What are your experiences with Mercari? Some of those sales look too good to be true. Is there any buyer protection at all?
Been buying through mercari for over a year now and haven’t had any major problems.
Unless you are in Japan I don’t think buyer protection can even be accounted for whether it is mercari, YJ or any other online marketplace. The reason why I say this is even though these places do have buyer protection and a feedback system, you are not likely to be able to leave feedback when buying through a proxy or return a faulty item that you receive 15 days after purchase.
I’ve had amazing deals in the past as well as bad ones, also the odd cancellation as sometimes the seller changes his mind (they always refunded me though). As Scott said in one of his videos, Mercari has a steeper learning curve, so I suggest you always check seller feedback, and be prepared for a bit more amateurish damage assessment.
I’ve bought cards described as near mint that were played, and cards described as slightly used that were gem mint. Obviously, since I received them a month later in the UK, there wasn’t much I could do in terms of leaving feedback or returning them, so you need to be prepared for that risk if you’re buying through a proxy.
Worth noting though that in general Japanese people are extremely honest, so in the end my experience has been more positive than negative and the few times that cards weren’t in as good a condition as described, I blamed it more on lack of knowledge on the seller’s part than on intentional misleading.
One thing that frustrates me both in YJ and Mercari is that sellers don’t usually upload more than two photos, so between what gets lost in translation and the poor resolution photos you may end up getting disappointed at times. Two orders ago I hit an amazing Jackpot with a collection of over 500 Gym series cards that were all pack fresh. On my last order though I bought a binder with a few Shinings that were supposedly like new but had quite a few scratches on their back which was a bit sad as I was really excited with those purchases.
My suggestion is, make a few smaller orders until you get a feel for the marketplace and if it becomes too frustrating or volatile for your taste just walk away, if instead you find yourself having just the odd disappointment among some success keep at it. 
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Awesome. Thanks for the helpful response!
US mercari has been a mixed bag for me. Lots of cancels and relist for higher and no system in place to punish it. I’ve gotten some sweet wins, but more sad losses lol. Always get my money back though at least
JP mercari I’ve never tried
Excellent post about the ups and downs of Mercari Japan.
However, I just want to note (as I have in other threads where this issue has been brought up) that the quality of photos on the various Japanese auction and marketplace sites is not always the fault of the sellers. I upload crystal-clear, high-resolution images for my YJ auctions, but Yahoo compresses the heck out of them. As a result, the pictures look, as @milhouse once so aptly stated, as though they were “taken with a potato.” 
Unfortunately, that means buyers have to trust their instinct more than their eyes when buying from these sites.
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If you are ever nostalgic for the 90’s, just open up yahoo japan, nothing has changed.
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Yeah. Just like ProBoards. 
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I feel like every known app is more of a buyers marketplace. We all want crap for dirt cheap O.o… Not sure about buyer protection, if it was anything like Paypal’s/Ebay’s you would be solid gold (Seller always seems to get screwed no matter the circumstances in a lot of cases I have seen).
Once again, thanks for the helpful responses! Efour rocks.
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