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Experiences at Yahoo Japan - How-To-Do-It Guide



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 30th 04, 03:57 PM
Stan Klemanowicz
external usenet poster
 
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Default Experiences at Yahoo Japan - How-To-Do-It Guide

One of my collecting interests is Japanese pens and I've often
wondered where the wonderful pens I see in books can be found, and at
reasonable prices. Rarely do any show up on eBay, and even fewer show
up on the websites of dealers or at pen shows. In this quest I came to
investigate the possibility of bidding on Yahoo Japan.

Opening the pages of Yahoo Japan Auctions
(http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/ - not the Yahoo Japan home page) I
quickly discovered several major barriers that precluded my immediate
participation in their auctions. When confronted with a challenge my
inclination is to discover a way to overcome these barriers. Anyone
can bid on Yahoo Japan and this paper will explain how. Please note:
I have absolutely no fiduciary with this or any other mentioned
herein.

The website of Yahoo Japan is organized almost exactly like that for
Yahoo in any other country. The only big difference is language. It
might be best to visit one of the web sites that have a tutorial for
Yahoo Japan for detailed explanations and instructions. One of the
best is at http://www.ffmusic.info/yjtutorial.html. Although designed
for anime and manga collectors, it can be used for any product. All
the necessary information is freely available on the internet, where
one can pick and choose the services that best meet their needs. Just
plug "Yahoo Japan bidding" into your browser and away you go.

The above-mentioned website doesn't mention how to obtain a Yahoo
Japan user ID but one can be obtained by going through their
registration process without providing an address or credit card
information. You still cannot bid, but this will allow you to see
completed auctions for up to three months.

Throughout the process the temptation to translate Japanese into
English will naturally arise and this capability will be essential for
reading descriptions of items for sale. Fortunately, several
electronic translators are available online. I like AltaVista's
Babelfish at http://world.altavista.com/ and the one created by Excite
Japan at http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/ works real well. For
some words, online dictionaries might be required. It's unlikely you
will be able to translate every word or understand nuance or current
slang, but you will get a good idea. Or, just stick to buying new
stuff with stickers and it's hard to go wrong.

I understand some computers might require a Japanese language pack to
be installed before it can correctly display Japanese characters. I
use Windows XP, Home Version, at home and 2000 at work without any
difficulty. If one needs a Japanese language pack they are available
from Microsoft. It's called the Global IME, and it is downloadable and
free.

I am very fortunate my brother-in-law lives in Japan and is a major
shop-till-ya-drop Yahoo Japan junkie. He buys everything he can
online. Since he's online daily he eagerly agreed to assist me in
getting started.

He was willing to set up an account for me with his bank so I could
pay for my auctions. You see, in Japan checks are almost non-existent
and bank transfers are a common means of payment. The big drawback for
me would be my constantly needing to replenish my funds and, if I
transferred funds from America, there were transfer costs to be
considered. Eventually we decided the best way to go was to have him
bid for me and this has proven very workable and I can reimburse him
any time.

A big hurdle for bidding is having some place for your winnings to be
delivered as most sellers state they "will not ship internationally."
Using my brother-in-laws address easily solved the problem, but most
other foreign buyers will need a mail drop that will ship your stuff
home to you.

There exist numerous Yahoo Japan buying services that can assist
international buyers. The how-to site above mentions Celga.com and
Rinkya.com, but there are quite a few others. One can also find
individuals who have helped create a veritable underground cottage
industry of bidding for foreigners. Many have long track records and
are quite reputable and you can actually make live bids on auctions
through some of these services. They will set you up with everything
you need. And when you win, your stuff will be mailed to their office
and, if you so arrange, be periodically mailed to you together, to
save on international shipping costs. It is all there! There are
costs to using these services, so shop around to find the best deal
that will meet your needs and circumstances.

I mail cash in Yen to my brother-in-law to pay for my winnings and
shipping costs. Most people have difficulty with this, but my
circumstances are unusual. A convenient, safe means of money exchange
and transfer is essential. All of the buying services accept PayPal,
Wire Transfers, or International Money Orders, and some will even take
bank cheques.

Before doing anything please visit Yahoo Japan and explore whether it
will be worthwhile for you to participate. Run the numbers and see for
yourself. Go to their auction home page at
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/ and type in the Japanese characters
for mannenhitsu (fountain pen - 万年筆). If these
Japanese characters don't appear on your computer do an online search
for mannenhitsu or just plug in the word PILOT at Yahoo and you'll
eventually will start seeing some pens. When you see a pen click on
the sub-group just like you can on regular Yahoo or eBay. This will
get you all of the listings for pens and you can scroll through each
one of them. One can also find many pen-related questions and terms
translated from Japanese to English at the lexicon provided on the
PentraceEast webpage at http://www.pentrace.com/east/.

As you get into it, you will want to search Yahoo Japan better. If you
are just interested in pens made by the Big Three, you will want to
expand your search capabilities by using the kana characters for their
names. Many listings that contain Pilot, Sailor, or Platinum in their
titles will also have the same in kana, so initially just search for
their names in English. You can play with this until you figure it
out. It is real easy.

There are some incredible deals to be found. During May of 2004, at
any given time there are no less than three new Murexes that were
knocked down for less than $150, or even under $100. These are not
hard to find, and even with the buying costs and fees added in, much
more economical than found on eBay, or many dealers websites.
Tridents, maki-es, Pilots, Sailors, Platinums, and pens from
hard-to-find, lesser, now-defunct manufacturers await the astute
buyer. Don't worry about shipping because whether you buy from someone
in Japan, or have it shipped to you, you still have to pay postage.

Here's an example of typical Y10,000 and Y20,000 (or about $100 and
$200) transactions that I received from an individual who makes
arrangements for international buyers. It's in tabular form so if the
table formatting doesn't post, you'll understand.

Purchase Price
Y10,000 Y20,000

Yahoo Fee:
Y200 Y200

Domestic Shipping:
Y300 Y300

International Shipping:
Y800 Y800

Agent Fee:
Y1,000 Y2,000

TOTAL:
Y12,300 Y23,300

If you won a Y10,000 auction your total cost would be about $123, that
includes a 23% premium over cost. And as you can see, doubling the
purchase price reduces the premium to about 12.5%. The scales vary
with the provider. If you plan to bid direct be aware that Yahoo Japan
charges all their bidders a monthly fee of $2-3. I also understand
that they are considering a 3% surcharge to be added to the final
price of every auction.

In about an hour, you can be cruising through Yahoo Japan and scouting
out many of those pens you've longed to have in your collection, but
either could not find or were too expensive. In a few days you can be
bidding directly, so it's not too early to go looking. Things are
becoming more competitive over there as it is being trawled for pens
for resale on eBay and elsewhere. And, who knows, you might just run
into some familiar faces too.

Be careful. Be cool. Have fun.
Ads
  #2  
Old July 2nd 04, 12:25 AM
pizza for kitty
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Stan is apparently just boasting about his connection in Japan, and
disguising this as a helpful hint.

"When confronted with a challenge my inclination is to discover a way
to overcome these barriers".

What's this BS?

Don't believe this guy. Yahoo Japan is a mine field. No friend would
send you into a mine field. If you can't read the Japanese
descriptions and other details on those pages ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, you
are inviting trouble. There are lines in there that talk about buying
the pen as it is, no claims, no returns (with typically fuzzy photos).
And if you have any questions they ask to e-mail the seller directly.
In Japan, they leave half of the problems unwritten, expecting serious
buyers to contact them directly. They expect dialogue.


I read one of Stan's earlier boasts, uh, how-to-do-it guides, and
tried the Yahoo Japan route. I ended up with a pen that was not as
described, and it arrived wrapped in toilet paper in a paper envelope.
The pen was also broken (one of the tines had a missing point), which
came as no surprise. Even if it had arrived intact, the barrel was all
scratched, although the description did not mention that, and the
photo didn't show it. I had no recourse since I skirted the system. I
should have flushed my money down the toilet. Thank you Stan. Are you
willing to reimburse me Stan?
  #3  
Old July 2nd 04, 05:59 PM
Stan Klemanowicz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You sound like the same guy from Japan who sent me an email where he
mentioned I would be hurting his business by posting this information.
This guy couldn't deal with the idea of all these Americans running
around his backyard bidding up all the pens he sells over here.

This repsonse to my post was made from Japan. Posting from Japan, you
say? Yep, that's where it came from. Anyone reading this can click on
the Original Format button in the upper right hand corner of his
posting and see the internet path for the post. Plug in the
NNTP-Posting-Host number 219.4.72.6 at
http://network-tools.com/default.asp...t =219.4.72.6
(it's already plugged in for you) and it shows it came from a server
in Japan. bbtec.net is Softbank BB in Japan. Might even be able to
track down the specific computer it was written on. Shall we try?

If it was written from Japan why would this guy even care, except to
dissuade people from trying. If this guy really is on the up and up,
why can't he use his real name?

Besides he probably didn't even read the entire article.



(pizza for kitty) wrote in message m...
Stan is apparently just boasting about his connection in Japan, and
disguising this as a helpful hint.

"When confronted with a challenge my inclination is to discover a way
to overcome these barriers".

What's this BS?

Don't believe this guy. Yahoo Japan is a mine field. No friend would
send you into a mine field. If you can't read the Japanese
descriptions and other details on those pages ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, you
are inviting trouble. There are lines in there that talk about buying
the pen as it is, no claims, no returns (with typically fuzzy photos).
And if you have any questions they ask to e-mail the seller directly.
In Japan, they leave half of the problems unwritten, expecting serious
buyers to contact them directly. They expect dialogue.


I read one of Stan's earlier boasts, uh, how-to-do-it guides, and
tried the Yahoo Japan route. I ended up with a pen that was not as
described, and it arrived wrapped in toilet paper in a paper envelope.
The pen was also broken (one of the tines had a missing point), which
came as no surprise. Even if it had arrived intact, the barrel was all
scratched, although the description did not mention that, and the
photo didn't show it. I had no recourse since I skirted the system. I
should have flushed my money down the toilet. Thank you Stan. Are you
willing to reimburse me Stan?

 




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