Apple’s Annual Lucky Bag Sale Delivers for Japanese Fanboys

Photo from Appbank.net

While Christmas has come and gone for most of us, here in Japan there was quite a bit of excitement this morning as Apple held its annual ‘Lucky Bag’ sale at seven retail stores around the country. These lucky bag sales are a New Year’s tradition here in Japan, although few generate the excitement of Apple’s sale. Some bloggers have already posted pictures of their loot from this morning, so I thought we might take a look.

Over on the Japanese Apple blog AppBank, @Kazuend describes that in order to secure a place in line, he lined up at 6pm yesterday and was still 50th from the front. It’s a long wait in pretty cold weather, and there’s really no guarantee that you’re going to like the items that come in your lucky bag, which is priced at 33,000 yen ($380). But @Kazuend was apparently one of the lucky ones, as he figures his haul is worth about 95,000 yen (almost $1,100). Here’s what he got:

• Range Messenger bag, about $90
• iPad, 16GB wi-fi model, about $450 [1]
• Beats Solo HD headphones, about $230
• Apple New Year’s T-shirt, price unknown
• Logicool Keyboard cover for iPad, about $115
• Carbon Audio Zooka wireless speaker bar, about $92
• Lightning USB camera adaptor, about $33
• Mophie Juice Pack, about $80

Photo from Appbank.net

There are some other folks who were even luckier, coming away with a Macbook Air, which appears to be the best possible prize in this year’s bags. There’s a handy roundup of a many people’s lucky bags here in Japanese if you’d like to explore the phenomenon a little deeper. Looking at the contents, it’s hard not to be tempted to go line up next year.

I’m curious to hear if any of our readers braved the elements to sit in the cold for a lucky bag this year. If so, let us know in the comments.