They have been the best for jpn games and the place i get loads of great deals. But now they have decided to send registered sal only. Meaning a £4 sal is now gonna cost me £9 to ship. This past week i bought 3 games costing me £20 which is quoted £6 for shipping each game. Now instead of the usual combined invoice of around £10-13 they now want £27. Aint gonna happen.
Strange, I just got an invoice for 4 games (3 Famicom, 1 N64) which is quoted at $21 for all games shipping to Germany.
Once they started loosing profit over the "undelivered items" sent by unregistered mail, they followed ebay rules and recommendations. Registered mail gives proof of delivery in terms of ebay-paypal and items described as "secondhand junk" hard to claim SNAD.
Enjoy your ebay and paypal.
Well they reinvoiced me. But they will lose my custom. plenty of jpn sellers with better prices. Just have to find one i am happy with.
What I like about Yamatoku are the tons of auctions and actual photos. Other selles have overpriced BINs and stock photos. What are good alternatives to Yamatoku?
I browse national only auctions sometimes, what drives Yamatoku's prices up is the reach and therefore the bids they receive.
You can't really grab a bargain there, but it's great if you want something specific and simply must have it.
Yikes. Some of the listings I've been watching went from $9 to $14 shipping since yesterday. Since these are listings that'll end for <$3 that's going to price them out of my limit.
As for recommendations, I've been very happy buying from pal52 on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/sch/pal52/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= He's located in the USA and ships fast. I get most stuff in 2 or 3 days.
Cheap post to uk from japan always helps. Hopefully they will rethink. I mean a ps1 game worth £2 wont sell if post is £9. trying j4u on ebay.
Quote from: FrankWDoom on January 22, 2016, 10:54:42 am
As for recommendations, I've been very happy buying from pal52 on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/sch/pal52/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= He's located in the USA and ships fast. I get most stuff in 2 or 3 days.
Thank you very much, but buying from US Ebay Sellers is even worse for us Europeans, because of the Global Shipping Program. For example that Super Mario Bros. at $9.95 costs additional $15.65 for shipping to Germany. There are very few sellers that don't use this scam of a service unfortunately.
Sometimes Dora_ts17 has good deals on games. I just got the gamecube remake of biohazard for less than $10 USD shipped.
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/dora_ts17/m.html
Gotta be careful with Yamatoku and watch out for getting shill bid up the wazoo. Hard to get and kind of
deal anymore on the popular items and I've seen a trend of weird bidding. Some of his auctions will end
of with many bid retractions, sometimes even hundreds!! Others have reported many instances of shill
bidding if you do some searching. It's a sad game we have to deal with, no other sellers list as many JPN
games at auction.
Also, a shameless plug for my own ebay store. I just got a ton of great stuff in and I'm working on listing it.
I pack well and ship very quickly. Satisfaction Guaranteed! I ship international to most countries and don't
use the global shipping program.
http://www.ebay.com/usr/waterclocker83/
Quote from: waterclocker on January 22, 2016, 01:18:49 pm
Gotta be careful with Yamatoku and watch out for getting shill bid up the wazoo. Hard to get and kind of
deal anymore on the popular items and I've seen a trend of weird bidding. Some of his auctions will end
of with many bid retractions, sometimes even hundreds!! Others have reported many instances of shill
bidding if you do some searching. It's a sad game we have to deal with, no other sellers list as many JPN
games at auction.
I noticed that many of their auctions have bids from members who have bid 1000's of times on their items. It's always 99 or 100% of that member's recent bids, too.
Quote from: kevkevkev on January 22, 2016, 11:07:41 am
Cheap post to uk from japan always helps. Hopefully they will rethink. I mean a ps1 game worth £2 wont sell if post is £9. trying j4u on ebay.
Rethink what? To keep their lost? Same about "Don't ship to {countries list}" - once seller start loosing money on {country name}, it's easier just not to sell there for a while.
Retracted bids - someone just having fun by thinking "keep thet greedy buggers busy". I'm pretty sure this(retracting, e-mailing etc) done by software.
And i very doubt about shill bidding - they are too big to bother. This is "recycle shop"(scrap yard in other words) and their goal is slightly different of what you thinking.
Ah, forgot about "bid on 1000s of other items" - resellers(most likely), beginners, another sellers, who wants to push up average market price.
Quote from: SumixXam on January 22, 2016, 12:48:24 pm
Sometimes Dora_ts17 has good deals on games. I just got the gamecube remake of biohazard for less than $10 USD shipped.
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/dora_ts17/m.html
Just checked their "negatives" - ITEM NEVER ARRIVED. Weird, isn't it?
If they dont go back nobody will buy as much as they wont be the cheapest. So theyll lose more than a few buyers trying to scam them.
I'll keep buying from them regardless. If i'm not purchasing privately from someone here on FamicomWorld then I'll usually turn to Yamatoku. I've always had exemplary service from them, with everything being extremely well packed and quickly dispatched. With the photos they take i've never been unpleasantly surprised with the appearance of a game.
This said, it's a free market and you have many other options for buying your games if you don't agree with their business practices.
For me I don't really notice the postage costs from Japan too much. Living in Australia i'm used to paying more for postage than on the actual product, and postage costs from Japan are usually a happy surprise compared to literally everywhere else (including SAL). For instance, bought some CX-42 Wireless joysticks from the US costing $40 US with about $60 in shipping (cheapest option).
I think Yamatoku is a great store. The only thing I can complain about is maybe the customer service. Yamatoku could respond a little faster and give more of a detailed response to questions. I'm satisfied with everything else though.
Quote from: 80sFREAK on January 22, 2016, 10:54:24 pm
Quote from: kevkevkev on January 22, 2016, 11:07:41 am
Cheap post to uk from japan always helps. Hopefully they will rethink. I mean a ps1 game worth £2 wont sell if post is £9. trying j4u on ebay.
Rethink what? To keep their lost? Same about "Don't ship to {countries list}" - once seller start loosing money on {country name}, it's easier just not to sell there for a while.
Retracted bids - someone just having fun by thinking "keep thet greedy buggers busy". I'm pretty sure this(retracting, e-mailing etc) done by software.
And i very doubt about shill bidding - they are too big to bother. This is "recycle shop"(scrap yard in other words) and their goal is slightly different of what you thinking.
Ah, forgot about "bid on 1000s of other items" - resellers(most likely), beginners, another sellers, who wants to push up average market price.
Quote from: SumixXam on January 22, 2016, 12:48:24 pm
Sometimes Dora_ts17 has good deals on games. I just got the gamecube remake of biohazard for less than $10 USD shipped.
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/dora_ts17/m.html
Just checked their "negatives" - ITEM NEVER ARRIVED. Weird, isn't it?
I have around 10 purchases with them and got every package.
Quote from: kevkevkev on January 23, 2016, 03:56:00 am
If they dont go back nobody will buy as much as they wont be the cheapest. So theyll lose more than a few buyers trying to scam them.
You never know amount of their disputes and lost. And your $2 purchases will not help them much to survive.
@SumixXam, right, but it's happening quite regular. This is reality.
I've bought probably 20 or 30 packages of items from yamatoku now and I've never lost any of them. Their communication makes sense seeing how they often have hundreds of individual sales to package and respond to. They're a fantastic seller. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is how dirty some of their stuff is. Their pictures often mask the true filth of their items. Occasionally they list mint goods though.
Yeah its hard to tell creases without angled photos. 1 of my chrono triggers was grade quality.
Be very careful with Yamatoku.
I have had problems with them on my last 2 orders, and I am not going to bother buying from them ever again.
On my last 2 orders the invoice Yamatoku sent me was higher than the total base shipping of all the items, I had to ask for new invoices explaining in details that it made no sense and that a 1kg package shouldn't even cost 120$ in the first place. For the first of my last 2 packages, the shipping eventually went down to 70$ (which is still incredibly expensive). But on the second package we agreed on 75 for EMS, and he shipped it with surface. I am currently trying to get my money back for the shipping charges from paypal as Yamatoku never responds to anything. As for my items I'm gonna have to wait a very long time to get them. :'(
Sad to hear. I do feel like Yamatoku have a good selection of daily items but as a resource they are not always great value. Having said that, there can be mega deals also.
My main complaint is not against them, but that there are just SO many people looking at their listings, it's rare to snag a bargain these days. I've started looking at UK only listings to snag deals.
Quote from: poipo32 on March 11, 2016, 04:22:00 am
Be very careful with Yamatoku.
I have had problems with them on my last 2 orders, and I am not going to bother buying from them ever again.
On my last 2 orders the invoice Yamatoku sent me was higher than the total base shipping of all the items, I had to ask for new invoices explaining in details that it made no sense and that a 1kg package shouldn't even cost 120$ in the first place. For the first of my last 2 packages, the shipping eventually went down to 70$ (which is still incredibly expensive). But on the second package we agreed on 75 for EMS, and he shipped it with surface. I am currently trying to get my money back for the shipping charges from paypal as Yamatoku never responds to anything. As for my items I'm gonna have to wait a very long time to get them. :'(
I've had Yamatoku overcharge my shipping by about $200 twice... I messaged him saying how that was unacceptable and he did refund me. I think my current order may have been overcharged, we'll see when I get it next week.
A problem I had with him recently is that he took soooo long to respond to my messages that he cancelled a lot of my items because I didn't pay within the 30 days of the items. I tried asking him for an invoice everyday for 3 weeks and he either didn't respond or he kept messing up the invoice. He cancelled some really cool and really rare items that I won because he was taking so long. I'm pissed. I'm also mad at how he took 3 weeks to give me an invoice. I should have had that order already >:(
>:(
guys, don't be too positively pathetic.
do we have an official blacklist of ebay stores?
if not, then i propose to start it with Yamatoku. Foremost nice candidate to start with. :-X
there's a dozen of complains from various members at few threads. maybe it's better to warn other board members? so people will be aware of all known drawbacks such as extremely overcharged shipping costs and the lack of any response from the seller within 1 month.
could be done as a sticky thread in BST or Auction board.
Seems like they charge double on the shipping to take advantage of people who don't know what it costs to ship stuff from Japan.
I was over charged by $100 on my last order for EMS. They did refund $85 after I complained to their credit...but I'm going to have to check
the postage on every order I get from them.
Their easy peel off inventory labels have been bothering me too. Most of the time they peel off fine, but they have caused damage
to a number of these wonderful old game boxes :(
I guess I should be happy that I've gotten everything I ordered though. I'll still watch for some rarities and deals, but I'm not thrilled.
Their untracked shipping prices used to be reasonable, but as 80sFREAK alluded to, I suspect they were a victim of some dishonest "my item never arrived" buyers. eBay will always find in the buyer's favour in this situation. By my own experiences though, they're either price gouging on the postage now and hoping you don't notice, or they've got someone completely incompetent in charge of that side of things.
They don't know or care about what they're selling IMO, they go for profit-by-volume.
I stay away now, not so many good deals available, and their pictures are often not representative of what you receive.
They dont over charge shipping. You simply dont pay it until its a combined fair rate.
I wont go back while their shipping is registered. Plenty of other jpn sellers.
Quote from: kevkevkev on March 11, 2016, 10:05:10 am
They dont over charge shipping. You simply dont pay it until its a combined fair rate.
Yes they do, as poipo32 and zmaster18 have also experienced. Sometimes they'll reduce it when you ask, assuming you're lucky enough to get a response.
Don't many contries still accept registered SAL?
Just got my new package. I was overcharged by about US$100 for shipping. I totally saw this coming.
Yamatoku messaged me before explaining how the shipping cost includes a handling/shipping supplies fee. My big cardboard box and bubble wrap don't cost $100... >:( I would pay a maximum of $15 for a shipping supply fee if he really needed me to pay for it.
I haven't opened it yet, lets see if everything is in here and not damaged.
You know what it costs. Jurt dont pay until you get a combined invoice
I made a mistake when calculating how much he ripped me off. He actually overcharged me by US$170 / CAD$220... I'm totally getting this refunded.
How can you afford such big purchases all the time? Ha-ha. My largest eBay purchase was like $100 shipped. :p
Here's what Yamatoku told me:
Hello
our shipping fee is not as same as the shipping label .
we decided to add tracking code to all our items that's why shipping fee was changed.
so we can't refund it.
sorry but I hope you understand.
thank you
So yeah...this doesn't explain why he overcharged me $220. He said that because all packages have tracking now, I must be overcharged more than 200 bucks. All my packages have had tracking. I'm just going to politely keep arguing with him until I get that amount refunded. He was able to refund me before!! I also checked his negative feedback on ebay and it seems a few people have also been overcharged lately.
Quote
we decided to add tracking code to all our items that's why shipping fee was changed.
>:( looks like that tracking code just adds about 500 JPY at most. https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/service/option/registered_en.html
I never bought from him as his shipping was always to high,if anything you can get ebay involved and get your money back but that dude sure has a good amount of negative feedback.
Also if your buying in bulk I think yahoo japan auctions would be a better choice.
Yeah, I really should use Yahoo Auctions and a Japanese buying service. I've never done it before though!
I just checked all my old messages and the last time he overcharged me was March 2015. Last time he responded right away and apologized and refunded me US$120. This time he didn't even acknowledge that he made a mistake and just thought I would give up. I messaged him again telling him "be kind and do the right thing" and hopefully he will. I told him that since he refunded me in the past, it's certainly possible to refund me again.
Quote from: zmaster18 on March 16, 2016, 12:10:08 pm
Last time he responded right away and apologized and refunded me US$120. This time he didn't even acknowledge that he made a mistake and just thought I would give up.
I am under the impression that Yamatoku is more than one person. Maybe you just got in contact with a nicer employee the first time.
Quote from: UglyJoe on March 16, 2016, 12:17:22 pm
Quote from: zmaster18 on March 16, 2016, 12:10:08 pm
Last time he responded right away and apologized and refunded me US$120. This time he didn't even acknowledge that he made a mistake and just thought I would give up.
I am under the impression that Yamatoku is more than one person. Maybe you just got in contact with a nicer employee the first time.
I'm pretty sure it's a company with a dozen employees, but I always think of Yamatoku as one guy for some reason. Or he's the boss of the company. The name of the seller on the package and in some of the messages is signed by a H. Tokumoto. I think that is where the name Yamatoku comes from.
Post Merge: March 17, 2016, 07:27:15 am
Here's what he said this time:
Hello
last time I didn't know that our shipping fee is not as same as post office one
and handling fee , packing fee and box fee is included in our shipping fee.
I hope you can understand us.
regards
He still isn't explaining why I was charged so much and it seems that he really doesn't want to refund me. Goddam this guy - his prices are so good yet his customer service is horrible. :-\
Quote from: zmaster18 on March 16, 2016, 12:26:15 pm
He still isn't explaining why I was charged so much and it seems that he really doesn't want to refund me. Goddam this guy - his prices are so good yet his customer service is horrible. :-\
Sounds like a clear explanation to me: last time he didn't know that their shipping prices are supposed to be much higher than what the post office charges so he refunded you the difference, but now he knows that you're supposed to pay a lot more so you're not getting a refund this time.
Quote from: mfm on March 17, 2016, 11:03:22 am
Sounds like a clear explanation to me: last time he didn't know that their shipping prices are supposed to be much higher than what the post office charges so he refunded you the difference, but now he knows that you're supposed to pay a lot more so you're not getting a refund this time.
That's how I read it, as well.
Still, it costs $200 to handle, pack, and box some Famicom stuff?
He didn't know that the shipping fee he charged me wasn't the same as the actual fee? That's a bunch of bull. The greedy guy does know because he just made a $200 profit off the shipping. He knows what he's doing, he just doesn't want to admit it.
That wasn't a clear explanation at all. I asked him why the handling fee is $200.
I would just get a entire refund and get ebay involved and do business elsewhere.
refunds... don't get too much amount of refunds. paypal could lock you. At least, i read that kind of stories over the internets. dunno, if those stories were real.
I've had issues with Yamatoku before and they plead ignorance in messages even when I had pictures to clearly prove a point, they won't admit fault (or are in denial) so you'll have to try other means. It was after that I stopped being so loyal to Yamatoku, though I've had plenty of good times with them in the past.
Got his new message... he said even less this time. Looks like he really won't budge and I'm not getting a refund.
Just take it to PayPal and open a dispute. The shipping costs are nuts based on the weight so I would be surprised if you didn't win, it seems pretty transparent.
This means you probably won't be able to buy from them again, I would suspect.
Would be great if you could keep us updated for the sake of other members.
I don't want to make him mad, I've read posts on other sites saying that people who leave negative feedback get banned. Whenever I do have to complain, I make an effort to be polite as possible and choose my words carefully.
I will inform you guys everytime I have a problem... so probably in 2 weeks from now :P
I don't think getting banned should be a major concern, would you seriously consider buying from them again? Paypal/eBay usually side with the buyer unless there's concrete proof in the seller's favour. I've won a couple of disputes (against other sellers) just because they were so slow or ignored the messages to the point where I just got refunded automatically.
Escalate it, they'll have to prove shipping costs, and a $200 "handling fee" isn't going to be justifiable.
WHY DID YOU PAY?
didnt it seem high? Yeah they should refund but i doubt they will.
If any shipping is quoted before you pay, if it seems high dont pay. I bought about 5 games during which they changed the shipping process so i was invoiced alot more. I simply didnt pay until it was right.
I've done that before where I've argued for days and days until he lowered his price. This time I was waiting almost a whole month for an invoice and I just wanted to get my stuff fast. I'm still very satisfied with my purchase and it was worth the price I paid... even if I got ripped off.
For my next invoice I'm going to make sure that I'm not overcharged too bad... :upsetroll:
I got shill bid from yamatoku last night on an FC game. Blatantly obvious. I reported it. Hopefully something good comes of it. If you get shilled, report it.
There was a site somewhere listing all of the shill bids on his auction, I believe there were hundreds of accounts set up where 90-something% of their bids were (non-winning ones) on Yamatoku's auctions. Either he's the only one they try to buy from, or something dodgy's going on.
I also had shill bidding on an auction I won the other day and I reported it as well.
I will say that I have not had to deal with any outrageous shipping charges but that's probably because I'm only buying loose carts.
How can you be sure there's shill bidding occurring?
I guess it's very hard to prove, but he had a lot of low-feedback people who only ever seemed to bid on his items, but never won them, or retracted their bids. Not 100% proof, obviously, but very suspicious when it happens frequently. There was a site called Auction Scams or something that listed bidding stats of eBayers, but it seems to be gone now.
There's still evidence of it on some forums: http://www.retrocollect.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9642 (http://www.retrocollect.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9642)
Curiously, though, the site that outed them is no longer around. If you go to their Twitter page (https://twitter.com/auctionscams), it only has a single post and it's linking to their article outing yamatoku. Seems a bit personal...
We'll, I mainly stopped buying from them because their auctions always (as a rule) end high - which just meant it wasn't a good source for bargains. One may as well browse BIN listings.
So I did have suspicions of shill bidding - that website is pretty damning with some of the retraction amounts, which I find amazing (100s of retractions in one month?!?).
So that, plus shipping costs doubling, plus the time to respond to mails has totally put me off and I don't even browse anymore. Shame.
Yamatoku generally have a really good service I think, but they are known shill bidders. So you rarely see great deals, auctions almost always end high.