Buying from Mercari Japan and Other Second-Hand Sites from Abroad in 2026

Mercari Japan is full of things that never reach shops abroad: discontinued pens, old stationery stock, limited editions that sold out years ago. Buying from it from outside Japan has become easier over the past year, and for many people the cheapest route is now Mercari’s own.

Short answer: As of October 2026, Mercari runs its own Global App for buyers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States, and inspects items before they ship. In other countries, Mercari works with officially linked cross-border operators (proxy services). Some items cannot leave Japan at all. Yahoo! JAPAN services, apart from a few named exceptions, cannot be used from the EEA or the UK. A personal shopper is worth it mainly for second-hand shops, not for single marketplace listings.

Route 1: Mercari’s Global App

Mercari launched the Global App in Taiwan and Hong Kong on 30 September 2025, and in the United States on 17 June 2026, its third region. According to Mercari, buyers there can browse and buy items from Mercari and Mercari Shops in Japan, “without having to go through a third-party proxy crossborder service”. Its stated target is more than 50 countries and regions by 2028.

What Mercari says the app does:

• Inspection: “Mercari checks all items before shipping”.
• Transit cover: a free compensation service for damage or loss in transit, for all items (stated in the US launch release).
• Shipping: two options, EMS and Mercari Global Shipping. Global Shipping excludes parcels containing food, batteries or power tools, and medical or sanitary products, and parcels over the courier’s size limits.
• Duties: for the US, estimated import duties are collected at checkout. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, duties and disbursement fees are the customer’s responsibility.

The press releases do not list fees; you see the shipping cost at checkout. If you live in one of the three regions, start here.

Route 2: Mercari’s official proxy partners

Everywhere else, Mercari’s Japanese help centre describes “overseas transaction support”: Mercari, or a cross-border operator officially linked with it, takes a purchase request from someone abroad, buys from the seller, and ships the item overseas. The seller sends it to an address in Japan, as in any domestic sale.

The help page lists about 50 partner operators. Each sets its own fees and rules, so read the operator’s own terms before you order.

What cannot leave Japan

Mercari’s help centre lists items that cannot be bought or shipped outside Japan, including:

• items that break laws, regulations or treaties;
• dangerous goods, and cosmetics with 25% or more alcohol, prohibited under the Civil Aeronautics Act;
• living organisms and human remains;
• discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate items.

It adds that available items vary by country or region, and that some items may not be delivered even after purchase, because of the destination’s own rules. A listing can also be hidden in your country if a rights holder asks for it.

Yahoo! Auctions and Yahoo! Flea Market

Yahoo! JAPAN states that, except for a few listed services, its services cannot be used from the European Economic Area or the UK. Neither Yahoo! Auctions nor Yahoo! Flea Market is among the listed exceptions. To bid at all, you need a Yahoo! JAPAN ID with a mobile number verified by SMS, and a Yahoo! Wallet registered to complete the transaction. Outside the EEA and the UK, check Yahoo! JAPAN’s help pages for your situation; inside them, a proxy service that supports Yahoo! is the practical route. Rules can change, so check before you bid.

Book-Off, Suruga-ya and other second-hand shops

These are shops, not marketplaces, and they work differently. Some second-hand inventory has reached the new channels: Mercari’s US launch release mentions items from Suruga-ya on the Global App. For anything else, check whether the shop’s own site ships to your country. If it does, buy direct: it will cost you less.

What a personal shopper adds

Problem	What a person in Japan can do
Condition is unclear from the photos	Ask for more photos, and photograph the item when it arrives
You have a question for the seller	Ask in Japanese and translate the answer
Several purchases, several parcels	Hold them and ship them together, so you pay for shipping once
A shop that won’t ship abroad	Order with a Japanese address, or go to the shop
A branded item you want checked	Arrange independent authentication

What this means if you order through me

My personal shopping covers new or second-hand goods, from shops: a second-hand shop’s online store that only delivers in Japan, or a shop in Tokyo I can walk into. The rates are the same as for anything else:

• The item at the shop’s price in Japan, including consumption tax, with a photo of the receipt.
• Purchase fee: 25% of the first ¥30,000, 20% of the part from ¥30,000 to ¥100,000, and 15% above that. No minimum fee. A ¥12,000 used item costs ¥3,000 in fees.
• Each additional shop in the same parcel: ¥2,200.
• Third-party authentication of a branded item: ¥4,300. An independent service checks it and I pass on its written result. The judgement is theirs, not mine.
• Holding orders to ship together: free for 30 days.
• Shipping: fixed, quoted before you pay. Payment processing is 4% of the total.

Import tax and duty in your country are charged by your customs on arrival and are not in my quote. (Exception: for US parcels I collect the duty and the prepayment provider’s fee in advance, as separate lines in the quote.)

Mercari, Yahoo! Auctions and other marketplace apps are different. I buy on auction sites and marketplace apps only for Private buyer clients: a monthly retainer of ¥165,000, three months minimum, five clients at a time. For one or two listings, that makes no sense. Mercari’s Global App or one of the partners on Mercari’s help page is the better route for that. The retainer is for people who need someone working for them in Tokyo every month. I also do not buy goods for resale under personal shopping.

Send a link to a second-hand shop’s item on the request form, or write to me if you are not sure which route fits.

Related: Shop Visit in Japan: What I Check, What You Get and What It Costs, Japan Store Exclusives: Why They Never Reach Shops Abroad, and How to Get One.