It was just yesterday when Kaws would release an Open Edition figure in his classic three colorways and you might have a day or at least a few hours to decide if you were going to buy it. Today, in 2020, a lot of people ask me how I manage to purchase even one figure as sell out times have shortened to just minutes. — Why? In recent years the hype behind Kaws has reached sneaker resellers who use “bots” to quickly purchase limited edition shoes — And now they’re turning these same bots on Kaws releases. Obviously, this has made actual collectors and fans extremely frustrated when it comes to a kawsone.com drop, not being able to secure a figure.
So how do you secure a Kaws figure today (for retail cost)… without a bot??
This short guide will help break down various elements that just might help give you a better chance of securing a Kaws figure manually. Unfortunately, until shopping cart apps like Shopify (the framework for many online stores and typically for Kaws releases) figure out a way to fully prevent botting any way to manually speed up the check out process might help you secure the “W” on the next Kaws drop.
Your Browser & Autofill
This one might seem obvious, but if you’re new to limited edition drops the number one thing you can do is set your browser up to autofill your Address and Payment info. I suggest Google Chrome, but other browsers most likely have the same features. Spending even an extra 20 seconds typing out your info or looking for your Credit Card may very well make or break your attempt to purchase.
During a drop, you’ll simply need to ‘click’ inside of the address field and your saved address will pop up. Once you select the address (you can store multiple) it will populate all of the address fields and allow you to quickly click submit, and move to the next step. The same will happen for your payment information, except here you’ll need to quickly enter in your credit card’s CVV number. This should be the only piece of information you’ll need to manually type so it’s important to have this remembered for the credit card you have stored in your autofill.
Kawsone.com vs. DDT Store (Kaws Holiday Releases)
In short, the DDT Store allows you to create an account, kawsone.com does not. It’s important to sign up for an account prior to the drop and to log into it beforehand.
Doing this will have all your info already set up and ready once you get to the check-out step in the process.
Change Computer Time to Display Seconds
Timing is everything. If you’re not on the page the second the Kaws figures load you’ll be at a huge disadvantage. Typically drops happen at 12pm EST.
Instead of refreshing over and over at 11:59am, simply change your computer to also display seconds and begin refreshing 1-2 seconds before the official drop time.
Note 1: A lot of times this is delayed a few seconds. Some people also suggest to “Shift + Refresh” the page to also clear the cache on reload. In some cases simply refreshing may load the cached version of the page and not display the newly added figures.
Note 2: Sometimes drops are delayed on purpose. You might have to refresh for a minute or two before you see new figures populate.
Timing & Reducing Your Number of Clicks
As said above, Timing. Is. Everything! — The goal is to get the figure you want into your cart as quickly as possible and get into the “line.” Many collectors have stopped trying to add more than one figure to their cart to speed up the process, but we have still seen some collectors manage to get all 3 figures (or 5 when we look at the What Party Chum release). To do this it’s important to understand the layout of the website, which may help you add the figures you want to your cart with less clicks than someone else, and ultimately getting you into the “line” before they do.
Here is a click-by-click breakdown of an example drop that happens at 12pm EST. This is how I secured all 3 Share figures during the kawsone.com drop:
11:59:59: Refreshing page until the product is displayed.
Kawsone.com release:
Click 1: first figure image
Click 2: add to chat button
Click 3-4: back, back (to return to the homepage)
Click 5: second figure image
Click 6: add to cart button
Click 7-8: back, back (to return to the homepage again)
Click 9: third figure image
Click 10: add to cart
Click 11: checkout
Boom! (Time to fill out captchas!)
Note: This obviously could change as new features are added to the site to help prevent bots. For example, the What Party Chum release, color selectors were displayed where you could easily change between each color without navigating “back.”
DDT Store release: For the less frequent DDT Store Holiday releases, it’s basically the same process, but one difference: They frequently display “similar items” below the figure, allowing you to skip the “back” step, and just click directly to the next figure (if you’re going for more than one).
Captchas
One thing a bot can’t do is complete “Captchas,” or the little puzzles that make you select various images to move on… You’ll most likely see these twice in the process while trying to purchase your Kaws figure.. Once when you first click “check out,” and again after you input your address and credit card information. Both times you’ll see the all familiar “Select all of the images with: ….”
Tips:
- You’ll need to solve these as quickly as possible whenever they pop up.
- It’s speculated that logging into your gmail account (your main account that you send emails through and view youtube videos with, etc..) will help reduce the number Captchas you’re displayed. In some cases users report multiple rounds of images.
Good Luck!
The hope is that this guide can help someone who hasn’t had a chance to purchase a Kaws figure or product from one of his limited edition drops recently.
Don’t be greedy! This article is intended for collectors and fans only — Not resellers. If you plan on immediately reselling your Kaws, please reconsider or reconsider buying it and allow someone who truly loves Kaws artwork to purchase for retail!
Questions? If you have any questions about Kaws, Kaws releases or this article feel free to reach out via the contact form. If you’d like to reference this article in a video or post, I simply ask that you provide your audience with a link, leading back to this page, so they can explore more if they’d like.
If you’re reading this — Thank you Brian and the Kaws team!