NCO Katana for revieuw

[Hasse.M]

Hi!


Many thanks for your reply. I understand a item like this is "extreme common" in the USA. You fought against the Japanese Empire and naturally "liberated" a lot of items from the battlegrounds over there.

Here in Sweden swords like that is not common at all. And if you want to buy one there is a lot of laws and problems with customs. So buying a sword to Sweden from over seas is risky to say atleast.

But if anyone can find in this condition in Europe, please drop me a pm.

Daniel PM send!

If you want to spend 1000. for a machine made sword like this , have at it, but in todays economic situation, this kind of sword is NOT a good investment. One must be careful that all we buy until the economy gets back to normal(which will be many years, if not a decade,) should be at prices where you can quickly get your investment back if necessary in case of emergency. I didn't say to make a profit, although that would be good, but I assure you I get around , and see items all the time, and like the one guy said , some areas yield more items than others, and one must remember that e bay , although if used as a barometer for value can at times be way off on some items, especially if items are shilled, and a newby is getting anxious .

I would pass if the seller is firm, as this sword , if it were mint, all the original paint was there(not just matching numbers)like it came right outof the factory, and not reworked or repainted only, and the blade had not been abused to wear the tip down like this one....and my opinion remains the same....as condition even in smith made blades has a standard according to its flaws etc. regarding prices.

Hunt the woodwork ask friends, and avoid prices like this on this kind of extremelycommon item, and only buy the best deal, and do not get too excited about stuff like this when it is the most common japanese sword found.....and It doesn't matter if you believe me or not, just don't say I didnt warn you. This sword IMO is over priced by twice what it should bring.

Lets say your car blows up next week, and you need several thousand to fix it, and you just bought this sword, the dealer will not give you your money back.....but he may give you 3 or 400...at most,after paying him 1150.(you been chinga'd) so I strongly suggest only paying what you know you can realize back if you all at once need to recoup. Smith made blades are in a different class than machine made, and I would pass on this one, and wait for one from someones family, and get off your duffs, get out and start talking to everyone you meet. in a year or two , you may find one, and will get not only a batter price , but one that has not been touched the wrong way by the nimrod, as it appears somwone was chopping trees with this sword. We agree to disagree, but for as many high dollar swords as I have found first hand I am a more seasoned buyer, and know what is a deal and what isn't. Some folks are just more easily amused than others.
Yes a sword dealer would buy this sword for 2to500.max, and would try to find a newby to dump it on at what you said, but if more than that, they would pass as I would. Buy smart, is like working smart, as work is money...do as you please, and when you find nice smith made blades , and may cost twice as much , that is a better investment . Paying retailfor common items is not what the fun about collecting is about, it is the hunt, and finding the best items for the least ammount of jack, and finding deals. Unless something is extremely rare, move to the next deal, and forget this one.

[DanielSvensson]

Hi, sorry if I'm going a little off topic here. Sorry, Hasse I didn't get you PM. Regarding the customs and laws in Sweden, items like these are perfectly legal to import. In fact contrary to what people might think swedish laws are very liberal regarding items like this also the customs are very efficient the normal handling time is a day or two. Just wanted to point this out, so don't worry to ship or import to Sweden.
Cheers
Daniel

[helmuthunter]

I would pay 600-650 for that NCO sword all day long. If the price is reasonable, buy it because you want to own it, study it, and enjoy it. Forget about small dollars and cents, and todays "economic situation"... investment potential, not a officers sword, ect ect ect.. If i could buy a nice NCO sword like this for 200 bucks, line them up all day long in big rows and i will buy them all. Would be plenty of money to be made selling them easily at 3 times the price locally at shows, on estand or epay... Regards, Johnno.

[phild]

With respect, I disagree. That appears to me to be an aluminum tsuka, top latch, iron tsuba version as introduced in mind 1941. More patterns followed before the end of the war.

Made in the Tokyo First Arsenal it's value in the current market would be about 600 USD provided the blade is undamaged by any edge nics, bends or twists.

Regards,
Stu

I agree with all of the above. I would add in response to some of the other posts that IMO you can compare the hand made blades to these in terms of collector value (at least 1:1) as they are two different animals and there are many different animals within the hand made blades as well. These NCO swords are contract issue swords and are a collector area of their own......some types like the copper handle are worth more than most WWII era hand made blade officer type swords will bring.

As Stu suggested these iron tsuba types probably were introduced before Pearl Harbor....so they are early war and even pre-war in terms of when the U.S. entered WWII!