How bidding at a Japanese auction actually works

Registering is free and takes a few minutes, but a registered account cannot see the auction stock. Your account becomes a trading account when your first deposit arrives, and the minimum first deposit is ¥100,000.

A deposit is not a fee. It stays your money and does three jobs: it is what your bid limit is calculated from, it secures each bid while that bid is live, and it pays the invoice when you win. Whatever you have not committed can be withdrawn back to your registered bank account.

Deposits arrive by bank transfer and are credited once the funds clear — usually the same business day for a domestic transfer, one to three days from overseas. Nothing about bidding is possible until they do, so fund the account before the auction day you are aiming at, not on it.

Auctions run Monday to Saturday, Japan time, across more than fifty auction houses. You start by choosing which of the week's sessions you want to look at, then narrow by make and model, then filter the results — grade, year, mileage, transmission, colour, the lot's location.

Every lot carries an auction sheet: the inspector's grade for the vehicle overall and for the interior, a diagram of every scratch, dent and repaired panel, and handwritten notes in Japanese. We translate those notes, and we show the original Japanese alongside so nothing is lost in the reading.

Before you bid, the detail page shows an estimated cost to your port — the hammer price you are considering plus auction fees, export handling, domestic transport, our service fee, tax where it applies, and ocean freight once you have told us where you are shipping to. It is an estimate; the invoice after a win is the amount payable.

You do not bid at the auction yourself — no overseas buyer can. You submit a bid request on the platform, stating the maximum you are willing to pay, and our team in Japan places that bid at the auction house on your behalf.

Each lot has a cut-off, earlier than the auction itself, after which we can no longer relay a bid for it. The platform shows it on the lot and stops accepting requests once it passes. A lot whose cut-off has gone is marked closed rather than quietly failing at the auction.

Bidding is capped: a request above your bid limit is refused when you submit it, not trimmed down to fit. If your company has enabled internal approval, a request from a restricted login waits for a colleague to release it — and the clock does not stop while it waits, so approvals need to happen before the cut-off.

Three separate things happen when you place a bid, and it is worth keeping them apart.

Your bid limit is your balance multiplied by your tier's factor — 5× on Dealer Basic and Silver, 6× on Gold, 7× on Diamond. It is a hard cap. Because it moves with your balance, it falls when you pay an invoice and rises when you deposit.

A security deposit is held out of your available balance for as long as the bid is live. The share held is the inverse of your tier's factor — 20% at 5×, down to 14.29% at 7× — subject to a minimum of ¥100,000 per bid. On most lots the minimum is what actually applies. It is held, not spent: it comes back in full if the bid loses.

A bid placement fee of ¥1,000 is charged when the bid is placed. It pays for relaying your bid to the auction and is charged whether or not you win, because a losing bid was still relayed. Free-bid credits from your plan are used before your balance is.

Higher tiers are earned by buying cars, not by depositing more — ten, thirty or a hundred cars in a calendar month earns Silver, Gold or Diamond, held for that month and the next.

Auction results come back within hours of the session. You are notified either way, and the result appears against the bid in your bid list.

Lost, or the lot did not sell: the security deposit is released back to your available balance in full, immediately. Nothing else is charged. You keep looking.

Won: the bid is binding — you are committed to buying that vehicle at the hammer price, and we pay the auction house on your behalf. The security deposit is not returned; it is applied to the invoice for that car, which is the same money doing the next job rather than a charge.

Occasionally a lot you have won turns out to be one you cannot take — a rule in your destination country, a change of plan. Tell us, and we will try to resell it at auction; you confirm that branch, and the difference between what it cost and what it fetched is settled to your account either way.

An FOB invoice is issued about thirty minutes after a win, covering the hammer price, auction house fees, export handling, domestic transport to the export yard, our service fee, and consumption tax where it applies. Your security deposit is already credited against it.

Payment is due three days from the date the invoice is issued, by bank transfer or from your available balance. Late payment carries a fee that rises with the value of the vehicle, and a vehicle left unpaid for sixty days may be sold off to recover the cost.

Once payment clears we start export: de-registration, the export certificate, inspection where the destination requires it, and the booking. You choose RoRo or container, and you can follow the vehicle through each stage — yard, booked, loaded, sailed, arrived — on your shipping screen, with the vessel and dates as they are confirmed.

Title and export documents are released against full payment, not against a shipping booking. Originals are couriered to you, or to whoever you nominate as the document-sending address.