Can you buy from Yahoo Auctions?

Yes, we can purchase items from auction sites. We can accept requests for traditional bids as well as buy-it-now.

For traditional bidding, Japan Rabbit’s bidding system is not live or automated, so we strongly recommend inputting your maximum bid up front.

We strongly recommend you input your max bid (the maximum amount you are willing to pay) into Japan Rabbit. What you actually pay could end up being less.

Inputting a small max bid first and then asking us to change it later can cause you to lose the auction.

Why You Should Enter Your Maximum Bid Upfront

Yahoo Auctions are different from auctions in TV and movies. Your bid is automatically increased by a set increment, up to your maximum bid amount. Even though you enter your max bid up front, the final sale price may actually end up being lower.

Example:

  1. Auction has a starting price of 10000 JPY.
  2. You enter a max bid of 15000 JPY in Japan Rabbit.
  3. Japan Rabbit enters this max bid for you into Yahoo Auctions. You have the current bid is 10500 JPY. This is the previous bid plus a minimum increment (see next section).
  4. Another person inputs their max bid of 12000 JPY.
  5. Yahoo Auctions automatically updates your bid to 12500 JPY. This is the competitor’s bid plus the minimum increment, but still below your max bid.
  6. Auction closes.
  7. Your final sale price for the item is 12500 JPY, plus any order fees from Japan Rabbit (storage, service, and shipping are later).

Japan Rabbit will initially charge your payment method for your max bid plus order fees. If the auction closes and you win, we will refund you the difference between your max bid and the final price (if any). If the auction closes and you lose, we will cancel the order and refund you the full amount.

Automatic Bidding Increment

The automatic bidding increment depends on the current bid.

Current Bid
Increment

1 to 999 JPY

10 JPY

1000 to 4999 JPY

100 JPY

5000 to 9999 JPY

250 JPY

10000 to 49999 JPY

500 JPY

50000 or more JPY

1000 JPY

Source: Yahoo! Japan Auctions Help

Changing Your Max Bid

  • Before checkout in Japan Rabbit — You can change your max bid at any time when the item is still in your cart.
  • After checkout in Japan Rabbit — If you need to change your max bid, please let us know before 6pm JST on the day the auction ends.

Sniping Protections

Sniping is a practice in online auctions where someone places a bid in the last few minutes before an auction closes. Yahoo Auctions has several protections in place to guard against this practice.

  • Auto extension — If a bid is placed within 5 minutes of the auction’s end time, then the auction’s end will automatically extend another 5 minutes to allow new bids. This extension repeats if there are more new bids.
  • Max bid — Your bid is automatically incremented up to the max bid that you set. See example earlier.

Buy It Now

Some auctions have a “buy it now” option. You can identify buy-it-now auctions, as they have a dark red button labeled 今すぐ落札.

The current bid price is in orange (現在). The buy-it-now price is shown below the bid price in black (即決).

If the buy-it-now price is within your budget, we recommend setting that price to quickly secure your items. Simply enter the buy-it-now price as your max bid in Japan Rabbit.

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