[Iwatasan]

I just checked on eBay, and at least for the Japanese version of these, prices are a little under $25. I just got an e-mail from Nintendo that mine had been shipped today, so we should see the North American version popping up on eBay soon too. I did see one already for $28. Wait another week or so until eBay gets flooded with these and the price might go down to $20 or less.

That crazy limited Zelda thing you're talking about is the fully gold painted (and, I think, pretty damn ugly to be honest) Twilight Princess statue. That was CN of Europe exclusive, for 15,000 stars. There is a difference in exchange value, if you will, between stars and coins. You generally get 40 to 60 coins per game here whereas you generally get 250 stars per game in Europe. Still, that would have been something like at least 3,000 coins if it had ever been featured in the North American catalog. A couple ideas for you to earn coins faster: register for a family account, which allows you to register more than one copy of the same game if you have multiples; and buy points directly from eBay for cheap.

The Platinum Elite Status is achieved by earning a cumulative total of 600 coins in one CN year, even if you spend some or all of them over the course of that year. So for example, if you earn 200 coins, spend 150, earn 300 more, spend 250, earn 100 more, and spend 200 in the course of a CN year, you end up with zero coins in your account come July, and at no point did you ever actually have a full 600 coins in your account, but you will have earned Platinum Status by achieving a cumulative total of 600 coins year-to-date. And you don't spend any coins on the reward you get for that, just go and pick which one you want and it's free. They ship the following December.