Yahoo Japan Auctions

I'm really new to YJ auctions. I was bidding on a Kizuna Ai, and she got bid out of my price range and I lost. 

The auction just ended on the 12th and now on the 13th the exact same listing is back. Same photos, title, description, and seller with mostly good feedback. 

Is this something that happens sometimes (like the buyer backed out or was rejected somehow) or is this a big red flag and I should avoid it like the plague?

Its a bit hard to say without seeing the listing, but there are options.

The seller had multiple dolls to sell, but didnt want to put them all out at the same time.

Also some sellers do the unfortunate thing of using other sellers photos.

As you mentioned the buyer was found out to be a auction proxy, and those can get cancelled fairly easy because the sellers dont appreciate the in house bidding on items some of them offer, the biggest offender being Rinkya if I recall correct. -- sometimes the auction proxies are blocked when the auction is still going since back in the day they mostly used identifying bidding names, but dunno what the strategy is now.

If you are using a reputable auction proxy you will have a certain level of protection even if it turns out to be a dud, for instance Noppin (Or crescent shop as it used to be called), has a limitation to their user bidding system if there is a immediate red flag (out of country, severy bad feedback, etc.), so if you check that you are covered by this, you shouldnt have to worry.

The biggest issue I guess would be that if you continuously find auctions that they let you bid on, that turn out to be duds, they might limit your account to manually approoved bids only.

and with that if you really are unsure, the auction proxies should have the option of having a auction manually approoved, so they can check if everything is on the up and up.

EDIT: But like with Ebay, the description accuracy is key. If you bid on a Photo of Kizuna Ai, and you get a Photo of Kizuna Ai, thinking you were getting a Doll of Kizuna Ai ... thats pretty much it.

Edited November 13, 2020 by finnleo

Thanks for responding!

Here's the original listing: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/s782757000?conversionType=item_browsing_history 

And here's the new one: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/f450103286

It's the same exact doll and description. It's definitely for the doll, no problems there.

I'm not sure if buyee is reputable or not. Someone from here recommended it to me. Either way, I don't know if the winner used a proxy or not. But if they did, and the seller decided not to sell to them, wouldn't it go to the next highest bidder?

 

Buyee seems rather popular on the forum, probably because they did advertise on Y!JA back in the day, so id say you are good based on what i've seen on the forums.

On initial inspection Id say that seller is legit. Seems to deal with toys as a business, 120k+ positive feedback, and also had a DD2 body in the 50 last sales history.

The negative feedbacks dont seem to have any obvious red flags... people bidding on Z-rated items and a bit miffed they didnt work, or had incomplete sprue's on the model kits for instance.

The original auction had reverted to the 1 yen starting price yet has 50 bids on it, so I believe that means it was cancelled and relisted, also you cant see the bidder history without having a login ID anymore, so cant check who was the leading bidder at the time of cancellation.

I wouldnt be surprised if this seller was the type to nuke proxy bidders.

 

@DreamDollDesign Buyee is highly reputable. I've been using them for years with zero issues, and they are always lightning fast at getting things to me.  They are on the more expensive side as far as Japan-based proxies go, but they don't mess around with customer service. My only gripe with them is that you can only order one item at a time.

Buyee is reputable and good for a newbie, I think. There are many services, some with less 'training wheels' than others. If you are new to YJA, it is probably best to go with one that has better service.

I personally wouldn’t recommend Buyee (anymore). I used to purchase from them often, but they sent my last package without a box. That’s right. The doll came in its own packaging, and it was dented to a massive degree that the doll itself got some damage as well. 

Buyee is still legit for me, but if you are afraid of packaging, etc issues, just chat with their CS. Japanese CS is almost always on point.

Just want to add in that I used FROM JAPAN as as a first time auction buyer (I'm in the UK) and they were really good. Easy to use, fast service and the shipment was very prompt and all received with no hassle. I'd definitely use them again if I every needed anything from the auctions (I was desperate for Asuna and finally caved and got her from the auctions) 

Edited November 18, 2020 by April

Is Yahoo Japan, Buyee or any of those kind of English sites still good to use?

 

Ryu

Yes! I have used Buyee with Japan Auction and Mercari - it went so smoothly and shipping was extremely fast. I highly recommend. 

I don't know if we have a Buyee shopping guide section, but what I've found out so far...

• To cut costs I use the cheap no fee option for items that cost less than $30. I've never had an item turn up completely not as described. I have had a few outfits with minor issues (fallen off buttons, broken shoes). 'Vintage' era DD shoes are especially high risk (i.e. anything more than 10 years old). All the dolls I've bought on there have been perfect.
• Yahoo Auctions ending Sunday night Japan time are HIGH RISK due to systems failures.
• Don't get into mad bidding wars unless you really want a really rare item. Earlier this year there was a crazy bidding war for the ToHeart 2 robomaid outfit but I bought the same outfit a couple of months later for ~20% of the price the first one sold for.
• Mercari is worth a look too. There are more buy it now items plus the seller usually (but not always) pays the domestic shipping fee. On Yahoo Auctions the buyer (i.e. you) normally pays the domestic shipping fee from the seller to the Buyee warehouse. When buying non-doll stuff I almost always use Buyee.
• Yahoo shopping (not auctions) is good for books (I also collect anime art books).
• Try and make a list of the Japanese words for things you want. Written Japanese is very quirky but I'm gradually figuring it out. If you use Japanese to search for stuff you will find a lot more stuff.
• Some categories to keep an eye on: Dollfie 'other' (for outfits and accessories), Dollfie 'main units' (for dolls). It's generally best to sort by Newly Listed + Most Popular.
• Everyday stuff experiences pricing surges if it goes out of stock on the Volks website. This mainly affects bodysuits and body parts.
• If you want bargains then look for listings of random stuff. Most bidders cannot be bothered if there is a lot of several unrelated items and they only want one of them. I once bagged an incredible bargain lot of a Miku outfit, a Volks doll stand, a wig, a pair of shoes and a lingerie set, and all for the price of what everyone else was paying for just the Miku outfit. I also got a great deal on a dual set of Miku wigs (regular + Senbonzakura).
• Also get to know the value of things because sometimes amazing bargains appear. I bought Saber's normal outfit for a staggeringly good price just by logging in and seeing what was ending soonest.
• I tend to open new browser tabs of anything I want to bid on and set my phone alarm to 30 minutes before an auction ends.
• Auctions almost always end 8pm - midnight Japanese time which is absolutely perfect if like me you live in the GMT timezone.
• Buyee sometimes gives vouchers so save them for a more costly item (I think there's a max discount of 5000 JPY). I think they give vouchers out on Sundays but it might be Fridays. I'm not an expert on vouchers but I did use a couple recently.
• Depending on where you live it might be cheaper to use PayPal (no bank currency charges) but on the other hand PayPal's exchange rates might not be that great. I'm not an expert on this either. I do prefer PayPal just in case I have to file a dispute.
• When it comes to shipping it's probably better to use Buyee Air Delivery rather than EMS. In the UK air delivery => DHL and EMS => Royal Mail. DHL is much quicker and has better tracking.
• Shipping is always costly. I think I do badly because I often buy heavy stuff (e.g. books) and also figures tend to come in oversized boxes.

Mini-dictionary:

• Book: 本
• Dollfie: ドルフィー
• Hatsune Miku: 初音ミク
• Kagamine Rin: 鏡音リン
• Pureneemo Character Series: ピュアニーモキャラクターシリーズ
• Smart Dolls: スマートドール
• Volks: ボークス

For character names I type the English into Google Translate and the correct Japanese usually (but not always) pops out - e.g. Kirika Towa Alma is キリカ・トワ・アルマ

You can combine these into search phrases (spaces not really required between phrases). To test a phrase just whack it into Google Image search and if you see the right thing then it's probably OK to search for on Buyee.

If you want to pay for your vinyl doll stuff by reselling other stuff imported from Japan then noodle stoppers (ぬーどるストッパー), Blythe stuff and Miku stuff can often fetch a much higher price on domestic eBay than it does on Buyee. Reselling stuff is quite complex though. For anime stuff stick to Miku and popular franchises like Fate, or popular wifus like Rem.

Thank you for the information Xionqmao I've had good luck with DHL shipping in and fedex in USA. UPS has been hit or miss and sometime i get crushed boxes.

For me its a bit harder to find outfits because a few of my girls amply voluptuous.

I will admit I'm still learning how to fine stuff.

Thank you @Xiongmao for this information, its very helpful. 🙂

 

Ry

Just to add this small but important piece of info:

I got into a complete mess trying to buy an item on Yahoo Japan Auctions. From what the Buyee staff told me, it's not currently possible to BUY IT NOW on Yahoo Auctions. If you want the item, you have to buy it on Yahoo Shopping instead. To do this, search for the item's title on Yahoo Shopping. Regular auctions you bid on are unaffected.

I think they might change the system, so if you're visiting this thread from the future it might have been resolved.

Also remember to check for coupons - I could definitely have made more use of these. I did just find a Mercari one that seemed to have unlimited uses, so I used it to save a few yen on a few figures I wanted.

 

Made to order items and "Services rendered" listings are a thing on YJA and might lead to words with your bidding service of choise if you bid on them. if I recall correct Crescent shop/Noppin had a clause against them, and would limit your self bidding rights if you made enough bad choises. but its getting on about eight years since I last used them.