I just tried out Buyee to buy some stuff from Mercari and YJ, since they were having a Black Friday promotion for free international shipping (!!)
The verdict so far:
Positives:
- Their website is quite sophisticated - at least coming from the bare-bones functionality you get at Celga. You can manage your packages in the warehouse, have them combined, and even have them take a picture for an additional fee
- The fees are all
flat fees - no paying 10+% of the total price. On expensive items this will save some cash.
- They can charge your Paypal (or whatever) directly so you don't have to manage invoices and whatnot yourself.
- You don't have to put down any sort of deposit or prepayment, you're charged only when you actually win something.
- For a fee they offer inspection/insurance plans, which might be worthwhile if you're buying something extremely valuable and fragile.
Negatives:
- They seem to take their sweet time placing Mercari orders - I had to wait a few days. If it had been a real hot commodity, I'd surely have lost my chance. My YJ bid was placed on-time and there was no issue there.
- They blindside you with extra fees during the shipping process. The fees themselves are nothing out of the ordinary - things like shipping within Japan and so on - but it makes it hard to know exactly what to expect.
- Shipping seems rather expensive if you don't have a freebie coupon XD Not sure if this is just because I ordered exceptionally heavy stuff or what.
- Consolidating packages costs 500Y. A negligible amount I suppose, but I'm pretty sure most other places don't charge for this.
My first package from them is on the way now, so we'll see how things look when it arrives.