Interest

Signed K-On!! Guitar Gets 9,999,999,999-Yen 'Bid' (Updated)

A seller named "euf02us" placed a guitar signed by the K-On! anime's voice cast on auction on Yahoo! Japan on January 5, and a user placed a 9,999,999,999 Yen (about US$120 million) "bid" on Monday morning.

Last year, the Japanese convenience store chain LAWSON ran a K-ON!! Fair promotional campaign from October 19 to November 29. People who spent a certain amount at LAWSON stores could go online with numbers from their store receipts to see if they won prizes. By the second day of the campaign, LAWSON's computer and mobile phone home pages received over 1 million accesses in one day, and the company's website was temporarily unreachable for many users.

The campaign's top-level "A Prizes" were five replicas of the main character Yui's guitar. All five cast members who voiced the anime's Ho-kago Tea Time band signed the guitars. Each guitar also came with a limited-edition hard case (with an imprinted HTT logo and key), set of clear stickers, shielded cord, tuning wrench, soft case, manual, and warranty certificate.

Thanks to the questionable bids, the seller plans to cancel the current auction on Tuesday and re-offer the guitar at a later date.

[Via Kyō mo Yareyaku]

Image © kakifly, Houbunsha/Sakuragaoka High School Light Music Club

Update: The auction was relisted on Monday evening, and it ended within eight minutes with one 3,000,000-yen (US$36,000) bid. [Via Yaraon!]