Ebay auction

[steve oakley]

Hi

 

I don't know the seller but it seems a reasonable price, 3 days to go though.

 

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190597675907 ... 600wt_1185

 

 

Steve

[Curran]

57 cm.

Technically a wak?

[Surfson]

Am I correct that the cutting test has a Meiji date? It appears to be on the nakago mune (if this is a term). Did they still do cutting tests that late after sword wearing was illegal?

[Ted Tenold]

Date is Meireki Gannen. 1655

[markturner]

Why so cheap if the sword is genuine and nice?

 

Cheers, Mark

[Kevin]

Cos these days, with a global recession on, and probably about to get worse, folks don't want to bid more?

 

As for the seller, for all we know he may need the money and will take what he can get. There's a lot of people in that boat at the moment.

 

Kevin

[markturner]

Genuine blade in your opinion? I just don't think I could trust anything on e-bay. So many fraudsters out there. All of his feedback relates to selling hot parts for cars and suddenly he has a very nice blade for sale, that is not described in laymans terms. No returns accepted... always a bad sign. Seems to good to be true....

Nice if it was..

[Kevin]

Well he's not described as a business seller, he hasn't got anything else listed at present, and the last car part he listed was sold last year, so he is probably selling his own sword, plus any odds and sods that he had around the garage and that he no longer needs or wants. Why don't you ask him?

 

As for eBay generally, there's more than a few people here who sell stuff on eBay, either privately or as dealers. I'm one - look up ryujinswords on eBay. It doesn't take too much to ask folks here if an eBay seller is OK, or whether you should avoid touching them even with someone else's bargepole. Then again, the sharks aren't only found on eBay. I've also bought some very good swords and yari from eBay sources like this one. A few I've even kept, such as a Koto yari and a ken, because they were definitely keepers. My girlfriend got given the yari as a present. :-)

 

The 'returns not accepted' issue - well, there's a difference between business and private sellers. Private sellers aren't bound by consumer protection legislation, so they don't have to accept returns. However, with a private seller you can still raise a dispute (e.g item not as described) which, if eBay found for you, would get your money returned. I've known of that happening with other privately sold items e.g. mobile phones. You could even do a chargeback. A private seller would then be daft not to accept returns, because that would leave you with their sword and them with no money. That's rather more protection than you'd get for buying something off another collector for cash.

 

Finally genuine, as in a genuine Japanese sword? The nakago matches the papers and it looks kosher. Glancing through - and only glancing through - it looks like a nice blade. Personally I'd rather like a complete set of good shots of the blade - the listing only provides some shots of the blade. True, it was papered in the past - I'd rather like to see what the whole blade is like now, on both sides. However, you'd have to ask the seller for those - a reasonable seller will provide them. Mind you, a lot of folk aren't that good at taking photos of swords. I'm still trying to master it to the extent that I'd like. :-)

 

Kevin

[Kevin]

BTW markturner, I should point out that it isn't necessarily going for whatever the price is when you drop in on the auction, precisely because it is an auction. Right now, it's up to approx 1000 AUD. That doesn't mean that it will necessarily go cheap. Chances are that there are some folk waiting in the wings until the last few minutes - and possibly the last few seconds - to do some sniping. That invariably happens with Japanese swords - in fact you should count on it happening. Sensible folk don't bid at all until the last few seconds, because all bidding earlier does is put the price up. If you want it, it's best to just watch and see how things go.

 

BTW, I have in the past picked up some nice swords on eBay, and made a tidy profit on them, when someone here has drawn my attention to a sword listing I liked by asking "is it genuine?" followed by "don't think I'll bid - eBay is full of sharks!" :D OTOH some listings just seem to get missed; hardly anyone bid on the papered ken I bought several years ago, so I got a really good deal. I'd get considerably more for it if I sold it, but it will never be for sale. Similarly some swords just go cheap because the right people didn't see it in time and the seller didn't put a reserve on it. It's not that long back that I picked up a papered Yasukunito in polish for $1000. Needless to say that it sold for rather more than that. :-) Sometimes that happens.

 

The eBay price is not therefore an indication of it being genuine. The listing details and the photos are what you should base your decisions on. If there's not enough info, ask for more. If you don't get enough to satisfy you, don't bid or buy.

 

Kevin

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

I ended up buying the blade. I have great problems trying to translate the NBTHK papers, so any assistance would be appriciated, (that my be a request destined for the translation departement). I also seems to be unable to find the kanji for kanishige on the pictures from the nagako, so if anyone with better eyes can point me in the right direction..

Since I haven't recieved the sword yet I'm basically trying to get as much info as I can from the papers besides the recent history recieved from the previous owner.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony de Vos

[Mark]

i think the sword may be suriage, or it was made mumei, so the makers name is not on the nakago, so you will not find it on a picture of the nakago, the paper is an attribution, saying an OPINION is it was made Kaneshige, not that it is signed by him and genuine

[jamesicus]

.......... Chances are that there are some folk waiting in the wings until the last few minutes - and possibly the last few seconds - to do some sniping. That invariably happens with Japanese swords - in fact you should count on it happening. Sensible folk don't bid at all until the last few seconds, because all bidding earlier does is put the price up. If you want it, it's best to just watch and see how things go ..........

 

Or bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item at the "get go" and let the e-bay automatic incremental bidding facility take care of the rest. In that way you won't miss out on the item due to some unforseen circumstance.

 

James

[DirkO]

Or bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item at the "get go" and let the e-bay automatic incremental bidding facility take care of the rest. In that way you won't miss out on the item due to some unforseen circumstance.

 

James

 

Hi James,

 

Yes, that's an option, but there's a better one. Use a bidding site like justsnipe.com.

You set your maximum bid beforehand and they just bid in the last few seconds before the auction ends.

This way you avoid bidding wars, it's an all or nothing bid.

[Anthony de Vos]

Hello!

 

For you interested in ebay bidding techniques this particular sword was sniped with Gixen, two server dubble snipe, 3 and 6 sekunds to go, what can I say, it worked.

 

Anyone else than Ted and mark that have anything more on the kanji on the papers?

 

Mark, the previous owner states that the sword is sureage. Which kaneshige does the papers suggest as the smith, the 1:st?

How do the papers translate the cutting test? The previous owner states 2 body but also twice

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

[markturner]

Well done, it looks like a nice sword at a good price.

 

Kevin, thanks for the advice.

 

Cheers, Mark