Bad feeling...
 

The pictures look just like something from Hermann Historica....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=018
I would hesitate to send my money to the seller :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

At 1 GBP you can't go wrong. :p

His other items for sale are priced just a little higher.
I don't like these private auctions, you have no idea what went on.

Best regards,
Willem

The seller is living in Bremen, Germany. Maybe he bought at Hermann Historica with the intension of reselling using the pictures of Hermann Historica. But the seller could be a great photographer as well.
I think you are a bit in a hurry by nailing this seller as unreliable because his feedback looks ok. The negative incidents are solved properly as far I can judge from the comments.
Unless you have some negative expierences with this seller I'm afraid you made a remark without foundation.

Yes Ariel I agree with Henk .

I'm afraid you made a remark without foundation.


Ben

Well it is from Hermann Historica

http://www.hermann-historica.de/aukt...GB&db=A-50.txt

It seems a bit odd to me too. They are also trading on the Barakat Gallery name. There is none in Germany from what I have seen.

He did buy it to resell it nothing special with that .
Happends in the Usa also .

Ben

Just as Ben said, it happends everywhere. It is bought for resell at Hermann Historica.
I saw some one buying a shamshir in a Dutch auction house. Next day I found the item on ebay. The guy bought it to make profit on the sword, knowing that he could sell it for much more than he bought it.
Nothing illegal and nothing special

I sincerely hope all was kosher with this listing. If the seller got affronted, I apologize profusely and sincerely for the misunderstanding.

Having said that, I am still intrigued why would anyone put a $5,000 sword on e-bay using only 2 dinky pics from the auction house catalogue? Wasn't this sword in the seller's possession? Couldn't he make more pics to entice high-end customers? I must be very ignorant about sale techniques... :rolleyes:

Something is odd with this seller items.

Just ended: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280137210834

This Sabean Bronze Votive Plaque has the exact same description, to the millimeter, as one from the real Barakat Gallery in LA, with a picture of a different plaque.

http://www.barakatgallery.com/Store/...emID/10241.htm

Nothing wrong with flipping an item, but I personally would deffinitely ask the seller for some detailed pictures before I bid a significant amount of money on this shamshir. This is a good advice for almost all sellers on eBay, I guess, but in this case it will also provide me with a proof that the seller does have the item in question in his possession.
I also do not quite understand why the bidding needed to be private, since eBay automatically hides IDs when a bid exceeds $200, which I am sure is far less than what a shamshir like this one could fetch. Finally, the seller found it necessary to change his ID recently, which certainly does not help gaining my trust. I agree with Ariel the whole auction, ended earlier, leaves a bit of a bad taste. Maybe I am just paranoid.

My concern would be the payment options, in this case cheque or Money order/Cashiers check . Neither method gives you any insurance AFAIK (in the case of fraud etc.) and I would imagine legal action would be difficult when buyer and seller are in differing countries. Also there would be the cost of taking such action which would have to be personally funded.

In Germany fraud is high punished when they catch you easyy 5 till 6 years in jaill .
And if you doubt about an person and you wanna buy let first someone contact him that is living in his country .
That an auctions close early can have something to do if he get s an offer an was ask to close the ebay auction , I did this also several times and ask the people several times to close it.
Nothing wrong with that .
It seems this guy has some money so nothing strange .
The same have europeans with dealing to the other country s .

I did see here American welknown people buy in Amsterdam with Cristie s
weapons and see them sell them in the USA .

Ben

It's would appear the seller was fishing for an offer to end the sale early. It's the only item he has listed without a buy it now offer. All the other items that he listed had buy it now prices that were about double what the items were worth and all appeared to have photos and descriptions taken from other sites and set to end a few hours after the sword. The Sabean plaque is still for sale at the real Barakat Gallery in Beverly Hills.

This seller was previously known as tiflis73

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/boa...1018#msg221018

Barakat Gallery Beverly Hills
 

Have been to the Barakat Gallery in Bevery Hills and very doubtful about many of the items there...

rand

Looks like Ariel was right again.

Again Bill ????


Ben

I went out again and after few bids the seller closed the auction. Then he started it again. What is going on?

Ariel seems to have an abililty to notice eBay sellers with suspicious ads. He has done this before and is often right.

Are we discussing a current auction ???
 

Hi guys:

Yannis's comment earlier today seems to indicate there is an ongoing auction and I would remind folks that if it is ongoing then there should not be any comments here until the auction has finished. This is especially true if one is implying any impropriety or irregularity on the part of the seller as such comments could influence the sale. Suspicions of improper behavior in a current auction, and evidence for that, should be submitted to eBay or whichever auction authority is responsible.

And yes, Ariel does seem to have a nose for fishy deals.

Ian.