Yahoo! Japan Auction Talk

[Blaine]

itt: We try and figure out the best ways to avoid what I refer to as "Auction Rash"; It's this burning sensation on the **** cheekal region. Perhaps due to your wallet combusting due to compounding fees. Perhaps due to the lubless dating Rinkya gives you. At any rate... it stings.

For those who don't know, which I don't know who it'd be but... The problems are. Japan uses Yahoo auctions. Pretty much the de facto standard auction site. Which is fine and dandy, except that 99% of the users won't ship overseas. I've heard a variety of reasons, but it really doesn't matter. Fact is they have tons of cheap games, rare stuff (compared to anything you'll find on eBay) and little interest in dealing with non-japanese buyers.

The common solution is to use an in-between like Rinkya.com where they'll order for you, ship it from the seller to their own distribution center and then ship it to wherever you are. So you pay for two sets of shipping (Seller to Rinkya, Rinkya to you) as well as commission. You can send multiple packages on the second shipping to save money. You can do group buys as well, but that only helps so much since you're now adding a 3rd shipping cost (Seller to Rinkya, Rinkya to Group Buyer, Group Buyer to Group Members). A $20 purchase can quickly become an $80 purchase. Okay, so if you don't know, now you know.

Is there NOTHING else that can be done? Is this really the optimal solution, here?

From what I've read there is no way of getting a Japanese P.O. box and having it re-directed to your actual address.

Is there any other method that members here use?

[Flazh]

I've bought direct from Starpine before, but all the communication was in Japanese, and I paid from a Japanese bank account I had money in. To be honest, SMJ and the like really aren't too bad, and for all the hassle and expense you would go through to get another method set up, you may as well use one of these services anyway.

[mastercello]

I used SMJ and also japanauctioncenter.com before. Both are offering a good service wich you can afford.
Was contacting starpine also through the mail adress they have on their auctions.
But never got an answer, like a lot of other people too. So i bought a few things from them with an bid agent.

Now i have a personal contact with a german guy who is living in Tokio. He take less % from the auctions a is making his job very well.
Also i can pay him sending the money via bank transfer to his account in Germany. Free for me and him also, so no paypal ripoff.

My last yahoo japan shippment

[smork]

I'm a Japan resident and love using Y!J Auctions. It's sooo super easy and all of my dealings have been much better than the dealings I had previously on eBay. I love how all the auctions use actual shipping, and alot will ship COD (for the shipping portion).

I bought my Atomiswave SD cabinet a few weeks ago off Y!J -- 35000 yen, and the dude turned out to live a few Km from me, and delivered it to me personally. Nice.

I've bought recently from Starpine, which was quite painless and efficient. I don't think he's necessarily the best value seller, but it quite decent.

The problem with foreign buyers isn't xenophobia or even international shipping, but simple payment, I think. Most auctions are settled by Yahoo Kantan (linked to a Japanese credit card) or through furikomi transfers, which are for Japanese banks only. Nobody uses PayPal, and there's just not an incentive for a seller to deal with the hassle of setting something up for an international buyer if they can sell with less hassle locally.