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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 6, 2019 18:57:28 GMT
Zombie post resurrection time.......
I took the plunge and ordered from him. Still waiting on delivery. He said it shipped on the 2nd. but I'm still waiting for tracking numbers. For anyone interested I'll keep this post updated once a week and we'll see how long it takes the swords to get to me in Georgia.
As for the delays and selling locally, that was my impression too. I think he posts swords on his facebook page, sells them locally, and then remakes them for international sale. Not the most honest practice, but I'm guessing from reading peoples experiences so take it with a grain of salt.
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Post by Croccifixio on Apr 8, 2019 4:20:21 GMT
Good luck! He seems much improved now. The pics of his work on Facebook wow me. Hope he delivers (literally).
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 14, 2019 17:40:57 GMT
Well, I'm starting to suspect that he does indeed double and triple sell swords. I ordered a sword and my wife ordered one for my birthday, both paid in full. That was at the beginning of March. I still don't have tracking numbers. What I do have though is a facebook post from a very respected member of the community showing a sword he worked on that looks exactly like the one my wife ordered me. If he's taking money from multiple people for the posted sword, then making copies so he can fill those orders, it would explain the shipping inconsistencies.
Now, I don't care if he's making multiples of a sword. I've owned just about the entire Albion medieval catalog at this point and it never mattered to me that my sword was one of many. The problem here is transparency. If he's making copies and needs a three month lead time that's totally cool and I still would have paid up front. Not telling your clients that the posted sword is sold, then stalling them on shipping information is quite another thing.
Mods; Since this is not longer a review thread, if you'd like to split this off to an appropriate place in the forum that'd be cool of you all. I really didn't know where to start this and this thread was the only one about In'Carius I could find.
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 14, 2019 17:47:01 GMT
Good luck! He seems much improved now. The pics of his work on Facebook wow me. Hope he delivers (literally). He's improved greatly over the last two years I've been watching his work. I hope that my theory about his sales practices turn out to be false though as its a future deal breaker for me. Like I said, I don't care if there's 100 or 1000 of the same sword out there, just tell me you have to make another copy and give me a reasonable estimate as to when I can expect it.
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Post by Croccifixio on Apr 16, 2019 2:51:07 GMT
I think I was lucky. He posted the sword for sale on FB (buyer supposedly backed out). I pmed him and paid immediately. Had quite some trouble getting a tracking number. Was just persistent every week. Eventually he sent a picture of it wrapped with my address written on the package. Waited a few more weeks and finally received it via ems.
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 24, 2019 12:59:42 GMT
I think I was lucky. He posted the sword for sale on FB (buyer supposedly backed out). I pmed him and paid immediately. Had quite some trouble getting a tracking number. Was just persistent every week. Eventually he sent a picture of it wrapped with my address written on the package. Waited a few more weeks and finally received it via ems. You're a lucky man. Turns out one of the swords that was supposed to be mine was also purchased by one of our members. I confirmed it with him directly. He had the same problem getting tracking numbers but in his case the sword magically showed up. My case is another story..... I paid in full for my sword (also a Facebook post) in February. I had ordered a scabbard along with it, so I expected some delay. I was quoted two weeks. We're now about to hit the 8-week mark. No tracking numbers, no shipping notifications (I have informed delivery with the USPS and UPS My Choice), and worst of all, no sword. The second sword was purchased by my wife and mother as a birthday present. They paid on the 11th of March. Same deal, no tracking, no notifications, and no sword. This ones worse because he sold the sword multiple times from the same Facebook post. I know of the one instance mentioned above for sure as I confirmed it directly, and I'm assuming that there's others out there as well. This leaves me in a personal dilemma. I've given him the benefit of the doubt, and he hasn't delivered. I could ask for a refund and be done with it, but I feel like I should open a PayPal case against him for fraud, so this doesn't happen to anyone else in the community. Its a shame because he's a talented smith with a ton of potential, but his business practices are very bad and something we tolerate all too often in the sword collecting community. I'm guilty of that tolerance as well. I'm going to give it till this Friday and if I don't have a sword in my hands, I'll have to open a case. At this point I can't really recommend doing business with him, no matter how good he is. With the money spent here, which is about $1300 all totaled, I could have easily gone to the more reputable smiths out of Eastern Europe. I took a chance and got burned. About the best I can do now is try and ensure no one else gets burned as well.
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Post by Croccifixio on Apr 24, 2019 15:22:13 GMT
Rafal is such a crappy businessman. Sigh...
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 27, 2019 16:04:34 GMT
Update: I have working tracking numbers. I don't know if he shipped both swords, but something is inbound and I guess that's better than nothing.
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Post by Jordan Williams on Apr 27, 2019 17:33:48 GMT
Damn, I would not be so tolerant. Niche market or no - business still needs to be conducted with mutual respect and honesty.
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Post by Darth Paunch on Apr 27, 2019 20:49:02 GMT
Pity... he was on my list. But i eard the same warnings from two german guys on FB "Allswords"... Well, i dont get it. Performing bull like this in our little community is right away commercial SUICIDE!
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 27, 2019 21:57:27 GMT
So....it seems both swords have shipped. Stay tuned and next week we'll see what comes in. Hopefully they'll be pics to follow
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 27, 2019 22:12:25 GMT
Pity... he was on my list. But i eard the same warnings from two german guys on FB "Allswords"... Well, i dont get it. Performing bull like this in our little community is right away commercial SUICIDE! I'm going to have to agree. If I'd known there would be this much drama I'd have stayed away. What he needs is a business model that gives him the time he needs for production, keeps the money flowing so he can meet his expenses, and most of all keeps the customer in the loop the whole time. I believe the mistake he's making here is he wants to get as much money up front as he can as this is his primary source of income, and doesn't want to risk losing customers due too wait times. What ends up happening though is he tarnishes his reputation and loses customers anyway. If the swords I receive are of good quality, I'd say you can feel safe ordering from him, but tell him not to bullsemprini you with delivery times. As far as I know he hasn't robbed anyone and has either delivered or given refunds. The swords end up in your hands, just not when he says they will. If, however, he persists on not being honest about what he's selling and when it will actually show up on your door, I'd recomenned people avoid him as behavior like this should not be tolerated in our community, and I've seen it tolerated all too often.
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 27, 2019 22:13:16 GMT
Really what in'Carius craft should do, at least in my opinion, is this;
There's say, 5 blades of the same type available. So instead of finishing one, selling all 5, and walking excuses for the other 4, you start a queue and say there's 4 open spots. Give a delivery time frame of, say, three months. Ask 50% up front to cover your costs, non-refundable. Additional orders placed after the spots in the queue are sold are placed in to custom order status and the time frame extended accordingly. You;'d of course inform the persons involved up front. Once the grip on the sword is done the remaining balance is due. If the customer fails to pay you keep the deposit and sell it on facebook again as a one off.
I think something like that would work much better than selling the same sword multiple times without the customers knowledge or consent and then making excuses until you can make another and get it sipped out a month or so later.
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Post by Croccifixio on Apr 28, 2019 2:06:25 GMT
Or just be honest.
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Post by mcapanelli on Apr 28, 2019 13:30:29 GMT
Well, yeah, that too. lol Seriously, It seems he gets worse as his work gets better, so I think its because he can't keep up with demand but doesn't want to lose costumers, which causes him to be dishonest about things and lose costumers anyway. He's talented and getting better with every sword he makes, so he's sort of hitting a stride, but this dishonest shite is going to hamstring his success.
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Post by Croccifixio on Apr 29, 2019 1:06:39 GMT
I think all decent swordsmiths/makers reach that point where the demand for their work outweighs their ability. Some of them try to keep up, and the work degrades. Some of them try to get help, and the work degrades. The best approach seems to be maintain the same work pace and development, but raise prices. The risk is that you might lose a big chunk of demand, but at least you don't resort to shady stuff like this to get by (which will be worse in the long run).
Still a big risk though. A smith as reknowned and talented as Michael Pikula left the industry because of this, returned (and made ten stunning multibar swords) and had to keep lowering the price of the swords just to sell them at a reasonable time. There wasn't even a wait time for that.
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Post by mcapanelli on May 3, 2019 3:36:16 GMT
Update:
I have sword #1 in hand now. In picked it up from the post office today. Sword #2 seems to be stuck in customs in Poland, at least according to the tracking numbers.
So it seems that when you order, you will get your sword. The problem isn't so much a matter of if but when. There's also the issue of selling multiple swords off of one post. He's definitely doing this. The sword that came in the mail is not the sword from the original facebook post. He's saying that the blade had an issue and needed tomb remade, but didn't tell me that when I was waiting. Its my belief that he did the same thing to #1 as he did to #2, which is sell it and m are another. This in itself isn't bad, but its definitely something you should be telling your customers.
The sword I have on hand is actually pretty excellent. Its a XII and handles very much like my old Albion Baron. Its painfully sharp as well. It has a secondary bevel, but that's not really a big deal, or a deal at all for me. The edge held up to some 1" green bamboo so its good in my book. The sword has inconsistencies though. It's not perfectly symmetrical, so for some people this might be a problem, but it should also be noted that originals were not symmetrical either and if we'd apply todays standards they'd be considered seconds or sloppily made swords. I'll go a little deeper in to this when I get time to post a review.
So now we have a talented smith with some pretty bad business practices regarding sales and shipping. What to do? The custom orders look like they don't have these problems though, so if you were following this and thinking of a custom order, I think you'll be alright. The sword might take a month longer than quoted, but you'll get the sword you ordered. The problem is when he sells finished pieces on facebook. I'd be very wary of ordering another finished piece from Rafal. If someone really wants to, or already has, ordered a finished work form his facebook page, I'd recommend holding his feet to the coals. Make sure he's straight with you. Really its not something we as customers should have to do, but if you've already parted with money then it is what it is.
I think if In'Carius craft os willing to become more transparent and be honest about exactly what sword you're getting, I'd recommend him. I just hope he's willing to turn those business practices around as he really is a talented and up and coming smith. I feel he's not far from the level of a Sulowski and other notable European smiths, with pricing to match, but it all depends on his willingness to adhere to a solid business model and maintain communications with his customers. I guess time will tell.
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Post by mcapanelli on May 7, 2019 18:47:56 GMT
Final update:
I now have both swords I ordered in hand. Clearly, both swords are not the ones pictured but others of the same type. I'm going to do a review of both swords an d go more in depth about them and the issues of selling multiple swords from the same picture without telling anyone, which caused quite a bit of confusion on my part and almost saw me opening up a fraud case. The swords themselves are of very high quality, even at a. much higher price point. They have just the right amount of heft to give them a nice punch when you make contact with a target, the single handed XIV its actually somewhere between a XIV and a XVI) has a deadly tip that trusts effortlessly and tracks very well. They're easily on par with major American offerings.
So the work is excellent, but that delivery issue is still an....issue. I recommend the work but I also recommend getting Rafal to commit to an actual delivery time. And if you happen to be ordering form his facebook page, press him about actual delivery timed and if the sword pictured is the physical one your getting or he's making another, Given how both mine turned out, he can certainly create the same type within reasonable tolerances for a hand made sword. Again, I'll go more in to detail about all of this in my reviews. Till then......
Swords are here!!!!
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Post by Croccifixio on May 9, 2019 6:16:36 GMT
Hahaha what an ordeal. I realize how lucky I am now (although I also bought from him at a time when he wasn't as good as he is now).
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