Well i suppose its name and shame again on Ebay

[shan]

I am sure you have all had great deals from this seller but if that the case then why?

Ebay seller "antiqueblades" sold me a sword with this description.

 

Interesting Samurai wakizashi from Koto or Shinto period, having an intricate Harimono work of tree branches with leafs towards the tip of the blade, few very small nicks to the edge, nothing major, no blisters or openings in the still and the blade should polish well. Shirasaya case is old and in good condition, for some reason band by a duct tape in two places. sword came with WW II period papers confirming the authenticity of the sword and by whom it was captured in 1945. Interesting item with History, besides being an authentic samurai weapon.OA 31 3/4". Blade 21 1/4".

 

 

His/her name is Murat and the seller Forgot to mention 28 chips to the ha of which 8 are more than 2mm deep and a carbon pocket on the omote.also forgot to say"has been "polished" on a grinding wheel" so has deep yasureme on the blade itself.I doubt this can be polished to remove the problems.$500 tsunagi again.Please sellers stop ripping us Off!!!

 

Is it just me or have others found the descriptions of ebay items seem to not include the obviose flaws in the hope that they will "not be noticed"?

I will never buy from this seller again its that bad. A refund has been requested,i will keep you informed.

regards

shan

[drbvac]

Too bad you got caught and stuck with that disaster.

 

I have dealt with only 3 or 4 sellers and depend more on the pictures than description , feed-back and length selling, it is still hard to be sure how trustworthy they are. Better ones often have separate web site. I always check return policies and cross my fingers. I have also found if too good to be true it isn't and too cheap to be real its not. Everyone has said, buyer beware, guess they are right, sometimes when 1000 miles from any dealers you get the fix for the addiction where you can, however you have to be careful and there are no real bargains on e-bay.

 

Quality from long term dealers costs but you at least get what you expect - usually !

[huntershooter]

It sounds as though you purchased the blade from a written description with few, or marginal photos.

What were you thinking?

Send it back if you can, learn from the mistake if you can't.

If I buy from ebay I do so from reputable sellers (whom I've purchased from previously); or if a new (to me) seller-only with hi-res photos of entire blade.

If it seems to good to be true, it is.

[Kevin]

the seller Forgot to mention 28 chips to the ha of which 8 are more than 2mm deep and a carbon pocket on the omote.also forgot to say"has been "polished" on a grinding wheel" so has deep yasureme on the blade itself.I doubt this can be polished to remove the problems. $500 tsunagi again.

 

Hmm! Might be a case of asking a polisher what can be done. Not having any images, nor any idea of the depth of the hamon, and not being a polisher, I don't know. I'd suspect that the grinding wheel has done for it, but it is best to have professional advice.

 

Is it just me or have others found the descriptions of ebay items seem to not include the obviose flaws in the hope that they will "not be noticed"?

 

Well, it was, to put it mildly, naughty of them not to point out rather major problems. OTOH, I always put more weight on the photos than I do on what's written. I actively try and find flaws. By the same token, I'll do a whole load of macro photos if I'm selling something, plus the blade as a whole (bare and mounted), so that a potential buyer has better than what they'd see if they had it in their hands - a macro photo is a bit like looking at it with a magnifying glass.

 

Then again, taking good pictures of swords is a bit of a pain in the rear. :-)

 

Kevin

[shan]

Hi Guys,

These are all valid points and as usual you pay your money and you take a chance.1484 feedback with 100% and many Japanese blades sold and selling would seem a safe bet.(wouldn`t it?)

I think what i was trying to say was that ,if this person has ommitted the finer details of this item, then we can safely assume that he/she has done so on the other items they are selling (or is it luck of the draw)?

I had a look at the images and could not see anything so bad from the images(couple of minor chips less than 1mm but nothing like what i found when it turned up) but then there are 2 sides to every chip and the photographed side can very well be the lesser of the visable chip (impact side looks better than the opposite side because of blade shear)

I am absolutly sure that this is my fault for yet again buying based on Tiny images from a so called "trusted seller".

This post is not about my stupidity though,its about sellers failing to mention substantial or even critical problems with a blade that they know damn well will effect the bidding amounts.Its dishonest.

So be warned that some of these sellers may well be selling you something with Hagire and he knows it.

Make a note of this seller and avoid like the plague.

regards

shan

[IanB]

Shan, I copy all of the posted images onto my computer and then use a 'photoshop' type program to enlarge them, change the contrast and anything else that helps to see the details. If I cannot see all of a sword I then ask for more pictures. So far I've only been caught once. It was a really nice looking wakizashi that turned out to be a boys sword. What fooled me was I had nothing in any the pictures that gave me a sense of the scale (and yes I did have the length). Still, I'm pleased with it because it is well mounted and a good example of what was given to a very rich child.

Ian Bottomley

[b.hennick]

Hi:

If you use Thunderbird as your browswer there is a neat feature. Control + increases font size and picture size. I use it often to view sword detail.

[shan]

Hi all,

all useful comments and providing the images are large enough then the item can be judged on those said images(If the actual flaws have been photographed which they rarely are).

I had low res and a poor basic description but relied on the other buyers feedback to know whether to "trust " or not.

The problem with ebay is that most buyers are somewhat terrified of leaving an honest feedback responce for fear of getting a neutral or negative themselves (not necessarily on the same item,(AKA revenge buying).

THis ends up giving the seller a better feedback score than they deserve.

If i sold this, i would not be surprised at getting poor feedback if i had not mentioned the flaws,but to be honest i would not sell it without pointing out the flaws anyway.(yes i know it will effect the final value...but thats life).

I want every person i deal with to understand that "when its good it gets great praise, but when its bad it gets no praise and if i feel that the problems were noticable then i give bad feedback.(i expect the same from people who buy from me)

There is no such thing as buyers remorse,just an item recieved that is not as described.

regards

Shan

[John A Stuart]

Shan, You may have missed it, but, sellers can not leave neg feedback now. John

[shan]

Thanks John,

I have seen that but they can get you back with a revenge buy or just a follow up to the negative saying something like "Buyer is lying and knows nothing about Japanese swords" " it was perfect when i sent it,Must have happened during delivery" and so on.

Poeple are not leaving the feedback they should.

I bought some of that Katana polish (Wenol) in a thimble size pot for polishing Japanese blades on ebay and said it like it was in my feedback (because i had a friend who is a professor at southampton University test it because it was rubbish).I had over 6 other people contact me to state that they agreed it was wenol and the seller was ripping us all off and the seller was charging $40-50 for a tiny teaspoon full pot of it.I said "then, if you are unhappy leave the feedback you feel they deserve".

My feedback is to this day still the only Neutral or negative that that seller got,......so work that one out if you can......???

The ebay mentality is a strange beast.

regards

Shan