Adrian

And some photos made by me today (flash sucks but it was already evening and I don't have professional lighting in the house )

Koshirae and the signed kotsuka: I could use some help with the signature, it's probably gimei but... P.S. I know the wakizashi isn't placed correctly on the stand, both arms should support the saya

More photos Somehow the longer ones are not accepted by the forum, gotta figure out what the maximum size is. Here are the flaws:

The mounts come with a tired blade signed Bishu Osafune Sukesada. Not a perfect fit ( the blade has a really small movement towards the front) but very very close (easy fix with a SLIGHTLY thicker seppa or some sort of very thin brass washer between the seppa and the tsuba). The kogatana is missing but took me about 5 mins to make a wooden one that fits perfectly and keeps the kotsuka in place. The kotsuka pocket has a crack and the horn piece at the mouth was broken and subsequently epoxied but otherwise the saya is very nice with only a minor dent at the bottom. I'll let the pictures speak, feel free to share your impressions. I'm fully aware these are far from being top of the line Soten style mounts but for my budget they were by far the best I could manage. The fuchi-kashira set and the kotsuka are definitelly better then the tsuba and the menuki but the overall impression is great, at least to a beginner like me. Jean told me that the mounts describe the battle of battle of Dan-no-ura, which seems to definitely be the case for the tsuba (warriors in boats). Overall I'm very pleased with my first Tosogu purchase and I really want to thank Grey for putting up with my shipping requirements. (involving a PVC tube with 2 glued caps plus a cardboard box and the normal bubble plastic wrap and so on) Was really anxious while the wakizashi traveled across a good part of the world but everything ended well some 9 days after it was shipped. P.S. My wife likes it too :D

I hear that Slovenia isn't bad for flyfishing, so to speak :D I'm into spinning, but I know people who went there specifically for flyfishing and they were very pleased. It's not that my wife doesn't allow me to go fishing, or makes a big fuss about it, but she is clearly displeased of me going away from dawn till dusk and I really have no chance of getting her interested so we can go together. (she's the civilisation loving type) So, since we still care about each other :D , have many other common hobbies and so on, I kinda switched to other activities. After all, if the wife is giving you long looks when you say you're going fishing, but doesn't blink when you show her that X hundreds euros coin or that Y hundreds euros RC plane , it's hard to complain Plus, let's be honest, I wouldn't like it either it if she started to go away for days :lol:

I seem to be one of the few lucky ones The only hobby where she gave me a hard time was fishing.

Don't know what to say, from what I was able to gather so far, the right bunch of swords can be something quite substantial. Anyway, it is clear that in case of collections numbering thousands of items (I'm not talking swords here, think stamps or coins and so on) it is difficult to make sure the family won't get ripped, in case none of them has any interest in the hobby. Even in such cases, if you're willing to do a lot of work, you can arrange things quite well, but it's very tedious. However, for a collection with a lower item count but large value per item, maybe it's not a bad idea to leave some papers with an estimate and describing the channels that could be used to sell them at a fair price. Sure, one won't be able to list every menuki or those rare Japanese books, but at the very least the important swords can be covered. My 2 p of course. What can I say, I'm a family guy, for me, when I draw the line, it's people first, items second.

Well, I guess it depends how close are you to family members and so on. Personally I'd rather know that my next of kin are well set, but I can perfectly understand that someone who only has distant (and not so likeable) heirs would rather see his/her stuff get in more deserving hands.

Unfortunately this sort of things happen with collectors all the times. It's a good idea, when possible, to let the family know the value of the pieces you own (at least the important ones) and the channels they should use to sell them, should the need appear. You don't take anything with you on the other side (the Egyptians would have disagreed) but it's not a bad idea to let the loved ones make the most of it.

Actually this forum has informations about a lot of ebay sellers. The problem is that some of them figured out that they could register here and claim member privileges (having some negative topics deleted) without actually participating in the discussions. (4 posts in 3.5 years for example) Others have enthusiastic feedback (and justified - I saw the ebay links) on the forum, but recently started to behave in a less then honest manner.

So, what's the current status of the whole thing?

Definitely cleaned but there's where my knowledge ends

Thanks a lot. Does it look legit or gimei? Also, if it does appear to be legit, any info about the period, school and so on would greatly be appreciated

Thanks in advance

But then, if he leaves a negative saying that you've been rude, ebay will have no reason to remove it.

Uwe, can you elaborate a bit? I don't see how someone can bring back the image of a kizu if that area of the photo was selected, removed, then filled with small parts of other areas of the photo. But again I'm no photo editing expert .

Actually in some countries you can buy for 300$ a car that would take you from A to B for quite a while before you'd have to do more then maintenance to it :D Of course, it won't look pretty, it would eat fuel like crazy and so on :lol: Anyway, i'd say that when it comes to purchasing from a honest dealer/collector you'll probably get what you paid for (minus a certain percentage, of course). However when you buy from ebay and see "no returns", "has some flaws and blemishes but pictures should tell you what you need to know" you should run like hell. MAYBE you have a chance to get a decent item if the seller has 100% feedback with many nihonto items sold AND offers a reasonable return policy, a very good description and top-notch photos. But then you're probably going to pay for it more then if you bought it from a dealer.

Not to mention that, even if you have really dumb luck with a sword, that luck would have been probably invested in something else. I tend to believe that no one has unlimited luck . Quoting myself here :

Mariusz, I don't think it either, that's why I wrote this:

Mariusz, what I ment was making Hozon "as is", or better said as it was when purchased for 300$ from an experienced collector. Anyway, I think what I previously said might be misinterpreted a bit. The general idea was that you cannot get real bargains (as in severelly undervalued) when you're a beginner purchasing from an experienced collector. NOT that you wouldn't be safer and more satisfied with the item on the long run if you decide to buy a correctly priced item from an experienced collector.

Junichi, the seller's attitude was clearly dishonest, I think everyone agrees with that. I think the problem lies in the particularities of nihonto colecting. Taking good photos of a Japanese blade seems to be an art in itself and it's very unlikelly that anyone but an experienced collector (or maybe a really good photographer) would manage to put on ebay images that could actually be used at spotting the flaws that the blade might have. Even worse, as you have recently discovered, experienced but dishonest collectors that use ebay to unload crappy items seem to use generic caveats like "scratches and blemishes" in order to be covered when the buyer attempts to get his money back. From what I gathered by reading your thread, as far as ebay is concerned, if the sword is genuine and the seller described it as having "scratches and blemishes" then a buyer has nothing to complain about. Maybe if it had a hagire that the seller failed to describe they would see things in a different light, but I doubt it. However, there are other domains of antique/militaria/memorabilia collecting where ebay can be really useful. I don't think anyone disputes that. I'll put it this way: ebay is a huge market and if an item is properly advertised (with good photos, listed in the correct categories, set up to run enough time and to end on saturday or sunday evening, the chances of getting a bargain are slim to none). The reason why honest and knowlegeable colletors won't usually (there are exceptions) list their items on ebay are 1. the ebay and paypal fees 2. the (not so slim) chances of ending up with a dishonest/idiot buyer 3. the chances of things going horribly wrong if the buyer decides to return the item. Back in the late 80's when I was a kid and I started to collect coins, there was this old collector who kept telling me stories about how you could stay all day and choose roman denarii sold in huge piles at the flea market, back in the 50's. Picking up rare emperors, virtually uncirculated pieces and so on and paying next to nothing for them, you get the idea. But hey, even for a kid there was something obviously fishy about this story, as his collection didn't looked like it was made by picking up the rarest and the finest. So, one day I asked him what happened with all those great pieces he probably bought back in the day? At this point he started to explain how he was happy if he could buy a coin per month, even at those insanelly cheap prices, as his pay was barelly enough to keep the family fed. I guess this adds up nicelly with Paul's experience. The post-war years would have been a golden age for the average collector if he had today's money and was able to buy at those day's prices. :D I won't say that there were no folks who happened to have money back in the 50's. But this is true in any age of turmoil, warfare, famine and so on.

But that's not going to be a real bargain, just an item correctly priced Here we completelly agree. But I was talking about something else, namelly the "treasure hunt" trough the inventory of experienced collectors. (hoping that a $300 blade purchased from an experienced collector/dealer would make Hozon and so on)

After watching nihonto items on ebay for a few weeks I'm pretty sure that the only way for someone who's not an expert to get a real bargain is if a honest seller who knows absolutelly nothing about nihonto makes some big mistakes when listing the item. (such as 1. low buy it now on a genuine item in relativelly good condition or 2. listing the item in the wrong cathegory with little to no photos and a useless description) Even in this case one would need dumb luck in order to "score" as in first scenario you'd need to be the first person with some nihonto knowledge that sees the item and in the second scenario you'd need to be browsing the wrong cathegory, figure out that the item might be nihonto, get some photos from the seller and be the only one doing it. And, in the end, even if you "score" you are just taking advantage of someone's ignorance and need for money. However, the question is if you couldn't use all that time to make money and buy a good sword from a reputable seller. Or from a sword show, with an expert frind as a helper (or some similar scenario involving live auctions and so on). There may be bargain on ebay every now and then, but the time and effort invested in hunting them will probably be too much. Personally I'd rather choose to be lucky with my life, family, health and generally speaking the things that really matter rather then scoring on ebay, winning at the lottery and so on.

Well, I wasn't one of them :D (if anyone wonders ) This idea that you could get a real bargain from an experienced seller that knows way more then you do is indeed mind-boggling. All you need to do is use common sense. P.S. Sometime those who hope to buy national treasure for $300 are not poor at all.

At this point maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to share the identity of the seller. I kinda doubt that someone who deals in nihonto would try to sell this kind of gross fake in good faith.