Is Shopping Mall Japan dead?

[sensei]

Rinkya is fine. I just won my first three auctions since last June using them. It is pretty still, but now that Photobucket is back up and running (and my sig. is alive again) and Rinkya has survived its emergency move, there are still a few things popping up that might be worth collecting....

Mostly I've been using the time to work on my complete (yes! down to the individual douga!) inventory of my collection. I keep running up against obstacles, mostly series that I never fully catalogued from the outset. But with 23 cel books and 32 archival sketch boxes now enumerated, I'm beginning to smell the dust at the bottom of the last box.

[teggacat]

Thanks Sensei. youre the best

[Matt]

Rinkya's been up and running for a month or so. I've been able to log in and search but unfortunately, their fees are ridiculous. I used the commission calculator and for a cel that was 5,000 yen it would cost $30 US just to get it to Rinkya's warehouse (fees/wire transfer/shipping) That is too much. SMJ's fee was $4 US -_- Anybody have any other suggestions for a deputy?

[theultimatebrucelee]

SMJ was great while it lasted. It definitely contributed to the bulk of my collection as it did for many others.

Rinkya at first glance seems to set the industry standard for expensive proxy, but there are actually more outrageous proxies out there that charges a % of your winning bid. SMJ was overall more cost-effective but, might not have that much of a lead depending on the final bid + domestic shipping cost compared to Rinkya.

If I recall correctly, cel/sketch/fan art category items between 1001-10k yen are flat $7 proxy for Rinkya. While the seller fee is flat $15 on auction compared to the variable of SMJ, it has a ~3 yen to dollar advantage on the exchange rate to help partially balance out the higher fee. If you then add $2.5 SMJ processing fee to the $4 service fee, count on the saving wholly on favorable domestic shipment cost vs Rinkya seller fee, for items under 10k yen.

I also think Buyee is a decent alternative with its favorable CC exchange rate if you don't care for their add-on options. Otherwise, they do get you with the consolidation fee and extra package protection fee if opted.

[grEenLeaFx]

Rinkya's been up and running for a month or so. I've been able to log in and search but unfortunately, their fees are ridiculous. I used the commission calculator and for a cel that was 5,000 yen it would cost $30 US just to get it to Rinkya's warehouse (fees/wire transfer/shipping) That is too much. SMJ's fee was $4 US -_- Anybody have any other suggestions for a deputy?

I have used both Rinkya and SMJ. After they both shut down, I tried out Buyee. I will tell you about my recent experience there- it is the most expensive deputy I have ever used. I won several auctions from the same seller and Buyee makes them ship each piece separately which is what hit me the hardest. It cost $200 just on shipping to Buyee alone (I was aware they do this, but still shocked at the price). They have a lot of add on features that are typically free with other deputies such as they don't check your items unless you pay extra per auction and you have to pay extra again to combine all of your shipped boxes into one big box. What I did like is its an easy service to use, they had coupons that gave me free fees on YJ, and I did not have to put down a deposit which was nice. Rinkya ends up being pretty expensive as well with their fees and the $20 fee to bid against someone internally is ridiculous. Rinkya is still down for me- it lets me log in as usual, but it wont let me search on YJ which what its been doing since being down. SMJ was really the best and most affordable.

[teggacat]

Rinkya is still down for me- it lets me log in as usual, but it wont let me search on YJ which what its been doing since being down.

yeah, this is whats been happening for me on Rinkya which is why I asked in the first place, glad I'm not totally crazy.

[sensei]

That is odd: my "saved searches" still work as usual and I adapted one in Japanese to see if Rinkya would take a fresh search. No problem. Tried it again in English. No problem. You two might want to submit a ticket to see what's up with your accounts. I've found Rinkya very responsive to these queries. (Click the "bell" icon in the top menu line to the right of the Facebook and Twitter icons.)

As for fees, for years I've been guesstimating their impact with the "plus twenty" rule-of-thumb. Take the winning price and divide by 100, then add twenty. It's worked pretty well for years, back with SMJ and now with Rinkya. Some recent wins on my current "to ship" list for example:

Win price: 14500 Yen --> 145 + 20 = $165 (Actual Rinkya price with fees was $162.01)
Win price: 1500 Yen --> 15 + 20 = $35 (Actual Rinkya price with fees was $36.02)
Win price: 6450 Yen --> 64.50 + 20 = 84.50 (Actual Rinkya price with fees was $82.28)

It's not scientific, and there are times (as when there is internal bidding by another Rinkya customer) when it does not work so well. It also needs to be adapted from time to time when the Yen/$ rate is much more or less favorable. And of course when shipping costs are wrapped in with another item, the actual price with fees is significantly lower than the "plus twenty" method would guesstimate. But as I mostly bid based on what I've budgeted (or got) to spend, it does serve as a reasonable guide to what I'm committing myself to pay out in US$.

I agree that SMJ saved money by having the items shipped in bulk to a US storage unit and then sent using domestic postage to the buyer. On the other hand Rinkya packs its items to survive a nuclear holocaust, while SMJ from time to time was rather incautious about shipping items, especially oversized sketches or backgrounds. Still, I regret its closing, as there's no question that this service (and its predecessor, AnimeChaos) was instrumental in enabling me to compile a significant and high-quality anime art collection.

[grEenLeaFx]

I opened a ticket today like you suggested and in the response they are saying they are still closed lol. Here is the reply I got through Rinkya below:

With the landlord’s accident, we needed to move immediately and while we are moving warehouses we have turned off the bidding.

We know this is frustrating but we are closing off portions of the site for our move and our new site update.

This can take just for a few weeks until we find and move to a new warehouse.

We thank you for your patience.

Please let us know what are you searching or looking in Yahoo Japan Auctions, we can still assist you.

[sensei]

Interesting ... it's like they need to turn your account back on. Mine has been back up and running normally at least since Jan. 28.

Let us know what you hear, or if you don't hear anything I can inquire through my account on your behalf.

[teggacat]

This was my Rinkya reply this evening:
"We are having a site update and some portions of the site are still closed.
We’ll let you know as soon as it’s updated."

[sensei]

Sounds like the Photobucket crash: the newest registrees got service back within a week, but the ones who (like me) had been with them the longest took nearly two months to regain service. Hope it isn't this long and frustrating with you two!

[grEenLeaFx]

Thanks sensei! I pressed them further and Vanessa was still giving me the run around with the same answer. She has been pretty passive with issues in the past as well. I kept at it and another guy Scott responded and gave me back full access to bidding!

[sensei]

[teggacat]

same here, I used the "chat" and Vanessa got back to me rather quickly and its all up and A-OK now,
but the best part is visiting here and seeing four or five new posts!! Lets keep it going my fellow collectors!

[cutiebunny]

I agree that SMJ saved money by having the items shipped in bulk to a US storage unit and then sent using domestic postage to the buyer. On the other hand Rinkya packs its items to survive a nuclear holocaust, while SMJ from time to time was rather incautious about shipping items, especially oversized sketches or backgrounds. Still, I regret its closing, as there's no question that this service (and its predecessor, AnimeChaos) was instrumental in enabling me to compile a significant and high-quality anime art collection.

Buyee also packages extremely well. If you ever need protective packaging when sending packages to friends and family over the holidays, just buy something using Buyee and pay for their protective packaging service. The last time I bought a shikishi through them, it arrived in a box large enough to fit a 30 inch TV screen and with what looked like the entire roll of bubble wrap caked around it. I also felt the same way about SMJ's packaging as you did, Sensei. For every 100 items I bought, I might have 1 that ended up slightly damaged. I chalked it up as the price I paid for using a service that charged significantly less, but it was hard when that 1 item that ended up damaged was the one in the shipment that you really, really wanted. I think the packaging did improve over the years though, with the last damaged item I had arriving in 2012...?

I feel the same way about SMJ's closure. I am very grateful to the service because, had I have had to shell out the fees that many other deputies charge, I would not have half the collection that I do now. Even when they switched over to the direct shipping from Japan method, I still saved over other services. While I haven't seen much that I've wanted in the past few months, I sorta don't feel inclined to spend on YJ items since I know that I'm going to be absolutely gouged over shipping. Maybe it's good that, collection-wise, I have the bulk of what I want already. If I had to start from scratch, with those CCS backgrounds ending at $100/piece, I would probably move on to other hobbies.