Does Rinkya ever have a sale?

[ReiTheJelly]

I've been a customer of Rinkya's for, oh, about 7 years now. And I don't think I've ever seen them discount their fees for any items except for cels (not that I ever paid much attention).

Do they ever hold commission sales for items other than cels?

I've tried to stay loyal to them, since they've treated me very well in the past, but their fees are exorbitant when compared to other deputy services available. I normally only use them to bid on cels, but yesterday I used them to bid for a hair bow on Y!J. I nearly choked on my coffee when I saw their invoice in my inbox today:



Seriously? Their commission is the same as the cost of the item? I hate to drop them after so many years, so maybe someone on these boards can give me the good news that Rinkya occasionally discounts commission for non-cel items, once in awhile. I like the convenience their automated system offers, but not at these kind of prices...

[grEenLeaFx]

Wow that is ridiculous! I have always thought they were overpriced. Sorry to hear they charged you a $20 commission fee on a hair bow, plus shipping. I occasionally buy production art on YJ, which Rinkya usually has deals on. It's just within the last couple of years they finally made it where they could combine items from the same seller. Although I do like their service, it can get pretty expensive. I am also interested in what other deputy services are out there that people use.

[kamidake]

I haven't used Rinyka in years so I'm not familiar with their fee structure anymore, but what's the handling fee for? o_O I've been switching back and forth between celga and SMJ, pretty much when one of their fees piss me off then I would switch to the other for a while. *laughs* I think I ran into a similar problem with SMJ once, I bought a cheap-o something or other, and they charged me exorbitant fees on shipping from Japan to US, and then again from US to me. I don't know if they still do that, but I just plain stay away from buying anything on YJ except for cels that are more than $100, because otherwise I can't justify the cost of shipping + fees + fees + fees.

[ReiTheJelly]

I am also interested in what other deputy services are out there that people use.

I've almost entirely switched over to Treasure-Japan, but I do miss Rinkya's real-time bidding and auto-bid feature.

I've recently seen people talking about a FREE deputy service. I think it's called From Japan? But the idea that they aren't charging *any* fees makes me insanely suspicious of their service, so I haven't tried them yet.

[ssvegito04]

That fee is absolutely ridiculous. I have only ever used SMJ and I am in the most part really happy with their services, especially their packing for postage. I must admit though, I have only ever bought cels from them, and I could imagine that shipping fees on heavier or bigger items would be drastic.

Those fees are bewildering though. I'd be pissed if that happened to me, but like always, it takes one ridiculous fee to pop up, then you know not to either buy those items, or use that deputy.

[graymouser]

If I remember correctly, the handling fee is to cover the charges that the deputy has to pay the seller for shipping the item(s) to the warehouse.

I can see it from both sides. It feels like a waste of money to spend more on commission and handling fees than the item is worth. On the other hand, items bought on YJ take the same amount of time and work for the deputy service to process/store whether they are cheap or expensive. A $5 cel and a $500 cel involve nearly the same amount of work.

I agree with what someone else has said here. It is generally not worth the cost of using Rinkya or IMHO any deputy service to buy cheap items. It would be better to find something similar from a local anime seller/dealer or even from ebay or amazon. On the rare occasion that I can only get the item from YJ (such as a matching background to one of my CCS cels) then I just bite the bullet and accept the costs as the price of having access to it in the first place.

As far as comparing deputy services goes, there are a lot of options out there now. Things to take into consideration are costs, service, and convenience. I realize Rinkya costs more, but I have never had trouble with their service (unlike other deputies). For example, I have lost out on items because a deputy forgot to place a bid. I find Rinkya's autobid feature to a very convenient backup in case I oversleep or my computer goes down. Another factor is that I have used them for a long time, and they let me keep a higher maximum bid than I would receive elsewhere. The only down side is that I dislike their internal bidding system --> it has been the main reason I have explored other deputies.