Q: Can you tell me if this auction is for a specific character or version of an item?
A: We're sorry, but we are not experts in any form of Japanese goods. Since we are not the sellers of these items, we cannot make judgments or evaluations of any item. We are a solely a deputy service, acting as your agent to bid on or purchase items on your behalf. Sometimes members of our staff can answer questions about specific shows or items that happen to fall into their own area of collecting interest (most of us are collectors, too!), but we cannot be considered a reference and opinions are offered without any authority or guarantee of correctness.
Q: Why do you need the full URL with every inquiry about my items?
A: Celga handles literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of auctions and purchases every month. We index all our records via the URL, since it is a unique identifier. (Auction numbers alone may not be unique across auction web sites!) With so many auctions, this is the only way we can be sure we're accessing the information on the correct transaction.
Q: Where is Celga located?
A Celga's main offices are in Japan , but since we are an internet-based business, we have staff in multiple locations around the world. We transact all of our business with customers via email. We maintain a US mail presence in California, but we do not have any facilities there which are open to customers.
Q: What happened to the Doujin Box site?
A: Doujin Box was a specialty deputy service that handled auction and purchase requests for (specdoujin)doujinshi only. Celga took over processing the transactions for this site a number of years ago. With the most recent changes, we've incorporated all the Doujin Box functionality and information into our main web site, so we no longer need a separate site.
We invite our doujinshi collector customers to visit our (specdoujin)doujinshi special interest page!
Q: What are the system requirements needed to use your web site successfully?
A: The Celga web site has been designed to work with the greatest number of platforms and browsers possible, in order to reach as many customers as possible. However, there are some basic system requirements in order to have the web site work correctly: you must have cookies enabled, Java script enabled[IMPLEMENTOR FILL IN HERE].
We have verified our website on Macintosh OS X , Windows [WHATEVER], cell phones and multiple browsers. If www.celga.com is not working for you and you have verified you are using supported software and have all the required features enabled, please (contactus)contact us to (miscerrors)report a bug.
Q: What do I do if I find an error on your webpage or can't use your web forms?
A: We have tested our new website on many browsers and on many different computing platforms; however, due to the sheer number of combinations we are simply not able to test every possible combination.
If you are having issues with our website, first please ensure that you have all of the (miscbrowser)system requirements enabled for the web site to work correctly. If you do, then please (contactus)contact us! Please make sure to describe the problem you were having, and include the time of day you had the problem, the URL of the page you were using, what kind of computer you have, what operating system you were using, what web browser (type and version) you were using. We need to know if any of our customers can't use our website!
If you are experiencing problems with our web forms you may email us a bug report directly to our webmaster. Please include the information above and please make sure you use a descriptive subject line – we do use a spam filter and we want to make sure we receive your error report!
Q: What can I do if I need help translating the automated translation of a page?
A: Because automated translation pages are not human and don't pick up on the nuances of a language, sometimes the translations they provide can be very confusing! We've included a list of the most common odd translations below, and hope this will help you with your item.
cancer = gun
gru cancer = glue gun
cancer dam = Gundam
medieval = used (in describing condition of goods)
We're sorry, but Celga does not provide personal translation for Japanese website pages.
Q: Japanese sellers often provide coins for scale in their pictures. How big are Japanese coins?
A: Here's a list of Japanese coins and their sizes.
500 yen 2.65 cm 1.04"
100 yen 2.26 cm .89"
50 yen 2.10 cm .83" has hole in center
10 yen 2.35 .93"
5 yen 2.20 .86" has hole in center
1 yen 2.0 .79"
The denominations are clearly marked on each coin, so you know which coin is being used!
[NOTE TO IMPLEMENTOR: add photo of Japanese coins and rulers in inches and centimeters here. Measurements above should be in a table.]
Q: How do I know if a video or DVD is a bootleg?
A: Sadly, like in the US and other countries, there are many bootleg videos and DVDs available through Japanese auction sites and shopping websites. One of the biggest clues that the item you're looking at may not be legitimate is if there are many episodes of a series presented on very little media (like 24 anime episodes on 3 DVDs). Most of the official releases contain two to four episodes per DVD.
Many bootlegs are also subtitled in Chinese and English.
Unfortunately, since Celga is not the seller, we cannot guarantee the legitimacy of any item. We encourage our customers to familiarize themselves with the items they're interested in!
Q: What are the Showa and Heisei calendars?
A: In addition to the Julian calendar in use in much of the world, the Japanese also use a calendar based on the reign of each emperor. This calendar system is called Gengo, and is used in dating official government documents.
Sometimes magazines and other periodicals are dated using this system. Year 1 of the Showa era is 1926 (the year Emperor Hirohito ascended to the throne), and year 1 of the Heisei period is 1989 (the year Emperor Akihito became emperor). The year 2007 is Heisei 19 under this system.
Q: What are furoku?
A: Furoku are gift items that are not for sale in stores. They're often bonus items included with other items, like an extra issue of a different manga or a pencilboard included with a regular manga issue.
Q: What are the major Japanese holidays and how do they affect my auctions and purchases?
A: Golden week is a series of holidays in Japan during the first week of May. The actual holidays are:
- April 29, Showa Day
- May 3, Constitution Memorial Day
- May 4, Greenery Day
- May 5, Children's Day
With so many holidays so close together, many people also take the days in between as vacation days and many businesses simply close for the week.
While Christmas is not usually taken as a holiday, New Year's Day is a very big holiday, with many people and businesses taking several days off around New Year's to celebrate.
During these times there are often fewer auction listings and website updates, as sellers also take time off! They also do not answer email quickly if at all and cannot send items, as the Japanese Post Office also shuts down for the holidays.
If you have an outstanding order from a website or a win an auction during these holidays, your items will be delayed – please add these extra days to any estimates we have provided. Please also plan to allow for several extra days in addition to the actual holidays as businesses ramp back up and work through any backlog that has accumulated.
