Another Sword Translated On The Board, On Ebay

[lonely panet]

This bugs me abit,

they post swords on the board, ask for translations and then sell on fleabay at a stupid price just for what appears to be personal gain instead of genuine interest.

instead of offering the piece to the board first. and giving the people that did the hard work first offer. they then post a link to the website about the translation sub forum.

 

does this piss-off anyone else????

 

considering some people are using this board as a free ride.

 

ok I get translations done on the board, and I donate aswell, but I don't use it a value adding tool for my own ends

 

any opinions to help my frustration are welcome, or am I over reacting

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WW2-Japanese-Sword-Nihonto-Gunto-WWII-Korea-Awarded-From-General-SIGNED-Japan-/172148574641?hash=item2814dac9b1:g:Mn4AAOSwZtJW9-N1

[SAS]

Yes, I see your point, and for the price asked, it would be nice if a hefty donation was made to the board upon sale.

[AndyMcK]

On the other hand..

 

Why lose sleep over someone asking for help and receiving it? We also have the benefit of getting the photos, information and possible locations of said swords to further someone's individual research or collecting goals stored here on the board instead of never even laying eyes on the said blades. And for the newer people it is a good practise on translating kanji.

Of course understandable is the frustration if someone really puts work into researching the blades without any other benefit than learning (which is one of the best benefits, money burns in peoples pockets, knowledge can be used again and again ;D ), that is probably the reason many use the board to translate instead of paying someone to do the translation.

 

Antti

 

small edit to ease the frustration, it would be kind to offer the blades translated for sale here also

[SteveM]

Looking at this positively; at least the seller linked to this site! I suppose its sort of bad form to come for free advice and then use that in a commercial transaction, but... as Antti says above, its not something to lose sleep over. Good luck to him. If the guy had come on the board and said "I'm thinking of putting this on ebay, can you help me?" I probably would have still done the translation. Maybe whoever buys it will be motivated to take good care of the sword and the saya.

[Shugyosha]

I have a go at the translations to improve my own knowledge and not through a sense of altruism ;0).

[Stephen]

I dont see the malice, we have seen this time and time again, someone gets a sword and looks for help, gets it then sells it ebay or else where. Now if its a repeater process from same seller with no acknowledgement to the forum that would be time for action.

To many other things in life to get concerned about, what  to chose from when its time to vote, ocean levels that will threaten many of my friends here, ...the list goes on. 

[Grey Doffin]

I don't see the problem here.  If I can help with a translation or anything else I'm glad to.  If the owner then puts the sword on ebay, no concern of mine.

Grey

[Kronos]

It doesn't really bother me unless it's a business such as an antique dealer who probably bought it to make a profit and is using the members of this boards expertise to maximize said profit instead of paying someone like Markus for a translation as they should. I usually do easy translations for altruistic reasons and hard ones to improve my own knowledge.

[Brian]

Well said guys. Yes, it can be slightly irritating, but then again, we have people here translating swords that knew NO kanji a year ago. Nice to see the evolution.

So yeah, we'll be the better men and let it slide. No real losers except time. And we get some promotion.
 

Or I could just edit all the answers in that thread, and change them to say it is a Chinese fake :rotfl:

 

Nah...it's all good. There are worse things in life. But I do understand why it sometimes irks people. Nice to know that for almost 9 years we are still one of the few sites out there giving decent, valuable and no strings attached advice, completely free.

[lonely panet]

thankyou all for the wisdom, I will build a bridge and get over it

 

And Brian, I had never really looked at if from you view, Thanks to the all members who commented.

 

Kind Regards Hamish

[Peter Bleed]

We might even point out that the "Board" appears to have given this fellow pretty limited information. The seller might have been interested in knowing that General Minami was found guilty as a Class A War Criminal (he was not killed and was let out of jail in the early 50s) and that these swords were given to winners of a kendo competition. A couple are known.

Peter