Well this came as a very unhappy surprise to me just now.* Did anyone at all have awareness this was coming? I mean, seems pretty silly to geo-restrict the auction site for simply viewing, when it is already nigh impossible to bid as an international buyer on there. Really, really frustrating. I cannot believe I will have to turn to some sort of VPN or other service now just to browse toys. Idiotic. Very, very uncool. * in spite of me just having browsed some listings ~1 hour earlier
Still works fine with a VPN & I really don't see the issue with paying 2/3 bucks a month for one if you're collecting severely overpriced Japanese dollies & presently paying $40 for fucking Yamato because there's a war going on. First world problems 2022.
I fully respect that this is a first-world problem, and I have no basis on which to complain when entire regimes/governments have been restricting internet access for their citizens for decades (which amounts to billions, globally). That is also completely bullshit, and tech companies everywhere should be making every effort [IMO] to directly - and freely - circumvent those policies, which only serve to subjugate and misinform the masses, all in an effort to hold on to their own pathetic power. (Because really, knowledge is obviously dangerous). And those people who are currently suffering under this control have my sincerest sympathies (including guys on here like @Ali from Baghdad struggling from within the 'Great Wall'), and those everywhere who have their freedom and accesses curbed. But in this situation it really irks me, and not just because this is one small avenue of distraction and joy in my life. My issue is that this is something put in by a private company (as opposed to an organised government), which intentionally restricts their exposure - and therefore business base - and really for no advantage or lower risk that I can determine. The disclaimer doesn't even really make any sense, "providing a continuous service environment in these regions would be difficult." Okay, so you are just going completely put up a massive block to all access just to see the content? I mean, providing the 'service' as in access to the website from addresses within the EEA, is that really proving any extra burden, as the 'web services' such as they are still have to exist and be maintained for all other markets? While at the same time, we are talking about Europe and the UK here (damn you, Brexit!), this is not the sort of messaging - or impetus behind it - I would expect. Anyways, gripe, gripe, gripe. Just feeling really frustrated I guess. Side note, can anyone recommend a good VPN? Looking at Surfshark right now. My main concern (other than having yet another subscription service to pay for) is signing up for a long contract and then finding that whatever I choose doesn't actually enable what I want it for.
Thanks man, yeah of course you are right - this is completely relative. And of course there are ways around this, VPN like I suggested, which to my mind in 2022 makes it even less logical to have any geo-restricting in place {for what it is worth I rail against this just as much trying to access simple content from things like CBC}. Just all rather silly. Might as well throw region-encoding in the pile too, with this rant.
Surfshark is alright, very simple interface, very few technical/connectivity issues (mostly on my old Windows 8 desktop) - should be more than fine for browsing YJA. Thinking about changing to Nord once subscription runs out, mostly because of games.
Been doing some digging once more on this, as planning to go for a package versus a trial. Interestingly though, on this aspect-by-aspect breakdown, Surfshark is apparently better for gaming than Nord (just one site, for what that is worth though), so just fyi if you are considering: https://www.wizcase.com/blog/nordvp... outperforms,areas like coverage and security. Looking at Nord mostly, as I've heard good things, but they all seem more or less similar for the basics.
Yeah, the interface is pretty awful, never mind the searching, but I was hoping this might be a temporary solution too for the time being, but I have the same. Without even a thumbnail the browsing UX is pretty awful.
I have been using Mulvad VPN for years. 5€ a month. Up to five simultaneous connections on one account. They have clients for Windows, Linux, and Android (prob others). They also have connection points in a lot of different countries, including Finland and Romania, which are nations without data sharing agreements with the Five Eyes, in case you're really paranoid. I typically get 3 - 5gb connections through one of those. But connect through my nearest server in Dallas if I need higher speed.
This strikes me as a cost savings thing. Their cloud services provider (probably NTT) likely raised the rates for Europe and the UK and they couldn't justify the additional cost vs. the amount of business they did in those areas.
Looks like it's an issue with the cost of complying with EU regulations. This article is from February 1: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/1/22911965/yahoo-japan-europe-offline-regulations-compliance-gdpr
Same for me. Have never gone direct and Buyee still working absolutely fine for YJA, so business as usual (at the moment).
From what I can tell, Buyee's site takes the YJA content and re-hosts it, so I think you're okay there.