Tutorial: How to register, log in, and purchase SUPER★DRAGON official merchandise on Stardust Bin
CONTENTS
- ABOUT STARDUST BIN
- ABOUT MERCHANDISE SOLD THROUGH STARDUST BIN
- SHIPPING
- PAYMENT
- INTEGRATION WITH AREA SD
- TUTORIALS (click to jump)
- TROUBLESHOOTING: WHERE’S MY STUFF?
ABOUT STARDUST BIN
Stardust Bin is the official online store of EBiDAN, selling SUPER★DRAGON official merchandise along with official merchandise of other EBiDAN groups. Stardust Bin can be accessed by clicking this link.
As Stardust Bin is a part of the Fanplus network, you can login to the website with an existing Plusmember ID and password. Otherwise, registration for Stardust Bin is fairly easy, and this will net you a Plusmember ID that you can use on any other site on the Fanplus network.
For more information on the Fanplus network and what it means to have a Plusmember ID, please check out our quick guide for all of the details.
ABOUT MERCHANDISE SOLD THROUGH STARDUST BIN
The SUPER★DRAGON merchandise sold through Stardust Bin are considered SUPER★DRAGON official artist goods. Usually, published media releases of SUPER★DRAGON, such as CD and Blu Ray, are not sold through Stardust Bin.
The artist goods sold on Stardust Bin typically fall under the following categories:
- Concert and/or tour merchandise
- Birthday goods
- Special releases such as photobook and/or yearly calendar
This is not an exhaustive list and, from time to time, other types of seasonal or miscellaneous goods will pop up.
Orders are processed through two types of rounds: pre-order and general sale. Every release will be sold through either one or both of these ways. In general. concert merchandise is sold through a pre-order round initially, and then open for general sale at a later date. Birthday goods are sold through pre-order only.
All general sale goods are available on a “while supplies last” basis. There is no guarantee that any particular item will ever be restocked once stock has been depleted. If you are deeply committed to purchasing something, we at Nine Dragons look back on our experiences and highly recommend that you do so during pre-order or as soon as general sales begin.
In recent times, there have been cases where special incentives to purchase goods have been announced after general sale of merchandise has already begun. In general, orders made before the incentives were announced are excluded from eligibility.
ABOUT SHIPPING
Stardust Bin does not ship to any address outside of Japan. Therefore, international purchases made on Stardust Bin will require the usage of a proxy shipping service. We recommend Tenso, but there are a wide array of companies offering similar services. As these websites are already geared for an international audience, we do not include instructions for signing up or establishing proper shipping information with these services. Once you have completed this step of the process, come back here to proceed with the tutorial!
The domestic shipping fee (shipping from their warehouse to your Japanese address) for all orders on Stardust Bin is a flat rate of 800 yen. This rate is regardless of the size or volume of your order. For this reason, we recommend purchasing all that you would like to in one order to keep the shipping costs low. With that said, there may be instances when it is not possible to do so. For example, it is not possible to combine pre-order goods with general sale goods. Pre-order goods must be ordered with a separate payment, and a second shipping fee must be paid with the new order. If you want to order items that are selling by pre-order within the same period, it may also be the case that some pre-order goods can not be combined with each other.
This may be initially confusing, but fortunately Stardust Bin will not allow you to complete any orders that violate this policy. You will receive an error message asking you to remove goods that cannot be combined if your order does not comply with their shipping policy.
Pre-ordered goods will ship in a tentative window of time that is usually specified during pre-order sales. An individual order ships once all that has been ordered is prepared. There may be cases in which some people’s orders made through pre-order are received, but not others’. This is usually because the unshipped orders contain items that have not completed manufacturing yet. You must wait until everything you have ordered has been prepared by Stardust Bin for your complete order to ship. The only way to get ordered items faster, or “one at a time,” is to order each item as its own separate order. However, the excess shipping fees for each item will make this strategy quite expensive!
Goods sold through general sale are not shipped immediately by Stardust Bin. Stardust Bin processes their shipments in batches a few times per week. Once the order is shipped, it will be received at the buyer’s Japanese address within two or three business days. At that point, the processing of the order will no longer be controlled by Stardust Bin. Any complications should be handled by you, the buyer, and your Japanese proxy shipping service.
SPECIAL NOTE IN REGARD TO ONGOING EVENTS
Due to the ongoing situation worldwide, shipping capabilities have been radically altered by most, if not all, international shipping services. This has directly affected online stores and proxy services that ship goods internationally. Please check with the homepage of the store and/or proxy shipping service you would like to use before placing an order to confirm if and when they can ship your order.
In light of recent events, the time required to manufacture goods has been dramatically extended, and there may be up to one to two months wait before pre-ordered goods are prepared by Stardust Bin. This may make the arrival of packages to the domestic address unpredictable. Please check with your proxy shipping service to be sure you will be notified of your package’s arrival.
We at Nine Dragons have chosen to present information that is historically accurate. If you need specific information for present times, please check with the individual store for further assistance.
ABOUT PAYMENT
Purchasing artist goods on Stardust Bin from overseas requires a debit or credit card. Any card you have used to shop online successfully should work fine, but if you have any doubts, we would advise you to contact your local bank to ensure the transaction will be processed normally.
Although Stardust Bin does accept returns in the case of defective products, we would like to request that all international shoppers consider their purchases final. The reason for this is threefold. First, defective products must be reported within 8 days of having received the item. Remember that Stardust Bin considers the item received by the buyer once it arrives to the Japanese proxy address, not your own international address. This can be a tight deadline once the entire length of the proxy shipping process is taken into consideration. Second, communication with Stardust Bin must be executed in Japanese, and there is no English support available. Finally, many cases require that the item must be sent back to Stardust Bin. The burden of shipping the item internationally may outweigh the benefits of being re compensated. Receiving a defective product is very rare, if it ever happens, but the overly cautious are advised to consider this point.
INTEGRATION WITH AREA SD
AREA SD (the SUPER★DRAGON official app) registered members will enjoy the additional benefit of SD Points awarded to your account when you order SUPER★DRAGON artist goods from Stardust Bin. The benefit is available to both free application members and members enrolled in paid subscription.
The amount of points that can be awarded per item will be displayed on the item’s product page. You will only receive the SD Points once your payment has been successfully processed.
If you are a registered member of the SUPER★DRAGON official app, you must log in to Stardust Bin with the same account with which you registered for the app in order to receive the benefit. Orders made from a Fanplus account that is not registered with the SUPER★DRAGON official app will not receive SD points.
SPECIAL NOTE
The screenshots that accompany the tutorial were taken on a computer. Some steps of the tutorial may look different for those accessing through mobile.
Click on any of the screenshots below to view them in a new window in full size.
PART ONE: PLUSMEMBER ID REGISTRATION THROUGH STARDUST BIN
If you have previously registered an account on any of the following:
- AREA SD (SUPER★DRAGON Official App)
- Stardust Channel
- Tixplus
…please use the same login information from that account, and proceed from part 2 of the tutorial.
Start by going to the Stardust Bin website here .
Below the login section, there is a small line of text that links to new user registration (highlighted below). Click this link to continue.
You should be taken to a page that looks like the one below. The text explains basic details of the Plusmember ID system, and a chance to read the Terms and Conditions. Click the large grey button to proceed with the registration process.
You should find yourself looking at a page like the one below. Fill in the fields as we have specified in the images below.
Fill in your name with your last name in the first blank and your first name in the next blank. If you are unsure of how to write your name in katakana, try a katakana generator like this one. The accuracy of the katakana is not very important.
When filling out the address, use the zip code from your proxy shipping service’s Japanese address. Press the highlighted button and the prefecture, city, and district should automatically fill itself out from information unique to your postal code.
IMPORTANT: In the segment for district (町), you must manually enter the building number after the given text. Most Japanese addresses follow this format:
City Municipality District 1-2-3
The numbers at the end of the address are your unique building number. Your zip code cannot provide this information, so you MUST BE SURE to write in this information yourself. Without the building number, you will not be able to receive your package!
In the following field, you can add the “second line” of the address, such as a unique mailbox number or an apartment number. Please check with your proxy shipping service for further instruction.
All proxy shipping services should offer an accompanying phone number to use with their address. Put this phone number in the allotted blanks. The phone number should be 2 or 3 digits followed by two sections of 4 digits.
IMPORTANT: Please, please double or triple check the address and phone number to be sure it is exactly as your Japanese proxy shipping service says. Your shipping service should give you the address in native Japanese. Be sure you have NOT made any typing error which can cause you to not receive your package!
Type and re-type your email in the given fields. This will help prevent making an account with a misspelled email address.
Stardust Bin requires a password recovery question to be set for each account. If you don’t speak any Japanese, there are some simple ways around this. One is to set any question and type in an answer that will be memorable to you. (The answer shouldn’t be your password.) In the case that you forget your password, you can simply type in your memorable “answer” and retrieve your password.
Second, you can choose the simplest question in the drop down menu: “What is your favorite food?” The question should be the last option in the dropdown menu. We suggest you to write your answer in English so that it will be more memorable to you.
After disagreeing to receive the newsletter by clicking the highlighted bubble, press the large blue button to submit your information.
If you have not made any errors, you should be brought to a page like this. This will give you a final chance to review the information you filled out and be sure that everything is correct. If everything looks good, go ahead and submit your information by clicking the large blue button.
A successful submission will result in a page like this. The text explains that three emails have been sent to your registered e-mail address. The emails contain your Plusmember ID number, your password, and a notification of your registration to Stardust Bin. No further action is required on this page, so click the button below to go back to the home page.
PART TWO: LOGGING IN TO STARDUST BIN WITH A PLUSMEMBER ID
If you are not logged in after registration, or if you are just now beginning this tutorial with your already registered Plusmember ID, start at the homepage of Stardust Bin. The section of the page for logging in is highlighted below.
In order to log in, input your Plusmember ID, or the email address you used to register, along with your password.
Before clicking submit, take note of the top two choices. The top choice enables you to log in as a registered fanclub member, while the bottom choice is for logging in as just a Plusmember registered account. Despite the difference in options, the login credentials required for each are the exact same! This system has likely been implemented to allow for fanclub-restricted sales of goods. If you are a registered AREA SD member, you can select the top option and login with the account in which you are enrolled in the fanclub. Make sure you select SUPER★DRAGON from the dropdown menu. If you don’t, you will receive an error message that your account is not registered in the corresponding fanclub.
Once you have determined your fanclub status, click the grey button at the bottom to log in.
If you have logged in successfully, you should see a change like in the image below. There will be a dark blue button that will take you to the “My Page” section of your account. This will be a useful page once you have made an order and would like to check its status, but for now let’s try to buy some merchandise!
PART THREE: ORDERING ARTIST GOODS THROUGH STARDUST BIN
Once you are logged in, it will help to familiarize yourself with the main page. In order to see only SUPER★DRAGON merchandise, click their name in the sidebar as we have highlighted. You can see at the top of each page how many items you have in your cart and the subtotal of all cart items. If you are just starting to look, and have nothing in your cart, these numbers will be 0 for now. When you begin adding to your cart, it is rather helpful to see the size and cost of your order as you go!
One you have clicked on SUPER★DRAGON’s name in the sidebar, you will be taken to their goods page. Here, you can click on what you want and be taken to the product page for that item.
In some cases, an item may be sold out. This will be indicated by a red “SOLD OUT” text under the item name, as you can see below. Naturally, sold out items can’t be ordered. As long as the item is still listed on Stardust Bin, there is a technical chance of restocking, but in practice this has been an extremely rare occurrence. In general, it is best to expect that a sold out item will never restock.
In some cases, there may be a limited quantity of some item remaining. A notification that there is only a few left looks like the one highlighted below. As we said above, restock of sold out items is rare. If you are interested in an item with this label on its listing, we recommend you purchase it sooner rather than later!
In the case of goods which can only be purchased through pre-order, there is a special label on the item’s listing once the pre-order period has passed. The red text says that this item is outside of its pre-ordering period, and therefore, cannot be purchased. In most cases, these items are never made available again, and their listings are periodically purged from the artist goods page by Stardust Bin.
Unfortunately, in most all cases, there is no way to order this item if the pre-order period has passed.
Once you see a product you would like (and is available), click on the item to go to its product page. It should look like the page below. You can see the item’s price under the name, and in the giant purple box you can see how many SD Points you can earn by purchasing this item.
If you would like to order more than one of any item, you can indicate how many you would like to order in the field next to the add to cart button. For clothing items, you may be asked to choose what size you would like to order. The sizes are generally listed as M for medium and L for large. Once you are ready, add the item to your cart by clicking the large grey button highlighted below.
When you click to add the item to your cart, you will be taken to your cart page. There are some useful buttons on this page. Clicking button #1 will delete the listed item from you cart. When you click it, there will be a popup letting you know that deleting cart items can’t be undone, and a prompt asking if you are sure you want to delete. Click OK, and the item will be removed from your cart.
Button #2 will increase or decrease the quantity of that item in your cart. It will also indicate the number of that item you currently have in your cart. If you have accidentally added an item to your cart twice, this is a good area to look over so that you don’t accidentally order two items!
If you would like to continue shopping, button #3 will take you back to the artist goods page. When you are ready to make a purchase, you can click button #4 to begin the ordering process.
The first page of the ordering process asks you which address you would like to use to receive your goods. Usually, you will only have one option available, and that is the address you have used when registering your account. Make sure that the address is written correctly, and proceed to the next page.
This page asks which method of payment you would like to use.
IMPORTANT: You must select the first option, paying by credit card, if you are ordering from overseas. If you accidentally select the second option, you will not be able to complete payment for your order, and you won’t be able to receive your goods!
Below this section, there is a small dropdown menu in which you can indicate your preferred delivery time. For international fans who won’t be receiving their domestic shipment in person, this is not important. You can skip this section and continue to the large blue button below it to get to the next step.
Next, you should be taken to a page like the one below. Before your itemized order, Stardust Bin asks you to be sure your email settings allow emails from the servers “plusmember.jp” and “mail.plusmember.jp.” Status updates on your order will be sent to your registered email address, so it is a good idea to make sure that you can receive their emails! If you received the first three emails you were sent when registering, there should be nothing to worry about in this regard.
After the list of items you are ordering, you will see a breakdown of extra fees. This includes the flat 800 yen shipping fee per package along with any handling fees (usually there are none when paying by credit card).
Below that, you can see how many SD Points will be credited to your account with this order. The red text below reminds you that the SD Points will only be credited after payment for your order has been completed.
Below that, you have a final chance to review all of your shipping information and verify that it is accurate. At the bottom is a confirmation of your chosen payment method. Be sure that the text from this section of your page matches the highlighted one below.
If everything looks good, click the large blue button at the bottom to continue to the final payment page.
Follow the instructions according to the picture. When you input the credit card number, do not put in any spaces or dash lines.
Please note that the name you fill out should be the name on the credit card, in case it is the name of your parent or guardian instead of you. The security code is a three digit number located on the back of your card, usually near the signature space.
Japanese-issued debit and credit cards qualify for the convenience of splitting a payment into installments. Unfortunately, foreign cards are not enrolled in this system. In our experience, attempting to split your payment into installments when paying with foreign card will lead to your card being declined. Furthermore, it may even trigger a suspicious activity alert with your local bank. Make sure that you don’t adjust the dropdown menu for payment installments and leave the option set to (一回払い), or paying in one whole installment.
The final check box asks if you would like to remember this card information for next time, but this is not required. Once you are ready, press the large blue button at the bottom. This will submit payment and charge your card. Do not refresh or leave the page until the confirmation page has loaded.
Upon successful payment, you will see a confirmation page like the one below. Congratulations! You should also receive an email notifying you of your completed payment.
PART FOUR: CHECKING STATUS OF COMPLETED ORDERS
In order to check for status updates on orders you have made previously, start at the main page of Stardust Bin and log in. After logging in, you should see a button like the one below. This button will take you to the “My Page” section of your account, where your previous orders will be listed. Go ahead and click on it.
The image below is a typical “My Page” screen. To see more information about a particular order, click on the text that we highlighted for the order that you want to see information on. This will take you to that order’s individual page.
The most important information you will probably find on this page is your order’s current status. This section is highlighted on the picture below. You can put the information in this area into any basic translator service to find out how your order is doing. Generally, an order that has been paid for but not shipped will have a status like “payment completed,” while an order that will ship soon will have a status like “preparing for shipment.”
The only guarantee is that once your order has shipped from the Stardust Bin warehouse, your order status will change to “shipped.”
There is another way to see status information. At the very bottom of the order page, you will see a list of emails Stardust Bin has sent your registered email address in regards to this particular order. Every order should list at least one email that was sent to notify you of completed payment. When the order has been shipped, there will be a second email notifying you of shipment. If there is only one email in this list, it means your order has not yet shipped. Orders that have been shipped will have a list of emails like the one in the image below.
This feature is especially useful if you are worried that you missed your shipping notification email, or your spam blocker stopped Stardust Bin from getting through.
TROUBLESHOOTING: WHERE’S MY STUFF?
The staff at Nine Dragons has completed over 30 separate, successful orders combined and we have never had a single problem with any order. That said, these suggestions may be of some help if you believe your order is having any particular issue, and/or you have not received your order in the time that you feel is necessary.
IMPORTANT: Before reading this section, please make sure you have read through all parts of our tutorial above. Please make sure that your ordering process followed the instructions that we have outlined here. If you did not follow our instructions, we cannot help you.
IMPORTANT: We at Nine Dragons are merely fans, and we cannot take direct responsibility for any issues you are having with your orders and/or Stardust Bin. We hope this information will be helpful to you, but ultimately advise that anyone who believes they are having trouble contact Stardust Bin directly. We do not guarantee individual assistance.
For pre-order items: My order hasn’t shipped and it’s been a long time!
The following information is for those who ordered items during a designated pre-order period.
First, find the listing page for the individual item you ordered. It should look like the page below.
Scroll down to the description box on that page, which should look like the one highlighted in the image below. There should be a section in this area (商品発送) with visible text, often highlighted in red. This is the information given about when the ordered goods will ship. You can run this text into any basic translator service to see more information. If the given estimate has not yet passed, or is fairly accurate to the current time, please wait a bit longer for more updates.
If the given estimate in the description has passed long ago (over a month or more), please go to the blue “My Page” button in the right sidebar. Click on the order with which you are having trouble. This will bring you to an order page like the one shown below. You can check your order status by running the text in the highlighted section into a translator service. If the order status is “completion of payment” or “preparing for shipment,” the order has not yet been shipped. In the case of a status of “preparing for shipment,” your order will likely ship within a few business days to a week. Please be patient!
In the event that your order status is “awaiting payment,” your payment was not processed and your order was not placed. Your order status may be changed to “cancellation” in the event that you did not complete payment for pre-order goods during the ordering period, or in the case of any other unforeseen circumstances. The latter case is highly unlikely, and will most certainly be accompanied by an email notifying you of the situation.
Finally, scroll down to the bottom of the order page and check the list of emails Stardust Bin has sent to you regarding this order. If you completed payment successfully, you should have received an email notifying you that you paid. Please make sure the email we have highlighted below is listed on your page.
Additionally, if you suspect an issue with completion of payment, we recommend you to check with your local bank to verify if the funds for the order were removed from your account. If the funds have been taken out, but the order status is “awaiting payment,” you must contact your bank for further assistance. If the funds were not taken out, your order status is “awaiting payment,” and you are still able to pre-order the items, we recommend trying to order the items again by following our tutorial.
For pre-order items: Other people have received their orders, but mine hasn’t even shipped yet!
In a given pre-order, there may be cases where some goods will be ready to ship before others. In this event, Stardust Bin may elect to send orders that can be fully satisfied with goods they have already prepared. If your order has not shipped, you may have items in your order that are not ready yet. Usually, paper goods such as photosets are easier to manufacture than clothing or novelty items.
For example, an order for birthday goods that contains only photosets may ship before an order for birthday goods that contains both photosets and a novelty item.
As we have explained, there is no way to split your shipment. Therefore, you must wait until all the items you have ordered are ready before Stardust Bin ships your order from their warehouse.
If you are still worried, please check the above section, “My order hasn’t shipped,” in order to verify that the cause of delay is not due to any other factors
For general sale items: My order hasn’t shipped and it’s been a long time!
The following information is for those who ordered items that were listed as in stock at the time of sale.
If the order was placed less than one week ago, please be patient. Stardust Bin does not ship orders as soon as they are placed. In general, orders will remain on the status “completion of payment” or “preparing for shipment” for an average of three to four days before being shipped from the Stardust Bin warehouse. Once shipped, the items should arrive at your Japanese address within two to three days.
If more than one week has passed since your order, start by logging in to Stardust Bin and clicking the blue “My Page” button in the right sidebar. Click on the order with which you are having trouble. This will bring you to an order page like the one shown below You can check your order status by running the text in the highlighted section into a translator service. If the order status is “completion of payment” or “preparing for shipment,” the item has not yet been shipped. In the case of a status of “preparing for shipment,” your item will likely ship within a few business days to a week. Please be patient!
In the event that your order status is “awaiting payment,” your payment was not processed and your order was not placed. Your order status may be changed to “cancellation” in the event that you did not complete payment for an extended period of time, or in the case of any other unforeseen circumstances. The latter case is highly unlikely, and will most certainly be accompanied by an email notifying you of the situation.
Finally, scroll down to the bottom of the order page and check the list of emails Stardust Bin has sent to you regarding this order. If you completed payment successfully, you should have received an email notifying you that you paid. Please make sure the email we have highlighted below is listed on your page.
Additionally, if you suspect an issue with completion of payment, we recommend you to check with your local bank to verify if the funds for the order were removed from your account. If the funds have been taken out, but the order status is “awaiting payment,” you must contact your bank for further assistance. If the funds were not taken out, your order status is “awaiting payment,” but you cannot find a solution to the payment issue at hand, we recommend trying to order the items again by following our tutorial.
There may be a case in which you are awaiting shipment of items you ordered while they were in stock, and they have since sold out before shipping to your domestic address. Only very rare unforeseen circumstances would prevent you from eventually getting the items you ordered, since Stardust Bin counts orders, and not dispatched goods, when configuring their stock supply.
If your payment has been completed successfully and the items were in stock at the time of purchase, it is virtually guaranteed that you will get your shipment soon. Please be patient!
My order status shows that my order was shipped, but I haven’t received anything at my Japanese address yet!
Orders shipped from the Stardust Bin warehouse will arrive to your Japanese address within two to four business days. Your proxy shipping service may not immediately notify you of the arrival of a package, so please wait at least one week for updates.
Officially, Stardust Bin declines all responsibility for your package once it has been shipped from their warehouse. Stardust Bin exclusively uses a private shipping service in Japan, and their accuracy rate is nearly flawless. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that your package was lost. The only practical reason your package may not properly arrive is if you did not write your address correctly!
If you suspect that you are in fact having trouble with a package that never showed up, you should contact your Japanese proxy shipping service for assistance. In extreme cases, you may contact Stardust Bin if you cannot verify that your Japanese address ever received a package.
I shipped an order from my Japanese address to my home address, but it hasn’t come and it’s been a long time!
Unfortunately, this is the most difficult scenario to offer advice for, due to the sheer possibilities of what went wrong. Your first line of defense is to contact your Japanese proxy shipping service, as it is them who is now the sender of your package.
I’ve followed this tutorial strictly, and followed every troubleshooting tip, but I can’t find a solution to my problem!
If the trouble you are having is:
- Utterly unsolvable by ANY AND ALL of the information on this page
- Due to circumstances that are VERY rare and extenuating
- Causing you a great amount of distress in daily life
…Send us a direct message on twitter (@ninedragons_net) or an email to our staff address with your problem. We will try to help as much as we can, but we cannot guarantee that we can solve your problem or get you your ordered items.
Some information has been compiled with the help of other fans’ experiences and may not be up to date. Please mention us on twitter @ninedragons_net if any problems arise when following this tutorial, and we will try to help as much as we can.
Have fun shopping, and let’s all have fun supporting SUPER★DRAGON!