This has been way overdue for me… I really need to setup my Yahoo Auctions Japan account to start bidding in Japan…
Can anyone help provide a small walkthrough on bidding within YJA whilst living throughout the world?
Do you need a Japanese address or phone number?
Do you need a Japanese Bank account?
What are the payment methods?
How to avoid heavy outside bidding service charges?
Can you bid after an auction has ended?
I myself can organise a shipping address in Japan, and have friends there who will bid for me, but I don’t want to hassle them all the time. I want to be able to set bids, and pay via international bank transfers or paypal, and then ship to my Japanese friends house, whom will forward the packages to me. Is this possible?
The fees in a lot of the outside bidding services seem quite pricy, 8%+ or 14%+ on the final sale values…
No. You need a Japanese bank account in order to bid on Y!J.
The most convenient way, aside from actually knowing someone like @japanime who can bid for you, is to get a middleman service.
A lot of people use noppin, from japan, treasure japan…
The list goes on and on for middlemen.
In all seriousness though, I personally use Buyee since it’s the one that shows up whenever I go to check out Y!J. They’re pretty ok I guess, but they sometimes take a while to sort things out with the sellers. I’ll check out some of the other ones.
Okay, so what is the best middleman to use? some of the rates these companies are charging is crazy… 14% of the end value, 8% of the end value + fee + international shipping costs.
Is there any that allow you to set snipes? I just like to snipe everything… and would not bid any differently.
Snipes don’t really work with YJ auctions as they are almost always set to automatic extension. Towards the end of auction, the remaining time resets to 10 mins whenever a bid is placed on the item.
Ah… so that’s how it works, they have the 10min bracket… very interesting
So it sounds like Noppin and Buyee are the two best places… wells I really will have to get this started there are some awesome figures, toys, games and POKEMON!!! I reaaaalllly would love to catch.
@japanime is also a great option. He is a member here on UPCCC who lives in Japan. He charges 20% commission which often works out cheaper than other services. Plus you can’t be the customer service. I highly recommend giving him an email.
EDIT: Since you mentioned @japanime I think you already know about his services.
I agree with the warning by @pokemontrader regarding internal bidding wars. Why go with a middleman who will willingly pit customers against one another? It makes no sense — except to the middleman, who profits by driving the final bid as high as possible.
That’s why with my service, the first person to ask me to bid is the ONLY person for whom I will bid. You have a much better shot at getting a lower winning bid when using my service than using any of the others. (For example, this past month, I was able to secure a sweet and complete Masaki set for a client at a fraction of what it would have cost if I had accepted bids from several bidders. I easily could have doubled my profit if I had accepted a second bidder’s offer, but I didn’t.)
Plus, my fees are defiintely among the lowest, particularly for those who are looking at doing a lot of BINs from the same sellers.
I want to thank @soulwind for the very nice endorsement, too!
One clarification, though: My commission is actually only 15 percent on items that cost 3,001 yen or more. (It’s 20 percent on items that cost 3,000 yen or less.)
If anyone who hasn’t used my service wants to know more, feel free to DM me. Let me help you get the Yahoo Japan Auction goodies you deserve
Although I can’t compete with japanime ’ s services, I do offer my help in buying directly from Japan as I’m sure many other members do as well. That’s what it’s all about: helping each other out!!
Can I ask about Noppin? I put a deposit of $500 USD, but when I pay for items it just takes more money out of my paypal. How can I draw money from my already deposited amount?
You need to email them if you want to use your deposit to pay for your item. It has to do with the PayPal foreign exchange rate to be used on the day you pay for your item. They have to calculate the rates manually.
The deposit is there in case of defaults on payments etc.
You usually pay with your paypal deposit unless you, like Nestor said ask them to use your deposit.
This usually takes 1-3 days to process.
