Groove made a really interesting post on their blog earlier today, it’s basically a consumer alert about how Pullips should only be bought via approved retailers. The post specifically mentions Pullip My Melody x Hen-nako it is unknown at this time if this list only applies to that specific release or not; I have emailed Groove asking for clarification.
Below is a google translated copy of the blog post (please excuse any weird translations: original version can be viewed here).
Groove Inc. sells products ONLY through authorized retailers. ONLY retailers authorized by Groove have committed to provide excellent pre-sale and post-sale customer service and to uphold Groove standards. And authorized Groove retailers are the ONLY retailers that can convey to you, the consumer, the Groove factory warranty.
Not every retailer advertising Groove products has been authorized by Groove to advertise or sell those products. Unauthorized sellers may be selling counterfeit, used, damaged, or altered products (including products that have had serial numbers removed or altered), and often they do not even have the Groove products in inventory to sell. Consumers who have purchased from unauthorized sellers report problems contacting these unauthorized sellers for post-sale support, and in some instances have even experienced credit card fraud as a result of attempting to purchase from unauthorized sellers.
To avoid these problems, you should always buy from authorized Groove retailers. If you have any questions regarding as authorized retailer, you can contact at info@groove.ws.
Authorized Retailer List
To help guide you, we have compiled below a list of known authorized sellers. We know this is not a complete list, but we recommend you check them.
Following retailers are also authorized by Sanrio Co., Ltd. to sell Pullip My Melody x Hen-Nako, the official overseas release on Feb.016.
– Adoll Land shop (China)
– ARIGATÔ SEVILLA (Spain)
– Berry Dolls (Thailand)
– Jolie Doll (France)
– Kilala (Finland)
– Plasticpop (Germany)
– Pullip.asia (Malaysia)
– Pullip.net (South Korea)
– Pullipstyle (USA)
– Pullipworld (Belgium)
– Sanrio USA (USA)
[in alphabetical order]
Unauthorized Retailer and Warning
Many resellers who sell through Amazon.com, E-bay.com and taobao.com are not authorized retailers of Groove products.
When purchasing Groove products on Amazon.com, E-bay.com and taobao.com, it is important to note where the product is being “shipped from and sold by,” which is stated clearly in the header for each product.
Reminder: Warranties are non-transferable. Second-hand items are not covered by a manufacturer’s warranty.
Finally, following retailers are not authorized to sell Groove products (this list is not inclusive):
・芷菱馆 (China) (They allegedly use the name “Groove China”, but they are no connection with Groove.)
・Toy Malaysia (Malaysia)
・Dolls.MOE (Spain)
I know Blythe had troubles with unauthorized dolls ie. factory dolls flooding the market a few years ago, I wonder if Pullip is having similar issues? Perhaps Groove is just being overly cautious.
I’m kind of surprised that Groove specifically called out a few retailers, I’ve never even heard of Dolls.MOE before today. think that it is great that Groove has shared this information with their customers! This list is especially important for people new to the hobby to see as they may not know who is a reliable retailer to do business with.
Personally I buy the grand majority of my dolls via Pullipstyle who is on the approved seller list. I’ve never had anything but great experiences with them and the few times there has been an issue they have been very quick to resolve it, their customer service is top-notch and I couldn’t ask for more. I also buy from JPGroove occasionally which is the US branch of Groove while they were not specifically named on the list, they are Groove themselves so they probably didn’t think they needed to mention themselves.
I will be sure to post updates as more information becomes available.
This post has been edited as requested.
Pullips and Junk 
that’s interesting. I have bought multiple dolls from Toy Malaysia over the years and have never had one single problem with them. I wonder what they did wrong? Of course I agree PullipStyle is the best by a mile, but living in Australia and with exchange rates sucking and postage going sky high – it is far cheaper for me to buy from Malaysia than the states. I have always bought 90% of my brand new dolls from PS but TM would be my first alternative.
Groove really needs to go back and clarify this as it seems to create far more questions than answers. I wonder if it is a licensing issue specifically for My Melody x HEN-NAKO as I know Sanrio can be quite strict with licensing stuff at times which is kind of absurd when you consider how much stuff Hello Kitty graces. It could be as simple as like maybe they opened preorders before they were supposed to? I really hope Groove releases more information about this, if this really is a wider issue they may not ever publicly state why they are trying to distance themselves from certain retailers and there are now a ton of stores in a grey area including huge retailers from Japan like Hobby Search and AmiAmi .
I order a lot of stuff from Hobbysearch and I’ve always found their customer service excellent. I am wondering as well why AmiAmi and Hobbysearch weren’t on that approved retailer list. I would have assumed they would be. I’m in Australia too and for me, shipping is way better from Japan (price-wise) than from the USA (plus I can actually get the item shipped EMS which has insurance and tracking and costs way less than USPS International Priority). I used to buy my Pullips from Pullipstyle but since the increase in shipping, I tend to prefer to buy Pullips from Hobbysearch as I order other doll lines and figures from them and found them to be one of the best both in customer service and products offered.
I’m wondering if it’s specific to that My Melody x HEN-NAKO doll too …
Given the phrasing “Following retailers are also authorized by Sanrio Co., Ltd. to sell Pullip My Melody x Hen-Nako,” I’m thinking it’s definitely a licensing issue with Sanrio just for that particular doll. Especially considering they left out some major Japanese shops, as you mentioned, like AmiAmi. Not to mention the difference between “some sellers on Amazon” and Amazon itself, which does sell Pullips directly as well as letting other people sell them via Amazon Marketplace.
Either way, it’s still sort of unsettling. I’ve bought several Pullips from other sellers (though the one from Mandarake was technically second hand), as well as the ones from PullipStyle and Groove, so this kind of thing is decidedly disquieting.
Hopefully, they’ll answer your e-mail and clear this up!
So they’re just telling us not to buy of eBay?
Hi,
I am the owner of Dolls.MOE and we are buying most dolls from AGA the brand owners and also PS or Pullipworld at wholesale price. The brand name Pullip and the collaborations for design are made by AGA and they are also surprised that we are on the list, so they are complaining groove about it as AGA claims it is not “fair trade”
ToyMalaysia is also a good reputated seller and before I become a seller I had got some of the dolls from them and zero problems.
I have 8 My Melody dolls coming from AGA itself and they did not pose any problem with licensing from Sanrio, just FYI
Hello, thank you for responding here. I wrote Groove a few days ago and never received a response from them, I hope they post an update, release more information or a retract their post (if they do so I will gladly post a retraction here as well). I blog pretty much all Pullip news good or bad as well as reviews etc. I’ve never done business with you personally, I had honestly never even heard of the website before this announcement but I’m located in the US so importing from the EU doesn’t make sense for me ^^;
I know who AGA is though I have never directly interacted with them, I’ve communicated back and forth with JPGroove (Groove’s US office) before but not regarding this issue. I hope that you and AGA are able to straighten things out with Groove without much additional trouble. I know communication is not Groove’s strong suit ^^;
My thought with the licensing thing had been that I know that Sanrio can often be finicky about licensing and maybe Groove had said only x amount of retailers would be able to offer My Melody for sale as a part of the licensing agreement and when other retailers started offering her for preorder maybe Groove was just trying to cover themselves like WE didn’t sell to these people directly. It’s weird that a few stores were specifically named though and not huge generalized hobby retailers like Hobbysearch and Amiami who had also had My Melody up for preorder.
I hope this issue is resolved soon.