Buyee

[majinuub]

Has anyone used this service yet?

[Wendy]

These guys have: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/6794

[majinuub]

Thanks for the link. Wasn't planning on using them(and after reading that experience, I never will) just curious as I kept seeing them on YJ.

[teggacat]

These guys have: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/6794

thanks for the link Wendy, it was quite interesting to say the least

[Ginta]

I use them and Zenmarket. Their fees are high, but you do not have to deposit money with them first like some other services. I also like their cel categorization pages and features. Package consolidation is for a lot of packages, not just two, so if you choose it when you don't have a lot of packages, you pay more instead of less.

[cutiebunny]

I use Buyee because they're reliable in the sense that when I do make a snipe bid, it gets placed. I've gotten burned by SMJ several times. I've bid on items through their "snipe it now" portion of their website. Woke up and the item ended for less than I had bid. No outbidding, internally or otherwise. No e-mail confirming the bid or informing me of the outbid. When I use the snipe option, I bid on items that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only deputy user buying. Let me stress that this has happened multiple times and there was never an apology or anything on their website such as "systems were down". I'm ok with paying extra if it means that, as a shift worker, I don't have to stay up long past my shift to ensure I'll have a fighting chance at that item. And yes, I probably should e-mail SMJ every time this occurs, but once the item has sold, what's the point? If it's artwork, it's not as if I can grab a second chance.

Here's what I don't understand about the Blog rant - If you're spending hundreds of dollars on an item or a group of items, why are you ranting about shipping fees? If I have a shipment arriving with, total, a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff, I'm not going to rant about the $60 I spent on consolidation and shipping. When I ship with SMJ, I'm usually paying $60-ish per package. And while some of that is due to the insurance that I ask to be placed, the overly big 4 feet tall box that they use to ship standard sized cels in likely contributes to that high fee. With Buyee, I have yet to receive that was damaged due to shipping (although I have a friend who has received rolled sketches). Over the course of a decade of purchases with SMJ, I have had items that were improperly packaged and were damaged.

TL;DR - I pay roughly the same using Buyee that I do with SMJ, but Buyee is more reliable. Spending $$$ on stuff and then complaining about shipping fees is silly stuff.

[Animechaos]

Actually our sniper system is automated. Once you place the bid the system bids within the last couple minutes of the auction. Should another SMJ users place another normal bid or snipe that outdoes yours, you get emailed a notice immediately.

It's very reliable, but there have been instances where it fails that SMJ simply can't control. One is if the seller has us blocked (anti-deputy) then when the system tries to place the bid it simply can't. The other is YHJ maintenance / downtime. If the system can't access the auction due to that it assumes the auction was canceled sometimes, depending on the amount of downtime.

Compared to other services our is actually way more advanced. They use the YHJ api which has limits. Ours use all custom code. (its also why SMJ is one of few services left that handle adult goods)

[cutiebunny]

It might be automated, but out of the last 5 sniper bids I've placed using SMJ over the course of the last 90 days that I did not personally cancel, 1 went through . No e-mail notifications on any of the four failed attempts and nothing in the junk mail folder either. Either I have really poor luck using SMJ's sniper system, or your downtime incredibly coincides with the end time of every auction I've bid on. In comparison, out of the 9 snipe bids I've placed in the last 90 days using Buyee, I've won 8 of them and received an outbid notification on the one I didn't win.

Incidentally, I've spoken to others who use your services and they report exactly the same thing.

I can appreciate that your system is the most advanced around and I appreciate being able to use multiple deputy services to buy off YJ. But all the advanced-ness in the world matters not if I don't win what I want. I just want a system that does what I need it to do, and I'm willing to pay extra if that's what it takes to get it.

[Animechaos]

If there is something wrong I'd certainly like for our customers to email us about it. We get questions sometimes about the sniper system and they're always easily explained since our system logs everything. I personally use it probably more than anyone. ^_^;; It only ever failed once due to an anti-deputy seller. (and it was a really nice Ed cel from Cowboy Bebop

Especially if it's one of those anti-deputy folks. If we're blocked, the system will try to bid and fail. Subsequent bids on the same sellers goods would do just the same time, giving it an illusion of a sniper system problem, when it's not.

If you haven't emailed us about it, I'd really appreciate the details if you still have the info. It's almost always something I can point out pretty quick.

[Jadeduo]

Honestly I did a cost analysis on this and the difference per item between SMJ and Buyee is negligible depending on the exchange rate, seller, and item.

Buyee is generally $1 - 50 cents more per auction.

I was actually the collector who had her sketches rolled into a tube and the deputy who did it was SMJ... I literally flipped out and refuse to use them for sketches anymore, Bunny and the cel chat had to hear my ranting while I unboxed it. If I do use them at all it is for cels, when I buy them at all lately anyways... Been more sketches than anything else ^_^

The reason peeps are so shocked by Buyee prices I think is because when you pay for the auction you are only paying the Buyee fees and transfer fee which are negligible. You don't pay for the internal shipping in Japan until you pay for shipping to you. This usually doubles the shipping to you price. It also hurts them that JapanPost recently raised their rates. Something Buyee let us know earlier this year. I never saw a notice from SMJ, I only knew because Buyee told me.

I have closed at least 100 auctions with Buyee to date and have yet to have an issue all my items arrive safely undamaged and unrolled into a tube. In fact I think in my last shipment I got a case of bubble wrap lol.

I have heard of Buyees system failing, however, there is always a comeuppance and explanation, a global announcement explaining what happened and that they FIXED IT.

Meanwhile SMJ has taken pan sketch sets that I bought rolled them into tubes, folded them into quarters so they could fit them into a smaller package. And conversely shoved cels into ginormous boxes and had backgrounds and cel corners bent and boxed because of it. Both my sister, and many of my friends have lost auctions because the snipe system failed. Also Bunny mentioned to me that when she buys shikishi from SMJ sometimes they throw out the prize notification of the shikishi coming as a prize for a magazine... Because mostly we suspect they just see no value and don't want to bother with shipping it here.

Maybe because SMJ has been around longer I have run into more issues... However, most of these issues have happened in the last couple years. I remember when you used to get your cels shipped in those lovely hard cases when you bought from SMJ, and things arrived safely, you could bid on mobile devices, and they cared about the art collectors which when it started, was the core of their business... Because we knew and trusted Nick. Well I think that is not true so much anymore, hence the downslide.

[cutiebunny]

My experience with the SMJ sniper system is that it doesn't allow you to even enter a snipe bid if SMJ has been blocked. For example, SMJ has been blocked by an original art seller that I occasionally purchase goods from. I'm not counting those snipe bids because I could never cast the snipe bid through SMJ. I'm sure there's also times when a seller, mid-auction, decides to ban SMJ. I don't know if that happened in the 4 cases these past three months where my snipe bid did not go through, but I find it hard to believe that 4 sellers that initially accepted the bid would decide to ban SMJ a couple days later.

Why haven't I contacted SMJ about these failed bids? Because when I have made requests in the past, they are either ignored or I get shoddy responses. When I received a CCS cel that arrived damaged because SMJ poorly packaged it, causing it to bend and paint to chip off, I e-mailed SMJ about the damage due to their poor packaging and was directed to send it back so it could be examined. Examined for what...? To verify that the paint was missing? I could have easily given you a photo of the item and the photo provided by the seller.
I, too, have received boxes that were not fully taped up (they weren't opened by the postal service or some thief...this was "I didn't realize boxes were straight and the tape is crooked...oh wells, I'm sure it'll be ok on its 2000 mile journey"-taping) with artwork sticking out of it. Last year, I had a package sent via USPS Priority Mail spend roughly 17 days at the same mail facility. I e-mailed and inquired if they could follow up with USPS. I was told not to worry because the box will either be returned to SMJ or eventually make its way to me. No follow up was made with USPS. Fortunately, after 25 days in transit, it made its way to me unharmed. I can't tell you how many shipping requests I've made where I ask to not send it in a 4 ft box for some standard sized cels/sketches and guess what arrives....a huge box! And, right now, it appears that SMJ has located a nendoroid face that I won...almost 500 days ago..that I have never been contacted about regarding its missing or found status. At what point do you check through a customer's inventory, notice something that has been in transit for way longer than normal and contact them?

Yes, I realize that you have hundreds of customers and that you deal with a high volume of goods on a daily basis. I know stuff happens. But when a long time customer, who hardly ever pesters you, expresses concern over a package/item or makes a simple request, I'd like for a little more attention to be paid to it rather than just being dismissed as just another impatient or demanding client.

Don't get me wrong. I like SMJ. I've used them for years, owe a large portion of my collection to their service and I have received well over 90% of the 1000+ items ordered and in good shape. There are some good things about your service. I like your search features. I like that you don't charge me for the auction right after it ends. But I've been burned one too many times by casting a snipe bid through your service only to have it not go through that I've learned that, if I really want something and it doesn't have a BIN, go elsewhere.

[Animechaos]

(This is Nick just in case anyone doesn't know)

Regarding the rolled sketch, I actually remember some coming from the seller like that. If the seller packed it right it should be ok, but as a collector myself that's not something I like to see. I got a couple in my personal collection that came in like that. We don't put sketches in tubes except in cases where instructed. (which is usually on really long pan sketches)

As for some of the shipping, if that happened about a year+ ago I understand. There were some shoddy packages our head shipper put out...far too many. Needless to say he's been let go and that hasn't been an issue for quite some time. So if shipping is the reason someone left, it's been fixed long ago. It's a shame too because he was an awesome employee for the longest time, then seemingly started to not care. So I very much apologize for their shoddy shipping, and very much wish we knew about it sooner. We're all about the service and quality and that hurts everyone.

Cutiebunny, for the blocked ones, the sniper system will let you know if we're blocked, but only if we've dealt with them in the past and it's been reported to us. We add them to a list so it gives a warning. But a vast majority of them we don't know about and are not on the list, so that snipe will try to go through still. We have to know about it, because the system can't tell unless we add it. (it gives a generic error if bidding on something and it's not successful, so the system simply can't tell what the reason is. We have to log in directly onto YHJ and try it.)

I am concerned about the shoddy response you're talking about Cutiebunny. Typically unless its a easy answer (like a cut/paste type easy answer) I handle all those replies myself. And know you and Jadeduo were awesome customers even back in the AC days if I remember. I usually would flip though a lot of the cels in the binders we store them in just to see what's coming through. Whats a bit odd is someone instructing you to send an item back so we can "look at it".....we simply don't do that. If someone sends something back to us its for the SMJ Guarantee.

And DO pester us. If something isn't right I want to know. We have the SMJ Guarantee now as well.

Tell you 2 what. Jadeduo, Cutiebunny, come back for a try and I'll write off the service fees on the next 10 purchases for both of ya. (just email me after you get the invoice so I can adjust it for you) Doesn't matter how much it cost, no limit. 1 yen or 1,000,000 each, doesn't matter. Prefer to email me direct, it's still the old AC email. (webmaster"at"animechaos.com) I'll put my money where my mouth is and you're both welcome to give it a try again.

[Jadeduo]

Okay so... FYI the sketch set I received rolled was from the Japanese seller Kotetumaru.... who I have bought from countless times, through SMJ and Buyee. When I first started using Buyee. The would get the seller package in open it to make sure it was correct and store it all in the original packaging in their warehouse. When I hit 10 items or 90 days, whichever comes first, I would add consolidation and protective packaging, and they would ship it, kit and caboodle to me.

So I personally know how Kotetumaru ships, they have the sketches in a mylar bag that has been properly sized for the sketch, they always sandwich each individual set in between two properly sized backing boards, and then will wrap that in some sort of protective packaging, usually bubblewrap, and then shove that in the JapanPost mailer or if it's oversized in an oversized envelope marked with fragile etc.

For pictoral evidence:

http://jadeduo.net/Shipping-Issues

So in this particular case blaming the seller is weak sauce, especially a veteran seller I've dealt with before, AND SEEN THEIR PACKAGING!! They also always put a cute little panda stamp and note in each package, thanking you for the purchase!!

The package was shipped just over three months ago to me from SMJ, so this is a new person being lazy or frugal I care not which... I am still aggravated about it... I am not willing to risk my Saiyuki Sketch sets again to SMJ, the rolled ones weren't the only damaged sketches I have received... Last year due to another 4 foot box, and a case of SMJ removing the backboards from all the sketches I bought, and keeping them just in their bags three of my pans came to me folded and one of the oversized sketches was folded into quarters.

I will continue to occasionally use SMJ for cels, and maybe a sketch in manga book... still a little iffy about shikishi... I don't want my prize notifications thrown out. Sketches are the future of production art collecting, there is just not enough cel inventory anymore to make up anyone's core collection unless they are willing to be eminently patient. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me... A third time will not be happening with any future sketch set purchases.

There are still things I like about the service, not being charged right away is one of them... The search isn't bad however it's gotten a little buggy (Sometimes it won't save to your saved searches) and you can't find new animes.... Saiyuki is spelled wrong too... It's actually under Saiyuuki... :/ Sometimes Buyee won't let you bid on some truly odd things even though you've bought similar items before....

But no longer will it be my go to only service...

[Animechaos]

If if the seller I'm thinking of, we get a lot of things from kotetumaru2000, but I think he's actually a middleman himself. (other collectors have him seller their goods on his behalf) I can't remember if it's "Twin_Angels_XX" 2nd account or not. (Twin Angels is a middleman for other sellers as well) I do know some things from him get shipped in a tube for absolute certain, because a personal purchase of a pan sketch from Sakura Trick came via a batch that way. But I'll certainly talk with the new head shipper and make sure that isn't happening.

But in March and April we actually didn't buy anything from kotetumaru2000. (lots before and after, but there is a big 2 month+ gap. ) You remember the item number of the one you got? (pm it to me if you like)

I know we get some flack from some shipments, but a lot of that is how we get it from the sellers. Huge rule from my AC days is that all cels/sketches ship flat. But if it comes in a tube like that from the seller we generally don't tamper with it at the risk of causing more damage than there already may be. (we do the same with posters, anything rolled)

But those are just situational excuses, it is what it is, ultimately SMJ is responsible.

[cutiebunny]

Nah, Twin_Angels_xx's other ID is Apple_Symphony. Kotetumaru2000 is a different seller. I can also vouch that I've purchased things from Kotetumaru2000 before and have not received them rolled up in any tube.