Selling Beat Tribe Videos and DVDs outside Japan

Hey all,

On my recent trip to japan, I spent some time talking to Beat Tribe's Yamagishi-San about selling the Beat Tribe videos (mostly on DVD these days) outside Japan. This is something he's into, provided there's enough interest from all the players.

If you don't know, Beat Tribe is a small grass-roots orginization, run by a few people centrally at the Beat-Tribe game center/office, and locally all across japan by fans and employees at "member" game centers. They organize single player and team tournaments with extreme frequency (there are about 10 tourneys every week), and organize the annual "Beat Tribe Cup", which has gotten much mention elsewhere.

All this has been going on for almost 10 years now (BT was previously known as "Athena", see the 10th ann. DVD), all with NO money from Sega, BT runs on entry fees and support from fans. Buying the videos they put out is a way we can all help out, and help foster the relationship between VF'ers outside Japan and those in Japan. Looks like some US players might be showing up on the 6th BT Cup video /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

The most regularly issued DVD's are the "Tokyo Bay Area Point Ranking Battle" videos, which feature 15 sets of 3 on 3 matches, single elim tourney. Being the Tokyo branch of the point ranking battles, these feature all the famous/strong players most people know, and feature the highest level of play for their time. Each DVD runs about 2 hours. The 2002 season has been completely released with 10 volumes, and the 2003 edition is now up to volume 4, with 5 and 6 coming in the next month or two. Currently, 2003 vols 1-4 are avaliable for sale on the site, but only to people in Japan. In addition, the 4th BT Cup DVD is avaliable (5 on 5, version C), with the 5th DVD bound to show up any day. Also, the "Masterpiece Athena Cup Digest" tape is available, which is a kind of greatest hits collection of VF2 and 3 tourneys, the "Athena Cups".

Now, the good news is that these videos, especially the DVDs are cheap! Each one runs about 15 dollars (2003 Volume 1 is just 10 bucks!). And, they have NO REGION! This means that the DVDs will play on any DVD player across the globe, provided it isn't too fussy (there's a disclaimer on the site that the DVD's won't play in some PS2s, but they've worked in the 3 or 4 I've tried just fine, as well as my mac).

All the videos are direct feed, and have notes on screen that say who's playing, team names, point in the tourney, place on the team (1st, 2nd to fight etc), and come with a cool insert with notes from the tourney, pictures, and a complete bracket/flowchart of the fights.

Since the videos are cheap, I'd encourage people to get individual copies. They only release 2 new DVDs every 2/3 months, so it breaks down to less than $10/month throughout the year. Don't be cheap! These are kept at a low price for the fans! I don't wanna see "all 10 of us here in oklahoma wanna order one DVD". I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for not getting more of the videos which are no longer available (or loaned them to people, never to be returned... *cough*).

So, show you care! If you'd like to place orders for the current volumes, or want to pre-order the up-coming vols 5 and 6, please PM me, Spotlite. In a few weeks, I'll let everyone know if there's enough interest to do the deal, it has to be worth Yamagishi and I's time to figure out all the $, shipping, ordering etc.

Best way to ensure you'll be able to get the videos: encourage others to order like you! Use the thread to show your support!

Also, BT releases Street Fighter videos from time to time, usually showing 3rd Strike and Alpha, but there have been some GGX tapes as well, I think. These are also up for order, depending on availability.

support our culture

Spotlite

 

Hmm, good videos of quality players, WHO THE FUCK WANTS THAT!!!! Yeah, I'm down /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

No region you say? Sweet, I'm in, PM coming shortly!

 

Yeah seriously im super down. Would be cool if a subscription type deal could be worked out.

 

I'm down! Spotlite, please check your PMs...

 

You can count me in. /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

In other semi-related news, I am selling 3 older BT tapes that I got if anyone is interested. They are kinda dated so you would only want them if you are a collector (Except maybe for "The last dance").

Two of the tapes are from near the end of 2002 I think; "2002 Tokyo Bay Area Cup Vol. 8" and "2002 Tokyo Bay Area Cup Vol. 9". The 3rd one (my favorite) is "The 3rd VFR Beat-Tribe Cup; Virtua Fighter 3tb Last Dance" from around July 2001 I think.

Selling all 3 together for $55, which is about the money I spent on them (minus shipping cost from Japan). As for shipping those, buyers would pay shipping cost.

The tapes are in great condition and have only been watched once or twice. Vol.8's case has a small dent in the side, but otherwise they are all in good shape.

Uhh.. If this is not allowed, I apologize in advance, and would delete the post if possible /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

As for the topic's news, getting those DVDs outside of Japan would be sweet /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

 

Done and done; I've been trying to find a way to get my hands on these for a while.

 

Just wanted to post my support for this idea...

About a year and a half ago, Creed showed me some of his Ver.C Beat Tribe tapes and I was hooked right away!! /versus/images/graemlins/cool.gif

The idea of possibly having easier access to this footage is great news. Hopefully, players outside of Japan can buy these DVDs as often as possible. Count me in.

 

thanks to everyone who's come out to support this!

I've gotten a lot of PM's, and we've got the ball rolling. In a week or so I'll call Yamagishi and find out exactly what's available and how many of each. I'm sure there'll be no problem filling everyone's orders.

So far, here's my game plan:

get together all the orders for the first batch
collect funds through Paypal, or money order by mail for people who don't like online $
get the order and $ to Yamagishi
he'll ship me the order in a big bundle
I'll ship out to everyone personally, probably using US Postal Service "Priority Mail" (2-3 days, $3.20, easy to track online)
there you have it.

I won't be adding any extra charges, incase anyone's wondering (I MIGHT throw like $1 on each order for time/phone charges for calls to Japan etc).

Some people have asked about a "subscription" style order, but it's probably just best to make one big order for all of us as the videos are released. I'm gonna make the first order as soon as I get enough orders, and after that I'll probably place an order as soon as 2003 vols. 5 and 6 come out (Yamagishi said January).

Keep the love coming!

Spotlite

 

LOL how did I NOT think of this sooner? I should have remembered about the tapes when I was in LA and have one of you guys asked yamagishi about it.

Anyways.... I'm up for it as well !!!

/versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

Ah comunity basement beat tribe.
I should be there in a week or so depending on my shedule, should pick up a few for Ogi and me.

 

Thanks fishie
good trip and have fun!!
Ha ha this week i am going to Holland again lol /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif
(coming back soon and i can't wait to get my .....)

you know what i am talking about! lol


Ogi

 

Hey,

Just talked to Yamagishi about the videos, here's the deal:

Volumes 5 and 6 will be coming out in January sometime, probably mid to late part of the month.

According to him, he also can make copies of the older tapes for those that are interested (I've gotten some requests for 2002 season videos. BTW, if I didn't mention it before, all 2002 videos from 6-10 are Evo).

Also, for those interested in SF, there is a Zero 3 and a 3rd Strike video available.

Since vols 5 and 6 won't be available for a few more weeks, I'm probably gonna hold my first order until then, so I can just make one big order (which'll save us on shipping costs as well).

Here's how the cost of the videos will break down:

1. cost of the tape/DVD
2. cost of bulk shipping from Japan to me (this will be all the tapes)
3. cost of shipping to you

Now, at the monent I've got orders for about 40 videos, and that would easily fit into one box. Shipping from Japan isn't the cheapest, but I'm guessing everything can go together for about $40-70 (pretty rough estimate). The cost of shipping from Japan will simply be divided by the # of videos ordered, so if I place an order for 40 tapes, and shipping is $65, it breaks down to about $1.60 per video (at an order of 60 videos, that drops to about $1.08 per video, so the more we order, the cheaper shipping is for everyone).

So, an average scenario looks like this:

Let's say you want Vol's 5 and 6

right now, Vol's 3 and 4 sell for 1575 yen, which at the current rate of about 110 yen/dollar, is $14.30.

so $28.60 for the 2 DVDs
we'll say $1.60 shipping each
and USPS priority mail inside the US at $3.20

(the cost of the 4th BT Cup DVD is 2,500 yen, the Athena Masterpiece Tape 2,000 yen)

comes to $35 even. Not bad, considering I've seen people on Ebay sell these tapes for 35 each BEFORE shipping.

Of course, the shipping from Japan may be more, but I think it'll probably be in that ball park.

For anyone sitting on the fence, I probably won't order again until the release of Volume 7 (since there won't be too many orders placed between releases I'd imagine); so get your orders in! Socal, you guys need to order some videos (except Talis, who got his order in).

BTW, if you're thinking of ordering these and copying them for your homies, you're an asshole. The prices are kept low on these for the fans! Sega/Enterbrain's official KakutouShinSeki DVD, less fights for $60! You can get 4 BT DVDs for the price of that one! Besides, last time I tried to copy a BT Tape, it was copy protected.

Even if you order just one, it makes a big difference, everyone should be able to scrape up $20...

Okay, no more guilt.

for those that have expressed interest in the thread but haven't PM'd me, please do so to let me know exactly which videos you want. Thanks!

to check out the DVDs, go to www.beat-tribe.com/video/index.html

to see samples of matches from upcoming releases, go to:

www.beat-tribe.com/vfr/movie.html

Spotlite

 

Hey that sounds really good. I'm kind of confused as to how it works though?

 

yeah I'm interested, once I sort out a new international credit card /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

count me in! /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Sorry to drive the thread off-topic again (^_^'). Just wanted to mention that the tapes are still up for sale. I might put them up on Ebay or something, but wanted to see if anyone is interested.

* Steers the thread back to where BT DVDs were coming to the states.

 

I'm very much interested in getting some beat tribe stuff (particularly the older vf tourney vids and the 3s stuff)

I wonder though, how can I take advantage of this opportunity being that I live in London and I dont have a credit/debit card?