Which Auction Agent Should I Decide Upon?

Which Auction Agent Should I Decide Upon?

This is a tough question and its honestly getting tougher by the day. So “which auction agent should I decide upon” is a question that will take some discovering and a little hard work.

Different types of agents

Becoming an auction agent here in Japan is not exactly hard work at the beginning. All you need is a visa, wife, or husband firstly which allows you to stay in Japan.

Secondly, you will need a little money to support the cars that you buy from the auction as they will want their money the moment you buy that car for your client.

Lastly, you will require a sponsor. This sponsor is normally a Japanese company that has auction membership and has zero or nearly little interest in exporting cars. They will allow you to buy cars from the auction using their access with a small fee per car.

Oh, and you may well want to have a website, social network, and some buyers who want to use your service.

What types of agents?

An agent is an agent, right? Well not quite. We have the ones like we mentioned above. They may be a small husband and wife team or an individual operating solo or with a team of buyers. The agent is the person who holds the auction membership. The staff are buyers and do as instructed by the agent. These types of agents mostly export only and do not sell domestically except to some buddies or family. They are 99% exporters.

You maybe talking to or dealing with a larger company here in Japan and the person you are talking to on the phone is a staff buyer and not the real agent. ( yes we are nit picking a little but we also need to be accurate )

You also have car dealers here in Japan who have little business and advertise their company on portal websites like this or JCT, TVC etc. They are Car Dealers / Auction Agents. These dealers can do everything and their core business is domestic mixed with exporting.

An auction agent should have auction access and if they don’t they are not an auction agent

Broker – Agent

With the onset of car auctions being available online many foreign buyers are picking up access to these online auction access points and passing themselves off as agents. These people most have very limited access and do not have a membership to the auctions in Japan. THEY ARE NOT AUCTION AGENTS
If you buy a car from an online Japanese styled auction website based in your country you are effectively using a BROKER

This broker you are using will need to have an auction agent in Japan checking cars and bidding on their behalf. You will be paying your broker a fee and the agent in Japan a fee also.

We don’t dislike brokers in the slightest but we strongly think their are far too many people out their in foreign countries pretending to be Japanese based with little support for their customers taking good business away from quality brokers and auction agents that have put in the years of great service.

Due diligence required

• Do your research
• Do they have a website
• Have they got proven history
• Are they based in Japan
• Can they support you
• Are they licensed to do the job?
• Has the website got good documentation
• Check once, twice, and again
• Are they registered on this website?
• If in doubt get out
• Don’t pay a deposit on a car without a full VIN NUMBER displayed

Buying Cars From Japan Is Fun

Buying cars from Japan is fun and an enjoyable experience if its done well. We are constantly seeing new websites pop out from countries like Canada, Poland, Germany Russia, New Zealand and others with the website showing stock they dont own and auction websites with little actual access. Unless they have ample history, good details and are either an official car broker or Japanese based Auction Agent do not use them

We want you to enjoy your experience and this in why we created this website. We have made it easy for the most reputable of Dealers, Brokers and Agents to join by making it affordable and in the meantime we screen each of them for you personally before their information hits our pages.

Look for your new agent here