What Is Yahoo Auction, and How Do You Bid from Thailand?
Yahoo Auction is Japan's online auction site: individuals and shops put items up for auction, and the highest bid at closing wins. You can't sign up and bid yourself from Thailand; for now, you send the listing link to a Tama-Chan admin, who bids for you.
Yahoo Auction: Japan's online auction site
Yahoo Auction is the online auction site run by LY Corporation (LINE Yahoo). Sellers list an item with a starting price and a closing time, and whoever has the highest bid when it closes gets it.
It was renamed on 1 November 2023 but is still the same site at auctions.yahoo.co.jp. If you have heard it called Yafuoku, that is the same site.
Sellers are both individuals and shops. Some shop items have a fixed price and can be bought straight away without an auction.
The same company also runs PayPay Flea Market, a secondhand market with fixed prices only. Thai buyers often mix the two up.
What do Thai buyers bid on at Yahoo Auction?
What Tama-Chan customers bid on most is bulk jewelry lots and used car parts and accessories, followed by trading cards, figures, vintage clothing and golf clubs.
With a jewelry lot, read the whole description before you bid. A lot titled K18 is not necessarily all gold.
Older models that shops stopped selling long ago tend to turn up here, because people in Japan clear out their homes on it. So most of what is listed is secondhand, and condition varies piece by piece. What the seller's condition grade means is in our guide to secondhand condition grades.
How does bidding on Yahoo Auction work?
Every bid is a proxy bid. You enter the most you're willing to pay and the system bids against others for you, one step at a time, up to that amount. If nobody competes, you win for less than your maximum.
Some listings also set a buy-it-now price. Bid that amount and you win immediately, without waiting for the close.
The closing time on a listing is Japan time, two hours ahead of Thailand.
Most sellers turn on automatic extension. If someone bids in the last 5 minutes, the close moves back 5 minutes, and it keeps moving as long as people keep bidding, so last-second sniping doesn't work on these listings.
A win can't be cancelled, so the maximum you enter has to be a sum you can actually pay.
How can you bid on Yahoo Auction from Thailand?
You can't sign up yourself from Thailand: registration requires verification with a Japanese mobile number, and the whole site is in Japanese.
For now, copy the listing link and send it to a Tama-Chan admin on LINE, along with the most you're willing to pay. The admin reads the listing's conditions first, then bids for you. Details are on our Yahoo Auction bidding service page. Self-serve bidding on the Tama-Chan site is in development.
Fees and shipping to Thailand are in the service fee table.
Frequently asked questions
Read next
- What Is PayPay Flea Market, Is It Yahoo Flea Market, and How Do You Buy from Thailand?PayPay Flea Market, now called Yahoo! Flea Market, is Japan's online flea market: ordinary people list things they no longer use at a price they set, with no bidding. You can't sign up and buy direct from Thailand, but you can order it yourself through Tama-Chan.
- Japanese Jewelry Lots: Does K18 or SV925 in the Title Mean the Whole Lot Is Real, and What Should I Check Before Bidding?A lot titled K18 or SV925 is not necessarily all gold or sterling. Real Yahoo examples, how to translate the page into Thai, and what to check before you bid.
- Used Japanese Car Parts: What Do They Cost, and How Do You Avoid Ordering the Wrong Part?Yen prices off real listings across the five used-parts categories Thai buyers order most, and what makes people order the wrong thing — headlight bulbs at ¥1,250–3,280 (about ฿260–690) a pair sitting beside whole assemblies at ¥10,500–35,000 (about ฿2,200–7,400) in the same result list.
- Japanese Second-Hand Condition Grades: What Do S, A, B and C Mean, and Can You Trust Them?The letters have no industry standard — one shop's B is another shop's C. Read them as shorthand for that one shop, and tell a graded verdict apart from a seller's opinion.
Related keywords
- What is Yahoo Auction
- Yahoo Auction Japan
- Yahoo Japan bidding
Found something on Yahoo Auction you want?
Sign up, then send us the listing link and we'll bid for you, or ask an admin on LINE.