Other auction sites.....

[Revvvs]

Are there any other auction sites apart from ebay that anyone is using?

At the start of the year I discovered the Yahoo Japan auctions when I was searching for something for one of my (many!) other collections. The Japanese tending to be the insular bunch they are don't really ship overseas BUT I found a proxy bidding service at www.rinkya.com - the service is not particularly cheap (commision is really expensive when buying low value items....) and you also have to pay a currency fee (normally about $10US), and shipping within Japan (to them) and of course to yourself (although items can be combined into one package....). That said I've found it be a real treasure trove and have picked up the Scorcher already in my showroom, a mint unrun Brat and an FAV, the NIB HB and Sand Rover, and NIB Ford Ranger, WW1 and Cheetah bodyshells! I wouldn't say that anything I got (even with the additional fees litsted above) has cost me any more than it would on ebay, and I consider a couple of the buys bargains - the FAV and the Willy bodyshell particularly!)

There are nearly always NIB Mountys and Bruisers on there - I've also seen an NIB Blazer and a couple of black Porsches (not new though.....).

If you want to check it out go to the Rinkya site above and you can use search facilities in English (try 'radio controlled assembled' / unassembled as a good starting point - you can search under tamiya but you end up with all the model kits too....). You might also want to have babelfish open for some translation work (even translated you need to make some guess as to what the badword they're describing [)] !)

Paul

[AkihabaraMallrat(2)]

Ill be setting up a similar service myself in a few months time once I complete a move. If anyone knows someone who will be able to do the programming for the autobidding and account management for a website at a reasonable rate let me know.

[madbad jezza]

hey, good find!, there,s loads of tamiya stuff up for grabs,but some of it is just as expensive as ebay. i did find a NIB subaru brat for about £500.00!!!!,but i also found a sad but complete boomerang for less than £1.00 with only a couple of days to go!!!!.

still....i,ve had a go at signing up,he!,he!....looks complicated though......[?]

[simensays]

well, how about the NIB Super Champ with additional NIB body kit and NIB wheels sets (front/rear and Sponge) and some other parts, I even think there's a still boxed old stick controller included!

..and the price you ask? well, still no bids at JPY 50.000 which is about USD 395 and only a few hours to go!

I've tried contacting the seller, but no luck! If what I could understand is correct this seems like a sweet deal!

[RETRO R/C]

Dont forget that with these auctions that when the bidding is in the last minute - and someone makes a "snipe" bid, the auction is actually EXTENDED for another 5 minutes...........it is not unusual to see these auctions run for an extra 20 to 30 minuts - sometimes more !!

Cheers

Darryn

[Revvvs]

Yep - that's a good point Darryn and one that I forgot to mention. There are some auctions that don't have the auto extend feature but generally you can't get away with sniping!!

Paul