Over 500,000 vehicles go through the Japanese auctions every month. It is the largest used car market in the world, and almost none of it is visible from outside the trade. Here is what actually happens.
1. You get an account
Registering is free. It gives you direct access to the auction houses so you can view, manage and place bids on vehicles yourself — the same listings the trade sees, not a curated selection.
2. A deposit makes your bids real
New accounts start as guests, and the auction houses do not treat guest bids as legitimate. A refundable deposit of ¥150,000 or 10% of the car price, whichever is higher changes that.
It is not a fee. It is credited to the car if we win, and rolls over to the next car if we miss out. It works the same way for New Zealand and Australia.
3. Someone reads the sheet before you bid
Every car at auction comes with an inspection sheet — grade, damage map, inspector notation, repair history — written in Japanese, in trade shorthand. It is the single most important document in the transaction and the one most buyers never actually read.
We translate and interpret it before the auction runs, so you know what you are bidding on rather than what the photos suggest. Where a sheet is ambiguous or a grade looks generous, our partner in Japan goes and looks at the car in person.
4. No bid goes on without your written maximum
This is the rule that prevents almost every dispute in this industry. We do not place a bid until you have confirmed your maximum in writing. Nobody gets talked into a number in the moment, and nobody is surprised by what they committed to.
5. Win, pay, ship
If you win, we send one invoice covering the car, our fee and the Japan costs, payable by bank transfer within five days. Once payment clears we courier the import documents to you — DHL, FedEx, UPS or DMS — and the car is allocated to a vessel. Typically three to four weeks on the water.
6. It arrives
The car lands at your destination port. From there you can handle compliance yourself or have us assist. The pathway is genuinely different between New Zealand and Australia, so we confirm which one applies as part of your quote rather than after the car has arrived.
Browsing the auctions costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The deposit only matters when you want a bid to count.