Common Mekugi-Nuki On Aoi Art

[Alan F]

Has anyone on the NMB been bidding on these items?

 

http://www.aoijapan.com/silver-mekugi-nuki-youkofox-spirit

 

I bought one of these fox-spirit mekugi-nuki just over a year ago from Aoi Art, along with a skull themed mekugi-nuki, from their auction page. I posted images of them a while back. I believed that these were one-off items, at the time.

The one that is up for auction now is identical to the one that I bought last year. Identical! I paid a premium for it by virtue of their "auction" system.

 

The one that is up for auction now is the fourth one that they have auctioned, including the one that I have now. Three were identical. Only one was different because it did not have the dragon (or snake) wrapped around the stem. The last one that sold went for 61,000 JPY. Well above the starting price. Buyer beware. These items are obviously not unique, and they'll keep pumping them out (and auctioning them off for ridiculous prices) until people cotton on that they are not unique items. They are relatively expensive curiosities, I fear, with little collectable potential.

 

Alan

 

 

[SwordGuyJoe]

Not me. The old brass one works fine and I'd rather put good money towards the sword attached to the nakago that has a mekugi that requires removing.

[Guido]

They sell / auction them off as modern made, no claims to them being one of a kind, unique items or highly collectable. They are what they are (and not my cup of tea, btw). Now you are warning people that they are not what you imagined them to be, and therefore too expensive. I don’t get it. Are you seriously blaming them for your own misconception? Did they somehow force you to bid on them?

[Henry Wilson]

I have had experiences with items sold as the "one and only" at high prices to only find a few years later that the exact same exists at a fraction of the cost.  I sympathize with Arnold's plight but I think it goes with the territory.  My over-priced treasure is always there to remind me how fortunate I am to live in a first world country and have the kind of disposal income to throw around lavishly. 

 

On another note, amongst all the horrid things that Aoi Arts (supposedly) does I didn't know dog intimidation was one of them.....

[Guido]

On another note, amongst all the horrid things that Aoi Arts (supposedly) does I didn't know dog intimidation was one of them.....

 

Big time! However, they usually just strangle hamsters if you're a first-time customer ...

[Darcy]

They sell / auction them off as modern made, no claims to them being one of a kind, unique items or highly collectable. They are what they are (and not my cup of tea, btw). Now you are warning people that they are not what you imagined them to be, and therefore too expensive. I don’t get it. Are you seriously blaming them for your own misconception? Did they somehow force you to bid on them?

 

 

At this point they are lazy enough that they're using the photo of the previous one I guess because they wrote that the bag is a little bit different than photographed. I guess that implies by omission that everything else is identical. 

 

I agree that buying trinkets gets you into trouble wherever you are and buyer beware when it comes to them, but it is also a bit manipulative to be auctioning off commodities by trickling them into the market like this like they are one-offs. It's meant to catch people off guard, and to take in the non-obsessive site reloader, and it would appear to be working. 

[Guido]

non-obsessive site reloader

 

It appears that there are indeed some forumites who monitor their website 24/7!

[SwordGuyJoe]

It appears that there are indeed some forumites who monitor their website 24/7!

That's fair enough. That said, when new collectors constantly post eBay blades asking about whether they stumbled onto a treasure, what is the site they are directed to, to see real Nihonto? Almost exclusively Aoi.

[mywei]

That's fair enough. That said, when new collectors constantly post eBay blades asking about whether they stumbled onto a treasure, what is the site they are directed to, to see real Nihonto? Almost exclusively Aoi.

 

To be fair Aoi Art is mainly a dealer in nihonto where there is no danger of having 'duplicates', not accessories like mekugi-nuki.

 

Not having seen the previous item page/description, can't comment, but it is described as a modern product.

[Alan F]

They sell / auction them off as modern made, no claims to them being one of a kind, unique items or highly collectable. They are what they are (and not my cup of tea, btw). Now you are warning people that they are not what you imagined them to be, and therefore too expensive. I don’t get it. Are you seriously blaming them for your own misconception? Did they somehow force you to bid on them?

 

Guido, your genius for tact and diplomacy shines through once again! That photo of the dog is hilarious. I am flattered that you took the time to prepare that, just to mock me.

I rather prefer this gruesome painting by Sebastian Kruger:

 

 

 

I am not too proud to admit that I am a big sucker. I can't imagine what possessed me to buy these items in the first place. At least I have not yet seen the skull themed mekugi-nuki repeated on their auction page, yet. My intent was to warn any NMB members who might be bidding on these items, that these items are not particularly unique and to be cautious with regard to overbidding for them.

 

Here is an excerpt from an email reply that I received from Aoi Art last November regarding an inquiry that I made when the second mekugi-nuki popped up for sale on their auction page:

This item is order made so it is very unique. We have posted the two precious

items on our auction.

 

That's all I have to say.

 

Alan

[Bugyotsuji]

Poor English? My old school English language teacher warned us to avoid saying 'very unique'. Unique means 'one of a kind', he used to say.

 

In Japanese though, (to be fair to Aoi Art's secretary), ユニーク　'unique' tends to mean 'rare', 'unusual' or 'intriguing'.

 

One quick question, though. Would 925 silver not be likely to bend under tension?

[Baka Gaijin]

Hi Piers.,

 

Popping my Silver Dealer's hat on for a mo'

 

All English Silver Flatware and Cutlery is 925, with the exception of Britannia Standard Silver which is 958.3.

 

Given the shape and direction of use, it would be beast for the job!          

 

As an addenda, many surgical instruments were and still are made of silver.

 

(Vampires, Werewolves and the Lone Ranger's Silver Bullets came into the mix here, but that's not really real is it.....)

 

Pip Pip......

[Stephen]

 

 

 My over-priced treasure is always there to remind me how fortunate I am to live in a first world country and have the kind of disposal income to throw around lavishly. 

I think these words from Henry are the ones that should be quoted. 

The money we drop on our toys would be yearly wages elsewhere ....may you never thirst. 

[Alan F]

 

At least I have not yet seen the skull themed mekugi-nuki repeated on their auction page, yet.

 

At this point they are lazy enough that they're using the photo of the previous one I guess because they wrote that the bag is a little bit different than photographed. I guess that implies by omission that everything else is identical. 

 

I agree that buying trinkets gets you into trouble wherever you are and buyer beware when it comes to them, but it is also a bit manipulative to be auctioning off commodities by trickling them into the market like this like they are one-offs. It's meant to catch people off guard, and to take in the non-obsessive site reloader, and it would appear to be working. 

Ha! Skull theme mekugi-nuki repeated, after all.

Up on their auction page now: http://www.aoijapan.com/silver-mekugi-nuki-skull-motif

 

Perhaps my message got through to someone on this board, because there are no bids this time with only two days left to go.

It's a nice little item to hold in the hand, but probably not worth any more than the starting price.

 

Note that they say that the cloth bag is different from the picture. That is because the pictures are of the item that I bought, including the cloth bag. They couldn't be bothered to take fresh pictures of the new item.

 

Alan

[e_v]

I have to say that I find it cute

But yes, at 45k yen it's somehow expensive.