How to buy a Plus Alpha Satoshi Tomizu space glass pendant (detailed step-by-step instructions with screenshots)

Hello, dear reader. I have seen a lot of questions on Satoshi Tomizu’s Facebook page about how to buy his galaxy pendants. That is why I decided to explain all possibilities you have.

To buy a Plus Alpha space glass pendant follow the Plus Alpha Facebook page or check the homepage to get notice about the next sale of space glass by Satoshi Tomizu.

You can change the language and currency to see the prices of the galaxies for the next sale.

If there are no galaxies in this list, just wait for the next application period, which is usually announced weeks before.

The current prices range from 12 800 Yen for simple galaxies without opal (about 113 Euro / 125 USD) to 34 800 Yen for galaxies with opal (about 305 Euro / 340 USD).

You have to take part on a lottery to buy a space glass pendant. The procedure of the lottery is following:

At first you have to choose a pendant you would like to buy from the list.
Click on the chosen galaxy in the list to see the details.

Here you can see the number of applicants, who also would like to buy this piece.

Add the pendant to shopping cart if you really want to buy it. In the next step you can proceed to the application page.

New customers choose “shop as a new user” option, the registered customers need just to log in.

I suppose you are a new customer if you read this page. The application form for new customers looks like this.

Check the box “Ship to the address appearing in Checkout” if your bill address is the same as the delivery address.

After filling in the application form you will have to choose the payment and delivery methods. The following options are available.

Here you can check whether the delivery to your country is possible: https://www.plusalpha-glass.net/karea.php?lang_id=en&haiso_id=1. Plus Alpha ships to almost all counties in Europe and North & Central America.

So choose the only avaliable option if you live outside of Japan and continue with your application.

On the next page you see the summary and can submit your application. You will receive a detailed confirmation email.

You will be informed via email one week after the end of the application period, if you win the lottery. In this case you will get the payment requirement. You still can change your mind and cancel the order. If you do not pay within one week, your winning cancels automatically.

You have to consider a couple of additional precautions:

• Do not use the aol.com and hanmail.net addresses for your application.
• Apply for one piece only once. 
• If you cancel your winning, you reduce your chances for the next lottery (however I do not understand how they perform this rule). 
• You will have to pay VAT as your purchase arrives in the destination country. For Germany this tax is 19%.
• Your package will be sent with Express Mail Service by Japan Post Service. You will have to pay the delivery costs (from Japan to Germany about 2200 Yen, from Japan to USA about 2000 Yen, delivery in 3 to 5 business days, more information here: www.post.japanpost.jp/). 
• Your order can not be cancelled after the sending of the package.
• No exchange or return, only if the product has distinct defect or you got the wrong pendant!
• You bear the risk of loss, damage or delay at the time of transfer!
• Important! Satoshi Tomizu uses quite a strong light source to make the pictures of the galaxies. They look so spectacular only with this “right” light. At day light not all “stars" in the glass galaxy will shine like on the picture. At decent light you will barely see the stars. That is how they look like while wearing. You should be aware of it before purchase.
  
  
  
• Satoshi uses artificial (not natural, synthetic) opal marbles 4 to 5 mm in diameter. These marbles cost not more than 2 Euro in retail.
• There are other artists who work with the same technique. See other pages of this blog for more details.

Read more about the terms of sale here: https://www.plusalpha-glass.net/kiyaku.php?lang_id=en.

As you see, the company assumes practically no responsibility for everything what happens after they pass the package to the shipping company.

Summary of costs

As the last point of the article, I prepared the final costs overview for the both types of galaxies.

Simple space glass pieces

List price: 12 800 Yen

Delivery costs: 2000 – 2200 Yen

VAT 19%: 2800 – 2850 Yen

Approx. Total in Yen: 17600 – 17850 Yen

Approx. Total in Euro: 153 – 155 Euro

Approx. Total in USD: 169 – 171 USD

Space glass pendants with opal

List price: 34 800 Yen

Delivery costs: 2000-2200 Yen

VAT 19%: 6992 – 7030 Yen

Approx. Total in Yen: 43792 – 44030 Yen

Approx. Total in Euro: 380 – 381 Euro

Approx. Total in USD: 420 – 422 USD

Buying from the lottery winners

Sometimes you can buy Satoshi Tomizu galaxies from the lottery winners who changed their mind. Here is an example and the link: (Update 22.08.2016: not available now) https://www.etsy.com/de/listing/279065214/plus-alpha-space-universe-glas-japan?ref=hp_rv.

Buying at yahoo auction

Satoshi sales his creations also sometimes as yahoo auction.

This is the link to his seller account: http://sellinglist.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/user/plusalphaglass?u=plusalphaglass

The prices are very high and range up to more than 200 000 Yen (1 700 Euro / 1 880 USD).

Use Google Chrome for the simplest way of translation of the auction page to your language.

The current auctions last 4,5 days.
You have to create a yahoo account to be able to bid for a pendant. It can be not so easy. Read here some tipps about yahoo auchtion usage for foreigners: http://www.ghacks.net/2014/09/22/how-to-buy-items-from-yahoo-auctions-japan-if-you-are-not-japanese/.

Please note, that your bid do not include tax, so that the final sum to pay would be higher.

On the same page you can sometimes find the winners of the lottery selling their pendants. Be careful with those, if you are not a resident of Japan. These sellers are private persons and you have no guarantee to hear from them after your payment. I am not sure, yahoo or someone else could help you in worst case scenario. If you still want to risk, their prices are much lower as Satoshi’s.

P.S. Good luck for your application or bidding!

I hope this article was helpful for you in case you want to buy one of Satoshi Tomizu space glass masterpieces.

Our shop

I am a big fan of Satoshi Tomizu's galaxies. As I realized, how difficult it is to buy one of his pieces, I started to search for artists who also create space glass pendants and managed to establish some cooperation with them. Here are some examples of the galaxies from the artists I cooperate with.

Copyright of pictures in this article

All pictures of Satoshi Tomizu's pieces used in this article are property of Plus Alpha. After some research we came to the conclusion, that Satoshi Tomizu and Plus Alpha have no objections against the usage of the pictures through blogger, because it helps to extent Satoshi Tomizu's fame.

All screenshots in this article are made by me.

The pictures marked with “www.glass-universe.com” are our property and can be shared through blogger with the link to the original page.

Improvement and feedback

We always try to provide the full and personally thoroughly gathered information. If you have found any facts in this article, which seem to be wrong for you, please contact us and we would check your hint and correct the article or provide you evidence. Tatiana and Manfred.

Copyright www.glass-universe.com