Anatomy of an Ebay score...

[cabowen]

I came across this auction the other day on ebay, and while I very rarely buy anything other than gendai-to these days, I made an offer that was accepted:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191002209334?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

I thought I would go through my decision making process as it may provide some insight...

 

First, the asking price with a make an offer option, was $1250. The auction was for a katana and wakizashi, which is unusual. The seller stated that they were brought back from the war as a souvenir.

 

The pictures weren't the best. I have included a few from the auction here...The seller stated that he had not taken the handles off and would leave that to the new owner. Normally, that tends to scare me off.

 

Looking at the photos, the katana was missing the kashira and probably the menuki as the original wrap had been replaced with some sort of field wrap. The wakizashi had all pieces intact and had a low end kozuka.

 

The katana was described as being 40" in total length. The small shot of the blade showed that the hamon was an o-notare. The habaki looked to be shakudo and nice. The tsuba looked like junk.

 

 

 

The wakizashi had decent, middle of the road koshirae in good condition. The blade looked to be a wide, hira-zukuri shape with a midare hamon, in good condition. Again, the habaki looked to be shakudo or maybe black oxidized silver, and nicely made.

 

 

First, I added up the component values of the koshirae and figured the tsuba, fuchi-gashira, menuki, kozuka, etc., would probably be worth around $800. The blades, even with hagire, might be worth a few hundred each. So, worse case, there was probably $1200 or of value here.

 

If the blades were anything more than steel tsunagi, it would be a win...

 

Back to the katana: being that the overall length was 40", this meant that the nagasa was in all likelihood, at least josun, or 27.5" or better. Length is good; this, combined with the lacquer saya under the leather meant it was most likely an older sword and not a showa-to. From the hamon, I thought probably a long shinto or shinshinto blade. The o-notare looked similar to that I have seen in the Shinto era Teruhiro line from Aki, a respectable line of smiths. The habaki also said that this was perhaps something interesting...

 

The wakizashi blade looked like shinshinto- wide and stout hira-zukuri shape, which what appeared to be tight jigane covered with fine ji-nie. Again, a nice habaki and decent koshirae. All of this pointed towards a decent blade.

 

So, feeling like this was a no lose deal, I made an offer a bit under the buy it now price, which was accepted immediately. While I didn't look at this like a total roll of the dice, I don't remember the last time I bought a sword without seeing the nakago. I looked at it like a "Fukubukuro (福袋, lucky bag, mystery bag- a Japanese New Year's Day custom where merchants make grab bags filled with unknown random contents)".

 

The swords arrived today. I was pretty excited to see how my gamble paid off....My wife was standing there watching me so I was hoping for a good surprise...

 

I opened the wakizashi first. I was very happy with the quality and condition of the koshirae. Everything fit well and tightly. The black lacquered saya was in excellent condition without splits, chips, or dents. So far so good! I then checked the blade and was very happy to see it had a beautiful jigane without flaws. A nice midare-ba. Very good! Then, after some struggle, I removed the tsuka to find a two kanji mei: Masahide 正英. I believe he was a Suishinshi Masahide student. So, a very nice shinshinto. At this point I told my wife that my investment had just doubled, which made her happy....Now, no matter what the katana turned out to be, I was ahead...

 

After unwrapping the katana, it was clear the koshirae was a loss. The tsuka had an old style leather cover which when removed, exposed the ito; I had to take off the field wrapped ito to remove the mekugi. As mentioned, the kashira and menuki were gone. The tsuba was a pierced iron plate of very low quality. I pulled the blade out, which seemed to take a long time....wow, really long! Measured it- 29.5"!

 

The blade has a long yakidashi followed by rolling notare. At the heads of the notare are some small ashi. The jigane was flawless and very tight. The tsuka was very difficult to remove but as I slid it off, I was really hoping for a signature, and then hoping it wasn't Sadamune or some other nonsense...There was some light surface rust covering the nakago, not unusual since it no doubt had not been removed for 70 years or so....There were several long lines of kanji! Unfortunately, they were cut to small and fine for me to make out with finding a pair of reading glasses (small print has become an issue the last year....getting old sucks). I rubbed a little choji oil on the nakago to remove the surface corrosion, put on the specs, and read:

 

"Bizen Kuni Osafune ju Yokoyama Sukekane saku" on the omote and "Tomonari 58 Dai Mago / Ansei 7 Nen 2 Gatsu Hi" on the ura!

 

The mei looked very well cut. But, there are gimei out there of Sukekane so I checked a few sources and feel confident that all is well. Score.

 

So, this time at least, the ebay story ends well...

[Darcy]

Congrats!

 

Gotta roll the dice to win the game.

[george trotter]

Wow...Good call Chris.

There's nothing like an educated guess. That is a find indeed...Father Christmas has been nice to you this year.

I hope waifu sama is all appreciative and bowing with respect at your wonderfulness (as I know what would have happened to you if it had been a dud haha).

Nothing like a happy home!

Merry Christmas Chris,

George.

[Alex A]

As it was an Ebay story, i was thinking it may go down hill at the point you mentioned opening the wakizashi, but what a very pleasant change it makes to read some great news from Ebay. An early start to christmas, nice one Chris!

[ROKUJURO]

Thank you, Chris, for that insight, and congratulations!

 

I think it is a good blend of knowledge, experience and luck to make such a purchase on E-Bay. After having had a look on the NOTARE HAMON of the KATANA, I would not have put my (non existing) money on it! It looks so 'artificial' on the photos!

 

Good for you - you knew it better!

[cabowen]

Thanks for all the kind words...

 

Jean, I suppose that was the point I was trying to make with my post- it takes experience and luck to find success on ebay...

 

Again, thanks to all...

[kusunokimasahige]

Great story Chris ! Looking forward to the images of the blades including the Mei.

 

KM

[raven2]

Nice find Chris. Looking forward to seeing some more pictures.

[J Reid]

[drdata]

Interesting. I would like to see more such postings, not having to be ebay specific. The what and why you decided to buy something can teach much.

 

Regards

[Surfson]

Well done Chris. I'm usually trolling ebay regularly. Don't know how I missed this one. It's always exciting to pull a hozon or better sword at junker cost, let alone two! Cheers, Bob

[seattle1]

Hello:

Nice score indeed Chris. Congratulations on your deft gamble. Pretty soon the dark jungle will be so full of unicorn hunters that they'll need a traffic cop!

Season's Greetings to all.

Arnold F.

[Adrian]

 

So, feeling like this was a no lose deal, I made an offer a bit under the buy it now price, which was accepted immediately. While I didn't look at this like a total roll of the dice, I don't remember the last time I bought a sword without seeing the nakago.

 

Congrats on the find Chris, you made yourself a nice Christmas present. :D

 

I guess you found the listing almost instantly after it was posted, otherwise I'm not sure how long would such a lot last on Ebay with a low BIN. TBH I think you gambled a bit by submitting a best offer, since while waiting for the seller to take action someone else (with much less knowledge) could have bought it for the BIN price.

[Brian]

I'm with Adrian here. This was more about timing than luck

Leave it for a few more hours, and it would have been gone. You took a BIG gamble with the offer. Sometimes these things check out...but they take more than experience..they need perfect timezones and timing.

 

Brian

[Pete Klein]

I always think of what Charlie Chan once said in a very old movie: "Luck is happy combination of foolish accidents"! LOL

 

I think Chris played his hand well.

[Adrian]

but they take more than experience..they need perfect timezones and timing.

 

 

 

You also need to be in the right country :lol: It' useless to find a bargain with a low BIN price only to discover that the seller set "US only" shipping and the item is gone long before you have the chance to talk him into overseas shipping via ebay messages. Or to contact a US based friend, ask him to receive a package and so on.

 

From my experience, sellers that are experienced enough to offer international shipping are much less likely to allow real bargains to slip trough their fingers, so to speak.

 

Exceptions appear usually when a seller with vast experience in one domain acquires (and sells) an item which is completely unrelated to his field of expertise. I once scored two Iridium marine units for 50$ each from a guy who was selling a huge amount of computer related stuff. They both had blown fuses and turned out to be fully functional once the fuse was replaced. At that time their value was about 7-800$ each, sold fast. The guy had no clue that these had automotive type fuses inside and probably thought they were fried.

[CurtisR]

Very nice score (and surprise) Mr. Bowen! I'd come to believe that eBay didn't have much to offer but as someone mentioned earlier, experience led the way. Thanks for posting your decision-making process on this one too; very rational and I learned from that. I'd be curious to know what your heart- rate jumped to after seeing the Wak, and as you removed the Katana's tsuka lol. :D

AND you kept the wife happy....now THAT = skills!

 

Best Regards,

 

Curtis R.