Seems like a fair number of fellow mercari users here, just curious if anyone has any over the top good/bad experiences?
I’ve got over 600 reviews, mostly via selling stuff (household good, sporting goods) and really love how easy it is to quickly post and send items.
One thing that annoys me is the ridiculous questions from some ‘buyers’. For example, they ask about the compatibility of some electronic device as if I am a shop selling that brand, or want sizing info for a brand item when it’s clearly written on X brands website.
Usually these heavy question users end up not buying as well…
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Some weirdos:
1. Selling a barely used sofa bed. Seller asked if I was a foreigner, and if take showers. Ended up buying the sofa bed frrom me anyways, but wth seriously.
2. Forgot to open the mercari app after receiving an item. Few days later, seller was reaching out to confirm if I received the goods (should have known herself through the delivery service status). Left me a negative review for not responding.
3. Bough an item from seller that had 1 week shipping. On the 7th day I there were no updates, so I reached out to ask when it wil be shipped. Seller replied she will ship it the following day and added in a passive agressive manner, why I didn’t read her profile, which suggested shipping can sometimes be later than one week. I thanked her for the update, and received the item 5 days later. She left me negative review for asking about the shipping.
My negative experiences have mainly been with feedback as a buyer. I bought something from one buyer, paid almost instantly and waited patiently for a week for them to ship it.
I left them positive feedback saying something along the lines of “Item was as described. Good delivery time. Thanks very much”. They left me negative feedback…
I had another experience where I bought some aftershave for about 3,000円 under the usual retail price. Once it arrived, I sprayed some of it onto my wrist and could tell instantly it was a fake. I did some more in-depth research (YouTube, friends who work with perfumes, etc) and sure enough it was a very good fake.
I messaged the seller saying “Sorry, but I’m pretty sure this is fake.” Without any resistance they messaged back with “Well, if you think it’s fake that’s fair enough. We’ll cancel the transaction. Please throw the item away.”, which then triggered the automatic refund.
I’m not sure if you’ve had to deal with refunds from Mercari before but they’re horrendous. They refund what you paid almost instantly. Then 4-5 days later they charge you the same amount. Then almost 2 months later you’ll get your money back. Just awful.
Have occasionally purchased items there. The experience has pretty much been on par with buying from any other “used” items website (ebay, etc).
Picked up a backpack for about 1/3 the price of new. I was very surprised and pleased when it arrived because it was brand new, and unused. It wasn’t apparent from the description/photos that it was in such great condition.
Also once received an item that was broken, and contacting the seller, he claimed not to have realized it was broken and had been using it that way all along. Item was returned for a full refund, with Mercari paying the return shipping cost… the purchase price was refunded to my credit card, but the shipping cost was sent as some kind of Mercari credit, with a whole separate verification process if I wanted withdraw it in cash – I was able to use it to buy something else on the site however, so I wasn’t too bothered by it.
the 10% cut they take is basically robbery. I’m sure they are making insane profits.
I was negotiating with a potential buyer in the comments. Agreed on a price. Changed the price and someone else sniped the product.
Tried to cancel the transaction but Mercari told me “nope, first come first serve”. The sniper didn’t respond to any messages at all even after I shipped the product to him and messaged him about it. No thank you, nothing. Left him a negative review.
Other than that, no negative experiences.
By the way, Rakuma charges a lower commission. But you’ll get a buyer quicker in Mercari.
Some things I noticed since using Mercari.
1. I think about non consumables in a different way than before. I have always been frugal, but in a different way now. “In x years how am I getting rid of this?”. It changed how I shop.
2. I usually ward off unsure buyers. Comments with concerns I can’t answer for or are clearly not understanding what is being sold I tend to tell them directly “this isn’t what you are looking for”. This is common for IT products.
3. I don’t write much in my profile, but I basically never price negotiate. There is no way to protect the buyer.
4. I have had buyers with wrong addresses, etc. but usually mercari CS and the post office helps get things where they need to be.
5. everything I put up I already have a plan and material on hand on how to ship it. I kind of love this part because packages can be made a variety of ways from waste cardboard assembled together.
As a buyer myself? I didn’t before, but I usually don’t buy from “companies” like profiles or from people not using actual images of the product in their listing…
I actually would like to buy vegetables and fruits from the new initiatives mercari is promoting now as well, but even the low grade stuff is frankly not competitive price wise.
I sold a pair of perfectly good sneakers (size prominently listed) to someone who proceeded to give me a “Zannen Datta” (Bad Seller) rating and no comment.
When asked, they said the sneakers didn’t fit them very well. Why the hell does that make me a “Bad Seller”??
One thing it’s good for is selling old electronics. No matter how old and trivial the item is someone buys it. I’ve sold some junk: Old phone charger. Ancient external hard disk drive. Nintendo cartridges. Hair iron… even a broken dishwasher!
I like the いいね禁止 crazies and other people with completely arbitrary and unenforceable personal rules.
I いいねed one seller unknowingly once and got chewed out, since then I’ve made a bit of a sport of searching for いいね禁止 and いいねing the shit out of them.
I’m a prolific buyer and seller on Mercari. It’s mostly fine as long as you follow mercari etiquette, which takes some time to get used to.
My three top tips –
1. Comment and wait for a reply before purchasing an item, unless it seems to be super popular. In which case comment and buy right away. But always comment. Always!
2. After buying, send a quick よろしくお願いします message
3. If you’re selling, keep the buyer updated at all times. I usually send a “thanks for buying, I’m planning to send your item today/tomorrow” kinda message. Then once I’ve sent it I’ll send another “I’ve sent it!” message. They’ll know you’ve sent it either way, but sending the message gives the nitpickety buyer peace of mind.
The are you a foreigner thing is staunch and becoming even an institutional reflection of Mercari. I stopped using it when their policies changed to clearly make it harder for zairyu holders.
They can keep their shit
As mentioned by someone else, the most annoying thing is users with their made up unenforceable rules. I think I’ve (by chance) steered clear of those people so never had any related issues.
The other annoying thing is people selling PC parts and saying “動作未確認”. Due to the nature of the language, it’s never clear whether it means (a) they haven’t checked it works, (b) they cannot check it works (e.g. an AMD processor but they only have an Intel motherboard, if so likely just 転売) or (c) they know it doesn’t work but are just *saying* 未確認 so they can get more money for it.
These people are just annoying. If it’s an old component (like a Q6600 or something) then fair enough but I definitely stay away from 未確認 relatively new GPUs.
In terms of good things… I’ve generally had a positive experience with both buying and selling.
For buying I always leave a 「購入させていたかいました。よろしくお願い致します！」as soon as I’ve bought it and then try to respond quick enough. Also I will always send them a message when I received it to tell them so and then I will leave the feedback shortly after I’ve had a chance to check the product is as described. I guess people don’t like being left in the dark but there are people who are unreasonable.
For selling, I always provide as many photos as possible and as much information as possible on the condition (ie any noticeable scratches or pencil annotation in a book) so that the buyer knows exactly what they’re buying.
I am in the worst possible situation with mercari ever…have 200 5star reviews suddenly they suspended me without notice because I did not verify my profile…which is totally fine. But verification process i have attempted like A 100 times now with both resident card and my number card but keeps rejecting. Its just killing me slowly with each attempt.
What does 即時購入NG mean?? Not to purchase immediately?
I got a negative review because apparently this person had 即時購入NG on their profile, so does it mean they were angry that I bought their item immediately before doing something?
Can I piggyback and ask a question about mercari culture, being a first time user this week? I had a weird interaction and I’m not sure if I did something wrong or what.
I found a bundle of pc parts I wanted. All the items were exactly what I was looking for except for one thing, a 500gb ssd. I wanted a bigger one, and noticed they were selling a lot of other bundles which had 1tb ssd’s. So, I commented that I’m interested, but asked if they’d be willing to switch it for a 1tb, and if so, what they would want to charge for the adjusted bundle. They replied and said that’s no problem, and offered a new price. I said thank you, that sounds good, I’m happy to pay that. I didn’t negotiate at all since they were accommodating my request.
However, as soon as I sent that message, the seller deleted our entire thread, edited the bundle, completely removed the ssd, and added some other random part instead, I think it was an rgb fan or something. The price didn’t change and I didn’t hear from them again.
So… Any idea what happened? I’m very confused. Everything seemed to go smoothly and I was about to buy it until that happened.
Saving thousands of yen buying used baby clothes on Mercari.
I haven’t dealt with any crazy in Mercari and everyone I’ve dealt with have been good as both a buyer and a seller. It might depend on what you are dealing with though as I have only pretty much bought and sold baby goods.
But sometimes I can judge a crazy by their profile (username: PLeAsE ReAD PrOFiLE B4 CoMMeNTinG and BUyINg) and all the made up stupid “rules”. Saw a user say that they will not sell to foreigners, Wtf how can you even tell if one is a foreigner. Will not touch these people with a 10ft pole. Mercari should be nuking these accounts and not just random people
between Mercari and yahoo auction, I tend to prefer the latter.
Yahoo auction has made some quality of life improvements, the one I like most is the anonymous seller/buyer tagging system they use with Japan Post. it also saves me the time of having to write/print out labels as the post office will do it for you.
Had crazies on both sides, but Yahoo Auction a bit less.
as far as crazies go.. some memorable ones were
1. Buyer asks me if I’m foreign, then assumes I’m Chinese, and to stop selling counterfeit goods. I am not Chinese nor selling fake goods, it was a used Adidas shoe FFS.
2. Also had the person who gets upset at me leaving a positive feedback いいね I mean why get upset over that
3. had two or three people nagging me to return something even though I said no returns on the item page 返品不可
4. Electronics are always a hassle to sell because you get really picky people. I had one guy threaten to call the cops on me because the thing I sold him was incompatible with his computer
I have over 2.300 reviews, as a buyer and seller and the worst is the bullsh** support which blocks people very quick for strange reasons.
Just last week; a girl didn’t pay, didn’t answer either so I cancelled it and I?!?! got blocked for a week.
There are cases where the accounts get frozen with money still on it.
Some people are crazy and demand too much, asking for discounts on an already cheap item.
Good things:
+ Selling fast if the price is cheap
+ Easy for shipping
+ Shipping is cheap
+ Can use the メルペイ almost everywhere including in my favorite clothes shop 😂
+ Great for buying, I often find nice items for 50% cheaper
As you can see; Mercari is my hate love 😂
Has anyone scored some crazy low price things on mercari? Like the seller didn’t know what they had?
I did score some old Italian bike parts NOS (like top of the line in the 80’s and still very much desired by collectors, the seller listen them as ‘round bike parts – don’t ask question as I don’t know the items well’ for ¥1000….I was quite happy that day.
I only buy off of Mercari and usually brand items (bags, wallets).
My annoyances are more with the sellers than the app. You get the people who purposefully leave out information, which is why people ask so many detailed questions.
I bought something last year at an okay price, but upon receiving it, I discovered the button didn’t close well. I asked the seller where they bought the item because I was thinking of going directly to the location to ask about a fix. And they responded with “You should have asked before you bought” and of course I had to respond “You should have indicated that this part wasn’t working well”.
The people that swap items as soon as a price is changed or in the middle of a conversation with the seller are annoying.
I follow mercari etiquette and write a response that I am still thinking and if others are looking to buy it, they should go ahead.
Being polite and asking relevant questions always seems to go over well with reasonable people. One woman sent me a bunch of treats and goodies with one of my purchases last year.
I was scammed a few times.
The worst one was a guy sending me an empty box. And claiming I was trying to scam him, when it was the complete opposite.. lol
I’ve personally had only bad experiences with obvious foreigners so I can see why people dislike them.
1) bought a textbook from a Vietnamese guy. It said brand new, no writing etc. Every single page had writing on it in PEN. I asked him for a refund and he made me send it back… Out of my own pocket. He immediately relisted it again as brand new.
2) Trying to sell PC parts. Suddenly tons of SEA people trying to barter the price… Look at their profiles and they were obviously trying to resell lots of GPUs. Looking at other listings and they were doing the exact same. Annoying.
3) People only using English trying to barter prices with Indian profile pictures.
I’ve had good experiences both as a buyer and seller, but have been discouraged on using the service after getting my first negative feedback. I bought an item, immediately paid, and 20 minutes after the item arrived at my home I left them positive feedback. They, on the other hand, left me negative feedback because “They never sent any messages to me so I was really worried during the transaction.”
Like, what? I paid immediately, left feedback immediately. The entire process took a day and a half. If you need anymore communication than that go find a girlfriend or something.
In retrospect, I presume the real reason for the negative feedback is that the person was selling on multiple sites, which I often see in listing descriptions. I guess? I hate the trend of having to confirm if I can actually buy something before buying it on that site.
Resellers are awful.
Recent bad experience with them was when someone bought a switch controller from me only to find out they are a reseller and they put it at a higher price before closing the transaction. I gave a bad review to this person but Mercari deleted it and the item I sold to reseller.
Also I tried to sell my old switch but only resellers were buying it, so I ended up cancelling the transactions and gave it to a relative
My experience has been very good! It’s one of those places where I can find collectible stuff relatively cheap. It’s been a while without using it tho, like two years. I don’t know if something has changed in that time frame.
Dear Mercari sellers, for heaven’s sake stop already with washing clothing in downy fabric softener. The smell of it is absolutely disgusting. Every time I buy something it’s like here’s your new perfect condition article of clothing. upon opening it I need to wash said article of clothing several times by itself and hang it outside for several days. I’ve made the mistake of washing downy smelling clothing bought on mercari with other clothes and we couldn’t get rid of the smell for a while.
Next time I buy something I’ll ask them not to wash it in downy if they haven’t already.
Knock on wood we’ve had good luck with all the sellers to date otherwise.
“no claim, no return”
Works like a charm.
Is it easy to use for foreigner (with limited Japanese knowledge)?
paypay mall is much better
I have revenue around 60 man en in Mercaro account.This app was very easy to use.Even they let you open Mercari credit card with amount of 50 man en.
The bad thing is sometime I have to deal with picky buyers.
Only sold once on Mercari. Changed phone numbers and couldn’t get back into my account. Lost 10,000 yen. But I’ve bought several times (20 so far), it’s flawless.
I’ve only bought something once. It was just an accordion. Pictures looked good so I clicked buy… that’s all
I’ve only bought on Mercari before. Usually I skip those with tons of stupid rules on their profile. I also try to see the ratings but am aware they may not be accurate.
I want to start selling though! But packaging and shipping scares the shit out of me. Trying to sell my dyson fan. Any tips?