Shashin wrote...
You have a lot to learn about the world of dakimakura covers, my friend. ^^
There are primarily three types of dakimakura covers you could buy:
1. Bootlegs - This should be fairly obvious; it's knock offs that are using other people's work. Generally speaking, any dakimakura cover in the $30-70 range is a bootleg (though there are legit covers in that range, and bootlegs outside of it.) The quality is usually greatly inferior to the quality of the other two categories.
2. "Company" dakimakura covers - Generally speaking, these are the covers that you can find on big name sites like Hobby Search and AmiAmi. They use official art from their source series, and unless the source is an eroge/hentai, they're usually on the tamer side of things when it comes to nudity. Prices for these usually range from 8000-11000 yen.
3. "Circle" dakimakura covers - I'm sure you seen/read some doujinshi (if not, just check the front page of Fakku.) All doujinshi are done by collections of individual artists known as "circles". The dakimakura scene is much the same; there are probably hundreds of different circles that do dakimakura covers. The webpage you found, Dakemakura, is one such circle (Dakemakura is actually the circle name.) And the Homura you linked was also done by a circle, specifically AnkoKoubou (ã‚ã‚“ã“工房) and they actually happen to be one of my favorite circles (I own that Homura myself, as well as maybe 20 of their other covers.) Prices for circle works generally range from 10000 yen to 15000 yen.
If you really wanted that Homura, she's available on YJA for 12000 yen buyout. However, the material is 2-Way Roika and it had a pretty bad wrinkle problem, but it could be ironed out easily enough apparently (the material in the pictures you linked is the 2-Way Roika, so you can see what you'd be getting.) You'd also need to use a proxy to order it, so it would probably cost you around $180-200 to order it.
There are actually a good number of circles that are willing to ship internationally, though (copy/paste from a list I posted previously):
Circle sites that ship internationally
Now we're moving onto strictly circle stuff, and it becomes a tad harder to navigate, but it can still be done without any added cost or too much hassle. As a warning, if you haven't realized this already, most circle covers tend to be on the more explicit side of things.
Black and White Store - A production company/collection of circles (I'm not 100% sure of the relationship, honestly) that's location in Taiwan. They put out a lot of high quality covers, have a fairly decent English system set up, and include shipping in the total price. This is probably one of the better deals, if you find a cover that you like, given that the average circle cover is in the 13000 yen range and EMS shipping for one is about 1500-2000 yen, which is included in the usual B&W Store price of 13000.
Bon Cool - Bon Cool has garnered a lot of good will with me. They come out with some fairly nice products, but it's the cool promotions and things they do that really stand out. I've ordered from them two or three times. The first time, they included a double of one of their covers I ordered, as omake. The second time was with a promotion that got me 40% off one of their covers. The third time didn't yield anything special, but it isn't something you should ever expect, and it's cool that they've done what they have. If you check out their site, make sure you don't miss the language options in the top right hand corner to switch to English/preferred language.
Evening Call - I love this circle; I've been following them since their 4th cover came out (they're now in the 130s) and they recently started accepting international orders. The downside is that it seems to be an afterthought, so the accessibility if you don't speak Japanese is minimal.
Dakemakura - I've never ordered from them personally, but they're apparently willing to ship internationally according to their FAQ. The main thing of note about this circle is the vast number of covers they've done, most of which are still available for order now. If you went through them all, I'd imagine you'd probably find something you like.
W-Canvas - I'm including this site as a bit of an afterthought. They have a banner at the top that says they will ship internationally, but I've never ordered from them myself. They're not a circle, but a consignment shop, similar to Toranoana. They carry circle covers, usually at a price 5-10% higher than what you'd pay if you ordered directly from the circle. I know you can find both Evening Call and Dakemakura covers on there, as well as a ton of circles that don't ship internationally. If you can successfully contact them, and order covers from circles that don't ship internationally, it would probably be the cheapest way to acquire their covers.
Update: They actually do have a fairly limited English shop set up now, but if you email them items you'd like added to it, apparently they will.
Hmm, ZZ, maybe you should edit your first post in the thread to include information like this, as well as where to buy actual pillows etc.. so that new people to the thread can find it easily and not all need to ask similar questions right off the bat. Though maybe not as they may not even post in the thread at all then ;(