Thanks a lot Scott! I know I’ll be busy browsing these websites for Pikachus this weekend. 
Thus far I primarily used YJ with Noppin.com. I’ve heard most middleman websites like Buyee and Zenmarket are easier to use, but since I have great experience with Noppin and I now know how to avoid the ridiculous import fees on arrival (once even 350 euros for a 2k USD package…), I’ll keep using it primarily. Here is all the information I know on how to use Noppin for YJ auctions. Here mostly the same as bullet-points:
Pros:
- You only pay when you actually won an auction.
- You can save up won auctions up to 60 days and combine them in one shipment to you to save shipping costs (and import fees in some cases).
- Sellers aren’t blocked like sometimes is the case with Buyee. Usually they are blocked for a reason of course, but sometimes it’s not really deserved.
- Excellent packaging with a box, and loads of bubblewrap
- Fast with answering questions / concerns
- Both an English and Japanese search option available (new since about halve a year ago)
Cons:
- More expensive items mean more expensive middleman service fees as well. For items below 5000 Japanese Yen (~50 USD) it’s the same, but for something like a 100,000 Japanese Yen auction (~ 1,000 USD) you pay an additional 9,500 Japanese Yen middleman fee.
- Default shipping is EMS, so make sure to specify a cheaper shipping option without potential import fees when creating your shipment request.
- SAL shipping isn’t possible anymore since December last year, so non-registered Airmail is the cheapest shipping option available.
- They aren’t specialized with Pokémon nor their terms. One example, I once asked whether a certain card was Glossy (since I was looking for a non-Glossy version), and I got a reply the card was not Kira. Apparently Kira meant Holo, so the card came back Glossy after all (and I later found out the non-Glossy version didn’t even exist…)
- You have to authorize a certain PayPal amount before bidding on auction. At this point you don’t have to pay anything yet, so don’t worry about that. You can only bid (in total across all auctions) up to three times what you authorize for. So if you authorize 10,000 Japanese Yen, you can place one or multiple bids on auctions up to 30,000 Japanese Yen in total. This autorized amounts will remain there. So if you have 30,000 Japanese Yen to spend, bid on an auction of 10,000 JY and one of 5,000 JY. Then win the 10,000 one the next day, your spending limit becomes 25,000 again (and when you win/lost the 5,000 one it’s back at 30,000).
- You don’t get a message when you’re outbid, so you’ll have to keep this in mind yourself. Also, even if you use buyout and immediately win, you can only finalize the payment with Noppin the next day.
Greetz,
Quuador