yahoo auction japan woes

I mentioned in my intro post the other day that I stumbled across yahoo auctions for the custom dollfie heads and fell in love. So I went all in planning to get two heads…

Easier said than done! Unfortunately for me, the heads I like are all the ones that end up going crazy in bid wars (I guess my tastes are not unique at all lol). My budget keeps creeping up after each auction I lose out on (or I don’t bid bc it’s out of budget only to regret it so much later).

Has anyone here had success in the auctions? Is it just a matter of having to spend crazy to get the dolls you want? 

Oof, yeah, I hear you. Yahoo!Japan is the auction site for Japanese hobbyists (and Japan in general) so a custom head by an established, talented artist is going to be seen by everyone because that's where they all look. Sometimes - rarely - a nice-looking head up for auction ends at a not-ridiculous price because the artist isn't yet well-known, but most of the time it's just going to be painful, end of story.

Second-hand custom doll heads do occasionally pop up on Mandarake for flat prices, but not too many and there's obviously not as much choice. I mean, that's how I got Nessa, but I have no idea who made her because her original signed headcap didn't come with her. (I can see the tiniest remnants of a gold paint pen signature on either side of the headcap.)

The Japanese hobbyists are accustomed to these prices, so competing with them means paying those prices too, alas. Or getting very lucky.

On top of what @Gallye wrote above, bidding within the last 5 minutes of an auction extends the auction time by another 5 minutes, so bidding typically goes haywire within the last 10 minutes. Most people will try to snipe before the 5 minute mark, and others will wage a war of attrition by repeatedly extending the auction until the other bidders give up.

YJA is not for the faint of heart, especially if you live in a time zone where you would have to stay up all night to see it through to the end.

I haven’t paid attention to custom heads on yahoo in over a year or so(used to enjoy browsing even with no intention of buying) but from what I’ve gathered, while well-made, cute heads do fetch high prices anyway, a lot of the price is also attached to the prestige behind the artist. Every now and then I see really incredibly, beautifully painted heads that go for only 20,30k yen like they didn’t get noticed because the artist was relatively new or unknown, meanwhile the heads by big names will be going for 200,300k(and sometimes much more), even though the level of detail and mod work may be about the same.

If this is still the case, my advice would be to go for heads by lesser known artists (although this can be difficult to know if you aren’t active on jp doll twitter/instagram, although paying attention to names on auctions and the final bid prices should be an indication). And honestly just to keep on trying. It might take a while, a lot of watching. But hopefully one day..?

Sites like Dollyteria also sell a lot of custom heads second hand if you search DD カスタムヘッド but the prices are kind of all over the place.

12 hours ago, Gallye said:

Oof, yeah, I hear you. Yahoo!Japan is the auction site for Japanese hobbyists (and Japan in general) so a custom head by an established, talented artist is going to be seen by everyone because that's where they all look. Sometimes - rarely - a nice-looking head up for auction ends at a not-ridiculous price because the artist isn't yet well-known, but most of the time it's just going to be painful, end of story.

Second-hand custom doll heads do occasionally pop up on Mandarake for flat prices, but not too many and there's obviously not as much choice. I mean, that's how I got Nessa, but I have no idea who made her because her original signed headcap didn't come with her. (I can see the tiniest remnants of a gold paint pen signature on either side of the headcap.)

The Japanese hobbyists are accustomed to these prices, so competing with them means paying those prices too, alas. Or getting very lucky.

Yes, I have just been following every artist I can find on twitter, and searching both there for promotions of auctions, as well as on yahoo auctions directly with the keywords. I feel like I’m probably seeing most of the listings. I don’t know yet who is popular or who isn’t, but I’m starting to get an idea after watching the listings over the past couple of weeks.

I guess I just need to be ready for the pain (will check out mandarake though!)

7 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

On top of what @Gallye wrote above, bidding within the last 5 minutes of an auction extends the auction time by another 5 minutes, so bidding typically goes haywire within the last 10 minutes. Most people will try to snipe before the 5 minute mark, and others will wage a war of attrition by repeatedly extending the auction until the other bidders give up.

YJA is not for the faint of heart, especially if you live in a time zone where you would have to stay up all night to see it through to the end.

Yes the auto-extensions are brutal and most of the auctions do end during my sleeping time so I am likely just going to try going for my max bid and hoping for the best. 

7 hours ago, Monty said:

I haven’t paid attention to custom heads on yahoo in over a year or so(used to enjoy browsing even with no intention of buying) but from what I’ve gathered, while well-made, cute heads do fetch high prices anyway, a lot of the price is also attached to the prestige behind the artist. Every now and then I see really incredibly, beautifully painted heads that go for only 20,30k yen like they didn’t get noticed because the artist was relatively new or unknown, meanwhile the heads by big names will be going for 200,300k(and sometimes much more), even though the level of detail and mod work may be about the same.

If this is still the case, my advice would be to go for heads by lesser known artists (although this can be difficult to know if you aren’t active on jp doll twitter/instagram, although paying attention to names on auctions and the final bid prices should be an indication). And honestly just to keep on trying. It might take a while, a lot of watching. But hopefully one day..?

Sites like Dollyteria also sell a lot of custom heads second hand if you search DD カスタムヘッド but the prices are kind of all over the place.

I’m starting to gather that, for sure. I’m seeing some heads go for consistently crazy high, and others not so much. Unfortunately, even with my lack of knowledge about prestige, the heads I want tend to belong to the popular artists (they’re popular for a reason I suppose). 

I’m just trying to go for the heads that catch my eye, but I’m definitely getting more and more active on JP doll twitter so maybe I’ll find someone whose work I really like but isn’t super pricey! 

Coming from collecting BJDs where I’m used to just paying a professional artist to paint a doll exactly how I like it, I think I’m just very cautious? I’m definitely worried about buying a head I only sort of like, so I’m willing to pay to avoid that. But gosh, so pricey. 

Some artists will paint heads for a flat rate, usually ¥20,000~30,000, but sometimes more. Surprisingly, Ronshuka takes requests for around ¥50,000 on occasion. But yeah, most artists, especially the popular ones, do not.

If you ever come to Japan while a convention is on, you can sometimes pick up a head there. They usually go for ¥30,000~50,000, and depending on the artist, are not as difficult to get as you might expect.

Otherwise, I second buying secondhand. There’s a huge taboo against reselling heads for more than they were purchased for, a “rule” that most Japanese people abide by, so you can usually get a head secondhand for the same price it sold for or less, making it a much more affordable option.

My Momo (pictured) and Reina came from Yahoo auctions. I got them both for pretty amazing prices. Momo had some minor staining and Reina had a horrible faceup and came with junk clothes/wig so I bought her a new head and outfits.

I've acquired a lot of other stuff on Yahoo auctions. Random tips:

• People don't like buying the job lots of stuff if they only want one item. I bought a Miku wig, outfit and a doll stand (!) for the price of the outfit alone.
• Random wig job lots can sometimes contain grail wigs.
• Don't get too involved with bidding wars. Sometimes the same item will come up again and attract no bids. This is mainly relating to outfits and accessories. I acquired rare ToHeart 2 outfits, Miku Miku spectacles and the super rare Saber Normal outfit this way.
• Be sure that the item you're buying can be shipped. This mainly applies to food and firearms lol.

On 2/13/2026 at 9:11 AM, Xiongmao said:

My Momo (pictured) and Reina came from Yahoo auctions. I got them both for pretty amazing prices. Momo had some minor staining and Reina had a horrible faceup and came with junk clothes/wig so I bought her a new head and outfits.

I've acquired a lot of other stuff on Yahoo auctions. Random tips:

• People don't like buying the job lots of stuff if they only want one item. I bought a Miku wig, outfit and a doll stand (!) for the price of the outfit alone.
• Random wig job lots can sometimes contain grail wigs.
• Don't get too involved with bidding wars. Sometimes the same item will come up again and attract no bids. This is mainly relating to outfits and accessories. I acquired rare ToHeart 2 outfits, Miku Miku spectacles and the super rare Saber Normal outfit this way.
• Be sure that the item you're buying can be shipped. This mainly applies to food and firearms lol.

what a cutie!! I’m still tracking the auctions. Hoping to get lucky soon! 

An update!

 

YAHOO JAPAN AUCTIONS YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!

 

*ahem* that is to say, I finally, after a month of tracking and trying, I finally won an auction last night. And ohhh my gosh was it stressful. 

For the head in question, I outbid someone earlier on in the auction. I didn’t initially intend to bid so early but I kinda wanted to check if it had already blown past my budget so I was trying to see what the max bid was set at.

After that, no one bid for several days. I was so confused. But I figured there would be last minute bids. I had initially planned to just stay up all night but I couldn’t swing that, so I just set an alarm to wake me up about an hour before the auction ended. I slept fitfully and then missed my alarm, but thankfully woke up in time anyway.

In the last 30 minutes there were some small bid increases but nothing crazy, until I was finally outbid in the final five minutes, which ofc increased the auction time. So then I dropped my actually max bid and turns out the person had bid like 70% of my max. I sat there the last 5 minutes anxious as heck just whispering “please don’t bid again, just let it go”. And thankfully, they did not bid, so I won!

But it’s not over yet. I have another headless body to find a head for. So, we continue.

3 hours ago, somewheresunbear said:

An update!

 

YAHOO JAPAN AUCTIONS YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!

 

*ahem* that is to say, I finally, after a month of tracking and trying, I finally won an auction last night. And ohhh my gosh was it stressful. 

For the head in question, I outbid someone earlier on in the auction. I didn’t initially intend to bid so early but I kinda wanted to check if it had already blown past my budget so I was trying to see what the max bid was set at.

After that, no one bid for several days. I was so confused. But I figured there would be last minute bids. I had initially planned to just stay up all night but I couldn’t swing that, so I just set an alarm to wake me up about an hour before the auction ended. I slept fitfully and then missed my alarm, but thankfully woke up in time anyway.

In the last 30 minutes there were some small bid increases but nothing crazy, until I was finally outbid in the final five minutes, which ofc increased the auction time. So then I dropped my actually max bid and turns out the person had bid like 70% of my max. I sat there the last 5 minutes anxious as heck just whispering “please don’t bid again, just let it go”. And thankfully, they did not bid, so I won!

But it’s not over yet. I have another headless body to find a head for. So, we continue.

I wana see which one u got!! 

8 hours ago, bunniebibi said:

I wana see which one u got!! 

I wish I could post pics but I still haven’t made enough comments in here yet, and I don’t have an account on any image hosting site lol. Sooooooon. 

1 hour ago, somewheresunbear said:

I wish I could post pics but I still haven’t made enough comments in here yet, and I don’t have an account on any image hosting site lol. Sooooooon. 

can u link the auction? hehe if not i shall wait patiently 😇

10 hours ago, bunniebibi said:

can u link the auction? hehe if not i shall wait patiently 😇

Here she is! I’m having a ton of fun finding wigs, clothes, and accessories for her now. Photos were taken by the artist, Sealand.

You managed to snatch a Sealand head?? Jeez, congrats, their heads are among the absolutely most insane ones I see go up in price at the auctions.

Do you mind me asking how much the final bid was for this one?

HOLY molleey soo pretty!!! the price is crazy tho omgg!!! def a grail girly at that price (id wana quote u but i dont wana hav the pics repost)

15 hours ago, somewheresunbear said:

I wish I could post pics but I still haven’t made enough comments in here yet, and I don’t have an account on any image hosting site lol. Sooooooon. 

I cant wait to see ur new doll all ready with all the stuff ur getting for it!!

5 hours ago, MoiBakaDesu said:

You managed to snatch a Sealand head?? Jeez, congrats, their heads are among the absolutely most insane ones I see go up in price at the auctions.

Do you mind me asking how much the final bid was for this one?

Thank you! Yeah, I think there were so many heads for auction this past week that this one went for slightly less crazy than usual. That said, final price was still slightly above 200K yen. I had budgeted based on what I knew Sealand’s heads could go for and told myself to imagine it like I’m buying a custom blythe (another hobby of mine) what with the OOAK carving and faceup and that made it hurt a little less lmao.

5 hours ago, bunniebibi said:

HOLY molleey soo pretty!!! the price is crazy tho omgg!!! def a grail girly at that price (id wana quote u but i dont wana hav the pics repost)

thank you!!! yeah Sealand’s work is pricey but I just love their artistry so much. Before I joined japanese doll twitter I had found them on instagram and fell in love. Was a little dismayed initially to see how much their heads tend to go for but I suppose you can get used to anything lolol.

5 hours ago, somewheresunbear said:

thank you!!! yeah Sealand’s work is pricey but I just love their artistry so much. Before I joined japanese doll twitter I had found them on instagram and fell in love. Was a little dismayed initially to see how much their heads tend to go for but I suppose you can get used to anything lolol.

yes you really can and I totally understand haha plus these doll heads are really one of a kind and thats already so so special