Yahoo Japan Auctions

maxhifi

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Anyone here ever try buying though yahoo japan auctions? If so, how was your experience? Lots of cool Sansui to be had, I'm tempted.
 
Have, needed to use a broker site like Rink%a, many other similar broker sites, to perform the translations and handling of payments/posting/packing etc..
 
Yup - good results in some cases and not so in others - just like any auction.

Plus you have the language problems, the descriptions will say there are multiple "gulleys" in the sound and such-like. Even if translated you dont always get a good idea of the item's condition.

Plus once you add the brokers commission and shipping charges (in my case, to NZ) you are looking at big cash - even if the item was cheap.

Prices are going up also across the board, even in JP.

On the plus side - if theres something you really want - you can get it, plus the broker I use wraps things up super well. You just need to be prepared to pay. In many cases prices are far lower than hifido, but the risk is considerably increased.

But hey - where else could you score an AU-888 for $50USD? Even if it did come with no knobs, lol.....
 
Quick off topic question if you don't mind... What's the transformer size that you guys use with these Japanese monsters? (kVa)
 
I use a 2kVa trafo that runs all my amps easily - including the X1 and 999. They are both units from JP, on 100VAC primary supply only
 
Yup - good results in some cases and not so in others - just like any auction.

Plus you have the language problems, the descriptions will say there are multiple "gulleys" in the sound and such-like. Even if translated you dont always get a good idea of the item's condition.

Plus once you add the brokers commission and shipping charges (in my case, to NZ) you are looking at big cash - even if the item was cheap.

Prices are going up also across the board, even in JP.

On the plus side - if theres something you really want - you can get it, plus the broker I use wraps things up super well. You just need to be prepared to pay. In many cases prices are far lower than hifido, but the risk is considerably increased.

But hey - where else could you score an AU-888 for $50USD? Even if it did come with no knobs, lol.....

How much do the brokers fees end up coming to? I'm having a hard time getting a straight answer about that from looking online.

A cheap AU-888 would be outstanding, or. I also had my eye on the cheap CD-5, crossovers which come up. There's always the SP-LE8, it's like looking at magical ebay.
 
Depends on the broker. The one I was using , don't remember now it was something like 4to6% plus some other charges
In general I have bought many things from there.... Even my speakers drivers my DAT, my SR929, many things.
I remembered its called JAUCE Japan Auction center or something like that. The known problems with the GULLYS , language in general , and some other peculiarities might be annoying . But you can get good stuff. Oh , if the auction is run by a shop there is an extra 8% tax.
Also the packing process of them is unique.
 
Depends on the broker. The one I was using , don't remember now it was something like 4to6% plus some other charges
In general I have bought many things from there.... Even my speakers drivers my DAT, my SR929, many things.
I remembered its called JAUCE Japan Auction center or something like that. The known problems with the GULLYS , language in general , and some other peculiarities might be annoying . But you can get good stuff. Oh , if the auction is run by a shop there is an extra 8% tax.
Also the packing process of them is unique.

Gulleys seems to be a phrase which means scratches or defects, I can't really tell except from context. They also seem to like the word junk, which apparently means as-is.

I noticed there's some really neat equipment... For example the SAX-600 receiver has a triode output stage, similar to the elusive BA-202! Is shipping for speakers prohibitively expensive? Some of them are similar to what was sold here, some are wildly different.
 
It's difficult & shipping is very expensive, especially for 'heavy' items like amps.

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IF it was easier to purchase items from Japan... these would of been in my living room right now for my AS-100s.

in jn.jpg

The problem is eBay never got into Japan, unfortunately.
 
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It's difficult & shipping is very expensive, especially for 'heavy' items like amps.

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IF it was easier to purchase items from Japan... these would of been in my living room right now for my AS-100s.

View attachment 1455883

The problem is eBay never got into Japan, unfortunately.

I wonder how expensive, is very expensive? Are we talking $200 to ship an amp? $400? If you're used to shipping domestically, I can see it being very expensive.. but for me to buy from the USA, it also seems very expensive sometimes.
 
An example - I just checked my account as its been a while. But I won an amplifier in 2017 that cost $213, the comission was $37 and "domestic fees" were another $15. Shipping (to NZ, mind you) was another $400. It was a heavy amplifier......prices are in US dollars.

The other thing is JP Yahoo has all these weird little extra costs, charges and fees that seem to apply in fairly-random Japanese fashion. Ie: soem auctions attract extra fees, some places have extra taxes, etc.
 
An example - I just checked my account as its been a while. But I won an amplifier in 2017 that cost $213, the comission was $37 and "domestic fees" were another $15. Shipping (to NZ, mind you) was another $400. It was a heavy amplifier......prices are in US dollars.

The other thing is JP Yahoo has all these weird little extra costs, charges and fees that seem to apply in fairly-random Japanese fashion. Ie: soem auctions attract extra fees, some places have extra taxes, etc.

Ahhh so bid price $213, final cost $671. And that's to NZ, which is maybe closer to Japan than North America is? Probably not a bad deal, but three times what the bid says.

There's an AU-111 on there right now with a fairly low bid, in rusty but seemingly restorable shape. I'm going to see what it ends up going for, there always seems to be at least one 111 on there.
 
If you don't mind waiting, you can use the seamail. It's a lot cheaper. It's about $100 to USA. But you will have to wait about 2 months. ;)

Have you sent an amp by sea mail from japan to usa? I can only get sea mail for smaller items to North America. Big items the people in Japan always tell me have to go Fedex/EMS/DHL due to size limits on the cheap sea mail options. I'm sure there must be a way but I never figured it out.
 
If you don't mind waiting, you can use the seamail. It's a lot cheaper. It's about $100 to USA. But you will have to wait about 2 months. ;)

Not like I don't already have enough amps around here, I think I'd live waiting a big :)
 
Have you sent an amp by sea mail from japan to usa? I can only get sea mail for smaller items to North America. Big items the people in Japan always tell me have to go Fedex/EMS/DHL due to size limits on the cheap sea mail options. I'm sure there must be a way but I never figured it out.
No, I haven't. The cost mentioned is from the price list of the agent I use. I suppose if they list this option they shall offer this service.
 
Made some simulations for an alpha 907 nra and guess what? Shipping weight limit of 30kg per parcel...
The 907 has 33kg!
:eek2:
 
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