It's not required. However, there are weirdnesses to Japanese auctions that make using an agent appealing. Besides the language barrier, Japanese sellers often would like you to pay through a bank transfer, instead of a money order or paypal. Also, a lot of them are reluctant to ship overseas (there's often a warning on the auctions, in English, that they won't ship internationally).
BUT, it's also possible to deal with J sellers directly, even if you don't know Japanese, to politely request people ship overseas - there are even web site tutorials!
As for agents, I usually suggest people start by looking at the Rinkya pages, since they have a neat translation program built in. I don't happen to use Rinkya, but I've heard good things about them. Granted, this does add an expense to the transaction, and some people have had added troubles with agents from time to time. I've found that dealing with the sellers on Yahoo Japan however has been much, much more straightforward than on eBay - there seem to be fewer people on the Japanese auction boards out to rip you off.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-07-10 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-10 03:14 pm (UTC)BUT, it's also possible to deal with J sellers directly, even if you don't know Japanese, to politely request people ship overseas - there are even web site tutorials!
As for agents, I usually suggest people start by looking at the Rinkya pages, since they have a neat translation program built in. I don't happen to use Rinkya, but I've heard good things about them. Granted, this does add an expense to the transaction, and some people have had added troubles with agents from time to time. I've found that dealing with the sellers on Yahoo Japan however has been much, much more straightforward than on eBay - there seem to be fewer people on the Japanese auction boards out to rip you off.