Chaos and Kanji is the blog where I write about my adventures through Japan!

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Saturday, December 21, 2019

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Yahoo's system feels outdated, but it's generally pretty fast.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.

12 comments:

  1. You can block on Ebay, I know this because I've been blocked a few times. One guy blocked me because I won cards really cheap, less than a stamp. He asked me to buy more stuff so he wasn't wasting money. I looked and nothing else he had fit my collections so I said no thanks. He sent me the card, I left positive feedback, he blocked me.

    Another guy I hadn't received the card in 3 weeks. I contacted him, he refunded the money. The very next day, the card showed up in my mail, I sent him a message and told him it showed up and then repayed him for it. I didn't have to tell him or repay it but I did so to be honest. He blocked me.

    I don't understand people either.

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    1. I understand both of their reasons, though neither of them are valid reasons in my mind. If you list things for less than the price of shipping, that's the chance you take. And while I understand blocking a bidder who "didn't receive" something I know I shipped, in your case you were honest and I'd say he should have unblocked you, or never blocked you in the first place.

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  2. Crazy, I wonder what they perceived the problem as? Sucks especially when there were some key cards you could have used. I’ve had to block some folks on eBay before, but don’t think I ever have been blocked.

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    1. With YJA, he left me feedback a full month after the auction ended. I don't recall the card in particular or any details about it; I certainly didn't complain or anything. For the Mercari comment listing (which is still there a month later), maybe my Japanese grammar was crappy. Or maybe he's racist. Or he's just a moron.

      I think I've been blocked by one seller on eBay, because I asked someone else to buy a card for me a few years ago. But seeing how I never return things, and I can't recall the last time I left neutral or negative feedback, he must have been offended by a "lowball" best offer. And if that's the case, they need to get over themselves. There are minimum offer settings on auctions.

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  3. That sucks. Sorry this has happened. Some of the prices I see on Japanese sites makes me wish I had an account just so I can lambaste them.

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    1. There are great prices, and there are insanely high prices, too. It's amazing the range that shows up.

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  4. That totally stinks. Sorry to hear that. It'd be interesting to hear their reasoning. Shame you can't block their listings from showing up, so you don't have to see items that you're unable to bid on.

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    1. It would be nice to just not see the listings, but someone else mentioned on an eBay message board that the computational power just to check this when searching, or when viewing an item, would be pretty high.

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  5. I've blocked three buyers over the years. Two of them were for non-payment but the third guy had was trying to get out of paying for his win, claiming I had misrepresented what I was selling (it was a 1993 BBM Kazuhisa Ishii card - guy said I said it was his rookie card. I hadn't). Eventually had to get Ebay involved and got him to pay. Blocked him because I didn't need to got through that nonsense twice. This was in the pre-PayPal days when buyers needed to mail a check and I had to wait for the check to clear - I waited like a week to make sure his check was good.

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    1. See, these are valid reasons. I remember those check days!

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  6. My biggest source of anger about Yahoo Auctions is that sellers can block you simply for being non-Japanese even if you live in Japan, speak Japanese and have a solid rep.

    That happened to me a few years ago in a video game related purchase which I ranted about in a post on my other blog:
    https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-minor-quibble-with-festering-cesspool.html

    I bought a game from the guy, the transaction went smoothly. Then a little while later I tried to buy something else from him and discovered I was blocked. I hadn't read the fine print on his sale description which says "no foreigners" and, having seen my name in katakana, he just blocked me.

    That was 4 years ago and the guy still has that "no foreigners" thing in his listing, Its just insane that they openly let that sort of blatant racism slide.

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    1. I would contact SoraNews24/RocketNews24. They might actually do a whole story on racist sellers! I can understand not wanting to do international shipping, but if you can't handle doing business with someone who looks different from you, then perhaps you shouldn't be doing business at all.

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