The latest general election drama to grip the nation sees an outraged AKB48 begging for a refund of the ¥950,000 he used to buy 1000 vote tickets which had already been used – having appropriately enough been described in the auction as “second-hand.”
The incident began on Yahoo! Auctions with an innocent enough seeming auction of 1000 “second-hand” general election voting tickets (normally bundled with CDs as a way of rigging the music charts) to an AKB48 otaku desperate enough to pay ¥950,000 for them.
On arrival of the precious voting tickets the buyer was unhappy to find they had all in fact been used:
“They were all used to vote already!”
“After paying for them, when they arrived they were all already used. Even for a second-hand purchase they are not worth ¥950,000 at all. The seller is clearly malicious!”
He apparently intends to take the matter to the police if no restitution is forthcoming.
The seller is having none of it:
“Somebody demanding a refund for second-hand goods they bought like this is too much. I’m reporting your negative rating to Yahoo! as inappropriate.”
Despite all this the seller managed to accumulate over 400 “good” or “very good” ratings over the course of their auctioneering, and the tickets were clearly identified as “second-hand” – and nowhere did the description state they were “unused votes” (or for that matter “already used”).
Yahoo! appears to have suspended the seller anyway, but it is not clear what action they are taking – though popular opinion seems to be in the seller’s favour:
“How I laughed…”
“Well, they were advertised as ‘second-hand’!”
“Buy the CDs at least, idiots.”
“AKB48 fans are such easy marks.”
“This is obvious fraud. Get the police involved!”
“Second-hand means used. What did he expect?”
“You should still be able to use a second-hand item. These could not be used!”
“No way would this result in charges. The seller clearly states they are used.”
“AKB48 otaku never change.”
“Who cares what happens between these otaku maniacs!”
“It’s bizarre to have an election dependent on buying votes anyway.”
“God, the general election is now the NHK’s top story… what has happened to the world.”
“This otaku was asking for it. How did he think he was going to get 1000 tickets for ¥950,000 when they only come with CDs which cost ¥1500 each?”
“You’d think he might have realised something was up right there.”
“Anyone prepared to spend ¥950,000 on something like this is already beyond help.”
In total
| 
Dead or Alive Ero-SFM Doubly Dirty
Flying Witch “Cute But Boring…”
Phantasy Star Online 2 Phantastic: “What About the West!?”
Shounen Maid “A Fujoshi Delight”
Terra Formars Live Action Web Drama Announced
Dragon Quest Heroes II Quite Monstrous
KumaMiko Lovingly Innocent
Aqua Onahole Parody Hopefully Moist
A-Size Classmate Profusely Petite
One Day With Maria Raunchy & Romantic
The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 Raises Its Voice
Hai-Furi in Troubled Waters
Star Fox Zero “Pandering To Kids!”
Kiznaiver Shares Its Pain
Love Live’s Koi ni Naritai Aquarium PV “Will Sell Thousands!”
Skimpy Kataigou Figure
Ellen Baker’s Illustrator: “Keep It Clean!”
Bullet Girls 2 Goes At It From All Angles
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization A Real Grind
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Immensely Gruesome
Goddess of 2ch “Another Bathing Beauty!”
Tantalizing Hestia Cosplay Busts Out
Kashiwazaki Sena Cosplay Pure & Innocent
Minami Kotori Casino Girl Cosplay Takes No Chances
Shimakaze Cosplay by Ema Sakura
Harley Quinn Cosplay by Miyuko Colorfully Crazy
Sonico Ero-Cosplay by Yuka Hoshikage Super Sexy
Kasugano Sora Bunny Girl Cosplay Absolutely Admirable
Goddess of 2ch: “Barely Legal Beauty!”
Highly Yuri Tenryuu & Tatsuta Cosplay by Garo & Usagi
Wow.
I can't understand how people can part with that much of money, just for Artists.
I mean, If he wants women, there are cheaper alternatives.
Maybe because it is not about 'wanting a woman'.
But I know that's probably hard to understand for dumb people.
AKB48 freaks make a fantastic case for euthanasia.
That's awful to say, every life is precious. Any way, I'd rather have tham as pet slaves than dead.
oxygen is precious too, so NO
Make them into living "batteries" producing energy like in Matrix.
Living batteries like in Matrix is an absurd idea. But if it were possible I can see many people willingfully going for that in the exchange of having things they can't have in real world like marring their waifu, body swap, superpowers, etc.
Don't forget the cost & environmental impact of feeding, sheltering & disposing of the waste it creates.
Living batteries like in Matrix do not work. A living body does not create energy, it uses energy! It doesn't even store that much energy.
The thing is, it uses energy very efficiently.
What might work is harvesting computation power, since the human brain is a very energy efficient computing machine.
You can't blame Otaku's wanting to buy something Cheaper from an Online vender.Then again Japanese would trash all the CD's for something else.
You're just too kind.
Maybe I'm just callous, bout I in no way believe every life is precious - some people just deserve a bullet.
I'd be happy to put one in your head
Someone somewhere thinks the same of you, probably those otakus themselves
it would be hilarious if his favorite lost by 999 votes
What a loser. Imagine this... he could have rented a whore once every 2 weeks with that kind of money.
He should look on the bright side, at least now he can try make the worlds most expensive ticket castle.
yay caste~*
There's a way to resolve this amicably. The seller can simply hold his own hand shaking event, and let the buyer shake his hand and maybe sit with him for a few minutes while they get their picture taken together. That way, everybody wins.
You know, for all that money he could've gotten himself a couple of pros, if you know what I mean.
Or, if he's really into the juveniles, he could've literally BOUGHT (like, for keepers) one of those promiscuous little high school whores who sell their used underwear online.
That being said, I doubt pussy even is on these people's minds. They've probably strayed so far from "normal", they don't even think about sex, but innocent moemoe lavulavu with their waifu. Then he should've spent that money on a good shrink.
Caveat emptor. Never assume and always ask are the keys to avoiding such situation.
The seller just made 9342$ off of this guys stupidity!
He still lost 5000 by being stupid enough to buy the CD's in the first place.
The more I hear about this, the sadder it sounds. Do these people have no friends or family who can smack some sense into them?
Considering the bulks they're bought by the maniacs, I'd wager he found them in trash heap...
wouldn't it be a double win for the seller then?He got to vote for who he wants, and got over $4,000.
The buyer paid less for the tickets than the seller paid for the CDs (1000-1600 yen per cd)
Hella funny. Those AKB48 otaku's might become Elliot Rodgers in the future.
uhh one of them already attacked them with a saw.
if japan had no gun laws, there would literally be no one alive in six months.
Yeah I read that post about the saw attacker. Man that's some hardcore stuff right there.
mhmm. So hardcore. Deep cuts on some thumbs and I think pinky fingers.
should've saw Yasushi
Maybe you can stop talking about what you don't even know, ans spread rumors ?
The attacker was not an AKB48 fan, not even an idol fan.
He just chose them because they are popular, to get more attention when trying to kill one random member.
So, don't give him what he wants : attention.
I think malicious intent should be enough to convict him. I wouldn't dare to do this even if I found a buyer like that.
I think malicious intent would be difficult to prove. After all, the seller could argue that he thought any prospective buyer would use the second-hand tickets to wallpaper their otaku room, or to create an anti-AKB48 artistic display. Or a ticket castle.
Obviously I'm not a lawyer, and I'm sure not a Japanese lawyer, but given that there are other theoretical uses for second-hand tickets, I'd bet criminal charges would be difficult to bring.
you know that you are really stretching it here. a VOTING ticket that cant be used to VOTE is as useful as an eraser that doesnt erase. it is garbage and you cant fucking sell it for that price (950000 yens). you are leading people to think they are useful tickets when they arent. you want more malicious intent than this?
Exactly... If he were selling them for a small fraction of the amount, I could maybe see that argument holding up, but selling them for the majority of the cost of purchasing CDs new would indicate the codes should still be usable. Of course, if the CDs themselves were included, and mentioned in the listing, the buyer would have a much harder case, as they would have still acquired something arguably useful out of their purchase. At least, as useful as AKB48 CDs can be.
here in america we shoot aol cd's with guns as a cheap alternative to clay pidgeons (if you can still find aol cd's).
maybe we should get the rednecks to buy em all up and go to town. just think of it as recycling.
You would think that after getting constantly ripped off by the AKB48 publishers, the AKB48 otakus would be used to it by now.
I like that the seller kept the total sale price under a grand. That way even if the buyer does seek damages directly, the damages can only be sought in small claims court.
I'm totally with the buyer here. "Second hand votes" doesn't imply used because the votes come with a CD, right? If you buy "second hand votes", is easly understandable that you are buying the card (without the CD) the same way you can buy a code from a person for a DLC.
If the votes were used, there is obviusly a fraud, or at least was a missleading description since "second hand" isn't equivalent to "used" in this case. So its worth and licit if he wants to reclaim to the seller.
That being said, anyone that expends ¥950,000 on this shit is stupid and deserves be scammed every day, but the fact he deserves it doesn't mean he wasn't right.
"Second hand" ALWAYS means "used".
sec·ond·hand adjective \ˈse-kən(d)-ˈhand\
: having had a previous owner
: buying or selling things that have already been owned or used
: not original : taken from someone who was not directly involved
Not true; it could also mean simply having had a prior owner.
The fact that they were being sold at all implies that they had some value to them, as auctioning off what amounts to worthless pieces of paper and accepting such an outrageous price for them implies fraud in and of itself.
No, you can get "second hand" means you are buying something that already had an owner. (Shops and such are not considered "owners" because they distribute the product doesn't own it, theyr intention is not to keep or use it). But that doesn't mean he necesarily used it, you can buy for example a pair of shoes someone bought but never used. Those shoes are second hand.
the seller is clearly making a fraud here cuz "second hand" goods mean something that still can be used. a used voting ticket can not be used again and so has ZERO value (unless the buyer owns a recycling company).
he selling tickets that have no value for 950000 yens is clearly a gross overvaluation of the product and this led the buyer (a silly one? yes, but still...) to error.
for example, you cant sell a PC with a broken hard disk (aka one that doesnt work) for the same price as one that works and simply label it as "second hand". a voting ticket that cant be used to vote is nothing but garbage.
Well the seller didn't Lie about it. He just told the truth about what he was selling. Second Hand Voting Tickets. He used them up, wanted more money, then put up his tickets for auction. If he called them "Used tickets", I'm sure no one would buy it. If he just sold them as "Tickets", he'd be in trouble (I think.) since it's kind of... You know, Mean. He called them Second Hand to let you know that they were owned by someone before, and anyone who uses common sense would probably know that If they sell voting tickets which were previously owned before, they're used up. Although I got to admit, that is a pretty annoying thing to deal with, if I was the buyer.
I'm amazed that none of them are blaming it on koreans & chinese. How did this happen?
AKB48 Fan\ˈei-kei-beˈ48'fan\: Stupid person. Naive virgin male. Compulsive buyer. Did I mention stupid?
I'd be surprise if the seller is a CEO from a successful game company, ripping gamers for these CDs.
lol, he expected unused SECOND HAND tickets?
“How I laughed…”
"Second-hand" means it have been owned by another owner, it does't imply they were used per se. The buyer probably thought it would be logical if they was unused, so he bought them. Clearly an idiot though.
Why would someone buy that many CDs and not use the tickets?