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Frequently Asked Questions
Yahoo Japan & Proxy Bidding
| What is Yahoo Japan? |
| Yahoo Japan is Yahoo's auction site located in Japan. Only Japanese speaking people are allowed to use it, and most sellers will not ship to people who do not live in Japan. |
| How do I bid on Yahoo Japan? |
| That's easy! Just sign up for an account at Rinkya!
At Rinkya, you can bid by yourself, REAL-TIME on Yahoo Japan items. Please note all Rinkya account holders must be 18 years of age and have a credit card. |
Rinkya System
| What is the Rinkya system? |
| Rinkya houses a self-contained bidding system where the user can sign up for a Rinkya account and bid on their own, real-time, on Yahoo Japan and purchase from online Japan stores. |
| How do I sign up for an account? |
To sign up for an account at Rinkya, please go here:
1. Fill out the sign-up form
2. You will receive a confirmation e-mail instructing you how to register a credit card and place your deposit.
3. Wait for your activation (which will happen within 24 hours) and you are ready to bid!
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| Do I need to put a deposit down to bid? |
| In order to even have an account at Rinkya, you must put a credit card on file to place a deposit down. Deposits are not charged to your credit card, we only authorize to verify your information is valid. Rinkya does not hold any money to have a Rinkya account.
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| Why am I asked to send in additional documentation? |
| Unfortunately, most international countries do not support any security measures for credit cards for verification. In this case, we may require more verification per the rules of our credit card processor.
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Payment
| What is the exchange rate you use? |
| Please see the most recent yen rate in the News section. This rate may change at anytime. The true exchange rate at the banks is 2-3 yen below the actual published rate which is why we use our own rate. |
| When do I pay for my item? |
After winning your Yahoo Japan auction or a Japan store confirms your website order, you will receive an invoice detailing the amount due, follow the link in the invoice to submit your payment. Payment is due within 48 hours after you receive your invoice.
If you do not pay for your item, by being a Rinkya account holder and agreeing to our contract and terms of service, you have already authorized us to charge your card.
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| Why is my Paypal payment not marked paid? |
| Echeck paypal payments take about 5 days for Paypal to complete. Also, sometimes there are delays between Paypal notification and when the payment is actually made. Contact us if 48 hours if your payment is not marked paid. If an echeck, please wait 5 days for payment to be marked.
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| What if I am late with my payment? |
| Payment must be made within 48 hours. If you do not make your payment within 48 hours, you will receive a late notice. Afterwards you will receive a second notice. When you receive this second late notice, you will be charged a $10 late fee. If you still do not pay, we will automatically charge your card. If we have to charge your card automatically, you will have a total late fee of $20 added to your final amount.
If you have a concern, such as being out of town when the auction ends, etc., please contact us ahead of time and let us know. We will charge your card automatically and you will not be charged a late fee.
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Shipping & Handling
| I paid for my item a month ago, where is it? |
| Rinkya ships per your request so that you may combine shipping on items. We can hold items for up to a one month period (with the exception of large items like car parts) before shipping is required. If you sent a ship request in and your item status has not updated to shipped within a week, please contact our helpdesk.
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| How long does it take to get my items? |
| Items will be sent within 1 week of your request. Items are marked shipped and you will receive your invoice soon afterwards. Item arrival depends on your method, please read our ship chart for delivery estimates.
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| Is there a size and/or weight limit? |
| Please note there is a weight and size limit. If your item exceeds these limits, we will pick an alternative method of shipping for you that may not be inexpensive. Please do not go over the limit as we cannot ship cars, bikes, arcade game cabins, etc. Size & Weight Limits. Size & Weight Limits for Car Parts.
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My Account
| What do the different item statuses mean? |
On the bid history page you will find a list of all the auctions you have won, with a status listed for each one.
If the status is "won", you have won the item but not yet paid for it.
If the status is "paidhold" you have paid for the item and it is awaiting shipping. Your items will wait at "paidhold" status until they are shipped.
Items that have not arrived yet: jpseller
Items that have arrived to our warehouse in Japan: jprinkya
Please read the color-coded explanation located in your account info.
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Bidding
| Can I use Rinkya to bid on an auction with a buy price? |
| Yes! When you bid with Rinkya, it is just like bidding with your own account. To buy an auction out for the buy price, simply bid that price with your Rinkya account. Rinkya will take care of the rest of the transaction, just as for a normal auction.
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| How do I know if I won? |
| You will receive an e-mail notice as soon as the auction is over, telling you that you have won. This notice will also include the amount you must pay as well as instructions on how to pay.
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| How do I know if I have been outbid? |
| You will receive an outbid e-mail from Rinkya. However, due to the nature of the internet, e-mail may at times be late or not get through. It is always a good idea to check your auction status before the end of the auction by logging in to your account.
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| What does outbid by NOBODY mean? |
It could mean two things:
1) The seller has a reserve on the item and your bid has not met the reserve. You must bid higher if you wish to win the item.
2) your bid is too high- YJ has a rule that the bid must be within 100 times the original amount, so if an item has a bid of 1 yen, you must bid within 100 times the amount and form there you can increase your bid.
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| Can I snipe auctions? |
| Rinkya's auto bid allows you to place the bid up to 1 second before auction end. However, we recommend you place your auto-bid at least 30 seconds before. Some auctions have the auto extend feature (See question below) so sniping is not recommended on those. MyRinkya does indicate which auctions have the auto extend feature, so please use that in making your decision to place an auto-bid and snipe.
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| Why did my auction keep adding minutes when the end time was over? |
YJ has a feature called auto extend, where a seller can continue to add 5 extra minutes to an auction, when you bid in the last 5 minutes of that auction. You will see a message indicating wether or not an auction has this feature, while viewing auctions in MyRinkya.
Auto-extension Feature is present:
Time extension in last 5 minutes. SNIPING IN LAST 5 MIN,
WILL FORCE EXTENSION. Set Auto-Bid to 6 min. before end.
Auto-extend is not present:
No time extension in last 5 minutes,
SAFE TO SNIPE. Snipe by using Auto-Bid!
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Japanese
| How do I read Japanese on my computer? |
| First, you need to be able to display Japanese characters on your computer. There are a number of pages on the net such as this one that can help you with that.
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| Does Rinkya translate for me? |
Yahoo Japan Auctions viewed through the Rinkya site are powered by Nifty translation. Please click TRANSLATE on the toolbar to translate the auction.
Online Resources include:
Google
WWJDIC
Excite
Babelfish
If in doubt, please contact us via our helpdesk and we may be able to help!
For an explanation of what some of the different parts of a standard Yahoo Japan auction mean, please see the Rinkya Help Page.
Remember, Rinkya is not responsible if you misunderstand the Japanese in your auction.
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| How do I find items if I can't read Japanese? |
| Rinkya has an English search engine located here.
Type what you are looking for in English and RinkyaÕs search engine will pull results from Yahoo Japan Auctions, Rakuten Japan Shopping, and various Japan Shopping websites.
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MyRinkya
| How do I set up MyRinkya? |
| When you use Rinkya's search engine, check the boxes next to the search you wish to save. Click the Save Searches button and you will be prompted to log-in, set-up your new account or be taken straight to your MyRinkya page you have previously set-up. Start MyRinkya set-up by searching for your favorite items!
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| What features does MyRinkya have? |
| With MyRinkya you can log-in anywhere to your personal account, save your searches as well as have your own watchlist that can be synchronized to whichever time zone you prefer.
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| How do I add items to my watchlist? |
| In order to add items to your watchlist, please make sure you are searching within the Rinkya search system and you will see a link at the top, upper-right hand corner that says: "Click here to watchlist this item!" (It's under "Click here to bid on this item"). Please click on the link and follow the instructions by entering a description title for your watchlist item.
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| What is MyPass? |
| MyPass is an option where you can create a password account for MyRinkya should you become logged out or want to set myRinkya up on another machine, etc. Your MyPass is NOT the same password you use for bidding on Rinkya, it's wise to always use different passwords for maximum security. We may incorporate the two systems in the future for easier access, however, until then, please choose a different password.
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| What is Auto-Bid? |
| Rinkya's unique Auto bid feature allows you to set the time and date of your bid away from your computer.
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