Well, I’m back. You’ve had sufficient time to explore Grailed, haven’t you? At some point though, you must have wondered to yourself, “How did this piece from [any relatively ‘obscure’ Japanese label] end up on this site? Where are people even getting these unusual/rare clothes to sell on Grailed in the first place?”
The answer is something that confuses me. It is confusing to me because I am inclined to believe that the Grailed community is at least somewhat involved in the appreciation and acquisition of internet fashion (a term that I am highly unsatisfied with but cannot find an alternative for). The online communities that participate in this type of fashion presumably have an awareness of the “sources” of desirable garments, and in fact many of their discussions are inseparable from the mention of these sources. And yet…here you have an enormously popular secondhand marketplace where users, supposedly informed, are frequently buying pieces for two, three, even ten times the “source price.”
So what are these sources? You might be thinking eBay, which is a good guess. eBay was and still is a decent place to search for less-than-common pieces. It used to be a more frequented marketplace until Grailed came along and took with it a chunk of the fashion-selling demographic. But even if you’re thinking eBay, I’m not thinking eBay. Go one deeper. I’m thinking Yahoo! Japan Auctions.
Unless you are a regular participant in the discourse of online fashion, Yahoo! Japan Auctions (affectionately shortened to YJP) is likely an unfamiliar name. But don’t be fooled by its relative obscurity. Yahoo! and its associated services may have fallen out of favor in the Western hemisphere, with its search engine and mail service overshadowed by those of internet giant Google. Yahoo! Japan Auctions, on the other hand, is a site bustling with user activity. It can be seen as the “eBay of the East,” rife with precious gems to be bid on, albeit obscured by the barrier of the Japanese language.
“Japanese?” you mentally exclaim. “I can barely speak proper English!” Have no fear. With the help of Google Translate, western buyers (gaijin) are able to navigate the auctions with—well, I wouldn’t say “with ease” initially, but gradually as a repeat offender one can become accustomed to the eccentric auction titles, description taglines, and recurring seller phrases.
Google Translate isn’t a perfect technology, though, and with its use comes a myriad of comedic expressions. Undercover listings, for example, have translated titles often including the phrase “Jonio Favorite Wearing,” a head-nod to the fact that the garments in question have been spotted on Undercover designer Jun “Jonio” Takahashi. (These listings will in fact often include low-quality paparazzi-esque images of “Jonio” seen in public wearing the pieces being listed.)
Other iconic phrases you will commonly see within auction descriptions include:
-“There is a feeling of use”: the item being sold is used
-“The bid of the more nervous one please withhold”: If you are uncertain about purchasing this used product then please do not bid on this listing.
-“Beautiful goods”: a mistranslation that indicates the item is in like-new condition
-“ The state is a beautiful article of wear several times”: The item is in good condition and has only been worn a few times
-“Thank you no claim no return”: This item is final sale—no returns!
Most listings on YJP contain thorough sizing information, a notch above the average clothing listing in the West. Frequently you will see chest, back, shoulder, sleeve, waist, rise, inseam, and hem measurements, all enormously helpful and followed by the seller’s message of “Please forgive the error of the amateur measurement” (I am taking these measurements by hand so there may be slight discrepancies). Most of us who use YJP have recorded our own measurements either on a document or in our minds to allow for us to quickly size up against the garments and determine whether we would fit them.
To get to the items you want to see, you have to browse effectively. Simply searching the English names of labels and designers will not pull up all the potential listings; you have to get the Japanese katakana equivalent of your search term through Google Translate and search that instead. A lot of times, though, listings contain both English names and their katakana equivalents, which makes it easier to just copy and paste the katakana from the listing title into the search bar. Many of us who do not understand a single word of Japanese have become so accustomed to seeing the katakana spellings of our most-searched brands that we are subconsciously learning to associate the Japanese characters with their equivalent sounds.
So, let’s say at this point you’ve searched YJP for your favorite brand, Facetasm; you’ve looked through listing after listing with titles containing “ファセッタズム,” and you’ve finally found a piece that fits your measurements. Hey, just your luck too! This listing has a Buy-It-Now option (a red button that reads “And now successful bid” sits in place of the usual orange “Bid”). Hold your horses—purchasing the item is not going to be as simple as clicking that button. YJP was created as an auctions site for Japan (hence everything being in Japanese), and as such transactions only occur domestically. Japanese sellers ship to Japanese buyers. So how do we maneuver around this obstacle?
To anyone living outside of Japan, YJP is only half of the story to acquiring a garment. The other half is a proxy service, which is a shopping service that will process auction and shopping requests from individuals outside of Japan and bid/purchase on behalf of these individuals domestically. While there exist numerous proxy services for Japanese shopping, I myself use a service called FromJapan. To bid/purchase an item on YJP through FJ, you first “add a deposit” onto your FJ account, which simply means you transfer funds from your bank account or Paypal. Following this, you provide FJ with the URL of the auction listing you intend to bid on and they take care of the rest. There is an initial fee, “Charge 1,” which is comprised of the cost of the item as well as a small commission fee. Once the purchase has been made, there is a brief wait period as the item is shipped to FJ’s warehouse. Upon arrival, FJ hits you with a second fee, menacingly deemed “Charge 2.” Charge 2 (shipping and other costs) is a headache to many FJ users in that if you order a large number of goods and package them together, the Charge 2 can build up to a very large fee.
After your funds have been depleted, FJ ships out your package according to shipping instructions you provide beforehand—lighter packaging or more protective packaging, EMS or DHL, etc. The process of instructing your shipment is a very precise art. In the words of professional FJ user Richard Ying (@ryingg), “[You] need that subtle balance between declared value, actual value, number of items to ship in one package, and the weight and physical size of the package to narrowly avoid arousing [U.S. Customs] inspectors’ [suspicions] while getting the most value for your shipping fee.” You know that feeling of anticipation you have when you’re waiting for your Crest 3D White Luxe Glamorous White Vibrant Mint Flavor Whitening Toothpaste Twin Pack 8.2 Oz from Amazon to arrive? It’s nowhere nearly as close to the feeling of waiting for your FJ package. Checking USPS tracking every hour. Crossing your fingers hoping that your shipment is not detained by customs and disintegrated for the violation of “importation of designer goods.” Praying the mailman delivers when you’re at home so that you don’t have to pick up the package from the post office the following day (cursed signature confirmation).
At this point you are likely thinking, “How could any of this possibly be worth all the hassle?” My friend, this isn’t a simple leisurely activity. By asking that question, you are extending a critique to a devoted way of life. The people who tirelessly stay up in the dead of the night to make sure they aren’t outbid live and die for their clothes. To quote Young Thug, “I've done did a lot of s*** just to live this here lifestyle.” If a garment can be obtained with little to no trouble, then the gratification of purchasing it is lessened. The reward of finding that piece you’ve been waiting for for so long is fulfilling because of the time and effort it took to acquire it. To quote Tupac Shakur, “I don't want it if it's that easy.”
To close, I invite you all to take a peek into this esoteric world of proxying. There is something so comforting about the procedural nature of buying off YJP. The front page of YJP, with its soothing yellow and black logo in the top left corner. The feeling of seeing the yen-to-dollar ratio steadily increasing. The satisfaction of getting that email that says “You have won the auction!” or “We shipped your item!”
I look forward to pressing “And now successful bid” for years and years to come.
