Hi All,

Seeing that so many members are using Auction Agencies for bidding on YJA, I would like to start a topic for everyone to share their experiences.

I think below would be a typical guideline of what would be good to share:

1.  Agency Name:
2.  How many auctions have you bid thru this agency:
3.  Commision Fee (Mark up):
4.  Shipping within Japan:
5.  Shipping to you (& where do you live?):
6.  Pros (Good Comments):
7.  Cons (Bad Comments):
8.  Other comments:

Hopefully this would include most of the information for the good of all other members.

If there is any other items that should be added to this list, please kindly PM me.

Here's my experience

1.  Agency Name:  Celga  www.celga.com

2.  How many auctions have you bid thru this agency: 8

3.  Commision Fee (Mark up):  $5 basic.  $10 per 10,000 Yen increment.
      Here's an example:
      Final Price             Comission Fee
      0 - 1,000                $5
      1,001 - 10,000      $10
      10,000 - 20,000    $20

4.  Shipping within Japan:  $8 for most items
Celga replied my email that they use the safest shipping method, which is Yuu-Pack + COD, in order to make sure they receive the item.  So the costs for most items is $8 as long as the items can all fit into a Yuu-Pack box.
For example, I have won an auction for a garage kit, the shipping w/in Japan is $8.  I have won another auction of 6 boxed Pinkys, shipping still $8.

5.  Shipping to you (& where do you live?):
I live in Canada and have just recently received the first batch from Celga.  They charge actual shipping costs with your choice of SAL, EMS, or Airmail.
For example:
1Kg weight
EMS: 2400 yen ($20)
SAL: 2700 yen ($23)
Airmail: 3350 yen ($29)

6.  Pros (Good Comments):
They DO NOT require deposit if you have a Gold account.  They charge $15 initial fee for setting up a Gold account, and from then on, you can bid on your YJA account whenever you want, without going thru the hazzle of asking someone to bid for you.  Which means you can even place last minute bid if you want.

7.  Cons (Bad Comments):
Their shipping within Japan is just outrageous.  Shipping for a single garage kit is $8.  Shipping for 6 Pinkys is still $8.  So bad that you really don't want to bid on anything that's cheap & small.  For example, if the ending price for a small miniature is 1050 Yen.  Bank fee is $2, shipping w/in Japan is $8, markup is $10.  Which means you are paying $30 for just a "small" miniature!!!!
On their website they say they will try to accommodate all needs.  I asked them not to place their company name on the box, and marked the value of package as $10.  Ended up I need to pay for custom fees & taxes because there is a company name ane the value of the package is $20.

8.  Other comments:
In my opinion, Celga is good as long as your item is near the upper range of each increment level.  For example, the commission is $10 whether your item is 1,010 Yen or 10,000 Yen.  So you either pay 90% markup for a lower priced item or 10% markup on a higher priced item.

In the tutorial section Crescent was mentioned, is there anyone who can comment on it? Or maybe other agency?

The simple report attached to a mailing cost of Japan 

A rate model in case of all Tokyo receipt.

General parcel post(Yu-Pack 

Japan is divided into 7 area and a mailing cost changes in the size of the distance and load.
The minimum size of three sides of size classification is 600mm.
The cheapest postage is 600 yen.
when the highest, it changes to 1300 yen.
(100 yen will become discount if a load is carried in to a post office.).
A mailing cost changes every 200mm.


General When it is a black cat service of Yamato Transport

Japan is divided into 12 area and a mailing cost changes in the size of the distance and load.
The minimum size of three sides of size classification is 600mm.
(100 yen will become discount if a load is carried in to a Yamato Transport office.)
The cheapest postage is 640 yen.
when the highest, it changes to 1260 yen.

General A package of Sagawa Kyubin

Japan is divided into 12 area and a mailing cost changes in the size of the distance and load.
The minimum size of three sides of size classification is 600mm.
The cheapest postage is 740 yen.
when the highest, it changes to 1160 yen.

Ordinary mail. 

Trace of a load is impossible and does not get the insurance
A mailing cost changes in weight.

Mail facilities of Yamato Transport. 

Trace of a load is possible.
The cheapest postage is 80 yen.
Restriction of thickness   100mm

Usually, I think it three upper either that a successful bid contractor specifies.
By the cheap dispatch method, a substitute successful bid contractor's risk is large.


In other words the postage becomes expensive with a light garage kit of weight.
It is a standard strategy that I check an area of a seller by Yahoo! Auctions of Japan, and aim at cheap auction of the postage.
.

Miths, I've used Crescent Shop in the past with great success; Masamichi-san is always available to answer any questions you may have regarding their policies, and will also ask questions on behalf of you for auction item details. Items are always packed very well and arrive via EMS. I know they recently changed their payment polices in that you have to pay immediately when you win an auction instead of waiting until all items are shipped, but they are very generous in holding your items until you're ready to have them all ship. The only issue that I have with them is that they use a different yen/dollar conversion rate (I assume this is to compensate for some of their handling costs) then what is usually published on the market. But, they prominently display their conversion rate so that you can easily figure out your final cost.
 Overall, I highly recommend them 

Well...I use a deputy service... 

Agency name: Rinkya ( www.rinkya.com)
Auction bid: 8 ( 2 won)
Fees: http://www.rinkya.com/bid.php
Shipping within japan: 15 $ flat fee (handling fee, include bank transfer, change commission)
Shipping to you : they provide every single method of shipping. form SAL to EMS  (http://www.rinkya.com/shipinfo.php)
Pros: impressive service, you can have a watchlist for your items on their site ( myrinkya), and you can translate the auctions. It's a real time bidding. If you need help there's ALWAYS someone that responds to urgent emails. You can pay with CC or Paypal,  They mark down parcels to avoid custom duties. if you want, but if the parcel is lost you will be refunded less
Cons: Commissions are high, but they normally apply their sale price ( check the sale page often). It's very convenient if you buy items rather expensives ( from 40.000 to 100.000 yen) like BJD ( this is me!). You need to put down a deposit  ( you may bid 5 times the amount of your deposit) that is only a virtual deposit, they don't take your money.

I love them for the my rinkya and translation features, but for smaller items I think I will use Celga!

1.  Agency Name: Shopping Mall Japan
2. How many auctions have you bid thru this agency: Too many. 30?
3.  Commision Fee (Mark up):
                      $5.00 for auctions up to ¥2,000.
                      $8.00 for auctions ¥2,001 up to ¥4,000.
                      $12.00 for auctions ¥4,001 up to ¥10,000.
                      On their site they list their fees for higher priced auctions, but I don't think most Pinkys cost that much. 
4.  Shipping within Japan: Depends on auction, charges seller's price plus a bit more. Usually not more than $8-$10 for a couple of Pinkys.
5.  Shipping to you (& where do you live?): SMJ ships their auction items in bulk to a US warehouse, so their international shipping is very cheap and costs only a couple of dollars or less than a dollar per an auction. It is included within their shipping inside Japan. You request a shipping invoice, and they send the items priority mail, charging you based on weight. I live in the US, but if you live outside of the US, then they store it in their Japan warehouse, I do not know how shipping works from their Japanese warehouse.
6.  Pros (Good Comments): Their shipping is very, very cheap if you live in the US because you do not have to pay full price for EMS, and I like their automated bidding service. Also, the staff is very helpful!
7. Cons (Bad Comments): Sometimes their automated bidding service shutsdown or does not work for some auctions. This has happened rarely for me though, and SMJ offers manual bidding if you email them, so it isn't much of a problem.
8.  Other comments: None, really. I hope this was helpful to you!

1.  Agency Name: Celga
2.  How many auctions have you bid thru this agency: Maybe 6?
3.  Commision Fee (Mark up): http://celga.com/fee.html
4.  Shipping within Japan: http://celga.com/fee.html
5.  Shipping to you (& where do you live?): http://celga.com/shipping.html
6.  Pros (Good Comments):
They can hold items for quite awhile for you so as to group and save on shipping, but do note that under certain circumstances they may not have enough space and can't hold things indefinitely. Sometimes they may throw in bonus items and have an omake selection of bonus items to choose from e.g. they were giving away free FF Potion bottles (but unfortunately I hadn't got anything to order at the time). They were pretty friendly to me in email and helpful when I was confused about anything or had any problems. Pretty quick to get started with and simple to use.
7.  Cons (Bad Comments):
If you want to group items together by letting them hold them don't order around Christmas as this is their busiest time so they try to ship everything out sooner to have enough space for new stuff. I got a bit mixed up with the billing etc. at one point too but at least they clarified things for me.
8.  Other comments: Personally I would probably use them again if I were to go back on Yahoo Auctions (trying to save money right now).

I'm gonna share a person who does this as a full-time job.
So his charges are not as much as the agencies.


1.  Agency Name: http://mukunoki-jp.net/index.html
2.  How many auctions have you bid thru this agency: None
3.  Commision Fee (Mark up): Service fee is 20% + Paypal fee + shipping fee
4.  Shipping within Japan: Depends
5.  Shipping to you (& where do you live?): Depends
6.  Pros (Good Comments):-
7.  Cons (Bad Comments):-
8.  Other comments: I've not done any transactions with him before but a friend did and she recommends him. He's fast and speaks English ^_^. He does musicians fan club for a one time fee as well!