What a proxy service actually does for you
You cannot buy directly from Mercari Japan or Yahoo Japan Auctions with a Western credit card and a non-Japanese address. A proxy service solves that. They keep a Japanese address on file, they bid or buy on your behalf in yen, they receive the card, and they consolidate and forward the package internationally.
Every proxy charges three layers of fees: a service fee (per item or per auction, typically 300–500 yen), a domestic Japan shipping fee (they pay the seller to ship to their warehouse — 500–1,000 yen), and an international shipping fee (the big one — usually 2,500–6,000 yen depending on weight and method). On a single card this is about $20–30 of overhead. The whole game is making sure the spread on your card covers that and still leaves 30%+ ROI.
Buyee — the default, not the best
Buyee is the largest proxy and the one most English-language tutorials default to. It integrates directly with Yahoo Japan Auctions and Mercari JP, supports PayPal, and the UI is English-first. For a beginner the friction is genuinely lower here.
The catch is the 5% service fee on auction wins (on top of the 300 yen fixed fee). On a 10,000 yen card that is an extra 500 yen of pure overhead that ZenMarket and Jauce do not charge. Over 50 transactions a year this compounds meaningfully.
Buyee also charges the highest international shipping of the three — EMS from Buyee is roughly 15% more than the same weight via ZenMarket. If you are serious about this as a business, treat Buyee as your on-ramp, not your long-term home.
ZenMarket — the sweet spot for flippers
ZenMarket has lower fees (300 yen per auction, no percentage-based service fee on wins), supports PayPal and card, and their English UI is comparable to Buyee. Consolidation is where they quietly save you money: they will hold up to 60 days of purchases for free before shipping, letting you batch-forward a single heavy package instead of paying international rates on every card.
Their FedEx and DHL rates for consolidated shipments are consistently the cheapest of the three on packages over 2kg. Under 2kg, Small Packet Air Mail via ZenMarket is a near-tie with Buyee. For any Pokemon card buyer who plans on a monthly shipment rather than one-off orders, ZenMarket is the default recommendation.
Jauce — smaller, cheaper, friction you feel
Jauce is a scrappier third option aimed at Yahoo auctions specifically. Service fees are the lowest of the three (flat 300 yen with no win percentage), and shipping is routinely 10% under ZenMarket for smaller packages.
The trade-off is customer support, language parity on edge cases, and Mercari JP coverage (Jauce does not natively support Mercari; you have to use their “request” flow, which is slower and less reliable). If you run auction-only workflows and speak some Japanese, Jauce is a live option. If you want Mercari JP access, it is not for you.
FromJapan — the fourth player worth knowing
FromJapan is the incumbent before the others existed and still has the broadest site coverage — they proxy sites ZenMarket and Jauce do not touch, including Surugaya, Amiami, and direct-shop orders from Japanese brick-and-mortar TCG stores.
Fees are comparable to Buyee. Shipping is middling. The reason you would use FromJapan specifically is to buy from Surugaya (which has the best prices on graded Japanese Pokemon slabs) or direct from Japanese TCG shops, which the other proxies cannot reach.
Which one should you actually use
For most Western flippers: ZenMarket as daily driver, FromJapan as a supplement for Surugaya, and Buyee only if you are just starting and want the smoothest on-ramp. Skip Jauce unless you are auction-focused.
The biggest single saving is consolidation: buy across a full month, ship once. That single habit will save you more money than any proxy-fee difference.
Never buy a single Japanese card and ship it alone. Wait until you have at least 400g of product (roughly 30 raw cards) before triggering shipment. On a per-card basis, shipping drops from $1.50 to $0.40.
This article is part of the Japanese Arbitrage section of PokemonCardProfit. Use our free Grading ROI and Flip Profit calculators to run the numbers on any card before you buy.