Because I use other "3rd" party auction services and never read of the types of problems you guys are revealing in this thread stemming from Lixx 's original post. Why should I not comment? People should not be having these troubles.

Have you read all of "Lixx's" posts?? 67% of them are negative and he microwaved his own hat once. (kidding chris)

Anyway if you know of 3rd party services that don't require deposits for YJA auctions please let me know because off hand I don't know of a single one.

The $101 is most likely the cost of shipping from Japan to wherever outside of Japan. Most folks do it EMS (Express Mail Service) so cost is high.

But you do have to pay the shipping fee from the original seller to Celga. Any deputy service does that. That's part of the deal with these things. Celga buys for you, they get it shipped to them, they ship it to you. You also have to pay the bank transfer fee which Celga gets charged for simply paying the original buyer.

Buying anything from Japan and importing to the U.S. is not cheap. That's why folks try to control the one thing they can--shipping--by waiting to ship to them until after a few auctions are won.

Personally, I've started to switch to small packet (aka: normal, non trackable Air Mail) since it's 60% less than EMS and I have never had any problems. Works great actually!

Also all these conspiracy theories are hilarious. Even before I knew of Celga and would buy stuff directly from Japan in other ways (friends, stores, etc...) I've always been amazed at how trustworthy and reliable the vast majority of Japanese sellers are. Compared to U.S. eBay sellers, it's night and day.

What exactly do you think a "'3rd' party auction service" does?

Sure you can have an opinion, but I'm saying that I think you misunderstand the fundamental nature of Celga's business. Therefore your comments are not really on point.

@MicromanZone- You must truly lead a blessed life as a buyer (kidding). I rarely use SAL except when the item is easily replaceable or low value. The treatment of SAL packages varies enormously between post offices within the US. At one place that I used to live, nearly every SAL box would show up crushed. In Hawaii, the SAL boxes would sometimes take over a month to arrive (the longest was 6 weeks). I guess I am paying for peace of mind at this point.

Ok I really regret venting about celga a year ago. I had an issue, posted here, and now it's morphed into the deputy auction complaint thread. If I delete my original post will this thread vanish?

Bryce I'm not that negative, I'm just in touch with my inner vent!

I'd also like to add that my original beef was purely communication. With any bidding service you're going to pay fees. It's a business that's how they make their money. Without them I know for a fact I would not own 3/4 of my collection. So unless you have someone who can personally hit stores in japan on the regular for you it's just a fact of life.

The $101 shipping is from Celga to me in the UK (location doesn't help the cost at all!)

I wasn't complaining, just making an ouch comment in the Celga thread, which happens to be mostly full of bad comments!
Celga are great, had a few problems but always been sorted eventually - I'd have hardly any of what I've got without them and their fees and charges are all part of the package. This invoice is nearly double what I'd normally pay but I wanted insurance this time so opted for EMS instead of the usual uninsured SAL.
2 Monster Heaven Hedorahs don't help with the 4Kg weight either.

Chris - maybe you could rename the thread title and people could add positive stuff too?!

On the positive side . . . I can cope with Celga fees if I'm only paying $12.00 for Proto Brains!

I don't think you could describe them as dishonest, just a bit disorganised of late.

My head hurts reading that.

Just tried bidding on an item and got hit with a 5000 yen bidding ceiling and a wall of text about a Premium bidding service and 346 Yen per month cover charge . . . WTF is this all about . . . and why now!

thats some newer policy that yja has, I have never been hit with it before tho. That SUCKS.

Meh!

+1

+1? really?

Can someone explain this better? I've bid way 5,000 Yen in the past via Celga as the bidder.

YJA has had this fee for a while now, almost 5 years I think. That is what the 36.00 per year Celga Gold fee is supposed to cover. As long as the monthly fee is paid to YJA by Celga, you can bid freely without a limit.

Yes. Tre sad.

I'm rooting for you to hit 10,000 posts Joe. You post all the +1s you need to.

I had a similar problem using Celga the other day -
I wanted to raise a max bid (over 5000) and they told me bidding had finished, but there was over an hour left.
They told me the red 1 meant there was a minute left and they couldn't bid!
After a few more emails - me arguing that the 1 meant an hour, them telling me they were unable to bid, they ended up bidding using another ID and I won...

Anyone who's had Celga lose their items - what happens?!

There was an item missing on my shipping invoice, so I emailed to tell them.
The reply said it's probably in the box but contact them if it isn't, which I did.
I've emailed a few times over the last 3 days and no reply at all - not even to say we're looking in to it

They're still happy to send me 'thanks for bidding' emails and invoices but I'm being ignored about my lost item and I'm not happy

Anyone ever had their lost stuff found or got a reply?!

Thanks

The red one means 1 minute. If you dont have a gold acct that would make it impossible for them to bid on it.

It definitely had 1 hour left to run because I waited for an hour for it to finish!
There's either a red 1 時間 (hour?) or 1 分 (minute?) - I looked this up after they emailed me
I was even told it had finished at one point during the last hour after I was told they couldn't bid higher than 5000
cel***** couldn't bid above 5000 but their other ID bad***** could - not sure what they were playing at...

Anyway I won the item - just pissed they're ignoring me about the one they lost

Of course they'll ignore your emails. They have your money and might have to actually go looking for one of their mistakes. Sorry my biggest pet peeve in the entire world is ignored emails or pm's. To me it is an admission of guilt and only compounds the problem.

i have had celga lose and item(a gid skullbrain) got my box and was missing and item wich i paid BIN for
give them the URL of the item won and they eventually found it
though i did have to pay to have the 1 item shipped wich sucks as i already paid to have it shipped the first time

Thats just shitty service whichever angle you look at it from.

- On three separate occasions I've been fucked over by a seller on YJA and never received an item I paid a lot of money for - Celga met me half way and ate half the loss each time. Something they did not need to do.

- I've had them lose an item and after a few e-mails they refunded my money in full.

- I've had items not show up on my shipping notice which were later found and sorted out.

I think the bottom line is that the process of buying something, at auction, through a buying service, in another country, is a complicated process that involves a lot of people. Each event involves various actions whether that be e-mailing in bid requests, payment, shipping etc. Things are bound to get fucked up from time to time. And as has been recently proven by someone else's experience with another buying service here, it happens to everyone.

It's part of the game you whinie bitches!