Before leaving Inagi, I had to get rid of all my excess stuff. And I had a ton of stuff:

2 wood cabinets
1 metal cabinet
1 computer desk
1 computer monitor
1 plain desk
1 scanner
2 printers
3 phone sets
3 carpets
3 video decks
2 stools
1 ceiling lamp
3 gas heaters
2 gas stoves
1 suitcase
1 bed frame
1 hamster cage

I also had a fridge, air conditioner, a TV set, and a computer monitor. These items wouldn’t be picked up by the city–you need to use special recycle shops for those. I arranged to sell or give away most those by other means, however. But before they were spoken for, I had one of the city-recommended recycle shops come over and do an estimate. While they were at my place, I figured that I would have them check out everything else as well, and give me an estimate on how much they’d charge for each item. The answer was pretty shocking.

Even before that, I had gotten very bad vibes from Japanese recycle shops. When I lived in Nakano Ward many years back, I used a local recycle store to shop at, outfitting my apartment. I quickly found that they charged very high prices for used goods–so close to new prices that I eventually decided not to buy used stuff anymore. What I didn’t know was how badly they ripped people off on the other side of the deal.

After I decided to move out of Inagi, I went to a few different secondhand shops (they’re always called “recycle shops” in Japanese) armed with a printout of photos I’d taken of the things I was trying to unload. I soon learned that these people wouldn’t take anything that wasn’t in near-pristine shape–for example, no electronic goods more than five years old, regardless of operating condition. I guess I can see why they would do that–but then they said the same about furniture. My plain wood desk is a very nice one, unmarred and unscarred–plain but very nice. The store owner didn’t care if it was in pristine shape–if it was older than five years, he wanted me to pay him for taking it.

Only two items that I have interested these guys: a gas stove (with burners, the kind you cook on) and a gas fan heater. The gas fan heater is brand-new, just got it last year, and it’s a ¥20,000 model. One recycle shop guy magnanimously offered me a few thousand yen for it. That was the most generous offer I got. And he was they guy who looked most like a yakuza, punch-perm haircut and everything.

Remember the recycle guys I mentioned above who came in and did an estimate? They offered to take the gas stove and gas fan heater… for nothing. Everything else, I would have to pay to get hauled off. And their prices were outrageous. The total came to more than $700. And this was even after I would haul everything down to street level myself–all they had to do was drive up and take it away. They even tried to get me to pay them a fair sum for taking things like my old telephones–before I discovered that you can throw them out in the unburnable trash, for free. They had to know that, and so were really trying to rip me off.

Now, the city will come and haul big stuff off as well, except for refrigerators, laundry machines, air conditioners, and TVs. This is called “Sodai Gomi,” or “oversized garbage.” You go to your local market (supermarket or convenience store) and you buy “tickets” for a variety of goods. You buy tickets by how much they cost, and which ticket to buy depends upon a chart you can get at city hall. For example, the wood cabinets that the recycle guys wanted ¥8000 to haul off, the Sodai Gomi people would take away for ¥500.

When I tabulated the stuff the recycle guys said they would take which could also get taken away by Sodai Gomi, the difference was huge: the city would demand ¥12,500 ($100) for the same stuff the recycle guys wanted ¥62,000 ($500) for. Effectively, the recycle shop could just take it away and then have Sodai Gomi take it from them, and they make a cool $400 for an hour’s work–not to mention the extra hundred-plus bucks they’d make from selling my gas stove and heater to some sucker at near-list prices.

How can they get away with this? I really don’t know. I don’t know why anyone would use them instead of Sodai Gomi, but apparently some people do. Even without that, a lot of the stuff they demand I pay them to haul off would, I am certain, find its way into their shop anyway, and they’d probably ask top dollar (top yen?) for that as well. When I put stuff out for the sodai-gomi people to haul off, a lot of it disappeared the next morning, likely scouted and routed by the recycle shop guys, stealthily coming in with their ubiquitous loudspeakers turned off, stealing what they couldn’t get you to pay them to take.

What a scam. I decided that I would use them only for what I absolutely had to–an old computer monitor (they wanted 3000 yen for that, but no one else would take it). My gas stove I sold with my air conditioner–made 9000 yen where I would have had to pay as much to get it taken away. Everything else went to Sodai Gomi, save for a few other things sold via ads.

I still have that like-new gas fan heater; I’d be damned if I’ll gift those crooks with that nice little machine. I’ll wait until winter and then sell it via an ad. I should be able to get a reasonable price for it.