Insane Japanese Sellers

I need to rant for a minute.

eBay isn't so big here in Japan. Instead, sellers use Yahoo Japan Auctions or Mercari. Both of these sites have a lot of benefits over eBay's system, as a buyer and I'm sure as a seller. The fee structure for them seems to be less focused on per-auction or final value fees, and more on monthly fees for having a store. This means that prices often stay lower. YJA card sellers often have shipping under a buck - the cost of the stamp and perhaps the envelope. Part of this is because the Japanese postal service can handle delivering envelopes without ripping them open or bending them, so bubble mailers aren't really necessary.

Mercari doesn't allow bundling, and until you buy something there's no way to contact a seller. So any price negotiations or combining of purchases happens in the comment section. Mercari sellers usually include shipping in their prices for smaller things, so it really pays to discuss a total for several purchases. This can slow things down.

Yahoo's system feels outdated, but it's generally pretty fast. Only recently have they improved their checkout system for combined wins/purchases, and some sellers use some old storefront form of checkout which makes things much more complicated.

Both systems (other than the storefront checkout system in YJA) have an automatic system for notifying buyers and sellers about the progress of completed purchases - whether shipping information has been sent, whether payment is completed, whether the item has been shipped, and for tracked items on Mercari, whether it's been delivered. Both systems require buyers to mark the goods as received before sellers can get their money as a form of protection, but the system will automatically complete this after an extended period of time with no claim.

Sellers can block bidders for whatever reason, mainly to keep harassment to a minimum (non-paying bidders on YJA, and those who leave harassing comments in Mercari).

Now here's where I have to rant.

Twice in the past week, including just now, I've tried buying or bidding on something, only to find out I've been blocked.

On Mercari, I was blocked by a seller I never bought from. The seller listed a bunch of cards from a set I was interested in, but didn't give any details. My comment was a question asking if there were any cards from a particular set of numbers... and the seller deleted my comment and blocked me from buying his auctions.

And on YJA, I've just come across a seller that I've purchased from before who has cards I want to bid on. I have perfect feedback there, and he left me positive feedback on an auction four years ago. Yet he blocked me.

What is wrong with these people? Seriously, Japanese people. Get some social skills. I don't even know if eBay has a blocking function, but no sane seller would block someone simply for asking if certain cards were in a lot with no details. And no sane seller would block someone who paid for their auctions that they've won before.

Of course, since they've blocked me, there's no way to see what is wrong with those people. And in my mind, there must be something wrong with them. Since I asked a simple factual question to one, and I paid for my auction for the other, and they left me positive feedback.

The problem isn't being blocked. The problem is that I can still see their listings. No, I take that back. The problem is that I'm blocked without doing something wrong. So the problem is that these sellers are insane. Prove me wrong.