Ebay is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to searching and buying or bidding for postage stamps from all over the world.
Still, to complete some of my sets for South Africa, I had to resort to South African sellers that listed their offerings only locally, on a South Africa-based website for collectors.
I’m going to have to do the same for Japan, but there are additional challenges.
There is the language obstacle of Japanese language-only websites, and many times the seller would ship only to local buyers.
Enter Buyee Japan: a proxy shopping service that lets you bid for, or purchase outright, Japanese products that are listed on local Japanese websites.
Buyee will serve as a proxy bidder for you on the auctions. If you win, you pay for the item. The item is sent to Buyee’s warehouse in Japan and then shipped overseas to the USA from there.
It is a 1948 issue, issued for that year’s ‘Philately Week’ in relatively small numbers. It depicts a print by Japanese artist Hishikawa Moronobu. He is known for popularizing the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock prints and paintings in the late 17th century.
My 2021 Scott Catalogue says the sheet is worth/ can fetch US$350 when sold. So it should quite a bit up from its current bid prince of US$ 20.46 over the next few days and in the final countdown to when the bidding closes. (I am not bidding and will look for a single used stamp to add to my collection instead.)