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Post by Stef on Apr 13, 2021 6:59:14 GMT
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Apr 13, 2021 15:46:15 GMT
I think the issue that bothered you was their policy that there should be no discussion about items that are being sold. I know there have been multiple issues over the same thing in the past at NMB. Sometimes there are slips and discussion on sale items does not get moderated in time.
There are members on that forum that caution buyers when looking at eBay items. I generally advice the same. However sometimes you can get decent deals from Japanese eBay dealers too, if you know what you are looking for and know what you want. The items that are listed to eBay from Japan are mostly listed for sale at Yahoo JP at the same time. Sellers like daimyou54eb as you mentioned can have very interesting items sometimes. I remember wanting a naginata he had but as it takes me several years to save up for an antique it sold lot sooner I got the money for it. Similar thing happened with an item that koushuya had listed.
However the caution is that often the items sold at eBay that are from Japan can be in quite poor condition. The item that I was looking had few rust spots and it was worn in general. I was fine with those problems but I know many collectors are not.
Also to be noted that some members at Nihonto Message Board collect at very high level, so it can be difficult for them to drop down to level where an average buyer might be.
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Post by avoidnhb on May 26, 2021 21:58:26 GMT
If no one there will or can tell you something is obviously a POS then can you really say its a good place for a beginner collector to start? Whoever bought the sword in question got ripped off big time and would have been better off going directly through daimyou54eb.
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Post by treeslicer on May 27, 2021 0:12:15 GMT
If no one there will or can tell you something is obviously a POS then can you really say its a good place for a beginner collector to start? Whoever bought the sword in question got ripped off big time and would have been better off going directly through daimyou54eb. Have you bought blades from daimyou54eb? I have several from them, and they are only safe to buy blades from if: They can, and will rip you off if you let them, but they are a source of genuine bargains for experienced sword and koshirae buyers. They also screw up occasionally themselves (e. g., a few years ago, they let a genuine Muramasa-school wak escape into the wild for under $700), so it's good to examine their offerings frequently. OTOH, I wouldn't buy armor from them under any circumstances, and many of their papered blades are old NBTHK kicho or kicho tokubetsu that never got repapered when they should have. Gimei is common, too, but I haven't seen a fake signature that keeps a sword from holding an edge, just keeps it from getting papered. ![:D](//storage.forums.net/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) Caveat emptor.
With regard to NMB, I don't buy stuff through forum classifieds. You keep more friends that way.
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Post by avoidnhb on May 28, 2021 22:12:50 GMT
Yeah I have a few pieces from low end to the first modern tokubetsu hozon i picked up. If you want something that is authentic and wont break the bank they’re the best place to look. They may not retain 100% of what you paid and you should always try to make offers of course. He does get the odd high end piece he’s aware of and the odd one he isnt.
I really take offense to the message board talking down daimyou54eb the way they do. If you suggest to someone inexperienced they should check out daimyou54eb you will immediately catch all sorts of flack for it. More than happy to let inexperienced buyers buy something second hand from them though. They also religiously steer people away from ebay and you better believe there is nothing altruistic about that. Koushya samurai museum and Japanese sword gallery all have excellent collections and they all accept reasonable offers. (Samurai museum is cheaper through their website)I haven’t realy bought from katana boutique and hitendo also have some great looking listings.
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Post by treeslicer on May 31, 2021 10:33:40 GMT
For those who are interested, "DAIMYOU" just announced that it's resuming EMS shipments, as of June 1. After a year of them shipping only by SAL due to the pandemic curtailment of airliner service to Japan, this resumption of normalcy is pleasant for anyone wanting to order from them.
Takako's original email reads as follows:
" Thank you for visiting my store (daimyou54eb) !!
EMS can be ship items from 01/June.
Please make a bid sword.
We can be ship sword by EMS.
So you will be able to receive package smoothly.
I’m looking forward to deal with you.
Thank you!
Best regards, Takako" To clear up some of the older misinformation loose on NMB and elsewhere, here's Who's Who at Daimyou: daimyou-armor.com/staff.html The older posts confused Hanamoto with his father.
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Post by treeslicer on May 31, 2021 16:51:40 GMT
Another thing, I've let some obvious rants pass, but as the posts there show, Hanamoto's reputation at NMB isn't anywhere close to 100% negative. Several long-time residents there have heaped effusive praise on his operation, and many of the complaints have to do with sales on Yahoo Japan rather than on eBay. The Japanese market is much pickier than the Western. You want to see overwhelmingly negative posting, investigate Komonjo, or Showa22, both USA based.
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Post by treeslicer on May 31, 2021 20:14:38 GMT
Know it’s weird given how I’m dissing everyone, but I wouldn’t put him on the level of Monkey, Showa22 or BOJ. I’m sure his naked blades are ultra high end Chinese replica, but they’re probably worth their price. He should give disclosure but given that he sells low end stuff for very low prices I’d say it’s a case of you get what you pay for and everyone should realize too good to be true is a thing. Not gonna forgive Showa for swearing up and down that his low res photos sword was okay and not buffed and my surprise when I found out he shamelessly lied. Also his “no nicks” claim was a lie and the kisaki was busted. And in that case I paid him enough for a train wreck that after returning(under threat of an item not as described claim), I was able to turn around and buy one of Eric Wazamono’s for less money. Except for his "anchor" papered pieces, which seldom sell, Komonjo has low-start open auctions. At least, if you pay too much for one of his notorious mystery blades, he didn't set the price. There is, of course, the rumor that he may sometimes exercise "retro reserve", and refund rather than ship if something sells too cheaply for his tastes. I don't consider him a model "good eBayer", but what ethics he has might make him a pinnacle of virtue compared to some Chinese eBay sword sellers.
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Post by avoidnhb on Jun 4, 2021 5:03:29 GMT
Ive definitely never been brave enough to buy from komonjo🤣🤣. That monkey guy and showa 22 deal mostly in tacked together ww1 and 2 pieces which i have no interest for in the first place.
Racket IMO is a fairly accurate description of NMB. They talk down legit sellers more often than not. Im talking about admins and juyo status members not your average guy on the forum.
They constantly drive people away from ebay with no discussion of which sellers might be legitimate or worthwhile, but god forbid you try to keep someone from buying something second hand from the seller they are trash talking. Clearly the little bit of a percentage they might get in donation is more important to them than ensuring their members are going to find a worthwhile item. The admins exact words were you would certainly find a better deal on the forum than daimyou54eb’s shop. Entirely false if the first item you see is from his shop and marked up double.
My intent was always to guide someone to an authentic and worthwhile piece to collect. I got black balled and shot down by admins and juyo status members every time. If you’re entirely new to nihonto you’re likley to end up getting ripped off.
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Post by JH Lee on Jun 5, 2021 4:48:54 GMT
NMB is fine-- both as a resource for good information/knowledge and also for selling/buying from the classifieds.
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Post by novak77 on Jun 5, 2021 22:18:22 GMT
Im gonna throw in my unsolicited two cents on the NMB thing.
In my mind (I practice a Koryu), there are two kinds of "Japanese swords people".
Type one is the art sword crowd. Ask those guys about a Nihonto for Iai, or Tameshigiri, and most of them will treat you like your nucking futs.
Type two is the martial artist, backyard cutter, anyone who's seen a samurai movie, etc crowd. There are gonna be varying levels of appreciation within this group. Some of us practice 500 year old martial arts, some of us just want to cut water bottles, and the others just think swords are effin cool.
I've been told over on NMB "NMB is for people who want to preserve Nihonto, not use them". If thats your thing, then more power to you.
My thing is using the tool like it was intended to be used for thousands of years, and through that, I will honor and preserve Nihonto.
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Post by Drunk Merchant on Jun 6, 2021 2:00:15 GMT
All I gotta say is stuff like sbg-sword-store.sword-buyers-guide.com/product942.html wouldn’t be good for a martial artist either. Not after a buffing wheel changed the geometry(note how in images where there is incident lighting the what’s left of the shinogi ji is wobbly as hell) and removed so much of the hagane. To get rid of some harmless surface rust they reduced its appearance... and functionality to that of a 100$ replica. And they have the nerve to say buffing a sword is okay, as if losing the geometry won’t ruin everything right down to the function. One thing I’ve marveled at is how stuff that looks pretty in a nihonto is what makes it functional: like soshu swords with their hard nie hamons and mist utsuri that makes them springy. Those gem like effects are in fact a result of it ideal hardness control for cutting. Conversely, benign stuff like being out of polish notwithstanding, stuff that wrecks a swords look often wrecks function, like loss of hamon, or like the above case where losing the geometry it needed for cutting through an object and withstanding shocks, along with the bulk of its hagane has effectively ended its life as a functional weapon. That’s why I think regardless of what our goals are, decent sword care, and supporting people who practice it is a goal we can all get behind.
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Post by avoidnhb on Jun 6, 2021 23:45:41 GMT
I never once endorsed BOJ or SBG as a place to buy nihonto. If you want to get scammed on NMB when you could get something from a legit dealer direct from japan go right ahead. If you believe they are altruistically letting things go for less than they are worth you’re naive. I bet none of those old koto pieces just over 1k had a paper or any sort of provenance. Theres alot of pieces out there that are fudged to look old i.e extra mekugi ana drilled. You’re paying three people on NMB. NMB the person you’re buying from and the person he bought it from. I tend to like a few less hands on my purchases. I personally wouldn’t cut with anything older than a shinto piece. My main concern would be a hidden flaw due to antique use cropping up. You can also easily wreck a good blade just by hitting it at the wrong angle. Our main concern after that is the art polish. In the end its your sword and i wont fault you for wanting to see it in action. I understand the impulse for sure🤩. If you want a high class modern nihonto www.japanese-sword-katana.jp/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyf-_uPum8AIVEv2zCh2UOAdaEAMYAyAAEgLL-_D_BwEwould be the best place to start. I personally am not a big fan of modern nihonto. Its a little over priced for something you’re going to knock around and use when modern forging and materials can achieve the same result for a quarter of the price. If you’re looking for something to hold its value modern is definitely not the way to go either. Barring smiths like Yoshihara Yoshindo or masamune Tsunahiro 24th you lose half its worth the moment you buy it.
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Post by Drunk Merchant on Jun 7, 2021 0:58:04 GMT
Well if you thought the home of the fake Ieyasu sword, the home of worthless buffed nihonto, and all their crazy advice is fine then it is fit to use them as the benchmark when grading NMB and eBay. Does seem odd to condone that while claiming the other is a fraud and criminal and as of yet, not having produced evidence. I’m probably blind but could you tell me what those Hozon papers are if not a paper and provenance? It’s for the 1000$ Koto sword btw. So you’re saying that professional dealer, like the ones you talked up, made fake Hozon papers, drilled a sword and sold fraud at a loss in NMB? Interesting, on what evidence? More likely, Hozon papers are sometimes Hozon papers and sometimes older people downsizing let newbies have stuff cheap. So for the record, I do not endorse using antique blades but I can understand where our friend is coming from. Most production swords, especially ( according to Jensen) horrifically expensive production L6 super steel break from anything even tatami mats often ruin L6. Even conventional steel production blades, less apt to have failed heat treatment, still break from anything and CAS has responded to a hoard of angry people who payed a ton for lemons by claiming all swords are supposed to break from plastic gallon jugs. Then yeah, I can understand why faced between the choice of a hideous and pathetically preforming L6 production, or a no more expensive battle tested sword, a survivor of hitting hard objects and being hit by hard objects, would have more appeal. Mind you, antique swords are by virtue of being antique a dying breed, and no more shinshinto, shinto, or koto swords will ever be made. So yes, I could never bring myself to reduce their numbers via the accelerated wear that would do, but nonetheless, I can understand the urge to trust the real deal over replica CAS says can’t handle gallon jugs. The solution would probably be to get a Clark or Komonojo but who am I to tell others how to live their life. Especially when he’s a koryu expert who knows how to use swords and I don’t, and likely using it the way previous owners did. I would not say that swords CAS categorically says are unsafe to use on plastic gallons are same. Modernity without skill disappoints. Yes, modern nihonto aren’t my interest, but Clark and others make good swords because they’re experts at Japanese style heat treatment and geometry, not because they use the same alloys that fail Hanwei. Lot of production can use sci-fi metals but so long as their oil quenching (itself the easier to use but less hardening/effective spinoff to water quenching) is poorly controlled and leaves large patches of unhardened edge, they’re liable to roll an entire edge from anything. And what bothers me is those cost more than antiques lots of times. And unfortunately truly great non Japanese swords like Clark’s aren’t cheap either.
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Post by treeslicer on Jun 7, 2021 3:33:37 GMT
and save $1100 or so.
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Post by Drunk Merchant on Jun 10, 2021 20:45:54 GMT
Speaking about buying cool antique swords that are being sold by alleged criminal rackets(what our friend says NMB is)... NMB is selling a Juyo Katana, a masterpiece from Kamakura era Bizen, for no more than the price of that chewed up, half out of polish, questionably valid green papered sword BOJ mistranslated to Ieyasu’s smith. A Juyo katana at sub 30K is a good deal. Meanwhile the guy behind BOJ will tell you katana start at Juyo prices but that sorry daisho he sells... well you could get those, without the fake Ieyasu claims from Daimyo for about 2000$. The leadership behind BOJ should own up to the fact depreciated green papers are infamously unreliable and they mistranslated theirs to English to a more famous smith than the papers say. Anyways if I had a spare 30K, I’d drop it on that Juyo since you’re buying one of the best of the bests according to the NBTHK. Me though, I gotta settle for cheap Hozon katanas.
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Post by Drunk Merchant on Jun 29, 2021 19:46:49 GMT
Ive definitely never been brave enough to buy from komonjo🤣🤣. That monkey guy and showa 22 deal mostly in tacked together ww1 and 2 pieces which i have no interest for in the first place. Racket IMO is a fairly accurate description of NMB. They talk down legit sellers more often than not. Im talking about admins and juyo status members not your average guy on the forum. They constantly drive people away from ebay with no discussion of which sellers might be legitimate or worthwhile, but god forbid you try to keep someone from buying something second hand from the seller they are trash talking. Clearly the little bit of a percentage they might get in donation is more important to them than ensuring their members are going to find a worthwhile item. The admins exact words were you would certainly find a better deal on the forum than daimyou54eb’s shop. Entirely false if the first item you see is from his shop and marked up double. My intent was always to guide someone to an authentic and worthwhile piece to collect. I got black balled and shot down by admins and juyo status members every time. If you’re entirely new to nihonto you’re likley to end up getting ripped off. A funny thing happened that refutes your claims: They do let people politely note when a sword is being flipped by an eBayer, especially when the flipper is cagey about giving info, and is flipping from a dubious ebayer. I can’t pretend to know your circumstances, but with a lot of things that skirt the rules, it comes down to your reputation: if you’ve become notorious for making dubious claims, or derailing topics, then they are less willing to judge borderline situations in your favor. It’s reasonable, if someone has a track record of questionable claims, can you trust them to interrupt other topics for the better? As for sellers though? No, veiled critiques are okay, even noting flipping, often okay, and when someone tries flipping Showa22 shoddy green papered swords without disclosing green are dubious, BOJ style, they get smacked down by everyone including the admin.
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