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    Sandwich Shooter Sederien's Avatar
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    Default The Quick and Dirty Guide to Shopping on YJA

    A member here requested that I post a quick guide to shopping for pachinkos on Yahoo Japan Auctions, and I'm more than happy to oblige.

    The following is a quick and dirty guide to shopping on Yahoo Japan Auctions for those individuals who do not speak Japanese. (I do have to note, however, that Japanese lingual ability helps -immensely- when searching for what you want and especially when deciphering the auction text telling you if a machine is cyclical, for example. So crack open those textbooks, friends.)

    Lesson 1: What is YJA?

    Yahoo Japan Auctions is Japan's answer to eBay. For some reason, eBay never really caught on in Japan and Yahoo managed to attract the majority by adding auctions onto an already growing Japanese community (due in large part to the attention Yahoo paid to overseas markets).

    It essentially works the same as eBay. Each auction is up for a limited time, may have a buyout, may have a reserve, etc. Unfortunately, for those of us outside of Japan, unlike the majority of eBay auctions, items are rarely, if ever offered to be shipped off the island. So no matter what you're looking for, you will need a third-party to serve as your proxy bidder. We'll cover that in a later lesson.

    By the way... Let me cover one thing now so you aren't disappointed later. Even with a third-party proxy...

    SHIPPING IS EXPENSIVE.

    You are very likely to pay twice the cost of your purchase in shipping. Especially if it's a full machine and not a pachinko cell.

    OK. On to the fun stuff.

    Lesson 2: Browsing for Pachinko/Pachislo

    Since this is PachiTalk, I'm not going to cover the myriad of items available outside of pachislo or pachinko. If you're interested, you can find a whole wealth of other resources elsewhere on the internet to assist you.

    Instead, we'll focus on one category, which (conveniently for you) means that you can easily browse for machines even if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.

    From the main page, there's a bar of categories to the left. At the time of this writing, the seventh option from the top:

    'ホビー、カルチャー" (Hobby, Culture)

    contains what we're looking for.

    You then need to specify further on the next page and click on the second item from the bottom:

    "パチンコ、パチスロ" (Pachinko, Pachislo)


    Congratulations. You can now browse all of the auctions you're looking for... but perhaps you'd like to refine it a bit.

    Here's the link direct to pachinko only auctions.

    Here's the link direct to pachislo only auctions.

    Here's the link direct to accessory auctions (such as promo materials, play guides, etc.).

    Quickly, the auctions are listed as such:

    Picture. Title. Price. Bids. Time left.
    BIN Price (if any)
    Seller name.
    Icons

    ...

    Now at this point, you're probably wondering why I've been linking straight Japanese pages with no translation when this is meant to be a guide to non-Japanese speakers.

    Well, you need to familiarize yourself with the actual site if you're going to continue onto Lesson 3. If, however, you have no intention of searching for a particular item, or you're just plain curious, here is the link you're searching for:

    Translated version of http://list5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/2084046936-category.html

    Lesson 3: Searching for Pachinko/Pachislo

    Now that we've covered the basics of browsing, let's assume that you know you want a particular machine... Winter Sonata or Winter Sonata 2. (I've picked these because they're unlikely to disappear from the site for some time and will be a good example).

    The issue is that you can't search for "Winter Sonata." There will be no results and I will personally laugh at you (should I find out).

    So you need to search in Japanese. (And now the translation issue from Lesson 2 makes a little more sense.)

    Now, the great thing is that it's not too hard to find the Japanese name of the pachi you're looking for. In fact, we already have hundreds of machines translated already in the Research Center. (Post requirement to enter, new members. Say hello!)

    Do a quick search for "winter" in the Research Center and we'll get a few results. Clicking on the entry for Winter Sonata (post requirement to view) gives us a page that usually includes an iFrame for the website 777.nifty.com, which is great resource for this.

    Translated version of http://777.nifty.com/cs/catalog/777_780/catalog_crfuyunosonata_1.htm

    But that page is translated and won't give you the Japanese name... Which is why you need to:

    1. Locate the title. (Pretty easy to spot in this example.)
    2. Either hover over that title and Google will pop-up with the Japanese title for you to copy OR click view the original
    .

    In either phase of step two, you should spot the characters in the same place the English title used to be:

    CRぱちんこ冬のソナタ(京楽)

    You don't need all of it. The part in parentheses is actually the manufacturer (Kyoraku), CR is unnecessary as well, and any reference to pachinko or pachislo is unnecessary. Just grab what's left.

    Here's a visual of what to strip out:

    CRぱちんこ冬のソナタ(京楽)
    - Manufacturer

    CRぱちんこ冬のソナタ
    - CR

    ぱちんこ冬のソナタ
    - Pachinko

    Pachinko:
    ぱちんこ OR
    パチンコ


    Pachislo:
    パチスロ

    (You have to match those visually to remove. You'll come to recognize them in time.)

    冬のソナタ - Fuyu no Sonata (Winter Sonata)!

    Great. We have our search term.

    Let's go back to the Pachinko, Pachislo section of YJA and look in the top left. You'll see something resembling a search bar. Paste "
    冬のソナタ" into the bar and hit enter. (The drop down to the side is already filled is as "search within this category.")

    Here's the result:

    http://search5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/...ale=0jp&acc=jp

    At the time of this posting, there are over 300! auctions for Winter Sonata. So perhaps we need to be more specific...

    Lesson 4: Advanced Search for Pachinko/Pachislo

    Thankfully, it's not too hard to to be more specific. This time, since we're searching for the machine, let's do the same search, but starting in the
    pachinko only auctions.

    http://search5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/...cat=2084046951

    Now we get a much more reasonable 40 or so auctions.

    Hmm... Good, but what if we're not willing to pay a lot for the machine? Or perhaps we searched yesterday and only want to see the new auctions?

    Well, there's a very helpful Narrow your Search box to the left...

    If you check the box next to NEW and hit the button below, you'll only see the auctions that have come up in the past day. (Great if you're trying to search for something over time and don't want to review a bunch of auctions.)

    If you put a maximum number of yen in the second text entry box (goes from ____ ~ ____ ), you can hit the button and it will strip out any auctions above your maximum.

    Lastly, here's perhaps the most useful function not listed:

    Multiple search terms!

    When you enter two terms separated by a space (i.e. "冬のソナタ キューティーハニー" which is Winter Sonata and Cutie Honey), it will search for auctions containing both terms. Which means you'll get no results.

    Rather, put both terms in parentheses like so:

    (
    冬のソナタ キューティーハニー)

    Now YJA will find auctions containing EITHER term.

    Another quick tip is to take advantage of the - sign. 卓上 signifies the auction machine has been turned into a desktop model (stripped and put into a box). You may not be interested in those. Take them out:

    (冬のソナタ キューティーハニー) -卓上

    Now you're searching for Winter Sonata OR Cutie Honey and NOT a desktop model.

    Finally, you can search for cells only by simply adding: セル to the term. (Means cell in Japanese.)

    So go ahead and make your own custom search with all of the machines you're looking for this way. Then, after you've got it and you've browsed them once, click the NEW box, search again with the button below the NEW option and make a bookmark. Then check back once a day to see if what you're looking for came up.

    Here's my current bookmarked term:

    (マハラジャ あっぱれ応援団 キューティーハニー ピンボール ミラクルカーペット フィーバー花月外伝 セブンズロック フィーバー陰陽師 志村ワールド 中森明菜 冬のソナタ 雀帝倶楽部 シンドバッドアドベンチャー 花満開 井出洋介の華麗なる麻雀 アラジンディスティニー 哭きの竜 プロジェクトミネルヴァ アニモー かぐや物語 奇跡の電役キャプテンロバート 華舞鬼ノ國 セル) -卓上

    And since that one went too long and was cut off... I have a second:

    (義経物語 ピンボール ローズテイル) -卓上

    to catch the others.

    Lesson 5: Purchasing Pachinko/Pachislo on Auction

    My goal for this guide was primarily to introduce you to shopping on YJA and not (at the moment) purchasing. For purchasing, you should loosely follow the next few steps:


    1. Find an auction that...
      1. has more than 1 day left (1 日) - IMPORTANT if bidding through a proxy like Kiai.
      2. you want to buy

    2. Translate the auction page through Google (copy and paste) and READ CAREFULLY
    3. Check with others here to ensure that you're bidding on what you want. (Google is awful at translating between cyclic and non-cyclic.)
    4. Send an e-mail out Kiai and let him know that you're a PachiTalk member interested in purchasing an item on YJA with a link to the item.

    Kiai is our Japan-based contact who has been very good to our members. He charges a commission of 10% of the shipping cost plus 1000 yen for all auctions. You will be charged for domestic and international shipping (shipping to Kiai, packaging materials, international shipping) and in almost all cases:

    IT WILL BE EXPENSIVE. (Hundreds of dollars for a full machine. $350 shipping minimum to the US to give you an idea.)

    Cells can be shipped for as little as $60-70, but there's no insurance, tracking, and you get it in 6 weeks to 6 months. It'll still cost $100+ when domestic shipping, packaging, and commission is included.

    Finally, please... if you use Kiai, pay on time. Understand what you're doing. Treat him with the same respect and kindness he's shown us.

    You can search this board for Kiai's email or PM me.

    ---------------------------

    Hope this was helpful.
    Last edited by Sederien; 07-20-2008 at 07:39 PM.
    Currently Own: Nothing. I play mostly online now.

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