I received my cel from Yahoo Japan today so I 
thought I'd relate my experience with Celga, who 
acted my intermediary. First off, I have no 
vested interest in his business other than as a 
customer. 

Celga is run by Keigo who coordinates the 
purchase and uses someone in Japan to help him 
deliever them to the US when required. 

The cel I was interested in was a Kiki's cel that 
had been recently sold on Yahoo Japan. 
Apparently, the previous buyer had backed out, so 
the cel was up for grabs. I asked the seller 
whether he was willing to deliver to the US, but 
by the time he responded that he wouldn't, there 
was less than a day left on the auction. 

Even though Celga was a new service, I considered 
it for several reasons: (1) the English seemed 
good on the web page which was important because 
I had a lot of explaining to do, (2) the 
alternate service did not usually respond quickly 
or clearly enough for my needs, (3) price was 
outstanding (I'm a bargain hunter).  

I wanted to bid on cel myself because I can time 
it better and make last minute adjusts to 
pricing. Even though Celga's web site stated that 
they required payment up front, I thought it 
would be worth asking whether they would work 
with me on this. 

So, I shot off an email to Celga and waited. 
Keigo's first response indicated that he would 
like to help, but needed additional information 
like phone, job, etc. He also gave me a fair 
amount of information about himself.  

With that, I decided to bid on the cel. I sent 
Celga the requisite information, put my bid into 
YJ, and hoped the seller wouldn't reject it 
because I wasn't from Japan. In this case, I 
thought better to ask forgiveness than 
permission. 

The next day's a Monday and I'm sitting at my 
desk when someone tells me I have a call from 
Japan. For a full minute, I hear this voice on 
the other end talking away while thinking, "We 
don't *have* direct customers from Japan..." 
before it sinks in that it's Keigo! 

By the time we're done discussing the details of 
the transaction (how to position this to the 
seller, payment methods, delivery considerations, 
etc), I've probably more than burned up his 
transaction fee. 

To make a long story less long, Keigo's handling 
of this transaction has been as exemplary 
throughout this process as it was the first time 
he contacted me. I received responses from him by 
email in less than a day, he kept me up to date 
with the progress, his English is very good (big 
plus if you're doing something unusual), and the 
packaging and shipment were superb. 

Most importantly, he treats this like a business -
 professional and courteous. Once he committed to 
my transaction, he did not waiver from what was 
necessary to complete it regardless of the time 
or effort. Although he's changed his rates 
recently, having the right mindset is what's 
truly important when you've found that important 
cel. 

Obviously I'm very pleased with his service or I 
wouldn't have written this message. Although this 
is only a single transaction, it was sizeable 
(close to $1k) and went through without a hitch. 
If he continues to operate his service this way, 
it will definitely be the most popular one. Two 
thumbs up (I've got two hands!)  

I've listed his web site below for anyone who 
might be interested.  

http://www.geocities.com/jpanime_com/celga.htm

- Chi