similar amount if you wanted to buy 2nd hand Sugary Carnival now than you did before the re-release. AP and the people lucky enough to buy Sugary Carnival last weekend are the winners here. If you would like to own Sugary Carnival too then have a look on the EGL Sales community for people offering Shopping Services. AP is holding a party soon and Sugary Carnival will be available there. After that party, who knows what will happen? I will be keeping my eye on Sugary Carnival in the upcoming months.

Finally, I mentioned the Dream of Lolita replica above. Whilst I am a bit impartial to replicas, I disagree with replicas which still have the original brand logo printed on them. DoL's Sugary Carnival has Angelic Pretty written all over it. Most people can probably tell the difference between originals and replicas anyway but I can't help but feel this is very dishonest. I think it is a shame that DoL have done this.