Ebay seller Showa22

[Jwrussell]

Just to add to the experiences. I purchased a blade from him a year or two ago that I then returned. While probably not fatal, it had flaws that were not pictured and/or were very hard to see in his pictures. Also, there was some concern mentioned here about the overall geometry of the blade (see John's post above as he mentions the same). He didn't give me any hassle about returning and was easy enough to deal with, but definitely proceed with an overabundance of caution with his products.

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

thanks for all the feedback everyone.  will tread with caution here.  the intel on acid etching the blades is very pertinent

[Jamie]

I’m not sure why everyone is so against acid etching. It’s way cheaper and it looks ok. 
 

 

 

happy April fools 

[ChrisW]

Because acid etching does things to the chemical structure of the hamon that makes the damage hard to reverse. It obscures/removes what a properly-done polish bring out. I am sure there's other reasons but I am no togishi.

[Brian]

Ok..to make it clear...Jamie was using his ONE April 1st pass. Done.....now ignore that comment   

[ChrisW]

Yup yup! Should I wait until 11:59 PM to do mine?

[Kolekt-To]

showa22 has a Rinji-Seishiki currently up for auction on the 'Bay. The bidding has climbed to over $1100.00 and there's a few more days left. I'm suspect of showa22 in general, and this particular RS he is selling has a single mekugi-ana - I was under the impression that one of the hallmarks of the RS was two mekugi-ana. Am I correct?

[AntiquarianCat]

I’m sorry to say the rumors of buffing/amateur polish and acid washes are every bit as true as they are ghastly.

 

At least he was decent enough to accept a return but I can not comprehend why the buffing?

 

An old polish sword with minor rust problems has potential and could get better. Instead the buffed swords are basket cases with almost no value and would take a professional polisher to maybe salvage. I just can not understand why he took old swords and buffed away almost all their value. He’s buffing away his own money.

[Kolekt-To]

So, we are aware of the antics from the likes of Samurai Monkey and showa22, but do we know anything about eBay seller "zilvra10"? zilvra10 has guntos for sale on a regular basis and currently has a Type 97 for sale on the 'Bay. Anybody know anything about this seller's reputation or the quality of what he is selling? One of the benefits of this board is being able to benefit from the knowledge (and scrutiny!) of experienced collectors and hobby enthusiasts who can help us with our awareness and steer us away from bad deals.

[ChrisW]

He appears to be selling legitimate pieces, but they are quite overpriced in some cases.

[Kolekt-To]

Thanks Chris! I do believe he over-prices his swords.

[Bruce Pennington]

On 6/10/2021 at 5:11 PM, Kolekt-To said:

single mekugi-ana -

Geoff,

I haven't seen the one in question, but the answer is that, while not common, RS can be found with only 1 mekugi ana.  No officially known reason for that.  I personally think the blades in them were made with Type 98 (or civil) mounts in mind, but the buyer/sword shop decided they wanted it in RS fittings.  War damage leading to re-fittings could explain some too.

[Kolekt-To]

Thanks for the info Bruce! And, I noticed this morning that show22 ended his listing for that RS he had for sale - eBay stated that the seller ended the listing due to incorrect information or something to that effect. The bidding had gone north of $1400.00, if I remember correctly. In the description he stated that the blade was unsigned and of the Edo period. For whatever reason, the piece did not sell on eBay because he removed the listing. Probably saved a buyer from something they may have later regretted. Lol.

[JH Lee]

There has to be some kind of dishonest (fraudulent?) software the seller is using that drives up the bids on his items.  It's just so weird and unbelievable that all of his stuff always gets so many bids.  Just my opinion.

[NewB]

Well, schill bidding is definitely possible but let's not forget he has had lots of spectacular blades for sale during his time so I presume his satisfied customers are driving the prices up also but that's unproven so far. Ebay wouldn't tolerate consistent schill bids as they monitor it all.

 

Mr Maruyama has been good to us but that with the polished down blades completely out of geometry which in turn are a total nightmare for a togishi and all the other minor details are something I can't explain..

Is it to preserve or .. to destroy.. no clue

 

 

 

John

[Axel123]

This guy does raise the bids.  I won an auction on one of his items, but he cancelled my bid.  I complained to ebay and they told me they could see I would've have won the auction.  Showa22 must've not like that the price was only $1k.  He blocked my I'd after I complained.  Does that to anyone who points out his fraudulent activities.  I created another eBay account and I was able to bid on some swords, but showa22 blocked that one.  Oh, and on that auction that I fraudulently lost, showa22 actually put it up for sale again.  This is in June 2021.  Stay away from this fraudulent seller.

[Alex A]

Be great if there was this world where auctions were not rigged and folk sold stuff at a lot less than market value.

[Utopianarian]

He blocked me a few years ago for a question I asked about a sword he had for sale on eBay. Junk buffed swords now wall hangers 

[AntiquarianCat]

For me the buffed and acid polish problem is the deal breaker. I can’t feel safe bidding when I know a blade that looks okay from fuzzy photos will be a train wreck when I get it. Not only is the buffing hideous but it also means if I get tired of looking at the wreck I wouldn’t be able to sell for more than pennies on the dollar. If he would just do an announcement promising to not buff old polish swords, that would do so much to restore his customer base.

 

That said, maybe the assessments of him are a tad overly harsh. True the buffing is a disaster that makes any buy not worth it, but he accepted a return. And what’s more, big retailers like SBG shamelessly buff their nihonto, sell it as a service, and lie to their customers by saying it’s a good way to conserve a sword that won’t hurt value. They also mislead customers about the value and or appraisal of their swords and sell their nearly worthless buffed pieces for far more than Showa22 and get away with it because a large fan base.

 

So while the buffing is terrible and has scared me away, his mistakes are honestly mild by comparison to the shady used car salesman tactics 2021 (SBG, Samurai Monkey) low end nihonto vendors use.

[Bruno]

Not too long ago I lost an auction on a naked RJT Seki smith blade on Ebay. The seller told me the winner was SHOWA22 (he knew him).

 

One week later, the RJT blade was totally refited in Type 98 koshirae, nakago cleaned, blade acid cleaned and up for sale at SHOWA 22 Ebay's store.

 

I was double pissed off for having lost the auction and to see what he did with the nice blade after.

[AntiquarianCat]

Honestly it disturbs me a bit that he can make his swords near worthless with acid and buffing, and still manages to turn a profit. It’s a shame many buyers don’t realize just how bad that is.

[Greg F]

Bruno its a shame you didnt post pics of the process when it happened for others to learn from. 

Did you let the seller know what showa22 did with the blade they bought.

Definitely a seller to avoid (showa22).

[Surfson]

Based on this thread, and the many others that we have built on Showa 22 and Komonjo, these two believe that building a great reputation is the path to business success (just kidding here...).  For some reason, they both have lots of non discerning customers and do a lively business.  Unfortunately it is destructive to the greater hobby, as they damage healthy swords and misrepresent false ones.  Sadly, despite the decades long complaints lodged against both of them on this thread, they continue to thrive.