#if you look at my student debt my overall monetary worth is in the negative

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

I know you normally don't really ask this but how much did you pay for the Merch you got? I mean the birthday (I think it's birthday?) merch costs alone around 70€ plus all the fees. Must have been Hella expensive. (idk how it is for you but I paid triple the price with an unexpected amount custom cost of 25€ for one CD)

Ok, I was sort of debating whether to answer this because on some of my merch posts in the past, I've had a couple of people make comments about my financial situation which honestly kind of upset me bit.

However I'm going to assume this is being asked in good faith so I will answer honestly under the cut.

So please bare in mind, I did not pay for all of the items I ordered at once, I ordered the rings back in November last year, I ordered Shin's birthday set in February and then I ordered the other stands about a month ago and only paid for shipping and customs fees this week (curse you customs fees).

The total price of the items came to around 22000 JPY (£137 or €161), with the majority of that being Shin's birthday set (8800 JPY (£55)) and the two rings ( 7700 JPY (£48))

Honestly the shipping and customs fees ended up being a lot more expensive than I'd hoped/thought they'd be (along with the proxy fees they came to around £140, i.e. they effectively doubled the price of the items) but by the time you've bought the items you're a bit stuck (I will be eating pasta and eggs for the foreseeable future) .

Now, for anyone reading all of this who's now thinking "holy shit you're rich"... please don't. I've had one or two comments like that in the past and I know some other merch collectors have gotten them as well, and like, no matter how benign your intentions, you really shouldn't be commenting on other people's financial status at all, but especially not on their own post when you know they will then be able to see it.

I'm not going to lie and say collecting merch from Japan is cheap (and I feel like the price has gone up quite a bit in the last couple of months in terms of shipping) and I recognise I'm very lucky to be in a financial position to be able to do it but I am certainly not rich. The reason I can afford this sort of stuff is because I do part-time work on top of my actual work (which is also in part why I've been so absent from this blog lately), the only dependents I have are my orchids and I'm generally pretty money conscious when it comes to everything else.

So yeah, in the grand scheme of things, I'm well aware that I'm extremely lucky to have any sort of disposable income but having a small amount of disposable income doesn't make you rich and really should be the minimum if you're working full-time (I know it isn't, but it should be, and we can blame the people who are really rich for the fact it isn't).

There are a lot of things I personally cannot and will probably never be able to do because I doubt I will ever be in a position where I'll be able to afford them (like buying a house or having kids or, to be honest, even having a dog) and that's the reason why I really don't want people commenting things like "you must be rich". My life is and will continue to be incredibly constrained by money and if I like to give myself the illusion of freedom by periodically buying bits of plastic with Shin's face on them, then that's up to me.

Apologies that this last part has gotten so long winded but in light of talking about finances, I kind of wanted to explain why I personally don't want strangers making comments about my theoretical wealth and I doubt any other merch collectors do either.

Also Anon, I understand you're likely just curious so please don't think this is directed at you, I just didn't want to answer with a lump sum and then risk getting any more comments like the sort I've discussed above. I hope you have a good day!