Too Honest Japanese Personal Seller

Recently, I occasionally buy some things in the second-hand market in Japan. After looking carefully, there seems to be some strange phenomenon, which I recorded.

I'm referring here to "online" second-hand markets, not flea markets where you can see and touch items. After all, second-hand or second-hand goods are not like new products that have never been used, and there will always be traces of use or imprints of the years. At the physical flea market, if you really encounter an item of interest, you should take it in your hand to see if it meets your own standards. However, the second-hand market on the Internet route is limited by physical factors, and it is impossible to pick up the item and examine it carefully. Usually, you can only rely on photos and the seller's introduction to understand the status of the item.

Most brick-and-mortar stores hope that customers will not be picky, but be more relaxed, take out their wallets, and pay with one hand and delivery. Even in today's e-commerce, doing business online, it will not be difficult for money, and deliberately say that their products are not good here, and what are the shortcomings there.

But the online second-hand market is full of individual sellers who are more than willing to detail the shortcomings of their items, even to the point of nitpicking . This should be a miracle.

Next, follow me to look at the photos and explain how sellers describe the shortcomings of their items.

Although I only took a screenshot of this photo, the seller actually put 9 photos, and I have read all the photos carefully. If I lied to me, this is a brand new and unused product, and I will believe it. The seller said that she had used it for about half a year, and rated herself as "Secondary B" in the Condition Rank column (you also wrote A😂)

By the way, this second-hand market platform (KANTE) provides another service, and if you choose their appraisal service, you will charge an additional fee. There are 2 prices on the screenshot, the left side is 10,500 plus the appraisal fee; the right side is 9,800 without appraisal.

"Authentication" refers to proving that the item is not a fake, and the platform helps the seller to endorse it. Because the operating company of this platform is a store that specializes in acquiring various brand-name jewelry.

The first photo of the second-hand book seems to be an indentation. In the 2nd photo, the corners of the book are indeed worn and cracked. In addition to the photos, it is also very clear that the book is not as good as the new product, of course, including the traces left by the years, after all, this book is already in the 20s .

In fact, the book was bought by me. After I got the book and checked it carefully, the shortcomings in the photos do exist, and it can be seen that he has a certain age. However, if the seller hadn't specifically pointed out these shortcomings, I wouldn't have noticed it at all because it's in its 20s! A little bumpy damage is a very normal thing, and the overall cleanliness does not affect my reading of the book at all.

By the way, it may be because the seller feels that the quality is not good, and he sold it at almost 1/3 of the original price.

Among the nearly 10 photos of second-hand books sold by another second-hand market platform, one photo that can "obviously" see the problem is specially selected. In the photo, it looks like it is glue residue left after other paper has been glued to it. The flaws in the other photos are not worth mentioning at all by my standards. XD

I didn't buy a car in Japan, and I'm not very familiar with the market of the car, so I picked a used car example at random. The front baffle in the screenshot is damaged and looks serious. For other photos, you can refer to the small picture on the far left, you can see the mileage, the hood is opened, and so on. The item description specifically mentioned that the fuel consumption is still within the acceptable range. Maybe because this is a sports car, I am afraid that buyers will worry about the special fuel consumption.

Compared with the used car market in Taiwan, Japanese sellers should be very different.

There are many second-hand market platforms in Japan. At present, I often visit mercari. At this stage, their home should be the largest in Japan. Some items flow quickly, and it seems that they are bought soon after they are on the shelves. Sometimes I hesitate for a while, and then look at it the next day and it's gone.

However, it is impossible for the sellers to be all the above-mentioned honest people. There are also many “resale houses” similar to “scalpers” in the Chinese context, or those who deliberately mistype the amount. Like the picture below, the 1 million yen PS5, although SONY just announced the PS5 increase, no matter how the price increase will not reach 100,000 yen.

By the way, if you are interested in the topic of the Japanese second-hand market, you can also refer to my previous article "The Strange Japanese Market, Second-hand Price Reversal New Product Pricing - Behind-the-scenes Observation in Japan ".

2022/08/31 posted.

Original link to Japan behind-the-scenes observation