Have you ever been "burned" on Yahoo Japan?

[profatomo]

Thanks for all who put in their two cents with stories of their bad experiences with YJ. I'm happy to hear that the incidents were few and far between.


As for the posting by Momo, I'm a bit appalled by the hostile tone of your reply. I for one find that your reply:

1) was a bit off tangent with the topic posted, especially in regards to paragraphs 1, 4-5. Your comments in those areas had nothing to do with this topic at hand.

2) your personal attack or flame was totally uncalled for. To air your "dirty laundry" feelings on a public forum, especially directed to me personally, is simply in poor taste and reflects immaturity. In no ways have I ever attacked you or did some intentionally malicious toward you to deserve this type of treatment or comments. Frankly, I don't even know you personally! Your comments would have been best served as a private message to me.

Nuff said. Thanks for listening.

[star-phoenix]

I have not had a problem with Yahoo Japan, YET, although I have 2 items on the way that are quite expensive. So, I hope I don't jinx myself. If I am not 110% positive about an item's description, I would have someone who knows Japanese to read it (like asking the good people of this board), or just to not bid. The good thing about auctions is that you have time to think about what you buy, whereas buying items on a website, you have to buy quickly and sometimes without giving much thought.

My worst cel experienceSSSS were on Mandarake when they misadvertised an item that made me lose $1000 on one auction and $300 on another. They are the ones I would be more worried to deal with than any because they speak English and have no excuse for inaccurate descriptions.
1. One auction was that they advertised a cel as being original production when it turned out to be a repro. They gauranteed that it was authentic. The only way I found out that it was fake was from being contacted by someone from this board. At this point, I sent the item back and filed a Paypal notice, at which point they refunded my money minus the fees (even though they admitted that it was their fault).
2. The other time was when they advertised some sketches as being so-and-so in the description and even said that in the e-mails. When I received the sketches, it was complete GARBAGE at which point they said that it was my fault for bidding so much on an item they originally started at 5000 yen. The lady said that the reason why they start the bids that low is because they are valued that low, which is obviously a load of crap. This one involved me canceling my account and having to file 2 disputes with the CC and contacting their bank in order to get my money back. Even with getting my money back, I still lost $200 with all the other fees surrounding the "legal" stuff.

If you want full details of this issue, you can check out the Buyer Beware section of the forum. I wrote out full details of the situation and posted some of the e-mails. If they do not have this section any mor eand you are that curious to hear about it, just let me know and I will just forward all the juicy e-mails.

Ebay, I have not had very many transactions for cels or sketches. So, I can't really say much about them. The good thing with Ebay is that you have Paypal (and your CC) to back you up, and they have some kind of dispute resolution / insurance program. They at least have more options.

[klet]

Early on in my cel collecting career, I bought copies of some cels. Sadly, I hadn't taken the time to translate the auction--it actually said that they were copies. The picture looked like real cels. *hangs head in shame*

Another time, I bid on some plushies, my deputy paid for them, and then they never got marked as received. Months and months later, I got an email from my deputy saying that they'd lost them. I don't know how, as supposedly they never got them to begin with. I didn't really care either way, though, as I hadn't ever paid for them.

Finally, I bought a set of production art that was not exactly what I originally thought it was. It was legit art, but still . . . a little disappointing. In this case, the description was misleading at worst, ambiguous at best.

[EternityOfPain]

I have to say I am at 0 of 0... What i mean is I have yet to actually win a YJ auction.. I have bid in the past on a few things, but nothing has yet to appear that the though of not having it would be the end of the world (we all know those cels/sketches, you know, the ones that you are almost willing to commit a crime for? )

On an off topic note.. I have had bad experiences with eBay. A few years ago I won 80 DBZ DVDs from a seller only to have the dvds come to me in a box with no padding OR cases. Yea.. You can imagine how i reacted...

[ReiTheJelly]

I've purchased one cel on Y!J that had major damage, none of which was listed in the auction. I was disappointed, I've taught myself to be skeptical of all online auctions (thanks to eBay).

[ashenfairy]

I accidentally purchased a set of copy sketches once that were in no way listed as copies as I carefully translated the auction more than once to check on it. It was the first time I had encountered such high quality genga copies complete with registration holes and perfect color. I didn't pay a whole lot for them but, I paid more than enough to be annoyed since I don't really collect copies of any sort. Not to mention that I felt incredibly stupid for buying copies when I've been collecting long enough that I should be able to tell a copy from a production piece even in pictures. Now for the most part unless I trust the seller I avoid buying sketches on YJ.

Other than that everything has been pretty good. Several things actually turned out better than I would have expected.