Just wanted to share that I’ve been using White Rabbit Express quite a bit lately and have had really good success with them.
I purchase a lot of pieces off of Mercari Japan through Buyee but there are times when a newly listed piece isn’t available through Buyee so I’ll use White Rabbit Express as the proxy.
It can take them anywhere from just a few to 24 hours to make the purchase. Usually this is ok but I have missed out on a few pieces that get sold before White Rabbit Express goes to purchase on my behalf.
The fees are a bit more when using them but so far it’s been worth it when picking up unique pieces.
I had checked out White Rabbit in the past and found that in the end I was paying about 10~15% more over ZenMarket. I decided not to use it further. I’ve not checked since, so I’ve no idea if their fees have changed over time. I’d also be very interested to know if there’s folks here, perhaps even Thomas, who are using White Rabbit Express as of late.
One thing that really annoys me is that sometimes an item won’t be accessible to ZenMarket bidders due to the seller being blocked. The reasons are something along the lines of bad experiences or seller unwilling to do business with a proxy. Meanwhile, I’ll jump over to Buyee and find that sometimes the seller is accessible (but other times they’re blocked as well). Of course, the trick is to time open proxies to avoid having to pay for separate shipping.
I have a couple of reasons why I wanted to look at other options.
One is like you have mentioned above, some mercari sellers just do not want to deal with buyee. I have recently had troubles buying a newman mp because the seller had blocked the buyee account. And second reason is to buy from some Japanese websites which might not have their stuff on Yaj or mercari. In some cases I wanted to pre-book items which is not possible through the usual sites.
Also I wanted to ask here if there are any similar options available to Japan Rabbit.
What a strange site (for me, anyway). Navigation is not like other proxy sites. When I drilled down to a category “Office Supplies”, there was this text list of sub categories. “Pencils” is linked to “pencils-goods.com,” an entirely different site that’s all in Japanese. And then for customers outside of Japan, they pop-up a separate link to a “World Shopping” shipping service.
Having used them, did service fees & shipping end up reasonable compared to other proxy services? Is there an active bidding / buying panel or do you have to select an item and then submit that to them with your request to buy (or highest price to bid)?
It is a bit more hands-on. Give them a link (even by email) of what you want. Fill out their form and submit. Make payment when they ping you for it. After goods are received, make payment for shipping. I had some back and forth via email with them along the way.
In the case of ZenMarket, their fee is a fixed ¥500 per transaction. If you’re new or within the last 4 months have purchased less than ¥15,000 through ZenMarket, you have to load your account with sufficient funds to cover bidding amounts. If you manage to do ¥15,000 within 4 months, you get a credit bump to ¥5,000–that means you can bid up to that amount and ZenMarket covers it, but you have to pay it back within 30 days. If you do ¥60,000 within 4 months, you’re bumped up to ¥20,000 credit plus you get 0.4% back in “ZenPoints” that can be used towards shipping fees. If you manage to do ¥150,000 within 4 months, your credit is bumped to ¥50,000! So it’s very convenient. Shipping fees are pretty reasonable. They offer a range of services that includes surface, Airmail Avia (small, standard), ECMS express, EMS, UPS, Fedex, and DHL. I find for the most part Avia Small is best. They do have a ZenExpress service that is twice as slow as Avia, but it’s cheaper than Avia standard and you do have to sign for packages (added security).
Sometimes it is nice to go with a smaller, more flexible group. In my case, I was trying to get something on release date before it sold out. So I preplanned with two different small proxy companies (Wakuwakumono and Worldshopping) the date I wanted them to buy it. That personal touch is nice to have sometimes.
Another nice thing about some of these smaller groups is you don’t need to create a revolving account and preload it with funds. You just pay for specific transactions directly.
For a Thailand proxy, I have used Thaifii. It is similar to ZenMarket. But with both of them I feel like the revolving account and topping up process is always in their favor. Somehow they will get to keep some of my money in the end if I can’t find a way to spend the last few dollars. For example, when bidding on something pricey (Freematic, in my case), I had to preload the account with as much funds as I was willing to bid, not knowing if I would get it for less. When I won the auction for less than the amount I had preloaded, I was stuck with unused funds in my account. I had to either buy more items to use up the surplus or accept ZenMarket’s fee for withdrawing money.
This is just the nature of the proxy business and I am glad this thread prompted me to think through it again - the stuff we learn along the way.
Interesting. I see your point. Strange, I didn’t think that ZenMarket put a fee on transferring remaining balance back to the funding source. But, if you’re a regular customer being able to rely upon credit, then it’s not a factor.
So with WorldShopping, you say that you pay for specific transactions directly… Does that mean when you win an auction, you then promptly pay for it and then they process the payment step with the respective site? Or do they actually buy it for you and then you reimburse them?
What were you aiming to buy that was being released with an expectation of getting sold out pretty soon after? And was this on a domain product specific site, like Kinokuniya or LoFt?
It was the Itoya Rotring. Turned out not to be so hard to get after all.
I rarely participate in auctions and Zenmarket is the way. I have set snipe bids via Buyee as well, which is a good route because Buyee does not require prepayment. If you win the auction, they charge your credit card for the amount.
ZenMarket uses a 3rd party for the payment system. You can opt for using a credit card, PayPal, and I think it now has Venmo.
ZenMarket’s bidding system is generally excellent. It’s very easy to set up snipe bids. There’s a control panel to manage all active bidding going on. You can now even edit snipe bids (don’t have to cancel and reset). I also like the fact that they increased their storage time limit (from 45 days to 60 days). Most other proxies have a 30 day limit.
My one big gripe at the moment is that there’s no transaction bundling when from the same source. For example, you go to buy a pencil from Amazon and want it in several different colors or sizes. The single page listing shows the options. But when you go to do this from ZenMarket, those multiple variants of the same item are each charged a separate transaction fee. This doesn’t happen when you specify quantity. Technically, 3 of one colorway versus 3 with one of each colorway is still ONE Amazon transaction. But ZenMarket won’t respect that. If you’re ordering 4 of the same item but different colorways … that’s ¥2000 in fees. But 4 of one colorway? That’s ¥500. I submitted feedback about this, but of course I’ve heard nothing.
Only with Rakuma Rakuten. There’s a free authentication service.
Concerning purchases from YAJ or Mercari, they state:
Item shipped is different from the one advertised: This could mean counterfeit or bootleg items, or even the wrong item entirely. This issue is common with unopened items as warehouse staff cannot verify their contents, or collectible items, as only the client knows what the item would look like.
Notice they say “warehouse staff cannot verify their contents”, with items sealed / unopened. So there is some kind of verification with unsealed / opened items. They do not check for proper function, such as advancing lead to make sure a pencil works.
I once bought a nice Japan made ceramic mug. The seller sent the wrong one. The mistake was a definite step down in quality. ZenMarket actually contacted the seller, who then shipped the correct one. They informed me about the mix-up, to explain why shipping was taking so long. But, I don’t know if this is a “hit or miss” depending upon the staff dealing with a received item at the time.
I do take time to scrutinize the photos of the item and avoid sellers with low feedback ratings. I’ve had like a 99.5% success rate of getting what was promised. This is outside a few pencils that were sold with a troubled lead advancement mechanism. A few just needed to be cleaned with a long wire (which I have on hand), but on two occasions, I could not get the mechanism to work right. ZenMarket would’ve never checked that far… and I doubt any other proxy would’ve done so.
I hadn’t heard of that service before. So they end up with a photo attached to your auction item inventory? And if you see a discrepancy, you can have them address the seller?
There are several drawbacks with Buyee, at least the last time I checked: 1) all in all, the sum of costs (proxy and their shipping fees) end up larger than ZenMarket, 2) they don’t have any kind of credit system–you make financial transactions from your credit card or banking service for every single bid, 3) there’s no cash back points system, and 4) storage is limited to just 30 days.
Thanks. Good observations. Yes, Buyee will open up packages for you prior to shipping and take a confirming photo if you want. 500 yen or something nominal like that .
That’s good for high value items. I wouldn’t do it for every package. As I stated, I’ve had very few instances of mistake or fraud. Thankfully our “collecting domain” isn’t a prime target for fakes and scams.