Hi everyone,
I want to purchase a card in the high 4-figure range on Mercari but as this would be my first purchase, I am a bit nervous. Is there any Buyers protection when I buy cards via Buyee?
Best Regards from Hamburg
Martin
Short answer no.
long answer - Buyee will inspect the item you purchase as long as you pay for the inspection, but this inspection is not a thorough inspection. It’s more like you ordered a card and they check to see you got the thing in the pictures and not just a rock. They are not card experts and if you do get something that deviates from what you saw on the listing such as condition or a small variance hard for normal people to pick up well you just lost money and there is probably nothing you can do about it but cry.
I personally just try to stick to high rated users that consistently list and sell pokemon cards but its not foolproof. Not to long ago I bought a couple booster boxes of 151 turns out the packs were slid out the side slit avoiding the perforated opening and weighed then re slid back in. No hits in any of the boxes besides 1 or 2 ex cards. Nothing I can do but take the hit.
hope this helps. goodluck.
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I use a service different from Buyee and the summary is the same as described by @mrpandachum . The service I use provides 3 levels of insurance, max being that they really work with the sellers if there is any delay. This tier also provides full refund if the package is lost or damaged.
I can request them to take pictures once the package arrives and only if the contents of the packaging are grossly different, they will not do anything Incase of a bait and switch, meaning they will only confirm if it is a card, not if it is the same card. The most they will do is blacklist the seller so that no one else can buy from them via their services, but you will get no refunds.
The best is to stick to high rated sellers and check if there is a possibility to ask them questions, ask for more pictures, negotiate etc for the card. This will give you an indication of the seller mindset and also if they are genuine. However, end of the day, it is still a roll of dice.
I wish you success in your purchase.
Cheers!
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I’m gonna add on and say, you have some homework to do as well before you reach out to ask questions.
- Read the seller account reviews to get a sense of reliability, personally if there are even a handful of negative reviews, it’s a no go for me.
- Scrutinise the listing for details to see if there are any red flags (vague descriptions that allude to NOT actually providing the card in question or straight up dealing with replicas, or providing other cards instead of pic related).
- Check the images used, are they repeated in other listings? If so, immediately disregard, these are bait listings and tend to be fake. It’s a bit of a hit and miss if it’s used OUTSIDE of mercari though, be careful still.
- Check the seller profile info, most sellers have some kind of request written there, or at times will leave important information when it comes to purchasing or shipping.
HI!
I have been buying cards from Mercari for many years and lately the situation has been really bad. There are many dishonest sellers who omit defects and damage by cleverly photographing the cards or writing “please use the card for playing” in order to protect themselves on those looking for Mint cards for grading.
However, when I buy graded cards I always feel safe.
However, if you buy really expensive raw cards the sellers will probably take good care of what they are about to sell.
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Thanks for all your answers, really appreciate it! I ended up buying the card and will keep you updated in this thread about how it continues. What made me feel better about the situation was, that the seller himself wrote several comments on the card on Mercari and interacting with potential buyers. Fingers crossed it goes well, it`s a big one for me!
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Not sure if similar on Mercari as with Yahoo Japan through buyee but have had several recent crap experiences on YJ.
A big issue on that platform is that Buyee leaves instant positive feedback to sellers and no one removes it - feedback before an item is received - meaning a lot of scammer accounts have high positive feedback.
There is almost zero buyer protection also… even if you choose buyee’s highest insurance level as they are just a middleman.
I was scammed for a GS Rayquaza that was damaged when in the pics it was at worst LP - got my money back through paypal claim. Prior to that I had one good experience buying a PSA 9 Japanese Crystal Lugia which went fine.
What I would do now is - check ALL reviews on Mercari or YJ website itself of the item and see if there is any negative, if yes - avoid. Also, if there are a lot of very similarly worded positive reviews, it’s likely left automatically from Buyee accounts so disregard those.
Double, triple check the wording of the text and if there is any ambiguity at all - avoid.
From what I was told, some items are eligible where you can buy from YJ (and perhaps Mercari too) and they get shipped first to an authenticator who checks the item is legit and matches the listing - but those are only applicable on certain items, its a paid service, and you cant see through buyee if that service is available (so you have to check on YJ or Mercari itself).
Always buy though paypal using a credit card for double protection.
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I never had a problem before but remember that you could always find issues with sellers like you could in any other platform! Take advantage of yahoo coupons if they are currently running or wait for them.
Some of you might have already saw it on my Instagram but I was scammed. The card I thought I bought was a Snap Koffing but I got a picture of the card glued to another old back card. First buyee declined to accept the return but after involving PayPal they agreed to refund me. Now I only need to get the refund of FedEx for the import taxes. The total amount of the scam was ~5k USD for the card and ~1k USD import taxes.
PS: the card was around psa 3 condition so it looked like a reasonable price to me (or maybe I wanted it to be true so badly)
Sorry to hear! All things considered, it could have been worse, at least buyee has refunded the purchase value. I’m curious if the seller’s mercari profile had low seller feedback? Feedback will be tagged as buyer/seller should look like this:
I saw that, the seller originally had it listed at 3m yen & kept lowering the price. Definitely looked pretty decent from the pics. But the sellers answers to questions & as well as how eager they were to sell was the biggest red flag.
A card like that being up for that long at that price is almost guaranteed fake. Because a snap card would’ve sold instantly at 3m yen let alone $5k in jpy.
I just saw it when the price was 800k and then lowered to 700k and I thought this is my chance. Sad side story besides that; my plan was to dedicate this card to my Grandmother who died at the day I bought the card and it was shipped the day of her funeral so it would have been in some way a card to remember her. I will find another one one day and if I have to spend way more for a legitimate copy, I am happy to do so 
What is the name of the seller?
His name was heshujutian
This is the link to the original offer:
https://jp.mercari.com/item/m18548644902
New account (from December) with decent feedback. Definitely some red flags with his other listings. For example the here comes team rocket card has a generic “Authentication Card” lol, no photos outside the one-touch case, & incorrect holo.
Of course buyee gives the seller good rating regardless. Thanks for sharing his profile