Okay, in the High and Lows thread I posted VERY excited because I won the top item on my want list...an item that has been on top of said list for over 2 DECADES! The Jumbo Machinder of Combattra! An item I wanted even before I knew it existed as Shogun Warriors were THE toys of my childhood, the Marvel comic featured 3 robots...Raydeen Dangard Ace & Combattra...I still have the Raydeen from my childhood and got Dangard a couple years ago...but Combattra was ALWAYS my favorite. So I find one on Yahoo Japan and place a bid....I won this morning! Needless to say I was THRILLED! posted that I finally got the number one item on my want list and left to go buy a couple movie toys. I get home and decide to see what the yen conversion rate is so I know how much to expect my card to get hit with only to see that the high bid I had placed and saw was still the high bid at auction end is gone, the new high bidder is a LOT lower than my bid. Confused I e-mail Celga and get a response. It seems that because I am not Japanese and not living in Japan the seller REFUSES to sell the item to me. Apparently he believes that any Japanese toy he sells can only go to someone living in Japan with assurances that it will not be sold to "outsiders"! WTF!!! The seller then e-mails me saying that these toys were only intended for Japanese people and that I have no business placing a bid to "steal beloved Japanese characters from their homeland". So now I'm not only REALLY dissapointed that I thought I had won something that was very special to me, I get this load of crap from the seller himself...who decided that despite thefact he no longer wishes to own the item, he's willing to cut his sale by over $200 to make sure someone with Scottish / Danish ancestory from California doesn't "sully" the toy....but I'm getting more and more PISSED OFF! He cut the prices of several of his items as he eliminated any bidders from proxy sevices. It's just assinine. Don't want to sell to foreigners...sell them to a used toy store in Japan. I'm sure THEY would have been more than happy to take my money with a smile.
Don't be so sure. A lot of businesses in Japan have signs on the door that say 'Japanese Only'. Racism isn't considered a problem in Japan. It's barely considered rude.
Shipping overseas was never the issue. I use a proxy service so he'd still be shipping inside Japan to Celga's warehouse.
That's just crazy. I guess it just really surprises me, I've been collecting Japanese toys since 1982 and have NEVER encountered an attitude like this from a seller before.
I can't say as I find it that surprising. If you know anything about Japanese culture, the concept of "gaijin" is still very, very strong.
DC I donno if its to late but use a diff bidding service one that he can send the item to you and then they ship it out to get your grail, that sucks big time man.
Yeah, that is racism. I'd reply and say, "yeah, if you were in my homeland, the good 'ol U, S of A and tried that [crap] here, you'd be hurting." I've done a lot of trading with Singapore, China and even Japan based sellers recently and have never encountered that before. I'd also remind him that had we continued our "attack" on Japan during WW2 before they surrendered, their wouldn't have been much left of their "beloved" country and gaijin beliefs. I have a hearing impaired Canadian friend who is enthralled with Japan. Funny, but he's never complained of any business turning him away and refusing his money. Then again the lucky dog is a high roller, and travels to Japan about two to three (or more) times a year and his last stay he was there for a MONTH!
That's really laaaaaame. It's not uncommon to find people that won't ship out of their country, but those reasons are crazy nuts.
Contact the new high bidder and offer him $200 over what he is paying. If he takes you up on it, you'll still get it for your price. Then you can take your picture with it, while flashing "the finger", and e-mail it to the original seller!
Well, the amazing thing is that the seller is really willing to forgo the extra $$$ he can make by selling it to you!
I've run into this kind of thing before. Apparently there is a growing number of people in Japan who think that they're losing all of their collectable toys (and other items of value) to overseas markets. Most will make an excuse that is polite but disapointing. Then there are jackasses like this guy. The funny thing about all of this is that they have no problem buying toys from the US. Hell, I walked a collection of Magic Cards into Yellow Submarine once and walked out with over $12,000. (that was after the converting of yen to dollar) Best trip to Japan I ever had. I think I blew 4 of that buying stuff to mail back.
Along with an email teaching him rather a lot of western insults. I'll write it for you if you like; I'm apparently rather good at it.
