PietroParis

indeed he didn't mention either tobacco or alcohol

It says “Shipping to the UK £8.50 and £150 outside the UK”, I assume it’s a typo.

I never bought antiques through Buyee thus I cannot comment on their customs declarations. OTOH, in Catawiki purchases I had problems with both DHL and EMS+Chronopost, where they did not apply the reduced VAT rate even though their own invoice for the customs payment had correctly identified the tariff code for antiques. DHL eventually refunded me, whereas Chronopost (a parcel service of the French Post) told me that I should bring the issue to the seller, who would bring it to EMS, who would bring it to Chronopost, who would refund EMS, who would refund the seller, who would eventually pass on the refund to me. Since the sum was not worth the effort I gave up, but I must confess that I was not very nice to the person on the other end of the phone line...

It's not just Buyee, it is the whole process. Their compulsory fees are 300 JPY "service fee" and 200 JPY "payment fee", adding up to 500 JPY. Additional packaging services (which I usually avoid) can cost up to 500 JPY for a single package. Consolidating packages when you buy multiple items can help reduce the shipping costs, but comes with an additional fee (a multiple of 500 JPY) that depends on the number of packages. Then you need to pay the shipping from the seller to the Buyee warehouse, generally around 1000 JPY for small parcels. Then you need to pay the shipping from the Buyee warehouse to your country (assuming you don't live in Japan, otherwise there is no point in buying through Buyee what you can get directly from Yahoo! Japan). For France this amounts to 2500-3500 JPY, depending on the carrier, for a small package. Then you need to pay VAT and possibly customs fees, to which the carrier (e.g. DHL or FedEx) will add a handling fee of their own. To give you an example, a guinomi that I had bought for a nominal price of about 28 EUR ended up costing me about 71 EUR, and that only after I got a reimbursement of an excessive handling fee applied by FedEx (they had made me pay to "unblock" the package from the customs more than they eventually billed in the invoice).

From Yahoo! Japan, a tanto-sized tsuba signed Tatsutoshi:

Last week I bought this book on eBay for 11 EUR including shipping, I received it today. Based on the quality of the pictures and on the amount of information it contains, I'd say the price was about right... [P.S. besides, this book must have been stored in a damp basement for decades, it smells really bad]

If you scroll down the Yahoo ad there are higher-def pictures, can you point to obvious signs of casting there? To my untrained eye the sekigane does not seem painted.

Can you think of a non-dodgy reason for buying them? https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/p1021236875

Namitoshi on Yahoo Japan, with rust issues:

So far I only bought 20th/21st-century stuff, but I have indeed been wondering how to get them to declare the correct tariff code in case of antiques.

I bought a few items of pottery through buyee this year and I have no major complaints. At the price level I'm considering, however, fees+shipping+taxes can easily double the total price.

The inlaid brass loops in John's tsuba look better to me (I mean, much more regular) than in the example above.

[Comment removed to "cut some slack", will elaborate on request]

I would cancel, and if you really like the item try to buy it for a lower price at the other auction. I have tried a few times to report obvious frauds to eBay and never received any feedback.

You can post your figurine (maybe a netsuke?) in the section "Other Japanese Arts"

Buyee has a minimum fee of 500 JPY when you win an item. On top of that they grab a few percent more of the price by applying they own exchange rate. Add local shipping to their warehouse, international shipping (to France, in my case), VAT and custom fees and an item bought at the nominal price of 3400 JPY (i.e. about 26 EUR at mid-market rate) ended up costing 71 EUR.

It is well known that you CAN bring your sword on the plane...

Namitoshi on Facebook by a fellow NMB member:

https://www.tessier-sarrou.com/catalogue/116199?

That's a fair point, but ice goby don't seem to have split tail either:

I had noticed the Umetada on eBay, kudos for offering it at a discount to NMB members!

I checked some pictures of Shirouo, I would still vote for eels.

They say 江府住 Kofu ju (also read Efu ju), i.e. "from Edo".

Indeed, it's not the same set. For example, the bird on the kashira looks up in the first picture and down in the second. THAT would be really magical...

Others might correct me, but I think that the NBTHK paper says "Mumei - Nara (奈良)" and the signature on your tsuba reads indeed 光政作. There is one Mitsumasa using these kanji in Markus Sesko's genealogies (courtesy of google books): https://books.google.fr/books?id=vNwvaPSEnCMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=光政&f=false