mandrake auctions

I am looking into new auction sites to buy cels and was wondering if anyone has used mandrake auctions and could give me some feedback about the site.

It's a fantastic site. I was a little wary of using it in the beginning (At first it looked overwhelming to me, and I wasn't sure if I had to use a deputy, or if the shipping costs were going to be very extreme at the end of auction, etc.) but once you learn how to use it, it's pretty simple! There's no middle man as you get to bid on auctions yourself, and if you win something they'll ship it right to your house. The shipping costs are fair/normal (from my experience). I've only won a couple of lots, and out of them the highest shipping quote I received was about 2000 yen, which is around the same price a deputy might charge you. The lowest I was charged with was 1100 yen, which is a pretty good rate for international shipping. (I never participated in the BWA-Big Web Auction though so I can't comment on that.)

Overall I'd say my experience with them was great, and I definitely recommend using it if you find something on there you like. :)

Mandarake is a grab-bag to me. Sometimes I see a lot of nice things, but often, they end up quite high, especially during the Big Web Auctions. Yes, every so often you can end up with a great deal, but since there's no internal bidding on Mandarake (as there are with deputy services), I find that, if the item is something that several other US collectors want, then the price will go higher than what I would expect to pay on Yahoo Japan.

Mandarake is definitely the only way to go if you're looking for original sketches from well known artists like Toriyama, Oda & Miyazaki. Yeah, you're going to pay a premium since Mandarake guarantees their authenticity, but I'd rather pay $$$ and get something that I know is real, rather than try to win something off Yahoo Japan and find out that it's counterfeit.

Mandarake's communication is very good, and someone will usually get back to you within 24 hours. They ship within a day of payment, and they provide you with tracking. Their shipping prices are very reasonable, IMO.

There's no commission if you win an item from their Everyday Auctions, but if you win an item from their Big Web Auction, you'll pay 10% of the item's final end price (in additional to the $5 you pay to participate in the BWA).

Thank you so much for your input guys.

I agree, and add that it is a good place to browse for series or movies that aren't well known to North American collectors. I often find myself stopping and looking at handsome, eyeworthy cels from series that I've never heard of.

The only problem is that, some years back, there was a security leak, and someone used the stored credit card information to place bets on an Asian gambling site. I understand that Mandarake has dealt with the vulnerability, but to this day whenever I use my Visa to pay for a legit auction win, I get a phone call from the security folks saying that my card has been frozen because of potentially fraudulent transactions.

However, you now can use PayPal to make transactions, which does not reveal your credit card info to the Mandarake folks and also doesn't raise the red flag at the CC office.