A new way too make money.

[gunto]

This guy on ebay has splitted a fake china shingunto and sells it as parts.
People pays gladly 77 usd for a pirced fake tsuba.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/JAPANESE-SWORD-H...item35a9adda4b

http://cgi.ebay.com/JAPANESE-SWORD-H...item4cef9ab9ff

http://cgi.ebay.com/JAPANESE-SWORD-P...item4cef9abda5

http://cgi.ebay.com/JAPANESE-SWORD-S...item4cef9ac385

[RodneyO]

At one time we just had to watch out what's coming out of China on ebay.. now even here in the states these Chinese junk has been offer for sale many times over the years. Sellers are getting smart and selling them as parts, tsuba/seppa, habaki w/serial number, sarute and officer's scabbard. How sad that some new collector is gonna get burned, there are many books on WW2 Japanese swords and it is a shame that many new collectors don't find out till it's to late. The description said it was an "ESTATE SALE FIND!!"... what does that mean...... Original? got to question this kind of descriptions when buying anything on ebay.

[Death-Ace]

Well, there's so many people over there that there has to be at lease one "estate sale!"

I remember the first two "gunto" I bought....Xmas gift $300 for both...I now use 'em as props and prolly will use 'em as a reminder to beginners the dangers the "early" years of fraud yield.

It's like they say, the only way we, be beginner or expert, can tell is either from the vet, either hold 'em in our hands with years of knowledge, or have been the vet.

Lev

[luftwaffenkopf]

the only way to avoid this is to buy untouched complete originals, and the members of this board are a GREAT resource to help you do just that... just say no to parts