LolitaFashion.org Forums

Celga

Yahoo! Japan: Bidding on Yahoo! Japan with Celga isn't really simple. You have to email the staff, wait for a reply, add a deposit and then wait. Contacting the staff and making a deposit is fairly straight-forward, but there are some issues. First of all, you often can't bid on auctions that are just about to end as the staff may not get your email in time. Secondly, raising your maximum bid amount is not that easy (and often you can't do it before the end of the auction). The lack of real-time bidding is a problem.
Celga does have a slight advantage here over Crescent however. Celga allows you to bid on items on Mbok and Crescent currently does not.
Paying more for a Celga Gold account is a much better method for Y!J as you get your own account to bid on things as you please.

Online Stores: This process is much simpler than auctions. You fill out a form, pay for the item and wait. You can also reserve items this was as well. This is another advantage over Crescent, as Crescent cannot do reserves currently.

Fees: Depending on what you are getting, the fees can be very steep. In many cases, the fees and shipping costs make bidding on small items not worth it unless you are getting big ones as well.

Payment: The instructions for payment are a bit convoluted and the whole process can get confusing. Generally you are supposed to put a deposit (for auctions) and full payment for online shops before they will put in your order. If the item in question ends up going out of stock, you can request to have your money refunded.

Shipping: Shipping can be an annoying process. Celga will not notify you when your items arrive, so it's up to you to inquire about them. Generally it's best to wait at least a week (10 days recommended) and then ask. If your item(s) are available, you can ask to have them shipped. I received my items quickly and the were well packed. Celga marks down the value on packages (unless you ask them not to) so you can avoid customs.

Customer Service: The customer service is usually very good. I received answers to my questions quickly and there were no problems. Make sure your email is not blocked by Celga (try using gmail instead of hotmail for example) as this can be problematic.

Overall: I received my stuff quickly and was happy with my purchases. However, the lack of real-time bidding and payment confusion made me reluctant to use them again.

You're super awesome

I have a question for Celga users. I've used them in the past, but it's been a while. Do they generally respond to an auction request, or do you have to simply trust that they received it? If they do, do they reply promptly? It's been a couple of days now since I sent it, even though they already have my deposit.

Edit: I have contacted them and received a confirmation. It seems that they sent one earlier, but it was lost somehow. I'll leave this here anyway for reference.