The Provenance of Swords

[Sir William]

I bring this up because I realize that I'm no authority on swords so I'd best ask rather than make assumptions; what I'd like to know is, do any of you feel this is a fair auction?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290313385509&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[Sir Edward]

I think they're gouging. Those swords look a lot like the fantasy offerings of Art Gladius or United Cutlery. The scabbards have that funky textured leather design that you sometimes find on cheap Pakistani knock-offs.

I don't recognize the specific models, but I'm highly dubious.

[Sir Wolf]

pass... blah

[Sir William]

I first came across these very same swords over a year ago in another auction and asked the owner questions about them; he brought them back with him from Spain (so he said) and he paid what you'd expect a foreigner to be beaten for poor quality probably local workmanship...so he's extending that 'savings' to the bidders.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, tourists get gouged over in Spain all the time. It's really a shame.

[Sir William]

Tourists...they aren't all that ignorant...but I can see how a great many of them would go for it simply because it was made in Spain and it does look attractive to the uninformed.  Garish to those of us who are more informed.

[Sir Edward]

There's a lot of more subtle stuff out there too. Unless you really know something about swords, a lot of average low-end collectors can get taken. We have a friend who overpaid pretty badly, even though he was trying to remember some things I had told him previously. It's that whole "Toledo steel is great!" thing. With what he paid for two swords over there, he could have gotten two Albions.

[Sir William]

Ouch...no offense to the Toledo smiths but I would've gone with the Albions, if only because they're U.S. - made and I'm more familiar with them.

[Sir James A]

Looks very much like the old "espadas de toledo" line. I was almost a distributor for them back around 1995, but they wanted an up-front inventory purchase of $1,000, which I didn't have when I was 16 years old.

Not the best of quality, best suited as wall hangers mostly, and $700 for the 3 seems far too high to me, especially considering the fuzzy, small picture and the complete lack of any description. It's as if it isn't even worth their time to type out a few paragraphs of where they come from or any sort of basic info, it's not a well-known name brand, and it's as if they can't be bothered to try to sell them. Most of the time, I'd walk away based on just that.

[Sir William]

He's been trying to sell those for the better part of a year now...maybe even two.  Trolling for suckerbait....he should be ashamed of himself.  There's also a $12,000 'Scottish Tournament longsword' out there...no papers on it.  I didn't bother asking how did he KNOW it was so old.  You be the judge.  Oh look, he dropped the price by FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260790877200&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&_trksid=p3984.m159.l1634

[Sir Edward]

 There's also a $12,000 'Scottish Tournament longsword' out there...no papers on it.  I didn't bother asking how did he KNOW it was so old.  You be the judge.  Oh look, he dropped the price by FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260790877200&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&_trksid=p3984.m159.l1634

That also looks like the kind of stuff that comes out of Toledo as collectibles. It might be an antique, but only in the sense that it's "old" and not a period original. I would suspect that it's 20th century, possibly 19th. Just guessing. But it doesn't at all look like a $12k period original to me.

[Sir William]

Amazing what you find on eBay these days...

[Sir Wolf]