So I was in search of some japanese cards and thought it would be worth it to check Buyee, which I am told allows us to shop yahoo japan and Mercari. I figure those sites would have a good number of japanese cards that might not be listed on eBay, which would increase my search pool.
How do I use it though? I have not yet made an account because I want to see what is available first and get the hang of using it.
I click on yahoo japan or mercari through buyee and type something specific in the âsearch fieldâ only to find that zero items are found.
For instance I can type âCD promo japanese charizardâ and nothing comes up. Is this because I am typing in English and need kanji signs or something else? Is there a good way to search for cards on buyee?
If there is a thread that already answers this, then please direct me to it.
Quick answer would be yes, you need to search in Japanese most of the time. Only key words like âpromoâ or âneoâ are usually in English, since the Japanese Pokemon company also used them. The rest should be pretty self-explanatory, you just click BIN or bid using the english Buyee layout.
I use google translate to get the Kanji for what Iâm looking for.
This really helps make the copy-paste easier. If youâre searching for a specific Pokemon, bulbapedia will have the Japanese name on the page to copy-paste.
You guys know if there is any kind of buyer protection or a way to message sellers? Seems like a leap of faith to buy a card. Pictures can look good, but hidden creases or dents are always possible.
You can message sellers but many will not respond if you message in English. Google translate is an option but thereâs no way that doesnât sound fishy to a native Japanese speaker.
Buyee has a âinsurance planâ but Iâm pretty sure that only covers âdamage due to transportationâ on cards that are shipped from Buyee to you. Youâre covered no matter what if your item doesnât arrive to Buyee, but there is no option for an âitem not as describedâ claim like eBay if the card is misrepresented. It is much more risky than eBay.
Paying through PayPal, you will have that buyer protection available to you. However, from what Iâve heard itâs a one-time, last resort kind of thing as Buyee will ban you from the service after a paypal claim.
Thatâs very interesting⊠so Iâm looking at a card that says âno apparent damage/dirtâ.
If I come to find that the card has a crease upon arrival, then would that be chocked up to damage during transport? I saw that they want a picture of the package, so they might just say the card arrived as is and thatâs not the packaging.
Iâll just have to decide and take a leap of faith. Nice to have more options still for more difficult to get cards.
Like others have said buyee is simple but you are more open to damage and risk.
I personally couldnât figure out anyways to directly message a seller for more photos or information. But the Japanese tend to describe things fairly accurate.
They wonât be wanting to deal with returns and such once itâs left Japan so you usually bid expecting some minor defect.
Thatâs not actually true. Their âInspection Planâ is effectively âitem not as describedâ; they will try to identify this for you before shipping it out to you. I always use Inspection Plan on items under 1000 JPY and Standard Plan on items above (Standard includes Inspection Plan).
A while back I bought what I thought was an unlimited Arceus set Pichu (as was displayed in the pictures), however when the item arrived it was the much more common 1st Edition variant. I contacted Buyee and they refunded me without requiring me to even send the item back as they acknowledged that it was their mistake (and presumably figured it would be more hassle than it was worth as the item was only around 200 JPY).
Their plan list is available here: buyee.jp/help/yahoo/guide/plans. You will be given the chance to select a plan upon purchase (Standard is selected by default).
Good point, so I guess there is some buyer protection if you pay extra for it. I thought this was basically for big errors, you order a Groudon and instead they send a Mareep or something.
Have you ever used this with regards to card condition? If I order a âbeauty goodsâ card and it comes in creased, would that fall under the âinspection plan?â
Personally I never use any of the plans because Iâm confident in my card condition evaluations and I donât want buyee people handling my cards in any way. But if it provides protection against condition issues maybe I will use it.
Is it possible to use PP credit? Iâm a tad short on the funds in PP and donât want to drain my PP account if possible. From what I can tell, if I hit âcompleteâ it will use the PP funds without any other option.
Is there a way to have Buyee make a purchase on Mercari without them messaging the seller first?
My experience has been pretty poor:
Place order for popular item
Buyee take about a day to request permission to buy the item from the seller (publicly posted as you note @rainbow)
Seller gives the green light
Buyee take another day to get around to making the purchase, at which point someone has already swooped due to seeing someone show genuine interest via Buyee (obviously already thrown down $$$)
It seems so slow as to be basically useless for items with any significant interest?
