How To - Get Something Through Yahoo Auctions/From Japan

[Sanity is Optional]

4 hours ago, Bobby said:

Could you explain or where does it say that? Thx

Funds Deposit Fee/Money Transfer Fee.

You pay them a percentage on top of any money you pay them.

[Bobby]

I asked because I've used Zenmarket for years and have never paid a percentage for an item.

It's always the same thing: item price, ¥300 per item (regardless of its value which includes them buying the item, asking the seller questions for me, packing consolidation and repacking the items) so $0 consolidation fee, and then ship fee (the ¥300 incl giving you every ship option: EMS, Air, Sal, UPS, FedEx, and DHL so you can choose). The only percentage fee I know of for buying an item is if you buy an intangible good (like downloadable music which I've never done) but it is not on anything else.

Perhaps SanityisOpt meant you have to pay a deposit fee of ¥360 for every $100 you load onto your account (?) ...I can see how that could be considered 'paying a percentage' but $3.50 is still cheaper than when Buyee charges you ¥500 for 2 items or ¥1000 for 2+items just to consolidate a package for you.

 

-update-

I just saw your post Sanity...thanks

Edited August 21, 2020 by Bobby

[Sanity is Optional]

46 minutes ago, Bobby said:

I asked because I've used Zenmarket for years and have never paid a percentage for an item.

It's always the same thing: item price, ¥300 per item (regardless of its value which includes them buying the item, asking the seller questions for me, packing consolidation and repacking the items) so $0 consolidation fee, and then ship fee (the ¥300 incl giving you every ship option: EMS, Air, Sal, UPS, FedEx, and DHL so you can choose). The only percentage fee I know of for buying an item is if you buy an intangible good (like downloadable music which I've never done) but it is not on anything else.

Perhaps SanityisOpt meant you have to pay a deposit fee of ¥360 for every $100 you load onto your account (?) ...I can see how that could be considered 'paying a percentage' but $3.50 is still cheaper than when Buyee charges you ¥500 for 2 items or ¥1000 for 2+items just to consolidate a package for you.

 

-update-

I just saw your post Sanity...thanks

When I used them, a while ago (2018), they charged me an actual percentage when I went to pay for an order. I think it was like 3%?

Never used them again.

[F360]

From Zenmarket

Deposit fee is 3.5% of the total transaction amount, not of the amount you wish to deposit.
Let’s say you want to deposit 1000 JPY. It is not enough to take 3.5% of 1000 JPY and add it. If you do so you will get 1035 JPY. Because deposit fee is 3.5% of 1035 JPY (36.3 JPY), only 999 JPY will be deposited to your account. This is why your calculations might be a bit different. The same principle applies to wire bank transfers and other payment methods charging a percentage of the transaction amount.

 

https://zenmarket.jp/en/payment.aspx#:~:text=Deposit fee is 3.5% of,amount you wish to deposit.

[Sanity is Optional]

42 minutes ago, F360 said:

From Zenmarket

Deposit fee is 3.5% of the total transaction amount, not of the amount you wish to deposit.
Let’s say you want to deposit 1000 JPY. It is not enough to take 3.5% of 1000 JPY and add it. If you do so you will get 1035 JPY. Because deposit fee is 3.5% of 1035 JPY (36.3 JPY), only 999 JPY will be deposited to your account. This is why your calculations might be a bit different. The same principle applies to wire bank transfers and other payment methods charging a percentage of the transaction amount.

 

https://zenmarket.jp/en/payment.aspx#:~:text=Deposit fee is 3.5% of,amount you wish to deposit.

Yeah, that sounds right.

It's not even obvious anywhere. I was pretty pissed how I put in my order, looked up all the fees and everything, and then at the end they're like: Hey, you need charge your balance to pay this, and we take a percentage of what you charge onto your balance. You thought our fees were ¥300? Think again, you owe more.

Absolutely scummy to tack that on at the end, after you're essentially done with the order.

 

[edit] I understand it's likely a currency conversion fee, but that's why I have a zero conversion fee credit card. FromJapan lets me pay them in Yen, ZenMarket forces you to pay their rates.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Sanity is Optional

[crackpot]

This is what I'm trying to say from my previous post. Zenmarket accounts for the transaction fees (paypal fees, credit card fees, etc.) that a vendor gets charged. Nobody is gonna take a loss from the amount they have to pay for the item they're proxying. Meanwhile, From Japan charges the exact cost of the item being bought. Even with the service fee they're charging, it won't be enough to account for the transaction fees that they're gonna be charged. 

Edited August 21, 2020 by crackpot

[Sanity is Optional]

20 minutes ago, crackpot said:

This is what I'm trying to say from my previous post. Zenmarket accounts for the transaction fees (paypal fees, credit card fees, etc.) that a vendor gets charged. Nobody is gonna take a loss from the amount they have to pay for the item they're proxying. Meanwhile, From Japan charges the exact cost of the item being bought. Even with the service fee they're charging, it won't be enough to account for the transaction fees that they're gonna be charged. 

From Japan doesn't have any transaction fees to cover aside from the credit card percentage. You pay them in Yen, and they pay the seller in Yen.

All the other fees are either on the Buyer's end (if they require payment through paypal or such), or on your end (currency conversion).

So yeah, I will 100% use FJ (or DeJapan, or Buyee, none of which charge a deposit fee) before I use ZenMarket.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Sanity is Optional

[crackpot]

30 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

From Japan doesn't have any transaction fees to cover aside from the credit card percentage. You pay them in Yen, and they pay the seller in Yen.

All the other fees are either on the Buyer's end (if they require payment through paypal or such), or on your end (currency conversion).

So yeah, I will 100% use FJ (or DeJapan, or Buyee, none of which charge a deposit fee) before I use ZenMarket.

I'm not talking about foreign transaction or conversion fees. I'm talking about seller fees. A business gets charged a percentage with credit card purchases or in paypal's case, seller's fees. Zenmarket takes that into account with their 3.5% fees. From Japan doesn't which brings me to my question: how are they still in business?

[Sanity is Optional]

40 minutes ago, crackpot said:

I'm not talking about foreign transaction or conversion fees. I'm talking about seller fees. A business gets charged a percentage with credit card purchases or in paypal's case, seller's fees. Zenmarket takes that into account with their 3.5% fees. From Japan doesn't which brings me to my question: how are they still in business?

Of the 4 different proxies I've used, the only one that charges a percentage fee is ZenMarket. So it's more a question of why ZenMarket is different.

My original suspicion is that it wasn't a CC fee, but rather a currency conversion fee, as PayPal charges the same 3.5% last I looked.

When only 1 in 4 businesses of the same type charges a fee, you start wondering why the 1 is different, not why the 3 are.

 

[pafy6285]

On 8/21/2020 at 6:29 PM, crackpot said:

I'm not talking about foreign transaction or conversion fees. I'm talking about seller fees. A business gets charged a percentage with credit card purchases or in paypal's case, seller's fees. Zenmarket takes that into account with their 3.5% fees. From Japan doesn't which brings me to my question: how are they still in business?

I won't think too much about it. Who knows, maybe FJ or the big proxies/companies have some sort of special agreement with PayPal or maybe they get some sort of tax credits, deductions or something for those fees so they don't bother charging those PP fees from their customers. We'll only know if we ask them

[chyll2]

History: FJ used to have system usage fee, it is both fixed 200 yen + percentage fee.

 

Source: my 2014 - 2015 Order invoices. Next invoice was 2017 which already used fixed fees that is based on Protection Plan you avail (current scheme). I believe it is profitable enough since there are no changes back then until now. (irc, the change in plan happened 2016).

 

At the end of the day, get where you can get it cheapest and reliably.  IMPORTANT: if you are not buying from corporation (bandai or arcadia exclusive), I really advise you to pick the protection plan that covers fraud.

 

 

[DYRL VF-1S]

On 8/9/2020 at 2:45 AM, sqidd said:

I was hoping to visit japan this year. Bummer.

Dude.  You and me both.

[sqidd]

19 minutes ago, DYRL VF-1S said:

Dude.  You and me both.

Maybe next year. I've got a buddy who lives there but he's way up north. I'm hoping to find a local in one of the big cities that can show me around. Good east, good drinks, good toy stores, etc, etc, etc.