What is the best value Yahoo! Auctions Japan redirection service?

I went with EMS, since that seems to be the one mentioned the most. I don't care if the shipping costs $150. I need that goddamn part!

 

I have ordered a bunch of old computers, consoles and games off Yahoo auction through FromJapan.co.jp last year and honestly only have good things to say about my experience.

Not only was their fees very reasonable but they always responded promptly and properly to any communication.

I mostly used Fedex express for shipping large packages such as computers and would usually receive the package in under a week. It was not even that expensive, like shipping a Fm-towns tower to canada along with some hardware like mouse, keyboard and cables would cost 60-80$ maybe, and then upon receipt I only had to pay taxes on declared value, which they would let me input myself... And anyway I got those computers dirt cheap to begin with so had FM-towns computer shipped under 100$, thats a joke considering it would be next to impossible to get them otherwise.

Combined shipping also worked very well when I tried it.

They also have occasional deals with Rakuten that are usually worth it. Like free shipping on 100$ order or 10% off and such. My Famicom game collection certainly benefited off those.


@NinSega , I dont know why you got upset at the deposit before bid method they use. They basically explain it somewhere on the site. Yahoo auction has a feedback system and apparently good feedback is regarded as very important by sellers and once an auction is won, non payment is very bad. FromJapan just want to make sure that once you win a bid, you will actually pay for it 100% sure. Otherwise they would probably get trolled by non paying bidders quite often, you know how people are right?

 

I brought my Zojirushi rice cooker from Rakuten, good website. It's not an auction site, so you can't snipe cheap game hardware Games seem cheap, does it matter which seller you buy a bunch of games from if you want combined shipping? Does everything go though Rakuten?

 

Honestly im not sure but I dont think that the stuff goes through Rakuten, sellers ship directly I assume. Its a kind of Japanese Ebay for shops and it only uses BIN, afaik. I made only one order from Rakuten when FromJapan offered a free international surface mail shipping on large order so I bought about 150$ of famicom games.

 

Rakuten is like a gigantic Amazon Marketplace with the most horrible web-design since the 90's. The sad thing is it's considered one of Japan's cutting edge, "international" companies.

 

Damn, so I'd need to order though the one seller.

"cutting edge" by Japanese website design standards of course

 

Agreed!

And not to mention that their staff were willing to go out to help me, despite their shop policies.

I had to adjust the shipping instructions because I got more items when there were some long delays (On the seller's end, I presume).

On their site, their ToS states that there will be a 2000 yen penality fee if the shipping instructions are to be adjusted after they have been issued, but they did it for me anyway, for free.

 

Haha... actually they get their reputation in that they force employees to learn English. Even making one I think is forward thinking, considering the rest of Japan is becoming more introverted. :-/

 

OP Fireaza, as you get more info and try out new services could you update your first post to describe each of them? I'm really curious in trying out new services, I purchase tons of items from Japan.

 

I have a service if you want to try it. If you think it sucks, you can publicly flog me here.

 

Sure, but so far, FromJapan is the winner, provided their shipping as a cheap as the others. And since they all have access to the same services (EMS, SAL etc) I'm assuming they are.

Can we publicly flog you anyway? But seriously, do you know of any places in Japan that have pre-modchipped PS2s? I'm thinking of going that route instead of trying to mod an AUS PS2.

 

So I ended up paying $30+ total after shipping for just ONE frigging F-Zero card. So much for having reasonable prices. The card was ~$8 by itself.

 

You used EMS shipping though didn't you? As I've already mentioned, EMS is the most expensive shipping, SAL would have been like half that. Also, you'll find that shipping on the same item would cost the same regardless of who you use (any extra charges aside) since they all use the same postal services. You can't really compare the cost of shipping to the value of the item, since it's weight and size that influence this cost. Hell, I could complain that I paid more in usage fees for the Famicom Disk System I brought than the actual item is worth. This would ignore the fact that I got the item for 10 yen though

Seriously dude, if you don't like FromJapan, don't use them. Buyee would be your next best bet in that case. But my experience has been that they're cheaper and have a better bidding system than the others I've used.

 

Ok cool, I just placed a rather large order with FromJapan. I'll keep you posted on how it goes as well. So far so good. I do echo in agreement the deposit thing is annoying. I'd prefer they just had my credit card on file as collateral if I don't pay. I never know how the bidding is going to go so being tied by my deposit is a nuisance.

I've been using Rinkya for years, but the fee's have really added up. They do offer great service, their site is very easy to use, and they package my items so well. So you do get what you pay for and it's a pretty solid service for items of high importance.

So far I've used EMS, Fedex (Through Rinkya Prime), and SAL. Never used SEA.

All my packages have arrived complete and without damage. Granted I always purchase insurance to be safe. However SAL took about 2 to 3 weeks to arrive, while Fedex averaged around 3 days, and EMS around 4-5 days. I'm in the U.S and Australia, and have yet to have customs request a tax with any of the services as well.

Also $30 is normal. I bought a $1 Game Boy Player, it ended up being like $30 by the time it arrived. It's basically a fixed cost you have expect when importing from Japan. Any video game item will have a minimum of $20 of fee's and shipping before it gets to your door. It sucks, so I suggest bundling when you can.

 

This is the time I can say "Told you so".

 

^ What Toubib said

Of course you gotta expect a minimum shipping cost of close to at least 20-30 $ for whatever you get shipped half a world away through a proxy service.
For fucks sake, I live in canada and some USA sellers on ebay will charge this for a single game just to cross the border...
Its not really "smart" to buy like one game at a time using these services. Unless its ultra valuable or you don't care about money...

But then buy 150$ of cheap games on auctions/rakuten and bundles up and you might be in for extreme deals compared to buying off ebay.
You gotta use them tools for what they are good at...

 

To be fair, I just shipped a single game to Canada, cost 10$ at the lowest, in a minimally padded envelope.

 

I was delighted when I found they were able to use PayPal for everything (it was the first question I asked them), since I hate having to use my credit card. But yeah, it would be better if they could keep my credit card on file to cover their asses, but still allow me to use PayPal for everything.

I used Rinkya once, never again! You're up for $25 in just usage fees alone!

 

As I said, "Some" USA sellers. And believe me they are pretty common. I think they are just being lazy though and I dont buy from them. Canada is only <10% of their potential market so they obviously do not really care.
On the other hand some will ship for as low as 5$ and give you combined discount to boot.

 

And why not? Haha. Actually, mod chips are technically illegal here. They law isn't really enforced but they're also not so easy to find.

And for what it's worth, there are no proxies that are a good value for $8 items (unless it's an $8 item you don't mind having for $25 when it's all said and done). For some of them (including mine) you can get many $8 items from the same seller at one time, and take a lot of the sting out.