eBay sellers who heard about the new deal between eBay and Yahoo Japan may be wondering how it affects them. The deal kicked off with the launch of the Sekaimon.com website, which allows Japanese consumers to buy from eBay.com. More buyers sounds good, but international shipping & handling and customer-service issues can complicate sellers' business operations. Here's the lowdown from the perspective of sellers on eBay.com.

Sekaimon (www.sekaimon.com) provides proxy buyer services to enable Japanese consumers to browse and buy items listed on eBay.com. Sekaimon, which means "global shopping" in Japanese, was developed by Shop Airlines, a subsidiary of netprice.com Ltd. The Sekaimon site translates all listings into Japanese.

Shop Airlines will manage and operate the Sekaimon site and will host a customer service function to assist US sellers. The company will facilitate all payments, shipping and customs clearance on behalf of Japanese buyers. Yahoo Japan users can access the service and shop for items on the eBay U.S. site by using their existing Yahoo Japan IDs.

US sellers need not worry about international shipping or language issues. Shop Airlines will instruct sellers to ship items to US locations where it will handle customs and additional requirements before sending them directly to the buyer in Japan. In effect, the seller is dealing with Shop Airlines, not the individual buyer in Japan.

PayPal will be the default payment option for all international purchases that Shop Airlines facilitates through Sekaimon.com. So sellers and Shop Airlines will be protected by PayPal's buyer protection program up to $2,000, according to eBay spokesperson Jose Mallabo.

Shop Airlines will pay sellers on behalf of Japanese buyers, and the buyers pay all of Shop Airlines fees. ShopAirlines and eBay sellers will leave each other feedback.

It seems the next step in the eBay-Yahoo partnership could be a proxy buying service for US consumers who want to shop on Yahoo Japan. Elaine Gross Russell, who wrote an AuctionBytes Collector's Corner article on the topic of vintage magazines 2 years ago, does public relations for one such business. Rinkya.com is an independent website started by Heather Russell, who had launched a business selling Anime products such as Animation cels, dolls, books and games. She launched Rinkya.com when she realized an English-language proxy bidding service would be attractive to worldwide buyers and Japanese sellers alike, and Elaine said the business is thriving.

It is not surprising entrepreneurs and corporations alike are exploring cross-border trading opportunities. If it makes buyers' and sellers' lives easier, no doubt both sides will welcome such services.