Yahoo Japan auctions

[norkusa]

It really hurts me sometimes to look at the auctions on Yahoo Japan. I see tons of rare and exotic stuff there I want to bid on that I never see on ebay, but I can't bid because I can't read Japanese. In fact, there is something on there right now that I REALLY want to get but have no way of bidding.

Does anyone else check out the auctions there? If so, do you ever place any bids? I've heard most Japanese sellers are very insistent about not wanting to sell to overseas bidders. What's the matter with them? Don't they realize that Americans will shell out ridiculous amounts of money for some of the stuff they have?

(oh yeah...if anyone can help me out with getting this item, I will TOTALLY hook you up ;))

[Rev. Link]

I would imagine that japanese eBayers don't want to sell overseas for the same reason many of us here don't. It's a hassle.

[norkusa]

I would imagine that japanese eBayers don't want to sell overseas for the same reason many of us here don't. It's a hassle.

Why is it a hassle?? I sell to overseas bidders all the time. The only hassle is the extra minute it takes to fill out the customs form. If they pay you with Paypal, it automatically converts whatever currency they are paying with to US dollars which can then be transfered into your bank account. And if they are paying for the shipping I really don't care where it's being sent to, just as long as I get my money. What's the big deal?

[Rev. Link]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

[JLukas]

Easy solution to your problem:

http://www.celga.com/index.html

They are a deputy service, meaning they'll bid on items for you and if you're the auction winner, they'll do all the transaction work for you, then send you the item. So you won't have the problem of international shipping and speaking Japanese with the seller.

Basically, you send them an e-mail with the item #, how much you want to bid, and a PayPal deposit of half your bid.

I've done about 20 transactions through them, their fees are reasonable considering you can get items otherwise impossible to get. IIRC, for an item ending at 1000-10,000 yen (about U.S. $10-100), they'll charge you a $10 commission. And add international shipping and some other minor fees on top of that.

[maxlords]

Yeah, it's pretty much that or find a middleman gamer friend that'll get you stuff from Yahoo Jp. Yahoo Jp is where people like the much reviled "Adol" from eBay get their rare games to sell at painfully high prices. Nice...if you can find a connection...and if you want it bad, celga and rinkya both do the brokering for ya...but the fees can be killer on some stuff!


Maybe a kind mod will toss this thread over to the Import forums :)

[norkusa]

Yahoo Jp is where people like the much reviled "Adol" from eBay get their rare games to sell at painfully high prices.

Ackk!! So that is where that guy gets all of his rare stuff from!?! He is the only one I've ever seen with Virtual Boy Virtual Bowling carts for sale on ebay. He usually sells 1 or 2 a year for AT LEAST $1,200 for a complete copy. I used to think that he had an endless supply of them, but now I know his secret: Yahoo Japan Auctions!

(and thanks for the tip, JLukas. What a great service! I'm going to try winning my auction with them)

[Nick Goracke]

In fact, there is something on there right now that I REALLY want to get but have no way of bidding.


I've been using www.animechaos.com

As far as I can tell, they are the most reasonable for shipping (no markups) and deputy fees. I've had great luck, even with outrageous items like LD box sets.

[Funk Buddy]

Oh, my, God! X_x I think I've soiled myself. I will really be broke once I start usuing this type of service! Thanks for the two links, are there othes like this?

[Ed Oscuro]

Heh, I've known about Celga and other services but I'm too damn lazy to use it usually. I'll have to start sometime :D

Anyhow, that PayPal stuff is silly. I keep all my money in my normal bank account, thank you, and I don't care if it takes four days to clear since I know there's no chance of losing big bucks when it's not in PayPal to begin with :)

[Ed Oscuro]

GRR NO MONEY

http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b44251772

Oh well, he's a bitch anyways o.o

[Sylentwulf]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

Paypal is only bad if you're a moron and don't know how to control your money.

[jonjandran]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

Paypal is only bad if you're a moron and don't know how to control your money.

Amen !!!

Also just a side note ----- 608 pay-pal transactions and only 1 problem which was solved in 24 hours.

[maxlords]

MMMMMMMMMM CELS! :D I already have a bunch of Trigun cels w/dougas....wouldn't want one of Legato...at least not a closeup.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I don't like the coloring on that one either. He's looking rather bad in this one.

I like the one that's up with with Meryl and that one guy (Meryl's yelling at somebody, the Nebraska family I believe), and the one of Vash standing there with his happy face on :D

[mrhaboobi]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

How uninformed, the fact is most overseas bidders who pay with a money order use bidpay ( us based ) or some other online money order company that is based in the US! shipping you a money order for an overseas buyer is just as quick as it would be for any other person in the US!!

Dont take this personally but I really hate this attitude, so many sellers i feel are just to lazy and uninformed to realise that selling overseas and shipping really is no more hassle than shipping locally! Sure paypal might be evil for some, ( ive never had 1 problem in my 100 or so transactions) buti think its a good system..

The fact is i always ask sellers who say they wont ship overseas. Generally i can tell them the price off shipping and what methods to use.. 95% of the time the seller will end up shipping..

Before you go ruling overseas buyers out, do some research, its really not that much hassle, 5 extra mins at the post office and your done..

Just my thoughts..

Back to the topic, i buy from yahoo JP all the time, i hate CELGA the service sucks. i wont use them ever again.. i now have a yahoo jp account and buy direct.. i have to ask sellers to ship overseas, i now have good feedback, so most times they say yes so long as i pay shipping and speak in japanese..

[GaijinPunch]

Japanese sellers don't sell overseas for two reasons.
1: It *IS* a hassle, b/c you *HAVE* to go to the post office to mail the stuff. A lot of sellers on Yahoo JP send stuff exclusively through 'takkyubin' service, which they can mail out from their convenience store. The furthest I've seen a house from a convenience store is about 30 meters, whereas for a normal Japanese guy working 9AM to 10PM, he'd have to go to a 24 hour post office, which could be an hour away... easy.

2: How many people overseas speak Japanese? Few... too few for it to be worth the hassle.

For those that care, Adol's feedback:
http://rating.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/show/rating?userID=opaopa_2000_99

There are at least two other Ebay sellers that are easy to find on Yahpp JP that have good feedback, and are very easy to find, but I"ll leave them anonymous.

And for those that wine about it's not far --- you're right, it's not. But there are few sellers on Ebay that ship out of North America. It's a pain, but it's the way it is -- and this is w/o language barrier mind you.

[maxlords]

Exactly. The language barrier is what keeps me from buying off Yahoo Japan mostly. And I hope Adol gets banned from Yahoo Japan for lousy feedback like that! :)

[norkusa]

For those that care, Adol's feedback:
http://rating.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/show/rating?userID=opaopa_2000_99


Holy christ! Am I reading that right??? 198 negative feedbacks and only 417 positive?? Thats gotta be the worst feedback rating I've ever seen. What's this guys problem and why does he still have an account?

@mrhaboobi: What's so bad about CELGA? Can you be more specific on how it sucks? I plan on using them for the auction I want to bid on, so I'd really like to know. Is Anime Chaos a better deputy service to use instead?

[SoulBlazer]

Hey, I ship outside of North America all the time. :D For us, it's not that much of a hassle -- just a customs form. I did'nt know the Japanese had that 'domestic conveince store service', though.

One of the countries I've shipped to is Japan, curiously enough.... :)

[Rev. Link]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

Paypal is only bad if you're a moron and don't know how to control your money.

So, what, are you calling me a moron, then?
My friend got screwed out of $800 just because his buyer used a stolen credit card. How does that make him a moron?

What I find hard to believe is that so many people are willing to just ignore all the bad things about PayPal and let a company that's not bound to any of the federal laws that actual banks are handle their credit cards or bank accounts.

[hydr0x]

PayPal is evil. www.paypalwarning.com

I only accept money orders at this time, so it would take some time to get payment from overseas. That's why it's a hassle, to me, anyway, and I imagine there are other people who feel the same.

Paypal is only bad if you're a moron and don't know how to control your money.

So, what, are you calling me a moron, then?
My friend got screwed out of $800 just because his buyer used a stolen credit card. How does that make him a moron?

What I find hard to believe is that so many people are willing to just ignore all the bad things about PayPal and let a company that's not bound to any of the federal laws that actual banks are handle their credit cards or bank accounts.

are you crazy?? it's not paypal's fault if someone uses a stolen card to sign up and pay things

and as long as your friend didn't really lose money (not selling something is NOT losing money) there is no reason to be mad at paypal

[mrhaboobi]

mrhaboobi: What's so bad about CELGA? Can you be more specific on how it sucks? I plan on using them for the auction I want to bid on, so I'd really like to know. Is Anime Chaos a better deputy service to use instead?

Well ive used them twice, well me once and my girlfriend once, we were buying pc engine stuff. My girlfriends seller wasnt shipping the item, celga wasnt emailing him, they wouldnt email him, then the item was finally sent but took forever to get to celga, when we tried to contact them they just ignored us, finally the item arrived at celga and she wanted it shipped asap ( it was a present for me ), it took them 2 weeks to get the pacakge shipped, and then they didnt let us know it was even shipped.

My exp was even worse, i had an item sent to them and they got it 1 week after the auction finished, i then wanted them to send asap, now celga have 2 divisions, one is the US part the other is the Jap part, anyways it took them weeks to get my gear sent, and i had sent them a few emails over the matter of weeks asking whats going on, finally i get this email from the owner of the company, abusing me cos i asked where my item was, he said i was little and not wirth his time ( id spent around 15000 yen with them ), and that he would send my gear when he felt like it, and that he would look after his big customers first etc etc.. i replied teling him how un professional, the us division got my emails and appologised, he then told them off and asked ME for an appology.. Finally the US part sent me a refund for all the hassle,, a day later i get an email saying i had to pay the refund back or they would not send my gear, it was a complete mess, i wont deal with them. Try Hobbyshop, ive used them 3 times just recently, and the service was EXCELLENT!

[norkusa]

Thanks for the tip, mrhaboobi. I'd like to give that Hobbyshop a try. Can you post a link though? I tried a google seach but a hundred different Hobbyshops came up.

[Nick Goracke]

are you crazy?? it's not paypal's fault if someone uses a stolen card to sign up and pay things

and as long as your friend didn't really lose money (not selling something is NOT losing money) there is no reason to be mad at paypal

Generally, you don't find out someone has screwed you until AFTER you ship the item. We're not talking about having to relist. You can provide all the shipping information you want to Paypal - they don't care.

If you're a seller, Paypal is a terrifying service to rely on. With the way online auctions work, sadly, it's almost a necessity...

And back to the deputy service question. I HAVE used animechaos over the past few months for probably 30 different auctions (games, LDs, cels, soundtracks, books). It has been completely smooth, and as far as I know they have the best prices around. I would not hesitate to recommend them.

[Rev. Link]

Yes, thank you Nick. I guess I should have clarified more. My friend shipped $800 worth of electronics to a guy who paid with a stolen credit card, over PayPal.

Now, PayPal has froze my friend's account and demands he pay them the $800. So they're pretty much screwing him twice.

And that's not even the only time someone I know has been burned by PayPal. Read some of the things on the paypalwarning.com site that I listed earlier, and you'll see many stories like that, as well as scary information about how PayPal can freeze your account anytime they want, and how they pretty much can't be sued because of the fine print in their TOS agreement.

[mrhaboobi]

Thanks for the tip, mrhaboobi. I'd like to give that Hobbyshop a try. Can you post a link though? I tried a google seach but a hundred different Hobbyshops came up.


heres the home page

http://www.hobbyshopk.com/

heres the page you want.

http://www.hobbyshopk.com/yahoo.html

Send them an email and they will get back to you, you have to join up with them, once you join, and win an item, they send you invoices, when they get the item they take a digital photo of it, and you can log in and see your item.. very nice feature :) These guys are not big time, they obviously do it as a side job,but they do a good job and are nice and friendly :) they might not be the cheapest though?

[GaijinPunch]

Paypal and Ebay are both a bit shit IMHO. They both do their damndest to makea fortune in fees, but keep there hands clean when the shit hits the fan. Ebay takes no responsibility for deadbeat sellers, yet they make money off the comissions.


Back to the auctions:
It's good to see that there's a service that will do this now. I tried a couple of times a few years ago surrogate bidding for a fee, and it was just a nightmare. I wound up doing hours worth of translation work for free, which wasn't fun.

I always toyed with making an automatic service like this under basically the exact same pretenses (money in an account, etc) yet I lacked the technical know-how to not have to pay someone to do it. Now that I think I know how to do it, or at least make it semi-automatic, I don't have the time, and there's not really the need since a few places are doing it... cheaply as well!

Oh, yeah -- Adol.
That's not his only account. The other accounts are MUCH worse than that one. And, they won't ban him. But, there was a big ass stink that he was in the middle of a few years ago. There were even a few dealers that said in their auction:
"I will not deal with:
1: People living aboard
2: Foreigners living in Japan
3: Foreigners that speak Japanese, living in Japan
In other words, this Auction is for Japanese only."

Sounds harsh to you guys, but that's fair game here. It's not odd to be turned down at door of a real estate agent b/c you're white.

[jonjandran]

I would agree that for $800.00 I would not use pay-pal. Not only the bad credit card problem , but also the fees.
A money order would probally be better for high dollar amounts.

[Ed Oscuro]

Woo, I'm glad I don't sell stuff now! Yeesh.

My maximum so far for a PayPal transaction is $661.97 (an amount I will never forget) -- does PayPal use a graduated system for determining the cut they make off a sale?

[jonjandran]

Woo, I'm glad I don't sell stuff now! Yeesh.

My maximum so far for a PayPal transaction is $661.97 (an amount I will never forget) -- does PayPal use a graduated system for determining the cut they make off a sale?

Theres a minimum charge and then a percentage after that.
2.2% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD

[GaijinPunch]

I know that when my account started, I was making like 5.6% interest... now it's like 1.1% or so. Way better than Japan's bullshit .05% interest, but I can do better.

paypal is there for convenient small purchases. Anything over a few hundred bucks and I'm probably buying it from Amazon anyway.

[brykasch]

Well I look at paypal this way. If you don't ship to anyone without a confirmed adress you are safe. Because if its a stolen card they shouldn't have been able to confirm information, at least as far as I know. Most people jsut don't want the fees taken out. But I look at this way. If I can get the money ASAP (usually right after auction ends) versus 3-7 days for a money order. Plus with the debit card I don't have to necessarily wait for the money to transfer to my bank account. To me that is the one thing that can be maddening.

But I look at paypal like I do ebay. There are going to be bad things that can happen no matter what you do. I mean if you can prove that a seller didn't ship an item they get banned usually. Just research feedback, and ask questions. If they are hesitant to answer questions, or don't have a correct phone number or adress listed then don't bid. In 6 years of doing business of and on ebay, I have only had one item not get sent to me. Thankfully it was only 25 dollars. I have had more problems with buyers trying to change the rules after auctions are over or get refunds even though items were as listed.

No to be completely on topic. I do see alot of great stuff on Yahoo Japan, so they may have to go to a 24 hr post office? Don't htey have normal hours there or do everyone there work 9-5 m-f? Because there are ways of doing it. My pet peeve is the sellers on Ebay that charge about 100 to ship a console. I mean sheese. Or 35 for a game.

Whats funny is that they use yahoo japan and not ebay. or the fact that ebay doesn't have a japanese site.

[IntvGene]

Ebay had their chance there... and they gave up. Nobody was using it.

Yahoo takes off a certain charge per month, which means I only go on there to get stuff rarely (I have a connection in Japan).

What I do like about Yahoo Japan is that if you make a bid within the last ten minutes, it bumps the time back to ten minutes remaining, so that everyone can get a chance to respond to your bid. In other words, no sniping.

[GaijinPunch]

That anti-sniping thing gets ugly. :)

I don't know of anyone that has a 9-5 job. If you want those hours, you have to take an hourly job and be poor.

A short shift for a full-time employee is generally 10 hours, and that's what I've got. 8AM-6PM, eat lunch at my desk, and even send some mails from home at night. Average for Japanese salaryman is 9AM to 8PM, and sometimes as late as midnight.

I guess the point is, sometimes people want the easy way out. I sell stuff on Yahoo Japan sometimes, knowing it'll go cheaper, just b/c I don't want to invest the extra time for Ebay. Everyone seems to be seriously overlooking the main problem though - the language barrier.

[NESCollector75]

are you crazy?? it's not paypal's fault if someone uses a stolen card to sign up and pay things

and as long as your friend didn't really lose money (not selling something is NOT losing money) there is no reason to be mad at paypal

Generally, you don't find out someone has screwed you until AFTER you ship the item. We're not talking about having to relist. You can provide all the shipping information you want to Paypal - they don't care.

If you're a seller, Paypal is a terrifying service to rely on. With the way online auctions work, sadly, it's almost a necessity...

And back to the deputy service question. I HAVE used animechaos over the past few months for probably 30 different auctions (games, LDs, cels, soundtracks, books). It has been completely smooth, and as far as I know they have the best prices around. I would not hesitate to recommend them.

I had this happen to me recently where exactly 30 days after I received payment the guy filled a complaint against me saying that somebody "unauthorized" used his card, now hes got the game and the money and there is absolutly nothing I can do about it (I had already left him positve feedback) However it was for a small amount $15 and I have completed many other transactions without a problem (50-60 being paypal transactions)
So you cant always help what happens.

[ubersaurus]

Yahoo Auction Japan is where my friend used to get some neo geo games cheap. I don't know if thats the case anymore, but it was a good place.

[GaijinPunch]

Neo Geo games aren't that cheap.
I always stayed away from them b/c they were so high. But then again, if it's a $1000 game in the US, and only 90,000 yen in Japan, that's $120 or so cheaper... not bad.

Has anyone used those services above? I'm now married, and getting frugal. Wondering if it's even worth while for someone like me to do it now that there are bigger guns in the sea.

[ubersaurus]

Neo Geo games aren't that cheap.
I always stayed away from them b/c they were so high. But then again, if it's a $1000 game in the US, and only 90,000 yen in Japan, that's $120 or so cheaper... not bad.

Has anyone used those services above? I'm now married, and getting frugal. Wondering if it's even worth while for someone like me to do it now that there are bigger guns in the sea.

Well, this was back in the mid-late 90s. It's still a decent source if you've got a connection in Japan...he used to gloat back in 2000 he could get KOF 94-98 for under 100 bucks AES from there.

[GaijinPunch]

Well, as late as the late 90's there was some of that going on, mainly with the Saturn, which is now getting very pricey over here.

I could go on and on about good deals I've gotten, but I think they're more flukes than anything these days.