Chapter 2: Japanese Auctions

Now you’re ready to look for a company. So, what kind of company do you want to deal with? I’ve already addressed the issues involved with companies with stock vehicles, and I’ve mentioned that Integrity Exports deals in the Japanese vehicle auctions, but why the auctions?

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Chapter 2: Japanese Auctions
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Auction vs Stock
    Lets distinguish the difference between stock and auction vehicles. Most people understand the general idea of stock vehicles and auction vehicles, but things are a little different in Japan. Stock vehicles, for the most part, are the same. There are cars that are owned by a company, and they want to sell them to you. The only notable difference is the amount of stock vehicles that are ready to be shipped on a boat instead of sold in Japan. That’s easy to understand, but the auctions are tricky. Japanese vehicle auctions aren’t like your local car auction down the road; one person after another bidding higher until one finally gets to take home a retired police vehicle. Here are the most notable things about the Japanese vehicle auctions:


It’s online, and bidding can’t be done by just anybody.
    This isn’t some Ebay gig. The auctions are all online (thank God), but similar to the auctions in the US, you have to be approved to bid in auctions. This is why auction companies like Integrity Exports exist. This, on top of the fact that most people don’t know fluent Japanese, is the reason you want to work through an exporting company. They’ll make things easy on you, and you won’t need to learn Japanese.


You can only see cars 5-7 days out (sometimes even less).
    You only know what vehicles are going up for auction for the next week. It took me a while to realize why the auctions work like this, but it makes sense. If you see a car that’s going up for auction in a month, and you can only afford one car, you wouldn’t want to bid on anything else, right? Vehicle exporting is a big deal in Japan. Literally millions of vehicles go through the Japanese auctions every year. If everyone was able to see a month out, most cars would never be sold, a lot of people would be out of jobs, and a lot of vehicles would be destroyed. This is one of the biggest reasons it’s so difficult to bring in specific cars for people. I can give estimates all day, but it’s hard to find a vehicle, contact a customer, and make sure all payments are ready over a few days. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not hard if you’re doing it yourself (lucky you!), but when you’re doing it for someone else it’s tough to not sound like you’re pressuring them.

Every car is inspected by an unbiased, government approved, third party inspection agent.
    This is the golden boy. The big bambino. The creme de la creme. This is why the auction system works, and why JUMVEA (Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association) exists. Vehicle exporting is a big deal! Japan wants to do everything they can to make sure people trust the process, and allows you to buy a vehicle from the other side of the world without ever seeing it in person. Every vehicle that comes through the auction has an agent look it over. They get all the needed information from the seller (not necessarily the owner), inspect the body and make any needed notes on the auction map (we’ll go over that in a second), and take any extra information the seller wants to note. This is their job. Inspection agents are hired to make sure their inspections are the most accurate they can be, because without them there’s not trust, and without trust there’s no export industry. Their job isn’t to sell the vehicle, their job is to explain the vehicle’s condition and that’s it.


The actual bidding process lasts about a minute.
    Again, let me explain that auction agents take care of the bidding, but this part confuses some people. This isn’t like Ebay. You don’t say a price, then raise it, then raise it some more, and then maybe win the bid if the competitor looses internet connection. You tell your auction agent what the most you’re willing to pay is (I’ll give you some pointers on how to backwards calculate how much you want to spend in the end vs highest bidding price), and then your agent makes a note of it. Your agent knows the minute that bid is coming, and when the time comes he/she will do their best to get the lowest price possible, or lose the bid completely if it gets to high.




The Japanese Auction Process
So lets run through the auction process (or, at least how we like it to go):
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Pre Buy Process

• You create an account (or some way to see cars in the auction system)
• You watch vehicles that are passing through the auctions
• You record/watch prices for the type of vehicle you want
• You backwards calculate how much your maximum bid should be to hit your price goal (we’ll help with this later)
• You find a car you’re really interested in, and ask for a translation
• You go over the car map and auctions sheet information, and make a decision
• The Actual Buying Process
• You communicate to your agent that you want to bid, and what your maximum bid is
• You wait until the auction date (you’ll have to remember Japan is 14 hours ahead of us).
• Your agent tell you if you won or lost, and what the final bid was
• You scream, cry, smile, or sit there in silence.

Reading an Auction Map
    Auction sheets are the heart blood of overseas car buying. Without them, there would be no standardized way of knowing about a car. However, they're not easy to understand (at first).

http://www.eliteautoexportjapan.com/japanese-used-car-auctions/ussauction-sheets-explained/

    Lets face it, we’re talking about old cars. You’ll never be looking at a car with an Auction Grade of S, 6, 5, or even 4 (for the most part), because cars like that are rarely 25 years old, and if they are they're expensive (stupid expensive). It's a little alarming to see ratings that aren't excellent, but we want to clear the air about what you should expect.
    On the next page there are a few examples of good, great, and amazing car maps. You probably already have a good idea of how the cost varies with each level, but a good thing to note is that I'd buy any of these cars (if I had my pants full of cash). Even the 'good' car maps are in great condition given their age.

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Example of a Good Car Map

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    There are scratches/dents in many areas of the car, but mostly on the bottom, and only a few are rated at 3's (which are the ones that are really noticeable). There are some waves, but overall the car is in good condition for its age. Most of the damage is unnoticeable, but it's not immaculate. This kind of car can obviously be in better condition, but also be in much worse condition). Also, the interior is in very good condition.
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Note: Oh no!! It’s rated as an R! Don’t be afraid of R’s, just be careful. R only means that the car has had something replaced because of some kind of accident. Maybe they bumped into a shopping cart and they decided to replace the quarter panel, or maybe they almost totaled their car. In the above case the quarter panel and hood were replaced (marked with XX). Since the inspector didn’t mark and other notable difference in the paint/body then I’d say there was just something that damaged the hood. Overall R’s sell for less, but a lot of times they’re in great condition, you’ll just have to use your intuition on them.

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Example of a Better Car Map

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      Small scratches toward the bottom of the vehicle, and replaced trunk, and a couple waves a dents. It’s obvious that these issues aren’t noticeable from 10 feet away, and you just can’t fault someone for driving a GT-R like it’s a GT-R. Overall this car is in great shape (it’s rated as a 4 after all). Even though the map looks a little scary at first, this car would be an amazing snag.
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     Note: Oh no!! It’s rated as an R! Don’t be afraid of R’s, just be careful. R only means that the car has had something replaced because of some kind of accident. Maybe they bumped into a shopping cart and they decided to replace the quarter panel, or maybe they almost totaled their car. In the above case the quarter panel and hood were replaced (marked with XX). Since the inspector didn’t mark and other notable difference in the paint/body then I’d say there was just something that damaged the hood. Overall R’s sell for less, but a lot of times they’re in great condition, you’ll just have to use your intuition on them.

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Example of an Amazing Car Map

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    You don’t need a translation to see what’s going on here. An almost flawless example (body-wise) of a 25+ year old car. This isn’t typical, and the fact that it’s rated as an R mean it may have been repaired (really well without any waves, and without replacing any panels), but either way the mileage and body speaks for itself. I’ve seen examples of every model of car that are in this good of condition. If you’re thinking of settling because you haven’t seen a car you want in good enough condition, don’t. It’s a safe bet that a great condition example of practically any car will appear in a short time.

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Author: Elias Hellstrom