My YesAsia Package!

Ever since Woollim Entertainment began building great anticipation for the main track "Man in Love" with its week-long teasers and both Google+ events on the day of New Challenge's digital release, I have been following Infinite closer than ever and waiting so long for their physical album release on the 25th.  This past month has been so stressful as I had been trying to get my hands on my own copy.  Here is my journey of frustration:

I was in Toronto during Infinite's release and had expected the stores there would magically have New Challenge in stock.  Unfortunately every store I checked said that they would receive the album two weeks after the release date.  I was disappointed because a store on the west coast of Canada had the album in stock just 3 days after the release date.  I understand that the west coast is much closer to Korea than the east coast, but I still had faith.

I decided to order mine directly from Amazon.com instead, which I had thought would have the fastest shipping sense usually direct Amazon packages arrive at my doorstep on its pre-order date.  Amazon's pre-order date was April 2nd, but once that date hit, the webpage said that this item was temporarily out of stock.  This webpage was already causing me concern because of the lack of information provided (including the title of the album being 'Infinite' and having no information of whether it comes with a poster or not).  With even more frustration, I cancelled my order.

Then I decided to order from YesAsia.com, which supposedly has very fast shipping (under a week).  I ordered on April 6th and it shipped on April 8th.  The shipping time was 6-14 days.

On Saturday, April 20th, Amazon finally announced that it had a few New Challenge albums in stock (last I checked was 4), meaning the CD would have arrived pretty shortly after then with prime, 2-day shipping.

Infinite's album has really been haunting me, because for the past 3 nights I've had dreams of other people receiving their CDs (including the limited edition ones) and on the last night, I finally received my copy, which happened to be a limited edition.  My dreams were a sign that the CD has finally come.  Today, 10 days after it had shipped (excluding weekends), my CD has finally arrived!

Sorry for blogging about all of that unnecessary frustration, but I just had to vent it out.  But now that my package has arrived, I can't stop grinning; my friend said I look so happy :)  And here it is:

 

 I was so excited that I opened my package just as I got it, walking on the sidewalk.  My album came inside a bubble wrap envelope, which was wrapped with 2 more layers of bubble wrap, then placed inside a tight plastic envelope that was then bounded by lots of masking tape.  It took awhile to open the package and reach its core, showing brilliant packaging.  I must admit, it did feel awkward carrying around a suspicious looking package...

Now a bit about YesAsia.  YesAsia is the same company as YesStyle, and it's based in Hong Kong.  The website has a huge selection of official Asian entertainment goods.  YesAsia is a trustworthy website, but with such high standards comes high prices.  YesAsia's products are usually more expensive than prices at Amazon, Kpoptown, etc.  They do have occasional deals though, like if you're a first time shopper.