Post by rupert on Aug 14, 2016 11:24:50 GMT
I recently bought a couple of items off Yahoo Auctions. As most here should know theres lots of Japanese Sega goodness to be found on Yahoo Auctions but near impossible to buy unless you have good friends in Japan or use a bidding proxy site (middle man). There are quite a few different Japanese middle man sites that help you buy from various Japanese auctions and stores inc Yahoo. I didn't do much research and just went with Jauce as I had heard of it before. I thought I would do a quick review of my experience using the site in case anyone here has ever thought about buying from Japan but was unsure.
Summary:
Pros - Fairly easy to use, good service, quick.
Cons - Expensive!
(Exchange rate = 1000¥ / £7.63 / $9.87)
I found the search functionaily to be good via Jauce and found exaclty what I was looking for (and more!) easily. It was great how I could translate each auction listing within the site.
Placing bids was simple however in order to do this you first have to deposit funds to the website. This was the first (sort of) hidden cost, each time you deposit an amount of money to the site there is a fee of 40¥ + 3.9% of the amount deposited. So for example my first deposit was 3000¥, the fee was 164¥.
Unlike eBay if anyone tries to 'snipe' an item in the last few seconds on Yahoo an extra 5 minutes is added to the auction time. This was great for me as I was new to using Jauce/ Yahoo so would not have felt confident in trying to snipe and also the factor of having to pre-deposit funds before you can bid.
Once I had won an item there are more fee's to pay - the Jauce commission/ bidding fee is 400¥ + 8% of the total. So for my 2000¥ item the fee was 560¥. Then there is the domestic delivery charge of the item being sent from the seller to Jauce which obviously varies, in my case it was 600¥. Then there is a banking fee flat rate of 300¥, this is the fee for them taking your deposited money (that you already paid to deposit?!) and giving it to the seller. Worth noting if you buy multiple items from one seller and pay for them together then there is only one 300¥ fee.
There is a little wait while the seller sends the item to the Jauce people. Once they receive it you get a notification and you can look at postage & packing options to get the item shipped to you. There are various different post, packing and insurance options and you can have multiple items posted together or separately. I had bought two items from two different sellers and I really liked how easy it was to check all the pricing around sending individually or in bulk. The quandary I had was trying to avoid UK customs charges while also getting a good deal on post costs. In the end I took the risk and had my items sent together using their fastest postage option with upgraded packaging (6000¥ for postage and 660¥ for packing).
Also remember that you again have to deposit money to pay for postage etc with the fee of 40¥ + 3.9%.
The items arrived really quickly (about 3 days I think) and were very well packaged in a large cardboard box with thick tape along the edges and lots of packing inside. Jauce had noted the value on the customs slip as the actual auction value which I was pleased about (I thought all the fees may have been added). Luckily there was no customs charge despite the value being noted as 4000¥ (in the UK any items with a value of over £18 have to pay import VAT, which wouldn't be too bad but then Royal Mail stick an £8 handling fee on top! I was stung recently on £20 game from Japan via eBay that ended up costing me nearly £40 once I had paid postage, VAT and Handling fee!).
I was really really pleased with my items purchased via Jauce and found the site user friendly and the service was quick - however quite a bit more expensive than I thought it was going to be when you add it all up. Below is the total I paid to get my 2 relatively cheap items..
Both items were 2000¥ each, luckily I won them both at their original listing price. Total 4000¥
Each item had bidding fee, banking fee and delivery fee of 560¥, 300¥ and 600¥ respectively. Total = 1460¥ x 2 = 2920¥
The postage and packing from Japan to England was 6660¥ Total.
I added 3 lots of funds throughout this transaction so had 3.9% + 3 x 40¥ deposit fees = 650¥
Grand Total = 14,230¥ (about £110 total for two items I won for about £15 each).
As you can see it can make a bargain into something that is quite expensive, in my case I was lucky that I would consider my items to be worth easily more than that total. So a good customer experience, I felt that things were in safe hands but I did definitely pay for that service. I would use them again if I felt that the item was worth all the extra cost.
Summary:
Pros - Fairly easy to use, good service, quick.
Cons - Expensive!
(Exchange rate = 1000¥ / £7.63 / $9.87)
I found the search functionaily to be good via Jauce and found exaclty what I was looking for (and more!) easily. It was great how I could translate each auction listing within the site.
Placing bids was simple however in order to do this you first have to deposit funds to the website. This was the first (sort of) hidden cost, each time you deposit an amount of money to the site there is a fee of 40¥ + 3.9% of the amount deposited. So for example my first deposit was 3000¥, the fee was 164¥.
Unlike eBay if anyone tries to 'snipe' an item in the last few seconds on Yahoo an extra 5 minutes is added to the auction time. This was great for me as I was new to using Jauce/ Yahoo so would not have felt confident in trying to snipe and also the factor of having to pre-deposit funds before you can bid.
Once I had won an item there are more fee's to pay - the Jauce commission/ bidding fee is 400¥ + 8% of the total. So for my 2000¥ item the fee was 560¥. Then there is the domestic delivery charge of the item being sent from the seller to Jauce which obviously varies, in my case it was 600¥. Then there is a banking fee flat rate of 300¥, this is the fee for them taking your deposited money (that you already paid to deposit?!) and giving it to the seller. Worth noting if you buy multiple items from one seller and pay for them together then there is only one 300¥ fee.
There is a little wait while the seller sends the item to the Jauce people. Once they receive it you get a notification and you can look at postage & packing options to get the item shipped to you. There are various different post, packing and insurance options and you can have multiple items posted together or separately. I had bought two items from two different sellers and I really liked how easy it was to check all the pricing around sending individually or in bulk. The quandary I had was trying to avoid UK customs charges while also getting a good deal on post costs. In the end I took the risk and had my items sent together using their fastest postage option with upgraded packaging (6000¥ for postage and 660¥ for packing).
Also remember that you again have to deposit money to pay for postage etc with the fee of 40¥ + 3.9%.
The items arrived really quickly (about 3 days I think) and were very well packaged in a large cardboard box with thick tape along the edges and lots of packing inside. Jauce had noted the value on the customs slip as the actual auction value which I was pleased about (I thought all the fees may have been added). Luckily there was no customs charge despite the value being noted as 4000¥ (in the UK any items with a value of over £18 have to pay import VAT, which wouldn't be too bad but then Royal Mail stick an £8 handling fee on top! I was stung recently on £20 game from Japan via eBay that ended up costing me nearly £40 once I had paid postage, VAT and Handling fee!).
I was really really pleased with my items purchased via Jauce and found the site user friendly and the service was quick - however quite a bit more expensive than I thought it was going to be when you add it all up. Below is the total I paid to get my 2 relatively cheap items..
Both items were 2000¥ each, luckily I won them both at their original listing price. Total 4000¥
Each item had bidding fee, banking fee and delivery fee of 560¥, 300¥ and 600¥ respectively. Total = 1460¥ x 2 = 2920¥
The postage and packing from Japan to England was 6660¥ Total.
I added 3 lots of funds throughout this transaction so had 3.9% + 3 x 40¥ deposit fees = 650¥
Grand Total = 14,230¥ (about £110 total for two items I won for about £15 each).
As you can see it can make a bargain into something that is quite expensive, in my case I was lucky that I would consider my items to be worth easily more than that total. So a good customer experience, I felt that things were in safe hands but I did definitely pay for that service. I would use them again if I felt that the item was worth all the extra cost.
