So my "Friend in Japan" has gone strictly eBay and is no longer taking requests (somebody must have burned him). I have no choice but to open my own YJA account. All of the How To tutorials that I google for setting up a Yahoo ID were outdated, so I was having someone set one up for me. He informed me however, that YJA now requires a separate email address from your Japanese cell phone.
Anyone else run into this problem? Do I need to purchase and maintain a Japanese cellphone account? Was everyone else grandfathered in or what?

many of us use Celga for YJA.

And even if you did get an account most sellers don't ship internationally...

Stupid expensive hobby!!

Yeah, I have a warehouse address. I was going to try Japan to Door. They charge 10% plus shipping, which was what my Friend in Japan was charging me but I had to create a Yahoo Japan account in order to bid - using their warehouse as my address. But they are simply an address forwarding service. A deputy service, like Celga, takes care of all the little worries like a Japanese cellphone (i.e. SS#).

Celga was the google keyword I was missing. I found the old Rinkya vs Celga post. Thanks guys!

the cellphone requirement is easy to get around.
however, unless you have a japanese bank account and also a japanese bank issued credit card, it will not be very helpful just to have a yja account. u can only bid up to 5000yen if u do not have a premier account which requires it to be linked to the japanese credit card.
in this hobby, 5000yen is usually inadequate.

They're charging ten-fucking-percent...and they don't even take care of all the account-related crap?

You're getting fucking ripped off.

What do you suggest Sanjeev, I have to say I'm pretty jealous of people that have the YahooJapan thing down pat, I see a lot of great auctions I'd love to be part of, that said, I'm sure you guys are glad that there's one less person to step on your toes, and my bank account is thankful as well.

What do I suggest? I suggest asking, of course! It's not like you need to go through some blood ritual to be worthy of this sacred information. And it doesn't require CIA clearance or a damn background check.

And since you did ask, I would recommend Celga, like Kirkland mentioned, or my personal favorite: Tokyobuyers. I used to use Celga way back in the day, and if I recall correctly, their commission was somewhere in the 10% range too...so I guess I overreacted earlier! That's par for the course!

But for me, the days where I can just pick up any cool toy are way over. A toy's cost in terms of living space far exceeds the cost in terms of money! So nowadays, I'm only hunting stuff that's rare (usually vintage) as a way of artificially/arbitrarily limiting my purchases (well...AND I generally prefer the aesthetic of vintage vinyl over most toys you see coming out nowadays). But unfortunately, that also means that the few toys I get per year tend to be pricey.

And that's what's great about Tokyobuyers: their commission is variable. I think if you win something for around 10k (yen), their commission is actually around 14% (goes to show ya how outta the loop I am!). BUT...if the stuff you're gunning for is around 50k (like many vintage vinyls), the commission rapidly drops to less than half that.

So your cheapest bet MAY be to stick with Celga if you're after cheaper items, but I personally prefer Tokyobuyers because their service is off the hook and they go outta their way to order stuff for you from other websites, contact sellers to negotiate, etc...

Agreed. Tokyobuyers seems to be a bit more economical if your poaching big ticket items. Also, once you are an established customer, they'll usually even place your bid without having to collect your deposit upfront. So you don't have to go through the pay/refund process given that you lose the auction.

However, in my experience, I find that Celga is just a bit quicker to respond and place your bid. Considering how quickly some of the BIY items go, as well as making a split decision to "up" your bid as the deadline grows near, this may also be important. However, to up your bid, you can be sure they'll ask you to pay any difference in deposit prior to doing so.

No problems here with japa

Celga Gold cause then you can play in real time....

Hmm...I hadn't considered how responsive each service is. I definitely recall Celga being damn quick...but I don't remember it ever being a problem with TokyoBuyers. Pretty sure either service will do their best to bid as close as possible to the end of the auction.

But honestly, once you're established with TokyoBuyers, you can request your own account too. In lieu of that, Celga Gold...totally. Bidding yourself is fucking clutch.

I've used Celga a few times in the past, every purchase I made through them was easy and clean.

Celga Gold is the only way to go IMO. Tokyo Buyers is cool, but i need to bid on stuff myself.

but seriously, buying anything in yen these days is very expensive.

Celga is a pain.

When I cancelled my gold account, I asked them if there was anything else I needed to do.
No.

Six months later, I get a renewal invoice. I ask them to cancel it and get a hard time about it and two days of emails.

Tokyobuyers is way easier. He answers my emails within a few hours most of the time, within a day at the most.
Thankfully the items I bid on don't blip on anyone's radar here so I don't have the need for a gold type account.