Updated 2026-10-13
案内 Buying from Yahoo Auctions Japan through a proxy
What changes when the listing is an auction instead of a Mercari checkout, for Buyee and ZenMarket.
Yahoo Auctions Japan is the other big flea market. Proxies now label it JDirectItems. The cards are the same. The invoice is not a shop receipt, because you are bidding.
Fees that differ from a shop
ZenMarket’s fee page puts auction bids with Mercari: ¥800 per item, not the ¥500 shop fee. You deposit the maximum bid plus that fee before you bid. If you lose, the deposit is still yours, minus whatever their deposit fee already took when you loaded it. Card and PayPal deposits are 3.5% of the charge. Loading ¥20,000 “to be safe” and then not bidding still paid that percentage.
Buyee’s checked purchase fee stays ¥500 per order plus the plan you picked. Their help pages do not show a separate auction surcharge. Domestic shipping from the seller is often unknown until the auction ends. Leave a blank as ¥0 only if the listing says shipping is included. Otherwise the calculator’s hint — Buyee’s own range of about ¥150 to ¥1,500 — is a band, not a number to add blindly.
How to bid a rarity
Auction titles are worse than shop titles. Use the checker. Bid the finish you can see:
- set code,
YAC1-JP073rather than “青眼” - Japanese rarity, not “Secret Rare”
- カラー or モノクロ on manga cards
- a photo of the name foil, not a stock scan
The YAC1 sheet’s Sunday prices leaned on Yahoo sold clusters for the Over-Frame cards. JP004 had a cluster at ¥13,500–¥15,000 while a launch shop rank was ¥27,800. A sold cluster is history. Your bid is a new trade. Do not treat the working range as a ceiling the auction owes you.
After you win
You still pay international postage. A single card in a proxy box is the EMS 500g problem described in the Buyee cost guide. If you are already bidding a second card, waiting to combine them is usually the whole savings. ZenMarket lists the first consolidation as free.
Run the bid you are willing to place — not the ask — through the calculator with marketplace set to Yahoo. The landed dollars are the bid. The yen is just the input.
Questions
What does ZenMarket charge to bid on Yahoo Auctions?
¥800 per item, the same fee as Mercari, under the name JDirectItems Auction. Checked 13 October 2026.
Do you pay before you win?
On ZenMarket you deposit enough yen to cover the maximum bid and their fee before bidding. Buyee charges the item and purchase fee when you bid or when you win, depending on the flow in your account. Read the checkout, not this paragraph, for the timing.