Anyone dealt with kamisama4096 on YJ?

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

This has probably been covered before, but I don't remember seeing it. Has anyone ever dealt with the YJ seller kamisama4096, who has their own "deputy service" contact listed in their auctions? (The only seller who, in English, threatens that they've banned all other deputies except their own?)

I'm just curious since they seem to have a few interesting auctions, but most of their auctions are, to be blatently honest, overpriced and trying to take advantage of foreign bidders. It makes me wonder if their "deputy service" is more of the same... hugely overpriced. Ignoring the blatent attempt to take advantage of foreign bidders, does anyone know how reliable they are?

Frankly, any seller being their own deputy service is utterly ridiculous. You either ship internationally or you don't.... or you just flat out tell people you're charging them a fee for shipping internationally. You don't dick around pretending to be a deputy service for only your own auctions. That, in itself, encourages me to completely ignore their auctions on principal alone. But I know as soon as I do, they'll turn up something I really want and would be willing to pay the extra to get. So I figure it's better to ask ahead.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac

[GuyvarIII]

I haven’t dealt with Kamisama4096 on Yahoo Japan …
but, from the cels they put up, aren’t they really the old cel dealer Mangaya?

[zerospace]

I actually managed to buy something from this seller shortly before they officially banned all deputies -- everything went fine. Since I was still able to use my own deputy service, I can't comment on the one listed in their auctions.

I agree that most of their items are overpriced, too ... so, I pretty much just ignore them now.

[Keropi]

Mangaya...Mangaya? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time...a long time.

I haven't dealt with them before on YJ.

[darksuzaku]

I was interested in one of their cels a few years ago and contacted the "recommended agent" at the e-mail mentioned on the auction asking for their bidding procedures, fees and similar.

I feel like they didn't understand completely what i was asking for because they told me that they didn't have any relation with this person and that if i had any question i had to ask it directly to the seller. Then they gave me another e-mail (supposedly from the seller, proving me that they do have some kind of relation)..... At that point i decided it was not worth to go through all the trouble as i didn't want the cel "that much".

Since then, the same cel and a few others from the same series keep popping up on YJ rather frequently and nobody goes for them. A few of them would have sold very easily ages ago if he didn't have that pointless rule.

Oh, and before someone asks, nope, i don't have the e-mail they told me to contact the seller, i just deleted the e-mail without contacting him.

[Goldknight]

Wow now there's a blast from the past. Mangaya. You know you've been in this hobby a longtime when........

[sletia]

Yeah there's a couple Mimet cels I would have snagged if it wasn't such a hassle. I thought about contacting a private seller to be my deputy but the price it would end up being at the end wouldn't be worth it.

[Koneko Koji]

I spoke with the deputy service, and they seem nice - but I'm just hesitant to use someone other than my favourite two.

There are a few things from that seller I'd love to get hold of ... but same as everyone else here - price and no previous experience is making me hesitate!

[Jem Animation]

I bought from this seller late last month and for it only being my 2nd time buying off YJ, I thought it went just fine. I too thought it was strange that he had his own deputy and the way the seller runs his auctions are odd but I actually ended up signing up with the deputy service because they were soo nice.

All in all, I was a good transaction! ^_^

JA

[Rik1138]

I just bought this cel from him
http://rik1138.rubberslug.com/gallery/i ... mID=305042
via his 'recommended' deputy service about a month ago. I like the deputy service so much I used them for 2 other auctions from other sellers, and have pretty canceled my account on Abidko...

The deputy service did seem to act like they only work with the seller (i.e., that it's not the seller actually doing the service), but who knows. They never placed a bid, the auction just ended with no bids, but I still got the cel for the price listed (decent price, I think his other Video Girl cel is a little too expensive...) I got all three items (two cels and a movie program) _extremely_ fast and with no hassles. Knowing I like Video Girl Ai, the service even pointed out another auction of cels on YJ at the time. (I already knew about them though.) They bid for me, but lost,and immediately Emailed me to ask if I wanted to up the bid (since the auction automatically extended by 5 minutes), but I wasn't around to get the Email... They are really fast to respond to Emails, don't require any down payments, etc...

The deputy service is called Cat Hands Agent
http://cathandsagent.com/
You can see their rates and such on the site. I haven't looked into a lot of these services myself, so I'm not sure how they compare... But for the relatively inexpensive items I was after, I can't complain.

(Heh, and according to their Twitter feed, the life-size Gundam statue is coming back with a new weapon: a beam saber in July... )

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

The deputy service did seem to act like they only work with the seller (i.e., that it's not the seller actually doing the service), but who knows. They never placed a bid, the auction just ended with no bids, but I still got the cel for the price listed

That is INCREDIBLY fishy and dishonest. Frankly, this has sealed the deal that I'll not participate in this person's auctions. The deputy won the auction without placing a bid, did they? So that the seller doesn't need to pay final listing fees on his overpriced auction, oh really? I call baloney. If they aren't the same person, they're obviously close friends.

Dishonesty and taking advantage of people ticks me off.

[Rik1138]

Yeah, it was weird, but they explained in detail exactly what was going to happen before I gave the final agreement to buy the item. Here's exactly what they told me:

The seller, kamisama4096, has his strange rule.

1) All biddings will be removed 3 minute before the finishing time.
An item is re-listed automatically. However it means the latest top
bidder won. Don't be worry. He contacts with a winner directly.
So see the final moment of the auction.

2) Sometimes, he contacts directly before an auction finishes.
When his item was re-listed item, a bidder can purchase an item
for a starting price.

Maybe the seller contacts us before the finishing time. But I can't say
it's sure. Because the auction will finish within a day.

He is a strange but a reliable man. Please wait for a while.
Anyway, the both of items maybe re-listed items. I guess you can purchase
them for starting prices.

So, yeah, something strange is going on. I think it's the seller trying to avoid paying fees to YJ (I see this on eBay pretty much daily). I know a couple of people that have bid on his auctions, even from their own accounts, and all bids always get removed right before the auction ends. He apparently does that to all bids, but then it sounds like he tries to contact the highest bidder directly to make the sale... He either knows the deputy service, or that's the only service that will put up with what he's doing... But they've obviously 'worked together' frequently for them to have these rules well known...

I shouldn't have said 'didn't place a bid', all I could tell was that no bids were placed when the item had ended. Can you see 'removed' bids on YJ? According to the service, they would place a bid, and it would get removed and then they'd deal with him directly... That seems to be what happened....

I needed to use a deputy service anyway, and I got the cel for the price advertised, in the end that's all that mattered to me. If he made the extra cash off the 'deputy service' himself, whatever. In, in fact, considering how polite and responsive they were to my Emails, I'll gladly pay him the fee for making it such a smooth transaction. I've only dealt with Abidko in the past, and hated that I would place an auction bid, and never hear from anyone, ever. I don't even know if they tried to place the bids I requested, and then I had to deal with getting my 50% deposit back... Are the other services like that, or did I just pick a bad one?

It's definitely a weird seller, but however it works, the deal went through flawlessly...

[zerospace]

Last I checked, removed bids still show in the bid count on YJ, but they just don't show when you look at the item's bid history. They used to, at least.

It definitely sounds like fee circumvention to me, and I most definitely will not buy anything from anyone doing something that dishonest.

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

I've only dealt with Abidko in the past, and hated that I would place an auction bid, and never hear from anyone, ever. I don't even know if they tried to place the bids I requested, and then I had to deal with getting my 50% deposit back... Are the other services like that, or did I just pick a bad one?

Sounds like you picked a bad one. My personal favorite is Shopping Mall Japan ( http://www.shoppingmalljapan.com ) Contact is quick, informative e-mails keep you up to date on transactions in progress, and you can place your own bids, so you KNOW the bid was placed, because you're staring at it as it's being placed. I've always considered the prices reasonable.

But seriously.... I'm glad to know to avoid this shady seller. Too bad there's no way we can report those shennanigans to YJ. I hate seeing people pulling crap and getting away with it. >_>

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac

[guardiansofgood]

This YJ seller also created a ebay ID and was selling some D&D model cels from the 1983 animated series but he wanted $11,000 for them a set of 12 models. I emailed him about them he got annoyed with me asking for a larger image, only responded to one email after that then started posting on YJ instead.