Bidding in Yahoo! Japan Auctions from Outside of Japan
Updated 4th November, 2006: Added some personal experiences with Shopping Mall Japan
For some reason eBay has never made it to Japan. Instead, Yahoo! Auctions Japan is the place to go if you are looking for that rare Akira Kurosawa item, or the latest manga and anime releases.
Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to bid on Japan Auctions if you don’t live in the country. Most sellers only ship to Japan, and money is more often than not transferred via domestic bank transactions, which you obviously cannot do if you don’t have a Japanese bank account. There can be a language barrier there, too, unless you know Japanese.
All is not lost, however. There are a handful of Internet services that make it possible for a foreigner to take part in Yahoo Auctions. What they do is bid for you, and handle all transactions with the seller for you. What you normally pay is the item price + commission + shipping in japan + shipping to you. Commission rates vary, and usually go up with the price of the item.
All services ask you to send in deposits before bidding (either the amount you are bidding, or half of it, or something). All accept credit cards, some also offer PayPal.
Now, I must mention that I have actually not used any of these myself: I only found out about the existence of these services now, as I was trying to find a way to bid on an item. Now, I must mention that I have only very limited experience with these companies, having only tried Shopping Mall Japan with one item. (A classic French cinema item, actually. The Japanese have all sorts of rarities of French cinema circulating, which are not available in Europe.)
Here are the bidding services that I have been able to find and read about. Please do further research before you decide to subscribe to any of them. While I have done my best to have the information presented here as up-to-date and correct as possible at the time of writing, there may be mistakes in there. I take no responsibility for them, whatsoever.
Rinkya
- Real time bidding (i.e. they bid instantly when you notify them)
- Minimum $15 commission fee, 25% handling fee (and rather expensive handling); in just about every way more expensive than the others, unless you are buying something for around 40,000 Yen and higher.
- Very few complaints, other than the prices
- They cannot combine items from the same seller, but do combine overseas shipping
- Many use Rinkya just to surf the Auctions, as they have a relatively good translator service
CELGA
- Minimum $5 commission fee, plus $2 bank transfer fee; relatively inexpensive
- Some complaints about the person running the service (arrogance noted by a handful, passionately denied by others; basically the issue seems to be that Celga has zero-tolerance for trouble-makers, and will kick out customers who are late with payments or don’t understand the Terms of Service)
- No real-time bidding: they recommend that you notify them about your bids at least 24 hours before the auction ends, as that is what it can take them to actually do the bidding
- If two Celga customers are bidding for the same item, they handle it on a first-come-first-served basis (i.e. no bidding wars between Celga users are possible)
- Can and do combine international shipment, wherever possible. Not able to hold items for long periods of time, however.
- Also handles transactions from bidders.co.jp, auction.msn.co.jp, and auctions.co.jp (each of them much smaller than Yahoo Auctions Japan)
- Is ready to note a smaller amount to the package than its actual value, in order to avoid you having to pay import tax (but this will also affect the insurance accordingly)
Shopping Mall Japan
- Minimum commission fee $5, $2.50 bank transfer fee
- Real-time bidding
- Relatively fast in delivery
- You can hold items for longer periods of time (up to three months), and ask them to be shipped in one package. Note that as a non-US customer, you need to notify them that you want the items to be kept in Japan until shipped to you.
Personal experience with Shopping Mall Japan: After writing the original post I decided to try Shopping Mall Japan, mainly because they seemed quite fast (I was in a hurry) and cheaper than Rinkya or CELGA). The service itself was indeed fast and helpful, but what was the greatest surprise was the speed of the shipping. The item, sent from Japan, reached me in under a week after I had asked them to ship it. The postage was somewhat pricey, but when I saw the packaging I understood why: it came with a plastic “suitcase” -like cover, with the item itself wrapped in bubble wrap inside of it. Most probably nothing short of a nuclear attack could have damaged my item! Although this is my only experience with Shopping Mall Japan, I don’t at the moment see any reason to try the others any time soon.
Anime Dep
- Minimum $8 commission fee
- No real-time bidding
- Although recommended by a number of people, the website does not look very professional, and has quite little information
Akibado
- More shipping options than with the others
- On the cheaper side
- I haven’t really found much talk about them, so Akibado is still sort of a question mark
Crescent Shop
- I haven’t really found anything about them yet
The long and short of it is that Rinkya, Celga and Shopping Mall Japan are the ones most people seem to go with. If 5-10 dollars extra per purchase is not a problem, Rinkya seems to be the best one. From the two others, Shopping Mall Japan looks like the one I would personally go with, as they have instant bidding and don’t have many negative reviews. It is also cheaper than Rinkya, yet seems friendly and competent.
23 Responses 
Jeremy
October 10th, 2006 (permalink)
Thanks for your write up
Green Tea
February 1st, 2007 (permalink)
Thanks for your review, it was really helpful.
I’ve looked at all of them, and I’ve tried Akibado, and Crescent (because they’re the cheapest ones, in terms of service fees.) I have to say that I strongly recommend Crescent Trading.
They offer real-time bidding, and their status page is updated pretty much every minute.
They also charge an extremely low service fee, (compared to ridiculous places like Rinkya, and etc…) but that doesn’t detract from the quality of service. ^o^
vili
February 2nd, 2007 (permalink)
Thanks for your comments, Green Tea. I must give Crescent a try.
crucif-X
March 4th, 2007 (permalink)
The first time I tried using a deputy service, I used Akibado….BAD MOVE! They take forever to get your items to you, and for the most part do NOT respond to your emails when inquiring about your auctions/items. Many people have had similar experiences which you can see on Peach Princess’ forum here ( http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=000197 ). Interestingly enough, if you do a google search on “akibado” it falls in the #1 or #2 slot in search results.
Anyway, since then I’ve been using SMJ and have been completely satisfied with their services.
zebedeee
April 2nd, 2007 (permalink)
After reading Green Tea’s comments I gave Crescent a go and just received my first package. It was easy to use and the fees were reasonable, no problems at all
Abe
May 6th, 2007 (permalink)
I tried a few times with another Japan Shopping agent site called ESHOP4U.JP (http://www.eshop4u.jp), both for YAHOO!Auction and Japanese Site Online shopping.
My experience with them is pretty good. Shipping is fast and do not have any problem so far. If you are looking for alternatives.
Red
May 30th, 2007 (permalink)
Silly question, but can’t you just use the translation feature of a page like google or babelfish?
vili
May 30th, 2007 (permalink)
No, because most people at Yahoo! Auctions don’t ship outside of Japan, and don’t accept other methods of payment than a Japanese bank transfer.
John
June 8th, 2007 (permalink)
I have been able to register and bid on Yahoo Japan quite successfully. Not all sellers will ship but quite a few will ship if you ask them before bidding and then pay promptly.
What I have not been able to do is register on “Bidders†if anyone could help me with this if would be appreciated.
John.
vili
June 11th, 2007 (permalink)
That’s good to know, John! Thanks for that piece of information.
I take it that you will still mainly need to contact the sellers in Japanese, though?
zebedeee
June 12th, 2007 (permalink)
what about payment? I registered on yahoo, but yahoo wallet wouldn’t accept my credit card, so I could find no way to make payment to the seller. This is what lead me to use a bidding service.
Green Tea
June 12th, 2007 (permalink)
Hey everyone ^_^ Glad to see that everyone found Crescent Trading alright, but I’m here to introduce another great middle-man website
Amanda
August 7th, 2007 (permalink)
Thank you for the review! I’ll check SMJ and Cresent out.
terrence lim
August 25th, 2007 (permalink)
hi how can i apply for the Yahoo Japan ID in order for me to log in the auction-tokyo.com.Thanks
m. kenyon
September 7th, 2007 (permalink)
i used celga a few times, mostly for items under 1000 yen; they are prompt, courteous, will accumulate your items, then provide fast shipping
they have an office in california, are always available by phone, and will accept money orders or checks as payment…no paypal or credit card required
Yahoo Japan sufferer
December 7th, 2007 (permalink)
No I can’t register in Yahoo Japan as a premium member because like somebody also have mentioned, Yahoo Wallet don’t accept my credit card, so I can only register as a basic Yahoo Japan member but I can’t bid over 4999yen! Also the Yahoo Kantan Kessai payment won’t accept my credit card so I can’t pay the seller if they are willing to ship overseas unless they are willing to accept cash in registered mail, international postal money order. International wire transfer cost too much if you want to transfer directly into their banks! The only thing you can do is use a damn Agent and get charge a large portion of your totals, and if you get a shit one like Akibado, they take months to even respond back to you!
tom
January 3rd, 2008 (permalink)
This is 2 years back. Celga didnt accumulate my items, in fact they charge me $10 for extra shipping, cause they said their stupid office was small, and their boss keigos a jerk “customer are not our first priority” never again
Tat
January 9th, 2008 (permalink)
Hi, I’m offering the bidding and shipping service for Yahoo Japan Auction. I accept Paypal, as I’m selling stuff on eBay, too.
If you’re interested in the service, please give me an e-mail.
deconstruct
March 4th, 2008 (permalink)
Thanks a lot for this writeup. I’ve used SMJ and had good experiences with them. Although at first, it was a bit confusing since it seemed like there were so many steps involved. For example, when my item was shipped from Japan to the US warehouse, I forgot to send the final ship request, and had wasted a week not knowing this. In the future they should set up some kind of automatic system to email you what the next step is. Nevertheless, it was a good deal. Thanks again.
Leo
April 18th, 2008 (permalink)
Thanks for the write up! There is one site that is not listed up here, is call Japan to Door (https://www.japantodoor.com) This site was recommended by a close friend of mine, and I have been using them since last year! I am very stratified and highly recommend people to check them out for the following reasons.
1. Each of my order and processing steps are clearly informed via email and in their member controls (They call it My Page). Real peace of mind after I ordered, and if there is problem I am always been inform, and never the other way around.
2. Their system is prepaid by adding money into the account when you sign up with them by using Paypal, so there is no credit card require, and never have to worry they charge you on the card.
3. They pre deduct the amount require with each order you place, and will return the unused amount back to the account. Unlike others keep asking for more money or payment (emails back and forth is not necessary with Japan to door)!
4. They offer many services in their site, from shopping, bidding, selling and package forwarding. I also can use their Japan Warehouse for items that I did not obtain through them, and they keep tack for me to check in real time with their member’s page. They also offer COD service for me to the Japanese shops that does not take credit card!
5. Their selling is pretty automated and very clear in their member’s page. I get my sales in USD into my Paypal once it’s sold instantly. Pretty good deal! 5 USD per post up into Yahoo Japan Auction for 21 days, and they take care the rest for me. However, I do have to send to them first before they post it up, and their commission is 20% for each of the sales. However, each of their post looks very well done.
6. They have the most informative controls of all of my items, so far the best tracking system I have use and members page is the most informative.
7. Customer care is top service! They have people on Skype and MSN Messenger; English fluent staffs are all very friendly and helpful. (From their site they say they have Chinese speaking staffs on line as well).
8. International shipping is just like others, their invoice is the most clear and repackaging is the best repack I have experience, worth the extra 8 USD.
9. Their invoice service is top service, really save me on the customs when I receive my items
10. Their bidding is not automated, but it has never given me any problem. Can select snipe bid and so far so good for me.
11. Fees are ok if you are their free sign up member, when you upgrade to their Premier Member (No recurring charge being their paying member) that’s when the saving comes.
12. They store items for you free for up to 30 days, which is enough for me.
13. Their staff is really good at searching items for you; follow up is amazing quick and none of that Japanese English.
Its worth checking them out, specially if you have enough of the bad experience with the others sites like me, you will find this site very different and really provide a good shopping experience by using their site and services.
John Berard
July 12th, 2008 (permalink)
I would like to add another deputy service to the list. It is called ok!shon. Here is the link to their website: http://www.okshon.com
I have been using them for about four years now and their are one of the better ones. Minimal deposite is required. Although they don’t ship as fast as they did in the past, it is still within reason.
Please consider exchange rates when selecting a deputy service. They all pad the rate to cover any ups or downs in the market. This padding amounts from 3 to 7 percent of the final price and that can add up on larger purchases.
More about ok!shon…… They have both real time bidding and translation services. They have been around a long time and the fellow operating the service is quick to answer questions and is courteous.
I hope this adds something to the topic.
Regards,
John
Kitty
July 26th, 2008 (permalink)
Thank you for blogging about this. However these auction services are too expensive & complicated.
I contacted Tat (he commented above) about some auctions on yahoo and goods on web shops. He replied right away and sent me an estimate invoice.
I just received the package today and couldn’t be more pleased with the service he provided. He always reply within 24 hours and did all the work. I just had to let him know what I want to buy/bid on.
He didn’t charge me any handling/packing material fees. The commission fee is very reasonable/low compared with other auction services.
I’ll definitely contact him again to feed my obsession with cute Japanese goods.