J M.

I have used Rinkya for the past year and a half, always stomaching the commission and fees to get what I want from Japan which might be unavailable here in North America, or too cost prohibitive.

The poster who reviewed before me has what I consider to be an unrealistic review as not everyone wants to buy items and turn around to sell them for profit. There are collectors who use these sites to acquire goods. Guitars, rare model kits, dolls, car parts, you name it.

The fees posted sound accurate. That being said...

Rarely do I find an auction for anything worthwhile which is less that 1001 Yen. So automatically, if you have a 1500 Yen winning bid, just add 2000 Yen right off the go. Now your item is 3500 Yen.

Now, your item ships to the Rinkya warehouse: add another 1500 Yen. Counting? You're are 5000 Yen, which is roughly $50 US. You went from $15 to $50 and you haven't shipped yet.

This, this is where your blood really gets up. The average shipping price is something like 4200 Yen. I got an email asking if I want to upgrade to Rinkya Prime, which is Fedex. Not like Fedex, it is Fedex. Fedex came to my door and asked for a customs payment after I got suckered into the Prime option which promised a faster delivery.

It didn't get delivered faster. It was the same as SAL (surface air lift: equivalent to economy shipping methods here in North America). I had an item of similar size and value ship from a Japanese distributor around the same time, so I was able to make a comparison.

In case you were still counting, $100 US is what it cost me to get my $15 item home. This math just doesn't cut it.

I tried it again, this time I used the service to win multiple items (7) ranging in value to see if I could maximize the shipping expense. Like a combined shipping discount some ebay sellers use.

Nope, there was no indication that this was a better option, after a $350 charge at Rinkya for 7 items of value in the $20 neighborhood, I had to pay for shipping at $150. Which didn't take long to arrive, via their 'economy' option.

So take all this into consideration for yourself, and ask if it is worth using Rinkya over other sites. I have since terminated my account with Rinkya, their polite and cute emails can't trump the horrid cost of using their service.