Purchasing Pinky merchandise from Yahoo auctions is a more convoluted process than ordering from a mail order house. For those who have not yet used Yahoo, here is a two-part guide that hopefully will help you along the way. First, I will outline the peculiarities of Yahoo auctions, and then describe how to use the Crescent shop as an auction agent.

Darryl offers an excellent guide to Yahoo on the net, but since you are not doing the bidding yourself, and is only interested in Pinky stuff, it is not really necessary – http://www.ffmusic.info/yjtutorial.html

Click on the following link and you should get all the relevant auctions in your browser. You should see something like that in the first image below (irrelevant parts removed). My comments are in pink! The default display is a list, to see the pictures for the items click on the link labeled as 'pics.' Don't be afraid of trying the links, there is no risk of bidding on something by mistake. That takes a Yahoo ID and you don't have one!

http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search/auc?p=%a5%d4%a5%f3%a5%ad%a1%bc%a5%b9%a5%c8%a5%ea%a1%bc%a5%c8



The image above shows the list of items you get after searching for pinkiisutoriito (with Japanese characters) and selecting the option that shows an image for each item. The inset in the top right corner shows data from the list display. To get from the first page to the last one, click on the little arrow head button. New auctions are usually listed last, but those with a very short duration may be listed in between, I believe.

Click on one of the items and you should get something like that in the next pic. Not all offer a Buy-It-Now option though.



The important thing here is the end date; you don't want to be too late with your bid! This can be tricky to figure out when you live in a different part of the World. Fortunately, Yahoo offer a cute timer that counts down. Just click on the link to the right of the days left entry (requires Java).



Have a go at Yahoo, and then read about Crescent Shop below!

that's a good guide! well done!  

Wow :pwow: Thx Sork for all these info. That is good to know.

Here's finally some thoughts on how to use Crescent Shop for handling Yahoo auctions. There's another alternative, Rinkya, for handling auctions. I have not used them, but other members note that they are more expensive, only take cards, not PayPal, and charge S&H fees on every auction.
Crescent will combine S&H for as many auctions as you wish, and even for shopping orders outside auctions too. Yes, you can order Pinky stuff directly from Animate, for example, but the fees for that are higher than for the auctions (¥2-2,500 or 20-25%). See the information under Shopping Service.

http://www.crescent-shop.com/

Start by reading the page Auction Deputy Service. The important thing to know is that you have to make a deposit of at least $50 before bidding. That amount is good for ¥15,000, however, which would by you many Pinkys! Another important fact is that you can bid on as many auctions that you like (within the limit of your deposit – but you can make another deposit underways, if needed). The fees for auctions are ¥1,875 (for ¥15,000) or 12,5%.

If you have not done so already, Sign Up, and Login. The first thing you see is the form for entering auction data (it corresponds to Search & Order). Copy the URL of the item that you desire and past it into the form, name the auction so you know which item it is for, and enter your maximum bid.
However, before going that far (or further), you must consider the time frame. To be on the safe side, only send auction orders that can be handled during Japanese office hours, and maybe evenings. Those few auctions that end while most people over there are sleeping should be approached earlier, if you get my point. Use the timer mentioned above to establish when an auction ends in your time zone.
Use a service such as http://www.worldtimeserver.com/time.aspx?locationid=JP to find the current Tokyo time.

Check the progress of the auction under Ordering Status. This page should show that you have made a deposit, that a bid has been made, and ultimately, that you have won – or lost it.

When you are satisfied with your purchases, you send a shipping order, and receive an invoice for the balance with all costs specified by email. After paying, you will get a message when the package is on its way. Crescent shop uses EMS which is pricy but safe, similar to FedEx. The tracking number will be on the Shipping Status page.

That's it, please let me know if there is something you would like to add or change, and post your own experiences of Crescent shop and Rinkya.

How can you tell if they'll deliver worldwide or not? Is it just for JP?

I'm sorry, but I left the part out from the auction snaps to save space. Virtually all Yahoo auctions end in a note that says: Seller will not ship internationally. That's why most of us will have to use a Japanese agent.

*smacks head* after I had asked why they don't ship internationally, I saw the thing about the cresent place. Haha. DOH

A...err...japanese agent?

is that easy or hard to come by? (or exactly, how?)

Thinking 'bout getting me a super dollfie :D

Please see the post about Crescent shop above. Masamichisan will help you with Yahoo auctions but also with almost anything that can be bought in Japan. One exception is Volks SD for the simple reason that you can buy that directly from the Volks site! Crescent will help you with Volks products in Yahoo auctions, of course.

http://www.crescent-shop.com/
http://www.volks.co.jp/en/index.aspx

I'm currently using Anime Chaos. It's my first time and I've only just won the one item but I can let people know how it goes :D

I just thought I'd add Celga to the list of bidding services for bidding on Yahoo! Japan auctions. I have a lot of experience using Celga for both Pinky and non-Pinky related stuff, and they've always been really great to deal with.  

http://www.celga.com/

Thanks for letting us know! It is always good to hear about your experience, good or bad.

Would just like to make another reccomendation for Celga.com

I've won 4 auctions so far through them and they're my first bidding service. 2 auction winnings have arrived, 2 will come after or during January.

- They are very friendly to talk to

- Very accomodating, will let you still get a last rush bid if a auction has under 24 hours left. But no promises they'll get to it in time and you must state it is urgent in the email subject (more info on their help pages).

- Very easy and simple to use. Find what you like, make a deposit, email them the details, wait and (hopefully) win... I've not lost one yet, they email you an invoice and then later a shipping invoice.

- You do need to make a deposit but I dont think its too heavy. It says somewhere on their help pages exactly how much, I made an initial £20 or thereabouts deposit with them and its lasted me for all my auctions thus far (all under 5,200 yen) so I can't remember!

- I'm not sure how they compare to all the different bidding services but their prices for fees seem better compared to some bid services. Just scope it out and find out.

- They keep as many winnings as possible in storage and they combine shipping for you to make it more cost effective for you. Which is nice. Although you may have to expect thay they send earlier if the warehouse is packed at Christmas due to masses of people winning stuff for Christmas presents!  Or if you won some life-size Eva robots that aren't gonna fit in their warehouse for very long heh. And naturally you can request whatever winnings they currently have to be shipped at any time. They just got some more warehouse space too to be able to store items more and better.

- It looks like they sometimes throw in a freebie. Nothing huge of course, maybe just a random little tiny figure or something (I laughed cos I got some dung beetle gashapon hahaha but the little basket might be a nice accessory for my Pinkys I think). Which is very good of them and is just a little fun surprise, even if its not something you wanted, its free! And a part of it might come in handy.

- The package was nice and tightly packed and labelled.

In conclusion I think they're a great service. I'm glad I chose them for my first bidding service and unless given very good reason otherwise, I will be staying with them!

That helps a lot  thankyou, but the services seem to be so pricey,
Could you tell me of an example of the total price after using all the services and shipping for an average pinky street?   

Love. Kabi 

Usually you'd just buy from Yahoo Japan if it's not available globally. Like limited edition Pinkys etc. so in that respect it becomes worth it as you can find cheaper deals than in the West where people say "Hey this item is ONLY available in japan,, its rare! So I'm going to charge you twice... no,no.... THREE times the price for it! *evil laugh*" (no offence meant  )
Either that or you just can't get those things at all.

I posted a reply in your other thread regarding what its like ordering from Celga.com and the average price I usuallypay (as far as I can remember anyway). They're good in my opinion for their friendly service. They recently did a free giveaway of a little Japan-only item and since I wasn't ordering anything at that time they said they'd just give me $6 off my next order. Which is nice of them.

Have fun.