Hector Posted May 18 Report Posted May 18 (edited) I've not been on the site much of late as retirement has led me to travel to parts of Japan previously unvisited and to collect other fields of Japanese art. One of these fields is ukiyoe and, combined with my interest in the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras, I recently bought a triptych (3 panel picture) from a highly reputable dealer in Tokyo for ¥60,000. It was created in 1885 by Kuninao II and shows the ghosts of Satsuma rebellion leaders Saigo, Kirino and Shinohara visiting Yamaoka Tesshu in his study. All well and good - but as I started researching Kuninao II online (he's not particularly famous), I came across the wood block prints which I had already purchased advertised on eBay by a seller called 'JP Antique House' for ¥218,549! I know that it is possible for two sets of the same artwork to be on sale at once but it's blatantly obvious that they had lifted the picture because both sets have wormholes and defects in exactly the same places. I sent the message shown below to the eBay seller but he has not responded nor, more importantly, taken down the auction. I now intend to report him to eBay directly. If he does this shady dealing with woodblock prints then I'm sure that he does it with other artworks, including swords - so please be careful. Best, Hector Edited: for some reason the system won't allow me to attach photos in "Add files". Therefore the message I sent the seller via PM was: You are obviously a liar and an opportunist, pretending to stock something which you don't even have. I already bought these exact same prints (down to the identical insect damage) from a respected Tokyo bookstore for ·60,000. This conversations are already monitored by eBay but I will be making a formal complaint about you. Edited May 18 by Hector Quote
Hector Posted May 18 Author Report Posted May 18 (edited) NOW I can add the photos. The original photo is from the real dealer's site. You can see, on the eBay auction, where they have cropped the picture at the bottom to remove the copyright on the far left. Edited May 18 by Hector Quote
Brian Posted May 18 Report Posted May 18 It's been discussed here often. There are PLENTY of sellers who are listing items that are for sale elsewhere, for much higher prices. If they sell it, they attempt to buy it from the original seller, and make a profit. If they cannot get it, they cancel the sale. Not illegal, but highly frowned upon. But we have seen many sellers of tsuba etc on eBay listing stuff that is for sale on Yahoo Jpn etc. Not uncommon at all. 3 Quote
MaxT Posted May 18 Report Posted May 18 Hello Hector, probably a reseller scheme like all of those yahoo auction resellers on ebay. Once you purchase the item on eBay, they will themselves buy it from the real dealer and reap in the difference. Very common with Japanese ebay stores. If you see a listing that you like, you can often reverse image search to find the original listing. I did not know they expanded to actual physical stores so thanks for sharing. 3 Quote
Hector Posted May 18 Author Report Posted May 18 (edited) Well, the seller did not remove the listing (even though I physically own the item) - they simply reduced the price. And I got a response from eBay - they have found in the seller's favour. Edited May 18 by Hector 3 Quote
Hector Posted May 18 Author Report Posted May 18 3 hours ago, eternal_newbie said: Well if the AI says so, it must be true! I think that combining 'eBay' with 'intelligence' is already an oxymoron without adding 'artificial'. 2 Quote
John C Posted May 18 Report Posted May 18 I wonder if a human at Ebay would have a different response. The term we use in the US is "false or deceptive advertising", which I would hope is a violation Ebay's policies since it's illegal according to state and federal laws. John C. 2 1 Quote
Sansei Posted May 18 Report Posted May 18 FYI to all re eBay. There is an offer on the table to buy the company. If the offer is refused by management there will likely be a hostile takeover fight. eBay has had problems like the ones highlighted in many posts on this forum for a long time, duplicate posts etc.. I stopped selling on eBay and only buy items that I can’t find on Amazon. If the takeover is successful I believe that the new ceo, Ryan Cohen, will finally start to address these problems. 2 1 Quote
Marcin Posted May 21 Report Posted May 21 (edited) On 5/18/2026 at 6:47 PM, Sansei said: FYI to all re eBay. There is an offer on the table to buy the company. If the offer is refused by management there will likely be a hostile takeover fight. eBay has had problems like the ones highlighted in many posts on this forum for a long time, duplicate posts etc.. I stopped selling on eBay and only buy items that I can’t find on Amazon. If the takeover is successful I believe that the new ceo, Ryan Cohen, will finally start to address these problems. No there won’t be. Offer came from game stop CEO and is equally retarded as before mentioned CEO. 60 seconds of video would be enough Edited May 21 by Rawa 1 Quote
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