To the best of my knowledge, Buyee ALWAYS sends an automated message to the seller immediately upon the end of an auction. So, the seller doesn’t have that as an excuse.
If Buyee doesn’t stand up for you in this situation, file a chargeback and find a more reliable, hands-on middleman.
I personally choose to challenge anyone who scams me. Because if they aren’t challenged, they will simply continue to behave badly.
I think a lot of people in this thread aren’t really familiar with Yahoo’s “buyer protection” or lack thereof. I’ll copy-paste what I wrote about it a year ago or so in the Giant Japanese Market Thread:
There is very limited “buyer protection” which is nothing like what we have in the west. I did some more research on the buyer protection policies and here’s what I found. As I mentioned above, Yahoo acts as a payment intermediary. Payment first goes to them, and then the seller ships the item. Once the item arrives, the buyer confirms receipt, and Yahoo irreversibly pays the seller. If the seller sends something completely different or the item never arrives, I believe Yahoo can withhold payment to the seller and facilitate some kind of exchange between buyer and seller to work something out. However, the seller can simply deny the request and be paid anyways. Then the buyer would have to go through a convoluted support process to be entitled to a refund which caps at 10,000 JPY. Getting a return or refund almost entirely relies on buyer-seller communication. But many sellers will explicitly say they won’t engage in any kind of negotiation process if the item isn’t as described: “no claim, no return.”
This should be covered under Buyee’s protection policy. It looks like Buyee has already blocked the seller. However, this would probably not get a seller kicked off Yahoo as their “protection” is like a stapled condom.
Based on the description, this seems to be a clear “westerner bait” listing which is designed to entice western buyers into bidding on a scam lot. The good thing is that a lot of these listings are relatively easy to sniff out if you know what you’re looking for. Reading the description is super important, as they will often bury things like this in there. The standard “do not bid if you are nervous” isn’t a worry, but anything that alludes to sending the pictured cards OR something else, “we are unable to confirm all cards are present,” “we will not deal with those who cannot communicate in Japanese” are red flags to be aware of.
Here is the exact description for anyone who wants to see exactly what was said. (Translated via Google Translate)
"Unopened Pokemon Card Booster ☆ Players 024 / PLAY Promo Pokemon
It is a prize for earning player’s experience points of 30,000 to 39990 EXP points.
Since the number of issued sheets is smaller than that of Sanders and Vaporeon, it is a very rare promo.
I put it in a file and kept it unopened.
* The bag containing the card has some wrinkles, but the card inside is not scratched.
Even if you look at it with an amateur’s eyes, it is in good condition without white chips, noticeable scratches, stains, etc. Please refrain from bidding if you are looking for a perfect item or if you are nervous about initial scratches.
I need your help by a no claim no return.
In order to prevent mischievous bids, we may cancel the bid at our discretion if you are a little worried, such as a new account, a person with a small number of evaluations, or a person with many bad evaluations. Please note.
When the above person bids, please give us a word from the question column. If you bid without contacting us, we will ship another card.
Even if you have a lot of bad evaluations, you can bid if you contact us, so please cooperate so that you can make a transaction with peace of mind.
Please contact us within 24 hours after it makes a successful bid.
Please note that if you do not contact us even after 48 hours have passed since you made a successful bid and you cannot confirm the payment, we will cancel the successful bid due to the circumstances of the highest bidder.
Since it is a very expensive item, we will ship it by the shipping method with compensation after taking measures against breaking of the card and getting wet."
I think you should be covered because you purchased insurance and the item does not match the photos but at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t, Buyee isn’t exactly safe. I have never heard of of a scam like this but it definitely seems like a scam towards westerners.
Personally I always made a point to read descriptions but never would of thought someone would try and do something like this.
The relevant part (which I’ve highlighted in bold above) shouldn’t apply to a Buyee bid unless the account Buyee used happens to have a considerable amount of negative feedback.
I’m not saying that what the seller threatened to do (“ship another card”) is acceptable. However, I don’t see it as an attempt to scam westerners (as some here have suggested).
File a chargeback. You shouldn’t have to “eat” 2700 dollars
100% guaranteed this is against Yahoo’s T&Cs and maybe worth a police investigation.
My general recommendation is to avoid buyee or any proxy services when it comes to auction.
Especially japanese Yahoo auction which is full of scammers and horrific stories.
One influencer should maybe take this topic and alert the community.
All auction sites have a fair number of scammers. YJ is certainly no worse than eBay.
Also, if everyone were to avoid Buyee (which, as someone who sells on YJ, I’ve found to be quite reliable) or other proxy services, then nobody outside of Japan would have access to all the goodies on YJ.
not really.
eBay has the buyer protection not sure about Yahoo japan auction. Also in Yahoo japan , sellers have a the possibility of terminating auctions and ultimately hand picking the buyer (even if the buyer was not the one winning the auction on paper, it can end up winning afterward )… de facto creating the ground for a scam by having one to artificially overbid and pumping the price (usually done in collaboration with the seller )
Also the issue is to go through “Buyee” as proxy which to me is the worse possible condition to handle a dispute and not sure if there are any buyer protection as ebay.
=>My recommendation is to stay away from/avoid for Yahoo Japan auction
→ as most likely than often, when a deal is to good to be true, it is most likely a scam… sad to say but this situation is common place in Yahoo Japan. Of course you can find that in ebay, but eBay do not pay the seller immediately, so if you open a dispute and have a strong case, ebay usually take side of the buyer and you get a refund… Yahoo Japan and Buyee pair are the perfect russian roulette when it comes to buying item in this auction platform.
Yes, I agree. Everyone should stop using proxy services to buy Japan. If enough of you stop, then maybe I will be able to get even better deals by using them.
I’d be quite content if yahoo got ‘cancelled’ by the international market.
It’s a recommendation due to the fact that proxy do not have the structure in place to really protect consumers.
And again outlining the fact that Yahoo Japan auction is the world wide west and that scammers are using it as a primary and sole platform (I don’t see where they would go in fact).
What a trash seller 
Hi jindough,
Did you use paypal for the purchase through buyee? if so, another possibility is to open a case with Paypal.
Another approach is also to contact you credit card company and also open a case there?
In all cases, I will be curious to see how much protection buyee provides for such situation. You may need to use any communication you will have with Buyee in making your case with paypal and you credit card company, so communicate appropriately with this in mind.
I used my Huntington Voice CC. So far these are the 2 communications I’ve gotten back from Buyee via email.
This item has already arrived at the Buyee warehouse,
Please kindly note, on the item page it is wriiten :
The correct item only will be sent out to who contact the seller while the bid has been placed.
「入札される際は質問欄より一言お願い致します。連絡なく入札された場合別のカードを発送します。」Since we did not received any contact during your bidding the item, we did not contact the seller. The seller sent different item from the item page (file attached).
Please confirm the attached photo, and let us know if you have any concern regarding the item within 2 these days otherwise we will register the item.
With regard to your concern for Auction ID:xxxxxxxxxx, we will confirm the situation with our related department.
We will get back to you as soon as we have received a reply, therefore, we kindly ask if you can wait for a while.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused this time and we wish to express to you our gratitude for your patience and understanding.
"The correct item only will be sent out to who contact the seller while the bid has been placed"
Is that illegal? is it not implying that the seller will send an incorrect item??
How on earth buyee allowed that! I would sue buyee and the seller
Lol sadly I don’t believe I can sue a seller in Japan, and a company based out of Hong Kong. Just have to hope for the best at this point and if no resolution I’ll chargeback.
@jindough A lot of times issues on YHJ originate from lack of understanding or not reading descriptions thoroughly enough. That said, this listing was clearly a set up. I do think Buyee will refund you due to the circumstances here. YHJ in general is a great place to find deals if you know how to look. There are scammers on all online marketplaces, including Ebay, there is just much less buyer protection on YHJ. Don’t let this situation turn you off to future purchases on YHJ - it was a good learning lesson and hopefully will be resolved in your favor.