Is Shopping Mall Japan dead?

[ginga123]

Thanks I'll try webmaster@shoppingmalljapan.com first.

[Keropi]

Hmm....sorry to see that SMJ is gone, but I was happy to use them a lot over the years. They saved me a lot of money.

I haven't bought anything off of Yahoo Japan for a long time. I just chalk up by deputy deposits as losses and have moved on. Can't recall how many hundreds of dollars I deposited at Celga, but it was a decent amount. One of my older e-mail accounts got hacked so I don't have many of my older e-mails anymore.

Time moves on...as it does with everything else.

[SpringFlowers]

It is sad indeed that SMJ is gone. I first started using them in the fall of 2007. However, I collect art books instead of cels. I have not purchased anything from Yahoo Japan in a long time as well.

I tried to contact Nick at all of the email addresses listed so far, but no response. Fortunately, I only had a $25 deposit. I have most of my old emails from SMJ.

Although old businesses may close down, it opens up opportunities for others to take their place. I have not used any other Japan deputy yet, but when the time comes, I will look to another service.

[sugarcels]

I'm so sad to hear they closed I've been using them for over 10 years now, and I had their system down to a science. I think I only ran into one or two problems, and they always fixed it. I haven't used them for several months (late last year?), so I've only just heard about this.

I just signed up for ZenMarket, but if I'm understanding right, they want me to basically pay upfront for the item before I've even placed a bid. I can't afford to do that I liked that, if I bid on something with SMJ, I had a few weeks to pull together the money.

I looked at White Rabbit but they want to charge me a whopping 10% of the auction price along with everything else. That, and they don't do "real time" bidding. So, if I found a cel auction that was ending in, say, 2 hours, I wouldn't be able to bid, which frustrates me.

Does anyone know about any recently opened proxy services that are good and don't charge up the nose?

[eternaltorture]

^ Buyee is a good one. They automatically take the money from your PP or CC only if you win the auction. Downside is that it takes place day of the winning so you don't get a few weeks to pull together the money. They often have coupons for 100% off service fee. Last month was YJA, now it's Mercari.

I can't think of a proxy that's as good as SMJ. It was the only proxy I used for years even when I knew of cheaper ones. Sad they closed

[cutiebunny]

I've been using both Buyee and Zenmarket. I prefer Zenmarket simply because the fees are a lot cheaper. Buyee's shipping fees are extremely high. I honestly don't mind paying upfront to bid on an auction. It's just like having a deposit with the older deputy services; You place a deposit and if you don't win, nothing is deducted from your account.

I haven't been buying as much as I did when SMJ was around. Maybe that's because the search features for both sites aren't as streamlined as they were on SMJ. I could take advantage of individual queries and whatever lump queries SMJ had programmed. Picked up more stuff that way.

[sugarcels]

Thank you both so much for the info, I appreciate it

I actually do my own searches, I just look up the title in Japanese and paste it into Yahoo's search bar.

I bought a lot of vinyl records, doujinshi, and cels with SMJ, and I feel so sad that it's probably going to cost me more now

[cutiebunny]

I used both the Japanese terms and whatever SMJ had preloaded, so I would check for the same thing under a couple different variations. I found that each search yielded different results, so I liked being able to run multiple checks for the same thing and see different items. I probably spent a lot more that way too

[eternaltorture]

Yeah, I spend a lot more using Buyee too. Worst part is they don't do combined shipping. They have so many YJ accounts; whenever I'm purchasing a lot of items from one seller, a different account is used for each so I end up paying multiple shipping fees

Now I use Goody-Japan for that type of purchase... they require deposit up front however.

I also do my own searches and just have google translate the pages for me. I never tried out SMJ's search feature, now I wish I did

[KT]

okay so basically its way too quiet here and it like 12 degrees outside so.....
anybody know any status on Rinkya?
or are they just gone too...……………..

They seem fine. I tried to log in my rinkya a couple days ago but it wasn't working so i emailed them and they fixed it for me.

Maybe they had a lot of accounts that werent being used so they downsized to save costs?

Last time I used them was last year, I got some cel goods. Im hoping they dont close because I rely on them to buy from Yahoo Japan.

[sensei]

Rinkya is operating normally. (Except for shipping which is not their fault but that of the USA for having become Plague Central of the globe.) They had a bad time late last year when they had to move their whole operation on short notice (including their warehouse facilities) but since January I have not seen or heard of any disruption on their part. Their fees structure is, many people feel, not nearly as beneficial as SMJ was, but you do get a fair amount for your commission including very careful and secure packing. Customer service is also prompt and helpful.

[Withwingsablazed]

What is the link to SMJ ? So i know what you are all talking about please ^^

[oxypetalus]

What is the link to SMJ ? So i know what you are all talking about please ^^

The website is long gone by now but it used to be shoppingmalljapan.com. It was a proxy service to help people purchase items from Yahoo Japan Auctions. The owner is also an animation art collector and their service was well loved by many collectors while it was still running. There are many alternatives now ( in no particular order) Rinkya.com, Buyee.com, Fromjapan.com, Zenmarket.com as a few examples.
You can try to visit the archived version on archive.org here if you are curious: https://web.archive.org/web/2016062811 ... japan.com/

[kathpatty]

Yes, Rinkya is still there. Go browsing occasionally.
I really guess the heyday of popular sketches in my series is long gone. Glad I was able to acquire a few.