Our regular customers will notice that our auctions are now private, and may wonder why we have taken to this new policy. Well the answer to this is simply really. We have done so to protect you, the customer, putting your interests and safety first. How so? Well, by denying access to bidder lists and other information it should seriously reduce the number of un-authorized and bogus emails that are circulating recently offering our merchandise for sale as mentioned above. These emails are again sent out under the guise of being legitimate correspondence, using our user ID name and made to look as though they have come via Ebay's own system, but are of course fraudulent, and as such could potentially lead people into any number of dangerous monetary pitfalls. Those targeted by these emails are simply approached by viewing the post-auction bidders list results. So by denying everyone, including ourselves this information, we hope to help make things that much safer for our customers and interested bidders. And as we do not make second-chance offers, and never pull auctions that are not favouring us as is the norm for some others, we are really not affected or concerned about this necessary change of policy, especially in consideration of the benefits and added security it will offer to all, for as most experienced Ebayer's are well aware of, Ebay itself is unlikely to do anything about the matters mentioned above on their own accord, other than send out some very flowery and determined generic emails saying they have everything under control.

This step should also help reduce other kinds of harassing and un-solicited correspondence transmitted via Ebay such as we have again experienced of recent, when customers of previous auctions of ours were contacted by another seller presently on Ebay, who solicited them for personal information about us and your business transactions. We were warned though about these activities by concerned buyers and friends alike, and are well familiar with the true identify and nature of this person who is attempting to gather this information, as are many other alter Ebay members. No doubt this individual intended to use such details for any number dubious and shady dealings, typical of the character of the party in question, who over the past few years has had to change his user ID or re-emerge as another identify several times after been having either been banned from eBay or exposed for any number of offenses, from bid shilling, to out right fraud. Unfortunately though this only occurred each time after several people had already been cheated, thus raising enough red-flags for eBay's sloth-like defensive mechanisms to finally kick into action. But a trimmed weed always comes back. Fortunately for us, we have a large return clientele base, many of whom have also become our friends over the years, so they help keep us abreast of such matters, and to those that have helped once again, thank you. And to the seller concerned, who has been warned, your next attempt to do so we result in the publication by us of these emails and other revealing correspondence sent by yourself to our customers via eBay demonstrating just what kind of character you truly are, thus the ball is in your court. So please feel free to play up and make your move as there's much more we'd be happy to share, including how the last two buyers of this sellers auctions under his most recent and now discarded user ID, lost over $1500.00 US between them when items were not received ( shipped ), immediately followed by the seller mysteriously vanishing ( again ), apparently no longer able to be contacted? The facts are he isn't missing and never was, though he has been resurrected. This same fellow also has tired to pick up from us and started claiming he is a regular seller at Christie's, and makes ample use of their catalogues to justify the hugely inflated prices he pins to the reproduction or inferior quality items he tries to pawn on eBay. The question is...if one could get many tens-of-thousands of dollars, or pounds, as he sometimes prefers, selling the item at Christie's or another famous international auction house, which this fellow says he regularly does, then why does he end up selling it on eBay for a couple of hundred dollars? Obviously for the benefit of his fellow man we can only assume. But this generous approach to the selling of supposed "rare historical items" only seems to occur after the asking price has been cut back, first by several thousands of dollars, sometimes even in the same day, and then gradually a few thousand more over the following ones, until a few weeks later it is listed for a few hundred dollars, having now been whittled down yet further, until it is only a mere shadow of the mid-range, 5-figure dollar amount previously quoted to him as being an extremely conservative real-market value estimate by "someone" at Christie's or Sotherby's. As for Christie's, well to start with I can tell you it is a breech of contract with them for a seller to openly publish such quotes and correspondence with them. And for us at least, Christie's and the other well known international auction houses are a far cry from the quaint domain of Ebay, and thus we divide our dealings and sales appropriately, and as such do not drag bogus and un-related figures at random out of their catalogues and try to slap them on the items we offer for sale here on eBay as though there was some relevance. In fact, 99% of all our auction listings start at $1.00, and end where the buyers-market decides. Its that simple. And as stated above, we do not end auctions early to save ourselves when the market isn't with us or practice bid-shilling as is so popular with some others. Follow our sales for a while and you will see this is true. Again, its that simple. And finally, in summary in this regard, yes we do list select pieces through Christie's regularly, and this is a fact that is more than just a window dressing in our case, and one we can happily and easily back-up, not only with catalogue images of the items we have listed and sold, but with numerous other images as well of these same items taken personally by us before they ever reached the hands of the good people at Christie's. So next time you have a seller drop this line on you, ask for some pictures to prove it? Could prove quite interesting. And so...life on Ebay goes, ever the greater joke, with us standing fast behind our motto, "Nemo me impune lacessit!"

Payment Options & Shipping

For your convenience, customers are welcome to choose from a variety of payment methods, including PayPal, Post office issue international money orders, and bank wire transfers. To ensure prompt and pleasant transactions, all packages are shipped via the Japanese Postal Services superb international Express Mail System ( EMS ) system, which offers full value insurance and online tracking services. We are happy to provide link information to the English version pages of the Japanese postal service for interested buyers to confirm the actual postal fees for themselves in order to help ensure the most honest and reliable and transparent transactions possible.

We also request you take the time to familiarize yourself with our terms of sales policies which can also be found by referring to the above link for additional information in regards to returns and or refunds, as well as all other aspects of post-auction transaction procedures.

Post Auction Procedure

Winning Bidders will be notified by us promptly after the closing of a sale, with a complete post-auction form which will include all pertinent information pertaining to the successfully completed auction, along with payment and shipping details. We ask that winning bidders reply to us by email within 48 hrs. of having received our correspondence, stating their intentions in regards to method which they desire to make payment and to include the specifics of the destination to which they wish to have their purchase delivered. Prompt, timely communications will ensure a pleasant, smooth transaction. Cheers!

Thank you & Good Luck!

We are always happy to forward additional item images and or information about any item we stock upon request if required, so please don't hesitate to contact us at any time with your questions and or comments. We are more than happy to offer assistance as best we can to those wishing to know about armour and or related items, wishing advice, needing appraisals and or other information. Enquiries in regards to some of the many other items of authentic samurai related equipment and regalia we still have available are of course also welcome.

***Scam Warnings!***

Though there are a lot of decent, turstworthy and reputable Japan based dealers selling on eBay out there, there are of course, like anywhere, a number of sellers who continuly attempt to decieve people in order to turn a quick and easy profit: We advise buyers to beware of the following:

We have been selling in the Japanese armour items pages of eBay since 1999. Since then we have seen a lot of changes. Sadly I cannot say they have been for the better. Being a regular seller in this rather select field of items, we have followed the pages, personalities and patterns of most of those who are involved in this area of sales now for a number of years. Through the cooperation of other reliable sellers and customers alike, we have tried to keep abreast of who is who, and what is what, which is absolutely necessary to stay ahead of the scams that have so scared the quality of the eBay experience of so many people now, buyer and seller alike. To ensure our customers the most honest, transparent and secure deals possible we have taken a number of steps to guard them against these on-line threats, but of course we can only cover our own area. To help interested buyers of these unique articles better protect themselves, we have a made the following list of warnings to highlight some of the danger areas we have seen, been told of, or experienced personally on eBay. We hope all those that take the time to read the below list of warnings will be able to better appreciate the potential for getting caught up in an number of scams, and as such will be able to avoid failing victim to these troubles. This being said we again state clearly that naturally there are a lot of decent, trustworthy and reputable Japan based dealers selling on eBay these days, but like anywhere, there are always a certain number of sellers willing to deceive people in order to turn a quick and easy profit. We advise buyers to beware of the following:

Bogus and or inflated shipping and insurance rates from Japan.

This was a popular scam for some dealers for a considerable period of time, some of whom are still working the Japanese armour" pages to this day, making a tidy profit this along the way. The scam was simply, and is still pulled to a lesser degree now and then. It was as simple as naming your own postage costs, which were generously padded to ensure a tidy bit of extra profit on every sale. Sadly most buyers just accepted these "quoted" rates and paid them. I regularly saw postage quotes being bumped up as much as $100.00 on large items. Why people won't check these rates themselves I can never understand. Sick of seeing this constant abuse of people, we changed our selling policy and have started posting all rates with the actually weight of the prepared package. As all items are shipped by EMS, the Japanese postal services Express Mail Service, which has an English version link on its homepage, anyone who wants to can go there and confirm these rates themselves before paying. We would have loved to have posted a link right from our sales page to the JPS rates page, but of course Ebay won't allow this. Since we started doing this, I have noticed that the number of bogus shipping rate quotes has declined considerably, but sure enough I still see it happening here and there. The point is that via the internet, almost all postal and other courier services actual shipping rates charts can be accessed in English. So for the few minutes it takes to find this information and to confirm it, wouldn't it be worth it if it was saving you $50 or $100? Its your hard earned money. Why give it away?

False historical and or period dating claims.

The number of authentic Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi period items regularly listed on Ebay these days simply amazes me. I have lived in Japan for nearly two decades now, and have hardly ever come across items of these periods, even in museums. Yet on ebay, on a daily basis there are Heian and Kumakura period swords, complete armours and any number of other such items. Why people are so willing to believe this fiction is beyond me. If you don't know when the Kamakura period was, look it up. For the sake of this example though, please note that the Kamakura period was from 1185-1333. Thus basically one is looking at items that date from 7-800 years ago when you read about pieces from this period. Common sense should immediately tell anyone that anything that old. i.e. a sword, being listed for some ridiculously low price on eBay has to be quite simply "to good to be true", for surely it is. The vast majority of authentic samurai articles that are listed on ebay are in fact, late Edo period pieces. To believe otherwise is purely wishful thinking. Though there are exceptions, I think most buyers could amass their collections in confidence if they inwardly accepted this point to be fact, regardless of what they read in most item descriptions. If an item is claimed to be Muromachi period or otherwise, then it is easy enough to ask a seller why they can make this claim. Ask for some supporting facts. Ideally ones that can be independently collaborated. Again it is your money. Why give it away based on the opinion of a strangers historical "expertise"? Research, ask questions and be sceptical until the facts are truly established.

Reproduction Chinese made replica Samurai items being passed as originals.

There was a time when most replica items in this field were just that, replicas, and easy to spot as being so. But these days the reproduction samurai armour and weaponry items, which are predominantly coming out of China, are in fact damn well made for the most part, and can surely fool most people, especially the layman. The list of these reproductions is too long to go into, but I can assure collectors, that a huge number of the swords, tsuba, menuki, and other related Japanese sword components seen these days for sale on eBay are bogus, as are many other varied items including netsuke, inro, ya-no-ne and even yari. Again if the item looks spectacular, just like one would want a great tsuba or kozuka to look, then the odds are it is bogus, especially if they are selling for prices that would make Wal-Mart jealous. Keep in mind, eBay does not vet or control the claims sellers make. So anyone can say anything for the most part. If the list a reproduction as a reproduction, the price will be reflected by the addition of this one word. But if a seller can claim something to be "old", "authentic", or the every so apt "unknown vintage", then the odds are they will profit more.

Armour and or sword society claims which are vague.

I have been an member of the Nihon Bugu Katchu Reikishi Kenkyu Kai armour society here in Japan for a number of years now and have regularly studied directly under the guidance of Dr. Yoshihiko Sasama, President of the armour society at his private residence in Kamakura. Dr. Sasama is considered to be the world's #1 authority in the field of Japanese samurai armour and related articles of equipment and regalia. Persons wishing for confirmation of this claim are free to contact me for details or to check with the armour society itself.

I have noted some sellers on eBay claiming to be high ranking members of this of other such societies, which in some of these cases is in fact true. The trouble with these parties, is as "senior armour society" personages, they should be able to make clear and definite claims about the items they are selling. By this I mean age, i.e. early, mid or late Edo era items, or otherwise, and without hesitation clearly describe something as being "authentic, restored and or reproduction". Yet I note these people using words like "maybe", "looks like", "seems" and or any other number of vague terms when describing the age of their auction sale items, which in my opinion is quite simply them shirking their responsibility to accurately display the facts of these items, which as senior armour society members they should have no trouble doing. If they cannot offer clear and factual descriptions, then they should hang up their papers and call it a day. Thus it would appear for the sake of profit, some parties are trumpeting their credentials, though note applying their supposed expert knowledge to their own merchandise. Another sad eBay reality.

Items not actually owned by the seller.

I have seen this a number of times, and for a period there was a real run of items, mostly armour sets, which were being listed to eBay that in fact did not belong to the seller. These people had simply taken images from various other homepages et cetera and then made an auction listing where they attempted to sell the item for much more than was being asked by the actual owner, In the event of a substantially profitable sale on eBay, I can only assume that they then intended to buy the merchandise in questions and have it forwarded directly by the real owner on to their winning bidder off of eBay, with them using the ebya parties name and address as their own to cover the suspect third party nature of the transaction. This sort of scam is a safe and sure way to make some easy profit. If you are unsure of something, then ask the seller to send you additional pictures of an item, asking for images of a specific part or area. If they cannot come through, then they probably do not own the item, and you are being used. On a side note. Torcadero is one of the worst places I have seen for this sort of scam in regards to Japanese samurai armour items. Use caution.

Bid shilling behind private auction listings. ( Read more about our open policy ).

We had to put a block on our bidder list to stop scam-artistes from targeting our customers with false post-auction second-chance offers as was a common occurrence at one point. The bidder list block luckily did do the trick, and this problem has been dealt with for the most part. Unfortunately by blocking the bidders list a new problem is created in which some customers justifiably feel uncomfortable about not being able to know who they are bidding against. Are those who are counter-bidding genuine bidders, or is it just the seller pumping up his or her price under the cover of the list block? We have found this to be a dilemma, for while we still need to protect people from false second-chance offers, we don't want to appear like this move has been made with ulterior motives. Thus in order to assure your high bidders that they have not been the target of any acts of bid shilling on our part, we will freely disclose the post-auction private-bidders list to the winning party of any of our auctions upon request. As this list can only be accessed by eBay and the seller, it will help the buyer rest assured that the auction was conducted honestly, and without any suspect and or self-serving acts. With this information of course the buyer is free to contact eBay or the other bidders on the list to find out if their bids were genuine, which then of course, should they find anything debatable, they are free to pursue via the normal eBay channels.

Why are we doing this? Because from what many people have told me, and from what I personally have seen, a number of sellers are using the blocked bidders lists option as a cover for some very suspect bidding patterns. Some of these patterns include multiple similar items on a buyers list all being bid up to same price, or items that have been bid on dozens of times, with the bids incrementally feeling their way and the price upward. The best way to avoid this is to bid as late in the game as possible to stop the seller from trying to counter your offer. Basically though it has to be an issue of trust, though unfortunately this is an ugly and dangerous leap of faith on the pages of eBay in some cases. So you don't have to have this worry, we will honour our above pledge. WE also recommend that buyers carefully observe bid patterns, the times and all other information available to them, and of course to ask the seller if they are willing to reveal the bidders list information to them if you are the winning bidder and are suspect of anything. We will do it, as we have nothing to hide. Will some others do so as well? I wonder?

Misrepresentative terminology usage.

This area is mostly related to the sale of Japanese samurai armours, for I see this problem week after week after week. The issue here is that armours are being described as authentic Edo period gusoku. Fair enough, except that 99% of the time this is simply not accurate, and in some cases is nothing short of pure fantasy. I have seen "authentic Edo era" armours sell on eBay that were 100% modern reproduction sets. I have seen others that have been combinations old and new part, which are again being sold as "authentic". And most of these armours have sold sadly enough. Thus some people, somewhere are probably right now admiring their authentic 1992 Kyushu made Edo era armour sets. Another fact that should be of considerable concern to buyer seriously considering an armour purchase are almost all the armours being sold on Ebay, and I do mean almost all, that are listed as being authentic gusoku, or complete set. In most cases this is only partially true, for though they may have all the necessary component parts required to make up an armour grouping, what the sellers fail to state clearly is that the parts themselves have been complied from a number of other various suits to make this one complete set. These kinds of complied, or composite armours are by far the most commonly available on the market today the world over. So much so that those not well experienced in the field of armour basically accept these mixed bags of various parts and styles to be authentic representations of what a true gusoku is. Sadly this is not the case. A true gusoku armour grouping will obviously be comprised of all the essential parts, as one would expect, but unlike a composite the all of the parts will almost invariably sport the exact same lacquer finishes, will have been made in an identical style of construction, will sport the same lacing material, which ahs likewise been strung in a consistent style, and feature cloth, leather and other material section which will be completely matched on all of the parts included. People are very seldom told this, and as such believe they are buying a true historical armour, when in fact most are getting amalgamated groups of parts which at best make up quasi-plausible composite sets. Again ask question and look at the DETAILS in the images before making a bid. If you can't set this crucial points, then ask for more images. Most people would not buy a $5-6000 car without asking to see the interior, boot, and under the hood as well. Why would you buy an armour for this much or more and be satisfied to wire your hard earned money away based on a few well posed and often Photoshop edited images? Think about?

Famous auction house assesments.

I love this one. I see one seller do this all the time, saying how he was personally quoted by Mr. or Mrs. X of "Christie's" or "Sotheby's" or even both companies at once, that an item he is offering for sale would easily fetch $38,000.00 or some other generous figure on the open market. Of course the seller then goes on the list the item in question to eBay and is happy to sell his "rare" item for ac couple of thousand of dollars using the buy it now option. Can anyone seriously be so naive to believe this nonsense? If something is worth $38,000.00 Are you going to honestly sell it for 1/10 that value? And if so, then why? Because you want to do your fellow man a favour? Rubbish! Mostly likely because the quote was as bogus as the item the person is trying to sell, and a couple of thousand straight up is a pretty tidy score.

I can also assure buyer it is against the standing rules of auction houses like Christie's, who I do list with from time to time, to allow their confidential quotes to be expose in this fashion. Persons doing so are simply manipulating facts and fiction to turn a quick profit.

"Buy-it-now" sucker prices.

I don't know how some people can miss these, but I regularly see certain sellers listing their wares with very substantial "Buy-it-now" prices attached to them. These price are only slightly more bogus than the fiction item descriptions that accompany the merchandise. The items almost always go un-sold and are re-listed, with the original 5 digit price tags being dropped back a few thousand next time around, and then a few thousand more during the course of the next listing. Eventually four or five re-listings of the same item and a few weeks later the price is finally set at $9.99 with no reserve or something like this, about 1/1000 of the original asking price, and ends up selling a week later for around $342.97.

My question is, who would buy from a person who so blatantly tries to rip people off, time and time and time again, week after week with their criminal prices. I suppose one can only blame the customer here for continuing to patronize such pathetic individuals.