Oh man SMJ, the $6 per item is brutal. I got a 100 Yen card (80Y Shipping) and the $6 fee… 
I actually had a wtf face while I viewed the charges when their fee was 3x the price of the card in question.
I understand you have to use middleman services to purchase from YJ. From your experience, considering all fees and charges, is it still worthwhile to use them?
I think if buying more expensive items like rare trophy cards, you may have to pay extra customs duties when the package gets to your country so it’s additional cost.
You sometimes get some great deals or find really rare cards for a fraction of what they cost on eBay or websites selling them. I would’ve paid a lot more for the haul I paid $200+ for, starting with the JR Pikachu and Mew which cost around $150-$200 for the set on eBay/websites yet I got it for $15 plus another Surfing JR Pikachu for $20.
Next time I will only use it for finding specific cards rather than going out on a limb and splurge on every nice/rare card I see. It’s really addicting to say the least with so many nice cards out there and the thrill of the hunt!
Actually, I think that’s what makes it so interesting, the thrill of finding a rare card!
As for customs, I’ve had good luck lately, they haven’t charged me for anything related to the PKMN TCG, so we’ll see how it goes this time. I’m sure the Trophy Cards would probably catch customs attention. fromjapan.co.jp has an option to have the package sent through EMS as “Gift” which makes it easier for customs to look the other way.
I completely agree. Sometimes you can get a steal on YJ…other times…ehhh not so much.
For example: I purchased a TMB/SSB tournament handbook for 100 yen on noppin. Then their commission doubled it to 200 yen. Then we added the domestic shipping (another 250 yen)…then the bank wire at 3.5% finally they slapped me with a 1000 yen shipping fee with 3.5% payment handling. Suddenly what originally cost 350 yen with shipping quadrupled to 1500! That still works out to be roughly $17.18 and is still not a bad deal considering the item but it goes to show you how ridiculous their fees are!
I note that Noppin would not check on your behalf if the cards are genuine or not. I guess it’s the same for the other middleman service. Has anyone had issues with receiving fake cards from YJ sellers before and how did the middleman helped to resolve the problem?
Thanks.
That’s a really good question, AFAIK in my experience with FJ.co.jp will check if the received item matches the one you won and if there’s a discrepancy (damaged yet condition in the auction states otherwise, etc.), other than that I doubt they do authentication services since they deal with so many random types of items.
Thanks cujucuyo. This is quite a big risk specially for the high-end, more expensive cards. You’ll also have to just roll the dice when it comes to the cards’s condition because more often than not, the description doesn’t translate well in English when using Google translator. Regards,
No prob mate and you’re absolutely right on the expensive cards without clear pics, Google translate does a really poor job in translating, making you ask yourself why the condition is “pancake” according to Google, lol.
Look, a new middleman service! What do you guys think?
They only charge 500 Yen or 10% for commission, the bank transfer fee, and shipping. NO DEPOSITS. Seems pretty good to me.
Definitely looks good. I felt I made a good offer to those who were interested, but even I won’t be able to beat that. Or, rather, I won’t try to beat it. My time is worth more than a 10 percent commission.
I presume that buyee.jp does high volume, which makes it worth their time. I was only offering my services to folks here at UPCCC, which means I would only be handling a few purchases every once in a while anyway.
For those who are considering buyee.jp, I definitely would say it’s worth it.
I feel it is worth it for items over ~3,000 Yen. For me, I tend to not spend more than 1,000 Yen on an item, so 500 Yen commission is a lot 
I will, for the most part, be sticking with you japanime 