Adrian

Thanks a lot Jean Well, let me put it this way, you're lucky that you have some meetings that you could attend. For me, that would involve planes and hotels, let alone skipping work :D .

Jean, would you care to give me a private test? In case you also have some photos of crappy swords/fittings, of course. I wouldn't mind getting a reality check, so to speak

Trust me that I completelly agree with most of the things you said and I'm far from being ready to unload the money at the first shining trinket. As for being determined to purchase something fast, the timeframe is more like within the next 3-4 months, depending what shows up. Sure, I could as well be making the purchase tomorrow, as I have the money ready, but only if everything looks like a reasonable deal. What I said to another member on email was " from my experience on learning, it's far easier to learn when you have at hand the possibility to apply that knowledge. In my case, is easier to figure out what's what when you have at least a sword at home. Photos can take you only that far, I learned that with ancient coins and I don't think Japanese blades are any different." Sure, this doesn't apply if, as you said, I end up buying a completelly tired sword. But I think that after purchasing various antique stuff since high school (now being 40) I have at least some common sense in this matter P.S. Please don't see this as arrogance, I fully admit I could be totally fried when it comes to blades purchased by photos/mail This is why I'm looking for relativelly nice mounts. I tested myself by lookig at the various tsubas offered for sale here and I somehow managed to figure out very well which were the more expensive ones, without looking at prices

I know. It's just that top quality ones are better investment then flawed ones. That's why I said "high quality/value stuff is ALWAYS easier to sell, usually will a smaller loss (in percentage) then low grade stuff" (of course, I wrote "will" instead of "with" and everything went south :D )

That's an interesting approach. However, there are lots of people who will not approve with this statement: "A small collection with one(1) $10,000 sword is infinitely superior to a collection of ten $1,000 swords." It all depends on why someone is collecting swords. As an investment you are absolutelly right, and high quality/value stuff is ALWAYS easier to sell, usually will a smaller loss (in percentage) then low grade stuff. However, someone who is interested in collecting swords from different periods and regions will be far happier with a collection of 10 low priced swords, if they are low priced because of non-fatal flaws but cover his area of interest well. Particullary if he didn't bought them as an investment. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. As for myself, not being a millionaire and having other expensive hobbies, I definitelly want to start with a sword that isn't going to drop 50% as soon as it leaves the seller's house. But I don't treat it purelly as an investment, for what I know today it may very well be in my house 50 years from now, if I'm pleased with it on the longer run.

Well, we will find out sooner or later. Of course, at 1500$ there's no chance I can get a decent blade with papers AND good fittings but hopefully I can get a decent signed blade with good fittings.

I think I read somewhere on this forum that serial number on the habaki = chinese fake.

Ehh, it is said that stupid is the person who doesn't learn even from his own mistakes Which obviously isn't your case.

Alex, would you mind sharing photos of your first purchase and telling me the price? I'm really curious if I would get some "bells ringing" or if I could spot any obvious flaws.

Thank you Adam, that's a lot of common sense there. Mariuszk, I think you misunderstood me a bit. I'm not one of those Kill Bill fans, rushing in to buy a "Katana" and swing it in front of the mirror :lol: . I also know that Nihonto and Tosogu are two different things. What I ment is that I'm MUCH more capable to correctly appraise the mounts then the blade at this point so I'm probably capable to select a wakizashi with mounts that would definitelly have some value.

Thank you very much.

Alex, I think you got it wrong :D . That local guy isn't selling anything, he just allowed me to study his swords a bit. That's why I'm contemplating a mail purchase, since the only alternative would be going in person at a sword show (which would a) eat up the budget and b) potentially put me in touch with less then scrupulous sellers). I might be a complete beginner but I'm not an idiot . (at least that's what I think :D )

Hello guys (and girls? ) I've been collecting various (ancient) stuff for most of my life (started with coins as a child, still doing it today, at a different level of course) and I've recently decided to extend into a field that somehow managed to ellude me during the last 24 years (since it became somehow legal here): Nihonto . I did some reading on the subject (just scratched the surface, really) and managed to take a close look at 3 swords, thanks to a local collector. The problem is that in the country where I live Nihonto is virtually non-existant so except for this guy (who honestly admits being a beginnner too, at almost 78 years) there's no one who can help me. As you can imagine, while having a good and well trained eye for detail, I'm far from being able to figure out all the flaws and qualities of a Japanese blade even when looking at it (well, a microscope hepls a bit). When looking at photos I'm almost lost. This being said, I was thinking at starting up by spending some 1500$ on a good wakizashi, maybe something with really attractive mounts, so if the blade is almost worthless at least I'm not completelly fried, so to speak :D . What do you think about this approach? Thanks a lot for your advice.

Hello guys, Since I'm a complete beginner in the art of shipping sharp things across one pond or another, I could use any piece of advice you could give me. I'm contemplating the purchase of a wakizashi from the US and, as far as I know, airline regulations won't allow any sword of dagger to be loaded on planes anymore. Which would pretty much take USPS Priority out of ecuation. I see that Stephen mentions a workaround :D which would normally work (who can tell if a piece of plastic pipe contains a sword or a fancy fishing rod). Unless the package gets scanned, in which case what happens? Is it simply returned to the person who shipped it and you forfeit the shipping cost or are there any other measures taken? (read impound) Advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.