Is Shopping Mall Japan dead?

[sutepri]

Does anyone know if anything has happened to SMJ? I hadn't used the site since last year but went to place a bid on a YJ auction tonight and the site is broken and bidding doesn't work. Their social media accounts have all been taken down which is always a bad sign, plus Nick's Anime Chaos site seems to have been removed. I've been using them since ~2006 and I'll be super bummed if Nick closed up shop but it's also worrying me since I have a decent amount of money sitting in there.

[Matt]

SMJ is working for me. Placed a bid a couple days ago without any issues.

[oxypetalus]

SMJ is what I use and I've used it recently with no problems. Maybe since it's been a while you need to update your account somehow. If you email them they're pretty fast with responses.

[momo]

SMJ is still operating but just barely. The desktop user interface (UI) is horribly outdated and the mobile UI is dreadful. SMJ should invest time and monies to upgrading the mobile version.

[oxypetalus]

So I use SMJ for all my YJ buying but just got this message when I tried to bid on something

We're sorry, SMJ is no longer accepting new bids or orders. We ask that you finalize all payments and submit a shipping request as soon as your items are in stock. Please keep in mind, due to the holiday season, we will not ship from 12/28 to 1/6.

I just got a shipment from them today and have one item waiting to request shipping but this doesn't look good. I wonder if they're closing up shop or if it's just temporary ? I also heard Rinkya is no longer accepting bids/orders right now as well due to suddenly losing their warehouse space :0

[Matt]

I sent Nick an email asking if SMJ was closing.. He replied "Afraid It's True SMJ is closing up shop"
No details were given. This stinks....Does anyone know of any thrust worthy deputies?

[momo]

Well damn! No notice has been given to SMJ users yet. Did Nick say when SMJ will close?

[oxypetalus]

I sent Nick an email asking if SMJ was closing.. He replied "Afraid It's True SMJ is closing up shop"
No details were given. This stinks....Does anyone know of any thrust worthy deputies?

Aww man. If I knew I would've used a different deputy for the item I just won a few days ago. Oh well, there goes a piece of cel collecting history. I've been using SMJ since 2006 though I took a long break from collecting in the middle.

If you're looking for a new Deputy Buyee is supposedly the "official" YJ Deputy service. I haven't used them yet but I know another collector that does. I know a few others who use FromJapan. I think I'm going to try Buyee first personally.

[grEenLeaFx]

This is such a bummer to hear. SMJ is my deputy of choice and I have always had great service there. I also emailed him and yes they are closing for good.

[cutiebunny]

Not sure that I really want to go back to Buyee. I used them for a while and while their packaging is very good, their fees, particularly the storage fees for anything over 30 days old, are horrible. Guess that means I'll be buying less on YJ, though not like I was buying anywhere near the quantity that I did when I first started collecting.

I really wish SMJ would have given its customers notice, particularly anyone who has bought something using the site within the past 6 months. If that's not feasible, some mention on the website would have been nice. This topic is the first that I'm hearing of it, and I last bought something using SMJ a week ago.

Well SMJ and Nick, it was nice while it lasted. Thank you for all your hard work these past 15+ years that I've used your services. Other than a couple of snags, SMJ was great service and I shamelessly promoted you guys as much as I could. I wouldn't have even a quarter of my collection without SMJ. I'll miss using you as my primary deputy service, but I wish you well in the future.

And as an aside, is anyone else having a crummy December? I'm a pretty positive person with super low holiday expectations thanks to receiving nothing but socks for years as a kid, but damn...everyone just seems to be bummed out this month. Maybe it's the realization that the new decade is almost here? I don't know...

[oxypetalus]

Sooo about Nick and SMJ. I tried to go to his personal site animechaos and it redirected me to a site called the Weeb Lounge and all his social media has changed to "the Weeb Lounge" branding. I think he's switching career paths to become a Twitch streamer/Youtuber and Anime Goods store. Now that I think about, sometime last year he sent out a mass email to all SMJ users to promote his Twitch stream and offered a $4 credit to people who signed up for SMJ or to users to already use it. I thought it was kinda random/weird at the time but I followed him anyway. Guess all of that kinda makes sense now ?

@Cutiebunny, yeah everyone around me, myself included, is kinda just tired and feeling worn out in general. Maybe that's just the feeling of getting older.

[sensei]

A pity, but probably par for the anime art collecting community, which was at the cutting edge during the days when art from new productions was coming plentifully onto the market during the Aughty Decade.

SMJ was my first deputy service -- it came on the scene as a rival to Celga and Rinkya, and had the distinct advantage that the goods were received in Japan but promptly shipped to a storage site in the US, reducing the shipping fees considerably. And Nick was easy to work with, quick to respond and considerate. I shifted over to Rinkya later, out of doubts about the security of SMJ's bidding service. Very odd things happened, especially during the closing moments of auctions, that suggested that someone (I assume a hacker and not part of the SMJ staff) was able to view customers' reserve bids.

That said, the biggest part of my collection, and nearly all of my high-end treasures, came to me either from Nick's sale site Anime Chaos or through SMJ. So this is a sad bit of news, and the rather casual way in which SMJ ends with a whimper seems, even more sadly, typical of other aspects of what used to be a lively, energizing community of friends and rivals.

Would add my sig, but Photobucket is also undergoing similar infrastructure issues, and all you'd see is "Sorry, this image is unavailable."

So, seeya!

[sletia]

I am glad the cel community found out about this. I hadn't used SMJ in years and this reminded me I had a deposit I could get refunded. So many thanks for that, guys! It was "only" fifty bucks but fifty bucks is fifty bucks!

[Pixel]

This is quite sad.

I was leery of trying to obtain anything through a deputy, but overall their process was fairly straightforward. I will say this-everything that I acquired through their service I received.

Service fees were good compared to a lot of deputies.

In the process of getting my deposit back now-not a big fan of PayPal, but seem to be stuck with it for certain cases.

Sayounara, SMJ. It was fun while it lasted.

[teggacat]

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...……………..