Q: What happens after I win an auction?
A: When Celga receives the notice that you've won an auction, we handle all the details of the auction and pay the Japanese sellers promptly – all without you having to do anything!
We will send you an invoice for your winning bid plus all fees (except international shipping) several days after the auction – it takes a few days due to our internal processing. Your invoice is your official notification that you've won. At approximately the same time, when you check your (items)items page, the status of the auction you won will change to "won".
Once you've paid this invoice and we've recorded the payment, your (items)item status will change to "paid". This may take several days if we are processing more than our usual number of auctions, so please bear with us!
The next step is to wait until your item has arrived at our Japanese warehouse. We almost never have items in stock at the warehouse until at least 7-10 days after the end of the auction; most Japanese sellers are not professional retailers, so they may not be able to mail items except on certain days or on the weekends. We also need time to unpack, check for damage, and inventory each item!
When we've received your item from the seller, we'll change (items)your item's status to "in stock".
When you're ready for a shipment, you just need to go to our (shiprequest)shipping page and request that your items be sent to you. Please note that for obvious reasons we can only ship items with a status of "in stock". Please see our (shipfaq)shipping FAQ for more information about shipping your items.
Q: How will I know if I've won an auction?
A: Several days after the auction ends we'll send you an invoice with the final cost of the auction, the bank wire fee, and the internal Japan shipping fee from the seller to our Japanese facilities. Your invoice is your official notification that you've won.
Q: How will I know if I've lost an auction?
A: We don't notify you if you've lost an auction, but you can check the closed auctions on your (items)Items Page. If one of our (bidID)bidding ids is not listed as the winner, we didn't win. If one is, you may have won – but if we had several bidders in line for the auction, we may still be sorting it out! If you haven't received an invoice 7 days after an auction has closed, it is almost certain we were unable to win it for you. If you would like to check earlier, please (contactus)contact us and we'll be happy to look it up!
Q: How long will it take to receive my items?
A: Almost all of the sellers on Japanese auction sites are not full time retailers; many are simply selling items from their collections. While most sellers are very prompt with their shipments, occasionally there will be one who does not ship very quickly. We do track every item we win for customers, and follow up with those sellers whose items are very late.
It takes a minimum of 7-10 days from the end of auction date for items to be ready for (shipfaq)international shipment to you. This includes the time it takes to pay the seller, receive the items, unpack them, and inventory them. Many times the sellers will not include the auction number with an item, and it takes time to match it with the correct auction. (Please also see our (shipjapanfaq)internal Japanese shipping FAQ for more information about package shipping from the seller to Celga.)
The volume of items we handle is how we are able to keep our fees so low. Even so, we want to make sure that every item is properly tracked and accounted for.
Q: How long after I've won an auction will it take to receive my invoice?
A: We generally try to email invoices within 5 days after an auction ends. Sometimes if we have unusually high volumes of transactions or there are auctions with some unusual circumstances it may take us longer. If you believe you have won an auction and have not received an invoice after 10 days, please (contactus)contact us!
Q: What if the seller doesn't ship the item to you after I pay?
A: Almost all of the many, many sellers we have worked with over the years have shipped us the items, even if some ship somewhat more slowly than others. However, on online auction sites there is a very small percentage of sellers who turn out to be unreliable.
In the rare event that this happens, we will contact the seller and do everything possible under Japanese law to get your item shipped to you. We do track items which are long overdue and actively contact the sellers. If we cannot obtain the item, we will negotiate with the seller for a refund. Any refund we obtain will be credited to your account.
For higher dollar items we generally request COD (cash on delivery) shipping from the seller. This means that we pay the delivery service for the item when it is delivered to us, and then the delivery service pays the seller. It raises the shipping cost a little bit but it does ensure that we receive the item. If you are particularly worried about a specific seller, please contact us and we can request COD even for lower value items. (For more information on COD payments, please see our (shipjapanCOD)internal Japanese shipping FAQ.)
Some sellers will request cash through the mail as payment which we do not do due to the high risk. If you wish to deal with a high risk seller, we can do so on your behalf if you make arrangements and accept the risks beforehand. Otherwise we will automatically deny such requests.
We encourage our customers to check out the sellers' feedback on the various Japanese auction sites when decided whether to bid or not. We've shown where you can do that on our sample auction pages for each (auctionlinks)auction sites.
Please note per our (useragreement)User Agreement that since Celga is only a deputy service acting on your behalf, we may not be able to obtain any refund or compensation for an item never received.
Q: Since I've just won several auctions from the same seller, can you combine the auction fees for them?
A: Whenever possible, we try to save you money by combining auctions won from the same seller on the same auction site in the same day. If we can pay for all your auctions from the same seller at once, we will do so, and pass the savings on the (genmorefees)bank wire transfer fee and internal shipping fees on to you.
We can only do this when the auctions you've won ended very close together on the same day. Japanese sellers expect to be paid right away after the auction ends, so we cannot hold payment on any auction you won in case you might win another from the same seller in two days. In that case, we could not combine your fees.
For example, if you won three auctions on the same day from a single seller, you would pay only one bank wire transfer fee and one internal shipping fee (which may be greater than any single auction's fee depending on what the seller charges us).
Please note that we while can combine the bank wire transfer fee and the internal shipping fee, there are limitations on combining Celga's fees. Although we generally combine items to determine our fees, there is still a minimum charge of $5.00 per auction even when combining auctions. There is a certain amount of work required for every single auction we process no matter who the seller is, and our fees reflect this.
