Yahoo Japan Auctions

Hello, all.

Here's an odd question. A couple years back I was able to use my Visa card on Yahoo Japan auctions to list items. Now that they offer the ability for sellers to accept credit cards, there's some things I'd like to bid on. Problem is, Yahoo Japan appears to no longer accept any of my credit cards. I've tried Visa, Mastercard and even applied for (and got) a JCB card. Still, Yahoo Japan won't accept them - I get the message it is unable to verify the card. In the case of JCB, the message is my selected method of payment is not valid - which makes no sense because JCB cards are in the drop-down menu.

I'm assuming the problem is that the cards were issued by a US bank instead of one in Japan. Again, it didn't used to be a problem, but the Yahoo Japan people can't give me an answer as to why nor can they tell me which overseas banks issue Visa/Mastercards usable on their site.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has managed to register a credit card (to pay for Yahoo Premium or for the "Kantan Kessai") issued by a US bank - and if so, could you please let me know which bank issued the card? There are instructions on Yahoo for using overseas cards, with the disclaimer that "some cards can't be used." That means to me there must be at least one overseas card that works. LOL.

I assume I can't set up a bank account (nor a postal account) in Japan unless I'm a resident, even if I visit there in person at some point in the future. I guess an international postal money order would work, but I'll bet sellers will shy away from any special payment methods.

Any info or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

- omEigaMan

I seriously doubt you will get Kantan Kessai working for a non-Japanese bank. I can't remember which card I registered there, but to post items, you now have to confirm your address (they mail you a code you have to fill in). They will do it for overseas users, but you must pay for the shipping. Not sure on the CC thing, but there are many online shops no longer accepting foreign issued cards. They are a very, very small percentage of their overall sales, and carry higher risk of fraud.

I assume I can't set up a bank account (nor a postal account) in Japan unless I'm a resident, even if I visit there in person at some point in the future. I guess an international postal money order would work, but I'll bet sellers will shy away from any special payment methods.

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This is correct on all counts, and then some. You must be a resident w/ valid gaijin card to set up a bank account, yes. And not only will most sellers not taking IMPOs or Paypal, they will also not ship abroad, regardless of any Japanese langauge skills you possess. Some will, but most won't. Out of Japan, you are stuck using a middleman service, which can get somewhat pricey, as there's a lot of legwork involved.

Theres some details about go-between companies on my blog, here - http://www.leonjp.com/blog/?p=43

Thanks for the replies!

I have contacted a bidding service that I happened to find advertising here on this site. It does look a little pricey, but so far the service has been excellent. I will report back when the transaction has finished.

omEigaMan said:

Thanks for the replies!

I have contacted a bidding service that I happened to find advertising here on this site. It does look a little pricey, but so far the service has been excellent. I will report back when the transaction has finished.

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Please do report back, that could be very useful info for others!

So therefore would someone who:

a) buys and sells (for a second living) on Yahoo Japan Auctions - with a 400 plus positive rating (90/10 split seller/buyer)
b) to whom payments could be made via Paypal
c) would gladly accept payments from UK residents by cheque, in sterling to an address in the UK
d) can ask Japanese sellers questions about items

...be of any service to anyone here?

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Sorry for the late reply. Busy schedule keeps me away sometimes.

Anyway, I would think it would come in handy. I would talk to you further but I'm waiting to see what happens with the company I used. I won the auction and paid - still waiting for the item to be mailed to me. I will post more details when it's finally settled.

Also, some of the companies may need agents to help them provide bidding/paying/shipping services. You might look into that, if you're interested.

Celga, Rinkya, Shopping Mall Japan are the 3 biggies. Akibado is another, and there are even more. The reason it gets pricey is there is a minimal amount of work involved. I help out a select few people to make a few bucks, but I must say, it is a lot of work for just one person... and I've got everything except for the correspondance w/ the buyer and the mailing of the package automated.

OK, so here's my full report.

I used a company called abidko. It was the first I found and when I contacted them, I didn't know about all the others mentioned above. The name sounds similar to akibado, but they are not the same. Abidko is based in Singapore and they have people in Japan who bid, pay and ship on their behalf.

Short version - Overall, I have to say my experience with them was great. Yes, it was a bit pricey, but as GP mentioned, they did do quite a bit of legwork and communication for me (see longer version) and I don't think it was more than the other companies.

Longer version: I wanted to get ahold of some concert tickets and Yahoo Auctions Japan is pretty much the only way I knew of. I found an ad for abidko somewhere on this site and sent an e-mail. Response was quick and polite so I did some research (found they had a high feedback rating on yahoo auctions) and proceeded.

I have to say, the guy I dealt with was great. I placed my bid through the site and sent my deposit via paypal. I looked at other auctions and based my maximum bid price on the price range of similar tickets. The range of prices was a bit wider than I expected, so I figured I'd place a fairly high bid in case bidding got hot and heavy when I wasn't around. After all, the way auctions work is it won't go to your maximum bid unless someone is bidding against you, right???

What I didn't count on was a problem with shill bidders. This had nothing to do with abidko. It turns out that there's this flaw/feature with yahoo's bidding system - something I've never had a problem with on ebay. Someone comes in and bids very high. Then, they cancel their bid. Instead of your bid going back down to the price it was (ie. 500 yen more than the previous high bid), it stays at your maximum bid. Moreover, when they cancel their bid, there is no indication in the bid history that their bid even existed. Evidently, this practice is commonplace for expensive items (or at least for the tickets on which I was bidding).

I actually lost the auction to someone else, but they cancelled their bid after the auction was over leaving me the winner at almost 10,000 yen MORE than the previous bidder. As I looked at more auctions, I realized this was going on constantly and I should have taken this into consideration before I placed my bid. As an example, there was one set of tickets I saw for over 100,000 yen. A few hours later, those same tickets were back down to 34,500. So, in many ways, I was basing my original bid on some artificially inflated auctions to begin with. My mistake, yes. But I wasn't about to pay 9,500 yen more than what I technically would have won the auction for (based on the next highest bid below mine).

The guy at abidko was great. Since I technically didn't win the auction (the person who cancelled their bid after the auction ended won it), I wasn't locked into buying the item. So, I offered the seller what I should have won the item for. The seller refused and was going to re-list the tickets. After thinking about it some more (and realizing that the auction I had won seemed to have jacked up prices all around since I didn't cancel my bid. LOL) I decided to split the difference with the seller and offer 5,000 yen more than what I would have won them for. This seemed fair to me based on current auctions (I now know how to tell which prices have been inflated and which weren't). The seller agreed.

All this communication I did in English to abidko and they communicated with the seller in Japanese for me. I'm sure this was more work than they had planned but they were always polite and customer service-oriented.

From there, everything went smoothly. There was a little sticker shock as my invoice came in Singapore dollars. But, paypal converted it to USD and it was just what I had expected.

It took a couple weeks for the item to get sent from Japan, but I expect that was a delay on the part of the seller and/or a slow mail system (the seller was in Kyuusyuu, the agent was somewhere in Hokkaido).

I do plan on purchasing some other items on auction at some point in the future and I will use abidko again. However, I will be more savvy about my max bid.

For anyone interested in getting something from Yahoo Auctions, I would recommend abidko. Check the prices of any company you use so you know exactly what the overhead and fees are. You want to make sure you know what you're going to pay. And, if the item is fairly expensive, I would highly suggest doing plenty of research on the auctions before you decide on a bid price - watch similar items, bookmark them and look at what they actually sold for and determine whether the price was inflated by shill bidders or not.

Long post, but I hope it's helpful.

I would like to clarify one thing. When I use the term "shill bidders," I am not implying that the seller was behind the price inflation. The seller in my case had a high feedback rating and I looked at lot of his completed auctions and I didn't see any evidence of shill bidding in that history. Who's doing the bid inflation? I couldn't say. It could be fans wanting to raise prices to add value to their artist. It could be people curious to see what others are willing to pay. It could just be people messing around or those who like to throw a monkey wrench into things.

Then, they cancel their bid. Instead of your bid going back down to the price it was (ie. 500 yen more than the previous high bid),

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There is no bid cancellation on Yahoo Japan Autions from the bidder side... period. It is from the seller side, and seller side only, and it can be cancelled after the auction is over. In this situation, you are generally given the option w/ no risk to your feedback to decline (many people will bid elsewhere once they've been outbid on an item).

Hmm. Interesting. I stand corrected.

I do remember seeing lots of warnings from sellers that anyone with 0 feedback will have their bid cancelled unless they send the seller a variety of personal information. But it doesn't make sense to me why a seller would cancel a higher bid - especially before the auction is over. Are there lots of bidders who don't follow through when they win??

Thanks for clarifying, GP.

Why not post the URL of the auction? Although I don't know if cancelled bids show up. In fact, I think they don't. The only two reasons I can think of are:

-Bidder contacted them and asked them to remove the bid (this happens on occasion)
-Seller didn't like the bidder for whatever reason.

And yeah, sometimes they say "don't bother bidding if you're new". Gotta build up that feedback.

Are there lots of bidders who don't follow through when they win??

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Very few, although I'm usually on the buying side. I've had good luck all around with Yahoo Japan. Done about 1000 transactions over the years, and only a couple of bad incidences.

I can confirm GaijinPunch is correct about the bidder no-cancellation. I sell ECC memory AND non-ECC memory and sometimes people get the two confused. When this happens they have to post a public message for me to contact them (no private asking the seller questions). Then I have to reject their bid. I've don't it about 4/5 times - each time the customer still bought an item from me - the correct one.

Great thing about Yahoo Auctions Japan (apart from the fact that it pays for my airline tickets, son's kindergarten fees and my internet bill) is that no one makes their profits on the postage costs. Thousands of eBayers do just that - especially in the US.

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OK. I've compiled some links to illustrate the oddities that happened during my auction. I don't think I have enough posts yet to include links and would rather not post a(nother) theory that may not be accurate. But I am very curious as to what's going on here. May I PM them to you, GP? Then I'll post the outcome (and my mea culpa, if necessary) here.

Sure -- go ahead and PM me.

Mr. Sumo: Do you get your memory shipped in from abroad? Thinking of upgrading at some point.

mr.sumo.snr said:

Great thing about Yahoo Auctions Japan (apart from the fact that it pays for my airline tickets, son's kindergarten fees and my internet bill) is that no one makes their profits on the postage costs. Thousands of eBayers do just that - especially in the US.
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Great thing about it from the buyer's viewpoint, and in contrast with eBay, is that bid sniping is impossible. If the high bidder is outbid in the last 5 or 10 minutes of the auction, the auction gets sent into "overtime" for a further few minutes. So if you are actively online in the closing minutes of an item you're bidding on, you can try to outbid a competitior who is sitting at his keyboard and trying to outbid you. Just as in a real auction, you're not up against a clock so long as there is outbidding activity at the end. (Once got a camera in quadruple overtime that way).

how about this which i've found recently?
easyjpauction.com

their service charge is the cheapest after browsing roughly

anyway good luck for those who want to try making money on yahoo japan auction