Yahoo Japan advice?

[segasonicfan]

Thanks so much for the help everyone, I've been learning more about this as I go along...

LPs can be expensive to ship *however^ part of the issue here is that DeJapan chooses the shipping method they think is best. It seems that they opt for very expensive shipping sometimes. Another big issue was I was bidding on stuff all over Japan - Not putting any special care to items that are from the remote islands, which cost usually double or more in shipping.

I recently had a package shipped from another proxy site, and it was $100 less. Not because DeJapan was ripping me off, but just because they choose and pack with TONS of bubblewrap and standard sized boxes. It seems youll get your stuff shipped packed like a tank, or with no packing material at all. It's hard to get an in between. My box virtual boy arrived packed quite well though!

Another thing that hurts, is DeJapan never combines items from sellers no matter what. This of course, makes every single item have to ship individually which cost a lot more.

On the plus side, the stuff they have sent has been shipped incredibly safe, then we've developed a pretty good working relationship I think. I get along great with the customer service now, and they're pretty thoughtful and careful and have added the extra things I was hoping for, including fragile stickers and such.

Just don't have things shipped by surface mail and add $20/item min for shipping to set expectations, and you'll be happy.
--
Also, one thing I'm curious to know about from folks in Japan, is how Japanese sellers feel about these proxy sites. I found out recently, that one of the proxy sites does not leave negative or neutral feedback, seemingly no matter what. This seems to be leading to inflated ratings for a lot of sellers that are not actually accurate. What do people think?

[XtraSmiley]

Thanks so much for the help everyone, I've been learning more about this as I go along...

LPs can be expensive to ship *however^ part of the issue here is that DeJapan chooses the shipping method they think is best. It seems that they opt for very expensive shipping sometimes. Another big issue was I was bidding on stuff all over Japan - Not putting any special care to items that are from the remote islands, which cost usually double or more in shipping.

I recently had a package shipped from another proxy site, and it was $100 less. Not because DeJapan was ripping me off, but just because they choose and pack with TONS of bubblewrap and standard sized boxes. It seems youll get your stuff shipped packed like a tank, or with no packing material at all. It's hard to get an in between. My box virtual boy arrived packed quite well though!

Another thing that hurts, is DeJapan never combines items from sellers no matter what. This of course, makes every single item have to ship individually which cost a lot more.

On the plus side, the stuff they have sent has been shipped incredibly safe, then we've developed a pretty good working relationship I think. I get along great with the customer service now, and they're pretty thoughtful and careful and have added the extra things I was hoping for, including fragile stickers and such.

Just don't have things shipped by surface mail and add $20/item min for shipping to set expectations, and you'll be happy.
--
Also, one thing I'm curious to know about from folks in Japan, is how Japanese sellers feel about these proxy sites. I found out recently, that one of the proxy sites does not leave negative or neutral feedback, seemingly no matter what. This seems to be leading to inflated ratings for a lot of sellers that are not actually accurate. What do people think?

I had DeJapan leave a negative feedback for me, but I got the item FedEx really fast and let them know it was not as described. For slow, 2-3 month shipping, what can they do other than leave positive? I don't know how long the feedback window is open, and even if it was, after 3 months on a boat, who's to say the item arrives in the same condition sold or not. Not really fair to the seller.

[segasonicfan]

Thanks so much for the help everyone, I've been learning more about this as I go along...

LPs can be expensive to ship *however^ part of the issue here is that DeJapan chooses the shipping method they think is best. It seems that they opt for very expensive shipping sometimes. Another big issue was I was bidding on stuff all over Japan - Not putting any special care to items that are from the remote islands, which cost usually double or more in shipping.

I recently had a package shipped from another proxy site, and it was $100 less. Not because DeJapan was ripping me off, but just because they choose and pack with TONS of bubblewrap and standard sized boxes. It seems youll get your stuff shipped packed like a tank, or with no packing material at all. It's hard to get an in between. My box virtual boy arrived packed quite well though!

Another thing that hurts, is DeJapan never combines items from sellers no matter what. This of course, makes every single item have to ship individually which cost a lot more.

On the plus side, the stuff they have sent has been shipped incredibly safe, then we've developed a pretty good working relationship I think. I get along great with the customer service now, and they're pretty thoughtful and careful and have added the extra things I was hoping for, including fragile stickers and such.

Just don't have things shipped by surface mail and add $20/item min for shipping to set expectations, and you'll be happy.
--
Also, one thing I'm curious to know about from folks in Japan, is how Japanese sellers feel about these proxy sites. I found out recently, that one of the proxy sites does not leave negative or neutral feedback, seemingly no matter what. This seems to be leading to inflated ratings for a lot of sellers that are not actually accurate. What do people think?

I had DeJapan leave a negative feedback for me, but I got the item FedEx really fast and let them know it was not as described. For slow, 2-3 month shipping, what can they do other than leave positive? I don't know how long the feedback window is open, and even if it was, after 3 months on a boat, who's to say the item arrives in the same condition sold or not. Not really fair to the seller.

not the situation I was referring to. I almost always ship DHL or UPS which means I have the item within a couple weeks. Anyway, I had an auction site say they left negative, but when I looked it up and called them on it, they admitted they never actually did. There's some weird stuff going on with these proxies, and a lot of Japanese sellers don't like them, so I was curious to know more from a perspective of someone living in Japan.

[layzee]

Also, one thing I'm curious to know about from folks in Japan, is how Japanese sellers feel about these proxy sites. I found out recently, that one of the proxy sites does not leave negative or neutral feedback, seemingly no matter what. This seems to be leading to inflated ratings for a lot of sellers that are not actually accurate. What do people think?

There are some cases of sellers blocking known proxy sites from bidding on their items. Not sure the reason why, maybe protectionism?

As for proxy sites not leaving less than positive feedback for sellers is probably to avoid retaliatory blacklists/blocks. I imagine the logic is that it's better to wear the loss of the occasional bad transaction than to be blocked from bidding forever.