Hi everyone,
This is a rant so since I am venting, no advice needed. I learned my lesson and I just won’t go there again so no worries. I basically want to share this since I am still scratching my head.
The other day my Japanese friend went to 2nd street with a few Adidas apparel such as a light jacket, a track suit jacket only, a Guess sweat shirt and a partridge in a pear tree. Their two vintage 1980’s T-shirts weren’t accepted. The store clerk came out with an itemized list and received 4,000 yen.
Now before this event, believe me when I tell you that I had LOW expectations since I sold items in Buffalo Exchange before back in M’urica and I don’t recall receiving anything close to that.
So about two days ago I went with them to 2nd street and let them do the talking just to see if he could get a decent price on some clothing I wanted to sell. Of course, the dude at the cash register was looking in my direction and probably figured out that some of the clothing was mind but I didn’t want to second guess. I had a them following items in in superb condition: a Super Dry Ski jacket , a brand new Adidas sweatshirt with a padding design, a never worn Adidas running outfit, a Nike sweat shirt with the stitched design, a Korean brand spring coat, and a padded laptop bag, etc. The rest were regular sweaters, long sleeves from either Uniqlo or Mizuno. I had a total of 21 tems!
Now let me be crystal clear that aside from the brand names that were BOUGHT IN JAPAN, I did not expect much from the other items. But given that my friend got a whopping 4,000 yen for 5 items and my total turned out to e a measly 312 yen, I can’t help but feeling irritated that they got that amount and every. single. one. of. my. items were overlooked in less than 30 minutes. They could have at least paid me properly for the well made items. My friend went at noon and we went after 6pm. Does that make a difference? That they wanted to wrap it quickly? Who knows.
Do me a huge favor. I have a feeling someone is going to say this but do not assume that my Japanese friend’s item’s were of better quality than mine. Not true at all. Let’s get out of the way before I read i
I would have felt better giving this to homeless rather than a store that will sell it at a price close to what it was purchased for. While we were waiting, my friend went to search for his item in the store and found what he got for 1,000 was being sold at 5,000.
Okay rant over.
13 comments
You didn’t have to sell for those amounts.
They buy for what they are fairly certain they can resell for 50-100% more. They offered you that. They are a business that generally goes by lists on a computer system of the items that tell them how much they will on average sell for and how quickly – there is no benefit nor any way for them to treat you differently to your friend for any reason, it’s the items. Doesn’t matter that you personally think they were ‘similar quality’ to your friends’ or not, they don’t or won’t be able to sell them for the same as your friends’ according to all their data and experience.
Those places are good if you have to get rid of stuff quickly. If you have time, Mercari, Rakuma etc. are much better. For bigger items such as appliances and furniture you can use Jimoty. I managed to sell some used and year old weightlifting shoes for 5,000 JPY (originally price more like 15,000 JPY).
That’s the nature of the big recycle shops here. They basically pay by weight.
I sold Hard Off a guitar amp once and they gave me 500 yen. I thought it was a junk amp and took it. When I went back they had it listed for 25,000 or 50,000 (I don’t remember). It sold.
If you want fair prices of your used apparel, you have to know what it’s worth and sell online using sites like Mercari.
Also, drop the “I can’t speak Japanese but I was definitely the victim of discrimination!” attitude. It only flies with other people who can’t navigate Japanese society.
I make way more money selling old stuff on Mercari.
I have sold all mg household garbage on Facebhook.
Atleast you can put a price and dispose off items for 500-1000 yen less than your requested price.
That’s suck man I feel you. I also have those moments where I just say yes and then grumble about it for a while. Wishing you luck with the rest of your downsizing!
That’s the Gaijin tax! It touched your filthy gaijin skin that’s an automatic 80% deduction (95% if you’re from an east Asian country).
You should’ve had a Japanese person do the exchange without you being present and just offered him 10% of the sale for doing it for you.
In the future, a fun option is rent a space at a weekend flea market and sell a ton of stuff. I did that once. It was around
1万 for the day split between 4 people and we all made around 15000 each.
Just sell on Mercari, no one is forcing you to sell your items for cheap
Did you get a breakdown of what items sold for what and what items they rejected? They probably tossed all your Mizuno and Uniqlo stuff aside without even checking their condition because they are only interested in stuff they can sell. That happened to me when I gave some Uniqlo stuff. They are not a charity but a business and are only interested in goods that can make a profit. No one is looking to buy used workout clothing here.
They will also reject or give you for little clothing which is out of season
I’m gonna give you advice cause you told me not to. “There are no secrets to love… you know the rules and so do I…never gonna give you up… never gonna let you down… never gonna run around and desert you…”
They are very particular at 2nd Street and I don’t really know what their standards are either. Trying to sell winter items at the end of winter is not good timing though. Uniqlo or Gu items will only get ¥1 or ¥2 no matter what. I and my Japanese friends have tried to sell stuff there many times and it has never gone well. It’s not you, it’s market demand.
Usually selling online is the way but I think you went to their regular stores. You need to search their “買取専門”(kaitori senmon) specialized place where they give you better price. I got 5000yen on an old pair of doc’s.