Tempted to go for Naruto Genga | BWA

[PhantomWolf]

so this Naruto genga has caught my eye https://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auction/i ... dex=681668

i'm tempted to put in an absentee bid but A: i don't know how much to put in (tentively) and B: i've never used Mandarake before

a part of me is saying to go for it but another part is saying that it might be too pricy (a previously sold Naruto genga (pre shipudden, not BWA) went for around 500 USD) and i'm worried that it'll be around that price range but at the same time if i pass on it and it goes for way less, i'd be kicking myself for not going for it?


so, should i go for it? I've got 20 days to decide so any advice would be much appreciated!

[sensei]

I have to admit that I don't often use Mandarake, especially during a BWA (do they still insist on a separate registration fee for bidding on that?). When I have done so, I've waited until the very end. Auctions can go quite high, as you observe, or end for pretty reasonable sums, and that all depends (as always) on who's there during the final minutes. I'd set myself a tight max bid, put the day and time in my cel phone alarm (Mandarake now does remind you if you log in and "watch" an auction) and let the action close to the closing moment guide what I do.

Mandarake's bidding process is pretty intuitive. Hit "BID" and a window pops up asking you to enter the amount. Do that, hit enter, and (IIRC) it will then ask you to confirm the bid (just in case you meant to bid 30,000 yen and instead entered 300,000). At least that's my recollection from last time, which was a few years ago.

By the way, a Yahoo Japan seller who occasionally posts items that interest me has this layout up FA. It's gone around once without a bid. When I did a search for "NARUTO レイアウト" a couple of others showed up. Might be worth investigating. There are several intuitive ways of bidding on YHJ: I use Rinkya and it's done well for me. Good luck!

[PhantomWolf]

I'd set myself a tight max bid, put the day and time in my cel phone alarm (Mandarake now does remind you if you log in and "watch" an auction) and let the action close to the closing moment guide what I do.

what does that mean? wait for when the auction goes live on the BWA?

[sensei]

What it means is to "auction-sit," or watch the closing minutes in real time to see what happens. Normal ending time on Mandarake is 11 AM Eastern Daylight time, so it's easy to do.

Sometimes two buyers with deep pockets run the price up higher than the reserve you've set for yourself. Sometimes there's no action at all. Sometimes you bid and someone tops your first bid. (Sniping doesn't work on Japanese auctions as they're normally set to extend the end time if there's more than one bid in the last five minutes.)

In other words, don't do a high absentee bid and leave it at that. Watch what happens and let the action (or lack thereof) be your guide.

[PhantomWolf]

okay so i looked up the schedule and the genga goes up for auction on the 5th on window A sometime after 10pm my time (22:00)


how long does the bidding on an item last usually? as i said i'm totally new to mandarake and i don't want to auction sit one specific item for hours

[sensei]

That is a valid issue, though in my experience the bidding is over at the set ending time or soon (>10 minutes) after. There occasionally comes the nuisance called a "nibbler" bidder who will deliberately extend the bidding by placing the minimum bid repeatedly, working up to the high reserve bid a little at a time. Thankfully, this is not a common problem, but if it happens it will be obvious and you can choose to check out or trust to your final reserve bid. I'd say set aside a half hour, including time before the auction ends, which is normally more than sufficient.

Can other BWA bidders check in to agree/disagree? I admit that I have relatively little experience in that more prestigious competition and am just applying more normal auction practices to this case.

[tarakatsuki]

There occasionally comes the nuisance called a "nibbler" bidder who will deliberately extend the bidding by placing the minimum bid repeatedly, working up to the high reserve bid a little at a time.

OMG I HATE that. I really hate the way the auctions extend on YJ because of this.

I too agree, there's no point in placing a bid until the very end. Bidding early on does nothing but drive the prices up. I don't get why people even bother bidding in advance since it's not like you're going to just get it right then.

As for how long the bidding ends up lasting, can't really say. I've won one BWA item by placing my max bid before the item went live and people just didn't bid on it that much once it was live. But once it goes live, I believe it's a very short time period people have to outbid the current high bid. It's not the usual 6-7 minutes or whatever on YJ auctions. Might be more like 30 seconds to put in a new high bid? So once it goes live it does go by a lot faster than if you were bidding on a YJ auction with auto extend on.

[cutiebunny]

I bid early all the time and I bid my max. This way, I'm not tempted to wake up early to bid even higher. I absolutely hate having to wake up early for an auction. I work nights, so asking me to stay up past 4 am to watch an auction end is just not going to happen.

My thought is that if something goes beyond my max, that's fine. I set up a value for every item I'm willing to bid on. There will be more stuff next BWA or the next-next BWA that will easily tempt me. If I were a collector of one particular character or episode from a series, then yes, it would be hard to let things go. But the nice thing about primarily being a sketch collector is that I enjoy so many artist's work so that, if I lose out on one, there will always be something else that will come along from another artist I enjoy that will make up for it.

That, and, if I am outbid, I might get *some* enjoyment knowing I dinged someone else's bank account

[GuyvarIII]

My advice for bidding on the Mandarake BWA is... don't post your max bid here.

Most of your competition is going to stop by this forum, and now they know what to bid to outbid you. The only time this might work for you is when you post some insane number, and that might scare off some competition. However, I would still advise against doing this. As we all know, cels do not have any real set prices, so more likely what will happen is that your competition will delude themselves into believing your posted bid is the price for that item, and they'll still bid anyway because they'll still want it.

Also, when bidding I try to remember that I'll be spending an additional 10% plus about $50 or $60 in shipping and insurance.

In my experience what usually happens during BWA auctions is that there will only be a few bids before the auction goes "Live". On auction day, starting at 4:00am for me, Mandarake will make all the items "Live" that they have scheduled for that particular day, and the auctions will start to go up one item at a time beginning with the toys, dolls, and comics. Cels, sketches, and autographs will go up after the other items, and there will be a break time before they put them up. During the break is when most of the bidding happens on the items I want, because you are still able to type in the exact number of your bid at this time. When the item is up, you are only able to bid in set increments by clicking on buttons.

When the item I want goes up, usually one of three things happen:

1. Tons of bids are made until whatever existing bid on the item is outbid, and then whoever is there bids against each other. The price zooms up to something I never would have guessed, and someone wins it.

2. A few bids are made (I'm guessing this is someone trying to feel out an exisiting bid), and then the auction ends.

3. No one bids. This usually happens when it's a cel that would normally cost about $50 or less. It's not worth the cost plus shipping, insurance, and the 10% fee.

I like a lot of odd one shot OVAs and movies, so usually it's the third one that gets me. I'm there thinking maybe I could put a few of these items together, and then wonder if it's worth it... or, I really want the item, and try to convince myself I should just pay the extra because I don't know when I'll see something similar. However, I'm susceptible to all three scenarios, but I usually run away from the first one . I've made bids at all different times, but winning or losing really depends on who you're bidding against, and you really just don't know... and, being up at 4:00am doesn't really help in decision making either.

Good luck on your auction.

[PhantomWolf]

My advice for bidding on the Mandarake BWA is... don't post your max bid here.

Most of your competition is going to stop by this forum, and now they know what to bid to outbid you. The only time this might work for you is when you post some insane number, and that might scare off some competition. However, I would still advise against doing this. As we all know, cels do not have any real set prices, so more likely what will happen is that your competition will delude themselves into believing your posted bid is the price for that item, and they'll still bid anyway because they'll still want it.

Also, when bidding I try to remember that I'll be spending an additional 10% plus about $50 or $60 in shipping and insurance.

aw crap (hopefully no one saw that)

so is the shipping really 50-60 dollars? is there a cheaper option? and does the auction actually start at 4 am or does it start at 10 pm PST? i feel like im getting conflicting information

[GuyvarIII]

I'm in Los Angeles, so I'm currently on Pacific Daylight Time, and it's 4:00 am for me. If you're on Pacific Standard Time, then I think you're one hour earlier, so you would be 3:00 am. You can set the time zone on the auction right under "Live Time", and check to make sure. The time is also 8:00pm in Japan if that helps...

But, remember this is the time that all the auctions go "Live" on the day. When they are "Live", they end one at a time starting with the dolls, toys and comics, and ending with the cels, sketches and signatures... and there is a break between the two groups of items.

I usually get charged about 3,000 yen shipping and 2,500 yen insurance plus the 10% fee, and it's shipped DHL. Sometimes you can ship via other methods and other times not... I don't know if that's a COVID thing. Also, sometimes they charge insurance and other times not, I'm not sure what their price threshold is for insurance, but if I just factor that cost in I'm not surprised.

[PhantomWolf]

oh so it is at 4 am....goddammit

unforntunately i'm gonna have to pass on this; 4 am is too early for me plus its on a Thursday and I have horse riding lessons on Mondays and Fridays

i'm not even gonna put in an absentee bid; there's 20 people watching the item and there's probably at least 1 person who knows my max bid
i'm disappointed but i just can't do it

if anyone on here does end up getting it or if they know the winning bidder, please let me know! i'd love to get scans of the sheets (there's 64 of them)

[tarakatsuki]

You can always just put in a maximum bid right before you go to bed. It's always best to wait until as late as you can, but if you have to do it a few hours before, could always be worth the shot. I myself forgot about the 10% fee when I won a BWA item lol. At least it wasn't all that expensive, but still.

[PhantomWolf]

okay so im having trouble with the fees

they haven't been posted onto my account yet and someone i know said that it's supposed to be instant

i sent an email to Mandarake support and i haven't gotten a response yet

if i don't get this processed in time i'm screwed

[cutiebunny]

I use PayPal to pay the registration fees and it is instantaneous. If you have your PayPal account linked to Mandarake, it'll take you to the PayPal page once you've selected to pay the 500 yen participation fee.

I would recommend paying that route. It's a lot easier than trying to pay with a credit card.