GTSTCACTUS thanks the members...

[cabowen]

In my case, as someone who was an ebay member, I was simply following the rules which at one time stated that it was forbidden to influence auctions. By publicly commenting on active auctions, I found I was doing exactly that, so I stopped.

 

Another reason I do not do it is I do not want to have it come back and bite me should someone buy something on my advice or positive comments, then find that the item was not as advertised, and blame me.

 

There have been a few times when someone has asked about an item that I actually was planning to bid on. Obviously the only thing to do is to stay silent.

 

I understand completely about wanting to out bad sellers and bad items and I have done this many times, but privately, not on a public board. These days, with 99.9% of the items on Ebay crap, it would take a team working full time to out all the junk...

 

I think my willingness to help the less experienced is well reflected in the record, but I don't advocate ebay as the place for beginners to stock their collection and therefore, at least publicly, don't feel any obligation to help out with active auctions...thus my "if you have to ask, you shouldn't be bidding" comment.

 

Everyone has their own take on this and I appreciate Brian's open policy. There is no absolute right way to deal with this- one chooses his priorities and goes from there....

[Lee Bray]

How can the purpose of the board be to expose "outright fakes and dodgy sellers/buyers" in any worthwhile fashion unless its before a purchase is made?

 

Fakes can be discussed in a live auction. Dodgy sellers/buyers will have to wait until the transaction is complete otherwise how could you know?

Simple really.

[Muki]

I'm sorry Lee, I thought you had meant known dodgy sellers, mea culpa.

 

jim

[sanjuro]

Muki wrote:

How can the purpose of the board be to expose "outright fakes and dodgy sellers/buyers" in any worthwhile fashion unless its before a purchase is made?

 

Why does it have to be before the current and ongoing purchase is made? If you are going do it, then you do it only after the questionable sale or purchase is made and the evidence is there to present. You do it for future buyers and sellers. The current fish on the line are beyond help in most cases, having usually committed to a purchase by bidding or to a sale by having listed it.

[Muki]

Notwithstanding your belief that a fish is beyond help when its looking at the lure, if a potential or current enthusiast asks a pertinent question about a public auction then why not answer that question? If you see a sword listed and have no opinion then dont say anything but if you see what is obviously a faked mei or retempering or some such malady then speaking up is the moral thing to do. Watching someone walk into a lie and then after the transaction speaking up doesnt make you pundit but a voyeur enjoying a train wreck.

 

Again, in my collecting of ebody mopars the starting price on most is in the $25,000 US range and runs to the millions. Common fakery of VIN, rebodys and fender tag swaps are common. In any given year only a handful of each model was originally produced but it seems that there are more on the market than came on the showroom floor. It is common in collecting circles of these cars to have vocal and spirited discussion of known fakes, dubious offers and crooked dealers.

 

Nihonto collecting may be a more quiet and reserved event than buying cars but the money is the same to the potential buyer. If you have nothing to say because your not sure how to answer a question then just say so to the questioner. However, there are some brilliant minds here on the board with hundreds of years of collective study and experience. If this isnt a resource for the new as well as the old then what is NMB? I have had many offline conversations with two of the members here about swords that have saved me from what I now know were swords I shouldn't have bought. So I didnt. Thank you to the gentlemen who have helped me.

 

jim

[sanjuro]

Jim.

 

Private inquiry to a member or members is fine, and I too have gladly answered PM queries from newbies concerning swords for sale. I hope that they were helped by what I said. One sometimes finds oneself in a mentoring role, and I have no objection to that at all. Private inquiry however is very different to open discussion and sometimes open slather on a public forum. My comment about the fish being beyond help was if you read thoroughly, directed toward those sellers who had already listed an item or those buyers who had already bid on an item in which cases they were already bound by an implicit contract to sell on the one hand or to buy on the other, should the auction come to completion. I acknowledge that it is easier for the seller to opt out of that implicit contract by cancelling the auction. But the analogy holds all too true for a winning bidder, and is even more fatal for one that hits the 'Buy Now' button.