Thread: Japanese tools sold on eBay, and Web Shop coming soon.

Hi,

Some of you might have already noticed, and some of you have already contacted me , but I have started selling Japanese tools on eBay to see if there are any demands for these tools in Australia.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/High-Quality-...QQcmdZViewItem

I was introduced to this site by one of the members from this forum "willie" who has contacted me through eBay question box, and I am quickly learning that there are many interests, but the supply and knowledge is still at the early stage, I suppose.

There is one member "Schtoo" located in Japan(?) who seem to be very familiar with Japanese tools and culture as well, and he (I suppose?) seem to be sharing his knowledge and experience to other members who are interested in Japanese tools. Good on you mate! (Your English is way too fluent so I suppose you are not Japanese? If not it is just amazing how you got all the experience and knowledge! Much respect.)

But apart from him it seems there are not many specialists in this area at the moment in Australia yet. (I haven't checked the entire forum, so I might have overlooked someone else. Forgive me then! I mean no disrespect!)

Anyway, seeing that there are so many people who are interested in Japanese tools, I decided to open a ti~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ny web shop in very near future. It is really micromini shop (at least at the moment.) And the stock is basically very biased to my prefence, very narrow in spectrum, and sometimes there might not even be any?!

I only sell what "I" like or what "I" think is good. (I hear some of you wispering "What kind of shop is that!?") Yeah, I know. I really am not a merchant type of person. My major was Art, not Economics or Business,,, so my shop should be quite lousy in that sense... But, I think I can at least introduce high quality tools and stones, that are very popular in Japan but not outside Japan, or even something that are not so popular in Japan yet.

Mr.Tasai seem to be very popular in America, and probably here as well? Their (Akio, and Michio his son who is a great blacksmith already in his 30s, are making the Tasai brand) tools are great. They are so beautiful and very easy to use. They use Blue steel #1.5 (it isn't quite #1, but not quite #2 either. They have this steel specially made for them by Hitachi steel co.) which cuts so good and still somehow easy to sharpen But they are very very expensive as well... So, of course I can get them for you, and I can get them directly from them since I have met them in person (but actually there are even cheaper ways... ) but basically what I would be selling for the time being won't be those already famous brands that are way too expensive for most of the users, but a little bit more economical tools (but still very expensive compared to western machine made tools) that are quite popular in Japan. I don't intend to sell any low quality machine made tools even if they sell great (since the price is low it's easier to buy for the entrant users.)

Until my grand opening of my tiny shop, I will try to list some not too expensive but very high quality tools on eBay. I am basically trying to sell my tools with trust, but not by marketing strategy (partly because I don't know anything about it, and too lazy to study,,,) The tools I have sold so far, some made me in red. The Koreyuki plane and the set of 4 trowel (goose neck) chisels, that was personally fully adjusted, sold for $115 and $222 was a joke!! I listed those items as advertising bargain items to attract lots of initial attention, which to~~~tally backfired!!!

Anyone who has purchased my tools, I will appreciate it if you could comment on them whether you have positive or negative oppinion about their quality and the price, on or off forum. Especially for the negative comments I wish you can state the reason and if I think it's reasonable I'll try to ammend it from next time, and if it's more than reasonable I can give you the refund (forgive me about the shipping fee though,,,) as long as they are in the original shape. But for the price, if you didn't get it for the starting price, I hope you wouldn't complain too much about it. But basically so far most of the tools has been sold for less than reasonable price

Anyway, this kind of stupid price probably would last only until I gather enough attention and trust, and get used to the proper pricing, otherwise I'll go quickly out of business. So if you are interested in good Japanese tools please checkout my listings. You can always ask me if I have anything, although I probably don't (haha sorry,,,) but I can always get them for you if you can wait. I promise it will be more than worth the wait. My price is relatively low because they are shipped via surface, so "The Wait" is unavoidable.

Speaking of "price" <!--StartFragment -->it seems many of the toolshops are selling Japanese tools for highly inflated price. But I guess it's not like everybody thinks that there is a single middle man who is getting a huge chunk of cake to himself. It's just that there are many middlemen, and very high tax, espacially for those larger operation. So, the overly inflated price compared to Japanese price is inevitable.

You'll have to go to Japan and see how conservative Japanese are, especially those who are in tool business, and speak almost zero English, to understand how difficult it is to buy good tools. Don't expect the stereotyped polite Japanese. So, the prices these shops are asking are triple or even more of the price sold in Japan, but if it weren't for them most of the users would never have any chance of getting "decent" Japanese tools. It's just that the cultural barrier being so thick since it's an island with its own language, I think it is not fair to compare with the price sold in Japan.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not attracting almost any impulsive buyers with this kind of business strategy, but that's okay. I just want to sell these precious tools to someone who rea~~~lly wants them. And I am willing to share all my knowledge as much as possible to anyone who needs it. But of course I have my limits so forgive me if I take time to get back to you, or the description isn't too detailed.

I guess I wrote enough for a first timer to the forum...

Thanks to all of you who have already contacted me or purchased. And I'm hoping to meet lots of new users too.