EBAY: The good, the bad and the Ugly.

[maverick87]

I have been studying Japan and Asia for years, but I am new to collecting. I have already made a few bad mistakes, and have made one or two good deals. Anyways, I was wondering if people could share their experiances with different famous ebay sellers who they have had good experiances with (sells legit stuff) and bad sellers (those that sell suspicious/fakes).

So far, I've learned my lesson with the infamous Cupman3 (luckly paypal sided with me).

I've dealt with Dragon2dragon, who sells Japanese militaria from Kyoto and is super kind and has some good hats sometimes. Also, gunjinantiques seemed pretty good.

Thank you for all opinions.

[kaigunair]

do a search on the forums. cupman is the worse of them, with obviously fraudulent items. best bet is to know a lot before you buy. even the "good" ebay sellers can mislabel something. and good research helps to discern when so-called experts misrepresent items that fall in to gray areas to boost prices towards the high end prices for established rare items. although even the shady sellers sometimes do offer up genuine items for a decent price, you'll sleep better if you buy from someone you trust, and that is usually built upon several past dealings.

glad to hear paypal righted your wrong. on the flip side, a fellow collector recently lamented to me how he's worried paypal will take away the funds after someone who knows better decided he didn't want the item anymore, and told paypal the item wasn't geniune. hopefully he'll at least get the item back before paypal pulls the funds. I guess selling to good people is also a good rule.

[maverick87]

Thanks. It seems that good things are said about Bannjyou. I'm curious if anyone has an opinion on:

koro-koro1
senndatunouta
waterbobby2

[Justsumgui]

The "stamp-man" by far is the worst on ebay. As for the Japanese dealers I have only good experience from them all except the German dealer living in Japan I can't remember his name off hand. Koro Koro is a really nice lady I have not dealt with waterbobby yet, and the other never seen.

[Dean Brock]

Buyer Beware! I have dealt with sellers misrepresenting items on ebay.

[Jareth]

WOW really Who would that be ? Without names your post is useless don't you think? then again if your trolling...

[Dean Brock]

Maverick,
With alot of the sellers from Japan who regularly sell -it can go either way sometimes . Don't give blind trust to any one seller or "expert". Research and ask questions about each item on its own merit. Oh yeh- I didn't start the trolling here......

[GHolp]

Hello,

... As for the Japanese dealers I have only good experience from them all except the German dealer living in Japan I can't remember his name off hand. ...

Are you talking about ralbovszky? I bought from this guy once in the past,
was an OK item. (But at the moment he has a sword on eBay which i find
rather strange. Is the blade supposed to look like it is?)

A good seller (at least for me ) was always mforce43.

[Striking 9th]

glad to hear paypal righted your wrong. on the flip side, a fellow collector recently lamented to me how he's worried paypal will take away the funds after someone who knows better decided he didn't want the item anymore, and told paypal the item wasn't geniune. hopefully he'll at least get the item back before paypal pulls the funds. I guess selling to good people is also a good rule.

Junichi, things are not always as they seem. The collector/seller who I believe you are referring to above is not what you think. There is also much much more to that story. I have been nailed by that very seller in NY very recently. He also tried to sell me some bad items a few months back. I am just posting this as a warning to you to watch your back when dealing with him. Other members here have suffered through the same experiences with him. Things are not always what they seem my friend. Hope all is well out there.
Thanks, Scott

[mcmike]

Quote: "Don't give blind trust to any one seller or "expert". Research and ask questions about each item on its own merit."

Ditto what Dean said, but one step further, study the auction pictures VERY closely, as well as the description. Ask questions early in the auction. My worst buys have been my own mistakes, which also accounts for my first marriage and my last American car. Man, should have studied THOSE a lot longer.

I have enjoyed dealing with Koro Koro, but as another WAF member said, I don't think she knows all that much about what she sells and will list an item as what she has been told.

Benajou is good, too, but have you noticed he almost ALWAYS lists civilian helmets as army helmets? And he sells a lot of them.

I have dealt with OldSoldier several times and have always been happy. I believe Jareth has had good experience with him as well.

So, study the item you want to collect, study the auction closely, ask questions of the auctioner, and understand that once in awhile you will get bit.

Finally, the best piece of advice I can offer is this: pre-determine the highest price you are willing to pay. Then Bid only ONCE; NEVER EVER bid until the last 15 seconds! At that time put in your highest offer. If you lose, then someone else just wanted it more than you did, and another one will come along.

[mcmike]

A li'l bit more..........

Sorry for my verbosity, but a couple of more bidding tips:

1. When you select an item upon which you wish to bid, do a search on that item's description to see how many other items just like it are out there in auction land and watch them all.

2. Do a general s3earch of the internet to see if that item is for sale on commercial sites. For example the Ospry books are generally $15 to $20 BUY IT NOW on e-Bay, but you can get very good used ones at Amazon.com for a fraction of that.

3. Before you bid on an item, use the Advanced Search feature to determine what the item has sold for in the past. The history only goes back a month or less, but it can give you a good idea of the "going value". You will be surprised at the variation in selling price for seemingly identical items.

[blinky]

I've had great dealings with "oldsoldier" as well. senndatunouta is another I've never had a problem with and his shipping time is amazingly fast, even the "slow" way most packages get to the US within a week. The downside with most Japanese sellers is the lack of English skills but I have to give all of them an A for trying....I've asked some strange questions or made odd requests and while it make take a bit of time to get my point across they've all been more than helpful.

As a side note on cupman, a short time ago I bid on a JMSDF item he had listed for sale (as WWII of course). JMSDF is something that I collect and from time to time he has some nice items, the downside is that they are usually listed as WWII and he wants WWII prices for them. Sometimes you get lucky in the turd mine, you might not find a diamond but if you keep your eyes open you can sometimes find something neat.

eric

[maverick87]

Thanks for the advice. Mainly, I've been looking around for a nice army officer's tunic and field cap. That's why I originally bought a cupman set he was selling (maybe you've seen it. it was a "major's tunic with cap".) My biggest concern is making sure that the rank tabs are original to the tunic.

I feel sometimes like I would rather pay a little more to buy from germanmilitaria.com rather than worry about the authenticity of some of the stuff on ebay.

[blinky]

Even there it's good to double check and be a bit careful. Officers uniforms with original insignia can be a bit tricky. Don't hesitate to ask the members here, most of them are pretty good guys that are happy to help....we've all been in the same spot ourselves.

[Kaigun_Sho-sa]

I have dealt with “Cup-man” about ten years ago when he was living in Japan and he did have some good “legit” items for sale back then, but through time it looked like his items for auction got worse and worse. I do have to say that some items he has are good, however, it looks like when he puts items together on ebay he has a big mix of bad items with a couple of genuinely good items thrown in. I haven’t bid on anything of his recently but he doesn’t have anything I’m interested in, nor do I want.

JG