About
The halls won't let you in.
So we go for you.
AuctionGate is a Japanese sourcing company with a piece of software attached. Our people stand in the auction halls; the platform is how you stand there with them.
Why we exist
Japan sells 50,000 cars a month to people who live there.
Japan's auction system is the largest and best-documented used-car market in the world, and it was built entirely for domestic buyers. The halls don't admit overseas buyers, the sheets are written in Japanese for an inspector's colleague, and the lot that interests you runs at 10am JST whether or not you are awake.
For most importers that has meant working through a broker who forwards a photograph and a price, and hoping the rest of the story was boring. We built the other thing: the same inventory a local dealer sees, the sheet in your language, the images you asked for, and people in the room to bid when you've decided.
We are based in Tokyo and most of our customers are not. That gap — nine time zones, a language and a set of trade rules — is the entire job.
By the numbers
0+
auction houses
Every major Japanese hall, one login
0K+
cars a month
Refreshed as the halls publish
0+
countries served
Buyers on five continents, one timetable
0/7
access
Browse on your clock, bid on JST
How we work
Four things we won't do.
The sheet, not the summary
You get the auction sheet translated in full, including the grade you'd rather not see and the inspector's note about the rust. We'd rather lose a sale than sell you a car you'd send back.
Your ceiling is yours
We bid to the number you set and not one yen past it. If a car goes higher, it goes to somebody else and we tell you what it made.
One price, quoted early
Subscription, auction fees and freight are three separate numbers and you see all three before you commit. Nothing appears on an invoice that wasn't discussed first.
A person, not a queue
You get someone who knows what you buy and answers in your working day, not a ticket number and a promise of 48 hours.
Where we are
Tokyo, on your clock.
Our buyers work Japanese hours because the halls do. Everything you see is stamped in JST and in your own time as well, deadlines included, so nobody has to do arithmetic at midnight to find out whether a car has already run.
Come and stand in the hall with us.
Get an account and you could be bidding on this week's cars.