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Where are you from btw?
Something like this should be more public on Malaysian FB groups rather than here.
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From singapore. Please post this on malaysian fb groups if possible. Would like to draw some attention to this
What did they say they to you when you wanted your cards back? Are they doing anything to help?
I also didnât have the best experience as well. Out of my two cards, only one was signed and the other Arita refused which was fine since I had a backup card, but the middle man forgot to bring it with him so I got no 2nd signature.
Iâm getting refunded on my 2nd card since it didnt get signed, but I wasnt happy that my backup card wasnât brought, and no substitute option.
However, I definitely feel bad for your situation having cards stolen. Hopefully they reimburse you in someway.
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Very sorry for your bad experience @itshr. These signing events are very expensive now so having a bad experience just puts a very sour taste with all the other expenses involved to get a card signed.
Are all the cards which are supposed to be signed handed to Arita by the organizers or people they hired? What I mean is, are you not allowed to just queue up and just present the cards to him for signing? What are the middle man services mentioned in this?
Cheers!
I didnt go there in person. I did it through a middleman which is directly related to TCGKL. It was confirmed that TCGKL took over our cards when it was at the event. Arita didnt allow for requeues so their staff who had 160+ cards on hand couldnt requeue themselves hence resorting to strangers
Do you know it the stolen cards was just isolated to a few people from a certain paid stranger? Or if it was widespread through multiple paid strangers?
Multiple paid strangers. Out of 160+ cards 7 were lost from the batch
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Iâm sorry you had a bad experience, and your cards were stolen.
I did not attend, and didnât try to get any cards signed, but from understanding, Arita was looking pretty ill at some point during this event. I feel for him, and that may have in-flu-enced (sorry) his decision to change what was going on. Also heard some of the middlemen (or maybe flippers) who had 20 tickets and tried to get him to sign all at once were getting on his nerves.
Doesnât mean any changes to the plan couldnât have been communicated more clearly.
Itâs a sad time when those attending or trying to particpate donât have a good experience, Arita doesnât have a good experience (most important person to consider IMO), and everyone is left with a sour taste in their mouth.
Appreciate you sharing your experience!
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So what youâre saying that the event had booked their own autograph slots? Was it for them or for middleman clients?
If thatâs the case itâs pretty shocking. These events are supposed to be for individuals, not events booking out spots.
Hope you get your cards found or refunded.
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That sounds horrendously mismanaged. The organizers are basically going against Aritaâs terms by selling tickets to their own middleman service?
Theyâve hosted a couple now here, earlier he only signed on sleeves and non-Pokemon items, but disgraceful how they still cannot get it right for whatever reason- greed or incompetence.
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I am not an event manager by any means, but this just seems like extremely poor management. Even if you have each staff having 20 cards only, it is still a long hold up on the queue and not to mention going against ToS for Arita signing. Staff should not be middle manning any cards.
Maybe the prices have sky rocketed to dissuade these exact things and mass buy-outs of the slots. It is a pity that genuine fans do not get to meet and interact with the artist.
Cheers!
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Bro, Iâm really sorry for what you went through. I was there and witnessed the whole thing myself. The organizers oversold Arita-senseiâs signing slots. I actually heard Arita-sensei complaining to his interpreter on-site, saying, âWe agreed on 35 signatures per hour â why do they keep breaking that promise?â
It was obvious the organizers just wanted to make more money by selling too many tickets to middlemen. But what they didnât realize is that artists are human beings, not machines â they canât mass-produce signatures. Everything about the eventâs arrangement was an absolute mess.
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It seems he turned off comments. I do feel bad that the event didnât go as expected for him. Obviously if heâs being over worked and sick, people should be more understanding.
I guess we will see what the future holds for him.
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Some new information has come to light. Apparently the ârandomsâ are actually affiliated with TCGKL but just from different fields (security, hotel staff etc) which could potentially mean their employees essentially stole from us. Got this info through my middleman. Again, 0 transparency over the entire team. If they ever host an event again, dont deal with them, not worth the hassle.
Crazy work to send a comment like this to someone that you want autoâs from, and who you would want to continue to do signing events.
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I doubt after this ill even think about attending any TCGKL events. Not after they lost 2 childhood cards.
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Hold up! I was there, and yes management couldve been better but those of us who attended and got 2 slots per person as it was supposed to be had no issues..yes queueing was annoying but that comes with the territory..HOWEVER, if you:
- Hire people to stand in line for you to get more cards signed, you are the problem, and if indeed tcgkl did this they deserve to be flogged. Also if you hired a middle man- you have to expect things to go wrong with this kind of shady stuffđ
- If you come from a different country and expect special treatment from artists who have been known to just stop halfway through signing- thats on you..
- From what i saw he could really tell who was genuine and wasnt..he was pretty direct with scalper types, again if tcgkl took part in this type of behaviour they should get whats coming.
- That dude who left a comment to arita is whats wrong with the hobby and nice of arita to be transparent with his reply
- Also arita decided on the 2 cards per person thing after seeing so many scalpy types, so i think tcgklâs plan of making a quick buck by selling as many slots as possible backfired on them so they used staff to try to fix the issue? Just speculating here. Either way, my guess is that they are just going to get someone else to come next yearâŚsad stuff really..
Anyways, my experience with him was good and overall im very happy. I think with lokemin events theres just too many bad apples and too much money+ money making opportunities that every event is going to have crappy stories..Sorry you had a bad experience though man. My suggestion would be in the future attend these events in person, book the earliest slot possibe? and just get 2 cards signed or sketched no more no less..
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