Everything you've ever wanted to know about winning auctions through Celga, but were afraid to ask... thanks to Celga email-goddess Marcia! A round of snaps for Marcia, then read on, to your heart's content.

One of the most common inquiries we receive is "what happens after I've won my auction?". Here's the timeline of what happens (and what you need to do!) from when the auction closes to when you receive your items.

As is mentioned elsewhere on this site, we only notify auction winners if they've won. If you just can't wait to see whether you've won or not, just drop us a line and ask. ^_^

Several days after we've won an auction for you, you will receive an invoice for the cost of the auction, the bank fee, the internal Japanese shipping fee, and our Celga fee. Your invoice is your official notification of winning.

SAVE THIS INVOICE.

Your invoice contains all the information that you'll need for requesting your international shipment.

It takes us several days to send you an invoice because it takes time for Yahoo Japan to notify us that we've won, to contact the sellers, to process all the information, etc. If you believe you've won an auction, please allow for at least 4 days before wondering where your invoice is. If you've won, we WILL send it to you!

We almost NEVER have auction items listed as being in stock until at least 17 days after the end of auction. Please remember that most sellers on Yahoo Japan are not professional retailers, and they do need some time to pack and ship. We also need time to receive and unpack the items, inspect for damage, inventory the items, match them to winning customers, and update our stock records. Please don't inquire if your goods have arrived until at least 17 days after the auction has ended!

If you would like to inquire if your items have arrived, please email us with a status request. In your email, please provide:

• The full URL of every auction you are inquiring about (this is in your invoice)
• The month in which the auction ended (optional, but useful)

Whenever possible, Celga defaults to holding your won items until you request an international shipment. Combining auctions this way helps you to save on the high cost of international shipping. We try to let our customers decide when they are ready for a package - this way, you can determine if you want items sooner, or combine more and wait longer (but remember, heavier packages do cost more to ship!).

However, please understand that due to the nature and quantity of items you may have won, or our limited storage facilities, there are times when we'll have to prepare a package for you without an explicit shipping request.

Also, if you have won very fragile items or particularly heavy items, we may not be able to combine all the items you have won into a single package. Our shipping staff has a great deal of experience with packaging items for international shipment, and their primary concern is the safe arrival of your items!

When you are ready for a package, please fill out our handy shipping request form.

This request will be forwarded to our shipping folks, who will then pack up your current stack of auction wins. Please note that you do not have to send a status request before sending a shipping request.

Also, if you bid on Yahoo Japan regularly, it is impossible to wait until *everything* has arrived! Please plan on requesting a shipment every month or two.

Once we have a package ready to go for you, you will receive an invoice for international shipping.

The international shipping invoice will contain a list of the URLs of all the auctions contained in this package. It will also contain your EMS tracking number. Please note that we assign these numbers to packages as they are packed; don't panic if you see the number is not in the tracking system yet! It simply means we have your items packed but not mailed.

The invoice for international shipping is for the cost of mailing your package to you. This amount must be paid before we mail the box. We can't tell you how much it's going to be before we pack the box, since we don't know how much it's going to cost to ship it until we do.

Once the package is mailed, it can take 5 days to several weeks to arrive, depending on the postal service. Unfortunately, at this point it is out of our hands; but thanks to the EMS tracking page (The URL is included in your international shipping invoice), you can keep tabs on its progress!