Just a thought
 

Having read through a lot of the archived posts in the last few weeks, I noticed that a fair few dealt with picking the modern copies and outright frauds which regularly turn up for sale in a variety of places but particularly on E-bay. I wonder whether it is worth putting photos of everyones "poor buys" on one sticky post to assist us with the 'caveat emptor' principle. In other words if we had a "library" of things not to buy it might be advantageous. If we just use links to various items then they go dead over time. Written warnings like the sticky at the top of this forum are helpful, but a pictorial library would also be a great asset especially for newcomers. It would not be necessary to identify any particular seller (and hence you avoid the legal problems) just a picture of what not to buy. Perhaps this has been done in the past on the forum but if so I have been unable to find it. Just a thought.

A sticky tread titled "what to avoid" needs hundreds of pages and thousands of photos. An Ebay search on the word “sword” is apocalyptic. 99.5% of the results are to avoid. The only way we have to know the difference in ethnographic stuff is to read books and forums. Lot of them. And after that to pray we don’t make the mistake. But still we often do.

I suppose in Ebay we all hope to find a wrong described item that give no attraction to buyers but WE know it is good. I also wish to win the lottery.

I am not a dha person but here there are 2 small dhas, almost similar to my eyes. One went 2 times higher because it had the magic word “dha” in description. The other was a find.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7372761505

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6586344378

I think a rouges gallery is a great idea but I do not think egos would make it work. There might also be an element of protection for those with a commercial interest.

Yannis, the cheaper dha looked like the one with best condition. Tim

Not to mention the possibility of such a thread actually helping the forgers make better ersatz pieces . :eek:

I'm not sure we necessarily want to publish a primer on fakes and frauds.

To many fakes and frauds read these pages. ;)

Speaking of dha, here is another poorly advertised, is it not?
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Yes. Very badly

These are nice knives, but none of them look particulaly wellmade.