Japanese Online/Internet Auctions

[ttjereth]

I've been using a handful of Japanese auctions sites (Rakuten, Yahoo, etc.) to do some shopping recently, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's worthwhile.

I don't buy collectables or anything, just general, non-rare items that you can buy elsewhere, like electronics.

Thing is, it seems that the winning bids are often for more money than what you could just buy the item outright for elsewhere. Often by a fairly significant margin (like 40,000 yen for an item that can be bought elsewhere online brand new for 30,000).

Anyone ever get any actual good deals on these things or does it all go to A. people who are stupid enough to pay 25% over retail just to win an auction or B. sellers who bid on their own items at the last minute to ensure it doesn't get sold for too little?

[james]

i generally only use the auction sites to buy stuff that is hard to come by - stuff like some old nec equipment for an associate in the u.s. or some import stuff that i can't find out here in the boonies or on other sites like theflyingpig.com etc.

for regular electronics and other stuff, i tend to use amazon, or will check on yahoo to get a price range. generally though, it's been my experience that the big box electronics stores are fairly competitive on pricing and are likely easier to deal with in the event of a problem.

[ttjereth]

i generally only use the auction sites to buy stuff that is hard to come by - stuff like some old nec equipment for an associate in the u.s. or some import stuff that i can't find out here in the boonies or on other sites like theflyingpig.com etc.

for regular electronics and other stuff, i tend to use amazon, or will check on yahoo to get a price range. generally though, it's been my experience that the big box electronics stores are fairly competitive on pricing and are likely easier to deal with in the event of a problem.

If I am just going to buy stuff outright I generally search Rakuten (the shops not the auctions, for some reason the shops are generally cheaper than the Yahoo shops for the same item, but Yahoo auction has more items than Rakuten auction have more items) and kakaku.com which nets me a better a price than I can get at any of the big box electronic shops. The only good thing about the big shops is you can haggle if you go in person, but otherwise they are generally significantly more expensive than other places.

Amazon.jp sometimes has some good deals as well, but 9 times out of 10 I can beat their price using Rakuten and/or Kakaku.com as well.

I'm just curious if anyone ever actually manages to get deals like a 3-4 man piece of electronics for 5000 yen off one of these 1 yen auctions.

I've come close, but several minutes before the auction closes the high bid always seems to jump up to at least equal to retail, but often even more than retail.

[james]

Amazon.jp sometimes has some good deals as well, but 9 times out of 10 I can beat their price using Rakuten and/or Kakaku.com as well.

yeah, meant to mention kakaku.com. there are good deals to be had sometimes with it.

I've come close, but several minutes before the auction closes the high bid always seems to jump up to at least equal to retail, but often even more than retail.

it's a lot like ebay that way - auction snipers, bidding software etc. not sure how much shill bidding (sellers pumping up their own items) is going on but one would be naieve to think that it doesn't happen.

i got a great deal as a seller when at the last minute my item was in a bidding war between two pieces of sniping / bidding software. you've probably noticed that many of the auctions have an autoextend that resets the countdown timer to 10 mins if bids come in under this time.

[ttjereth]

yeah, meant to mention kakaku.com. there are good deals to be had sometimes with it.



it's a lot like ebay that way - auction snipers, bidding software etc. not sure how much shill bidding (sellers pumping up their own items) is going on but one would be naieve to think that it doesn't happen.

i got a great deal as a seller when at the last minute my item was in a bidding war between two pieces of sniping / bidding software. you've probably noticed that many of the auctions have an autoextend that resets the countdown timer to 10 mins if bids come in under this time.

Yeah, I think I've about given up on them. Had 5000 yen bids in on three auctions for the same item with several hours left and then all of the sudden someone came in and outbid my 5000 yen by 20,000 on all three auctions (all from the same seller too), so unless there are really people out there willing to all of the sudden spend 45,000 yen more than they have to, I have to imagine the seller jacked up his own prices.

I'm still astounded at people buying shit way over retail prices though. I've seen people pay 40,000 yen for an item on a Rakuten auction that you can buy from the Rakuten shops brand new 30,000!