Something I’m very interested in purchasing has just popped up on Yahoo Japan Auctions. Only problem? I’ve never used Buyee, nor have I ever used Y!J Auctions. Obviously, I’ve heard about all the danger and possibilities when using these services. This is part of the reason I’ve refrained from using in the past, but also because the whole process really confused me.
So, I wanted to know if any veteran of these services could provide me with any helpful tips, things they wish they knew when they started, or things they view as ‘need to know.’
A few questions I have…
how long does Buyee take to bid for you on an auction? Is it instantaneous?
does it take time for a bid to go through? If you don’t have money in your Buyee wallet, do you have to wait for the funds to transfer before you can bid with that money?
does Buyee alert you if you’ve been outbid/ tell your information such as (auction ending soon) like eBay does?
can I request Buyee check for specific details of an item once they receive it at their warehouse? For example, if I bought ANA promos in their pamphlet, could I request Buyee verify the cards were included with the pamphlet?
On Yahoo, it is instantaneous. You can bid in real-time on everything.
Buyee doesn’t require you to put money in a “wallet” like other middleman services (e.g. Zenmarket). Instead, you link a payment method (paypal, credit card) and it’s automatically charged for the price of your purchase when you win. If you don’t win, there’s no charge.
Yes, as long as you have emails enabled, you’ll get an email whenever you are outbid. Importantly, Buyee’s auction pages are not live-updating, so be sure to reload frequently or keep an eye on your email. As long as auto-extension is enabled (and it is on most yahoo auctions) then you don’t need to feel too rushed, you won’t get sniped at the last second. If you add an auction to your watchlist, you’ll also get an email 15 minutes before it ends.
Yes, you can, although they will charge for this. Also keep in mind that buyer protection on middleman services is effectively nonexistent. So even if the cards were missing and you purchased the “inspection” plan, you likely won’t get your money back. Personally I never use the additional plans and just take the L if I get scammed.
Here are a couple tips I’d suggest!
Do your browsing on the actual Yahoo auctions website, and then click on the “buy from overseas” buyee link to add to your watchlist/bid. I find Yahoo itself is much easier to navigate, and includes essential functions like removing the listings of designated sellers from your search results.
Fees add up fast. From 300 yen purchasing fee to 300 yen domestic Japan shipping fee to international shipping, cheap cards can quickly become expensive. I usually only use yahoo for cards that are very hard to find outside of Japan or more expensive stuff.
A lot of scams are intentionally designed to screw westerners. If you’re looking to buy a higher-end item, be extra diligent and ensure you’re buying from a trusted seller with no red flags. On yahoo, some of my biggest red flags are relisting the same item multiple times, a suspicious amount of mint cards, low to nonexistent feedback, deleting bids, and any anomalies from actual Japanese purchasers in their seller feedback. Keep in mind middleman services always leave positive feedback.
Thanks for answering all my questions! I’ve heard about the practically nonexistent buyer protection, which definitely makes me apprehensive. I’ve also heard Buyee sends an email to sellers now, notifying them that their item is being purchased by a proxy. At this point, even if the seller is trusted and everything looks great, it seems there is virtually no downside for a seller to just decide to screw you. Does the inspection plan not protect against item missing/ not as described? The item I’m planning on bidding on is quite expensive (50, 000 yen+).
I appreciate the tips!
What are designated sellers?
Everything about this listing and seller seems pretty legit to me. They have We ask that you do business with no claims and no returns. in the description. It’s my understanding that this isn’t a red flag and is something most sellers add anyway?
Happy to help! Effectively yes, there is no downside for the seller to screw you. Although if you make a fuss with Buyee, they may block the seller on their platform. So if they screw middleman purchasers once, they could lose lots of business. It’s another reason why buying from higher feedback accounts is much better. And while scams are annoying and there is no buyer protection, I’ve been buying via Buyee for years and have had very few instances of outright scams. Most sellers, if they look good, are actually solid people.
I believe regardless of the plan you select, if nothing arrives at the warehouse, you will be refunded. However, the flipside of this is that if anything arrives, regardless of resemblance to the actual auction, you will have to put up a fight if it’s the wrong item. From what I’ve heard, the extent that the inspection plan would cover you would be if a completely different card is sent from the auction page. Like, you order a Rayquaza gold star and a Jungle Clefable shows up. It would not cover you if you order a mint Rayquaza gold star, and a played Rayquaza gold star shows up.
I should have been clearer about the hide seller function. You can choose sellers to hide yourself. I do this with sellers that are dropshippers (clog up my searches) and any sellers that I just don’t feel comfortable with after taking a look at their items. Keep in mind you’re limited to 20, and you need to bookmark the search page to save the blocked sellers.
Yes, “no claim no return” is a common thing and I would not consider that a red flag.
I saw one of your videos (im pretty sure?) Where you bought a gift box that claimed to include gold star mewtwo and then didnt. Thats what im rly worried about in this situation. I selected the insurance plan nonetheless as an extra $5 for some sense of maybe protection is worth it in this instance.
Its okay, i appreciate you clarifying! Yea, when i say ive never used buyee etc. Im like-- i really genuinely have 0 experience with any of this stuff and dont know much at all im not sure what you mean by bookmarking the search page to save the blocked sellers, sorry
Ok i have successfully won my auction. Now we wait. Ill update this thread as things progress for anyone else in my position feeling unsure about using Buyee
The order has shipped quickly and is currently on it’s way to the Buyee warehouse. So far, this is pretty good, considering I am a brand new buyer account with 0 feedback buying an expensive item. I was mildly worried the seller would cancel on me.
The main thing I’m awaiting here is once the item gets to the Buyee warehouse, I want them to check that the sealed card that is attached to the product is still there. If it’s not, I just bought a very expensive book. If it is there, I will be very happy, but I will not celebrate until the item is safely in my hands. To be continued!!
Good luck and keep us updated!! Just so you know, buyee bids on the item with one of their proxy accounts, which usually has tons of feedback. So while the seller knows a middleman service is purchasing the item, they don’t know who is on the other end of that transaction.
Okay! Package has safely arrived at Buyee warehouse. I wanted to request photos to verify the item is actually there, but it said you cant request any specific pictures, just a general picture and you get what u get. I worry that if i ship it all the way home and its not right, it will be more difficult to get into with Buyee support because once its delivered the order is effectively closed.
Kinda seems like i dont have much of a choice though, so i guess im gonna ship it home and see what happens
Be prepared for a picture of the front cover only…buyee warehouse staff usually do the bare minimum.
Because the listing included multiple images of the appendix and both the title and description of the item mentioned the appendix being included then there is no need to worry about it being missing from a financial perspective.
They would fully refund you if it arrived without it if you got the 500 yen insurance plan thing. This has happened to me before, seller sent the wrong magazine (both had appendix and the one I received was actually more expensive and rarer). They issued a full refund and let me keep the item.
If something goes wrong then buyee don’t actually even go to the seller at all or bother them, they deal with it all as an independent.
What you MUST do when you receive the package. Take pictures of the box from multiple angles unopened. Then set up your phone and video yourself opening the box, open the package then flick through the comic in the video to show the appendix. They required all this from me for my refund and it’s something I do every time now.
I will say to reassure you, I’ve ordered 30+ comics with appendixes on buyee and all have been no problem. (The only issue was getting sent the wrong one purely by accident by the seller who must have been really annoyed when they realised but nothing they could do and buyee sorted me out anyway). Keep us posted, excited for you. If all goes to smoothly R.I.P your wallet once the Japanese market place is at your fingertips!
Yea i kinda decided to forgo that option entirely as i was expecting just a photo of the cover lol
I did think that since its literally all over the listing and pictures it shouldnt be too big of a problem if its missing.
I didnt even think to take pictures and record myself opening the package! Ill definitely do that, thank you for the tip i appreciate the reassurance. Im honestly not terribly worried and feel decently confident that it will all work out. Im excited too and will definitely keep the thread updated! Probably going to ship it out after i finish writing this lol
Using Y!J has been a real road block for me in the past and im really excited to finally get the hang of it! My poor, poor wallet thank you so much again for all your help in this process!!
Well, the transaction is complete! I am surprised it took only 2 days to ship from Japan to my doorstep in Canada. I didn’t think I was paying for express, but maybe I was (Airmail, it was like $50)? Anyway, I snapped a bunch of pictures from all angles and then recorded myself opening it. Side note, it was a shipped in what was basically a plastic bag with no bubble wrap, so genuinely surprised it didn’t get damaged. I didn’t pay for extra packaging because people had said the standard was fine and in my past experiences using other services, the packaging has been great.
Anyway, it came and everything is there and it’s great! I’m also gonna post about it in recent purchases with some more general info about the item, but here it is!
Awesome! It looks sweet (and very colorful!)—glad it arrived safely!
I’ve used Buyee once so far and ZenMarket twice, and ZenMarket always does a superb job packing the items (makes sure every item is bubble wrapped and well protected). On the other hand, my Buyee experience was the same as yours—all my items just came in separate large envelopes (like those manilla envelopes) in a flat mailer, no protection at all. Everything arrived safely though. Just thought I’d pass on my experience in case you wanted to do more proxy ordering in the future
(Although I like ZenMarket’s packaging better, I currently have an order with Buyee because they have so many more coupons And with ZenMarket raising their service fee soon, I probably will end up using Buyee most of the time.)
yea idk whenever i buy from japan it’s always a toss up lol i’ve had boxes arrived crushed and stuff packaged a little too well. i appreciate you passing it on tho, i may have to try paying for more protection in the future depending on the item… we’ll see how that goes. I haven’t really had an opportunity to use the coupons yet, but I’m pretty excited to get some deals hopefully
Watch out for scammers on Yahoo Japan Auctions site, mostly due to an easy to apply shill bidding strategy that are often used by unscrupulous sellers and where buyer have little to no protection.
im not sure what you mean by bookmarking the search page to save the blocked sellers, sorry 
thank you so much again for all your help in this process!!
