I recall looking at three items this seller has for sale namely the wood bitong with inlaid stone, the Soapstone carving and the agarwood box.

After deliberations I came to the conclusion that they were all modern/other. With the exception of the jade box most of this sellers items were dubious.

The jade box that was in the newsletter even though it was in my opinion of a mixed dating is in my opinion genuine even though the jade is of a lower quality. 

The current listing also includes a vase featuring a man staring into his reflection. It's a copy of a well-known republican master Wang Qi. 

Personally I would steer clear of this seller. Too many unknowns that would require a hands on touch etc. 

Mark 

The plate with the flower balls is probably Republic. For the rest of the porcelain: forget it. The bowl with the ship and the eagle plate even seem to have come out of the same factory. 

I wonder if the seller asked Peter to mention this box in his video?  It seems a clever way of giving legitimacy by association to his other items to unsuspecting buyers.

@shinigami. I had noticed that plate already and liked the design very much, ClarkeNY.com is an auction house label on the back of the plate, seemed a nice plate for 42.00.  

@imperialfinegems @shinigami @julia @sharonp Thanks all for your feedback!

That's pretty much what I was thinking. It appears they ask Peter to highlight a fairly nice or at least honest (ish) item and then list 49 questionable 'Antiques' trading on Peter's good name.

If you want a 'laugh' (and when I say 'laugh' I mean feel sick to your stomach), have a look at bin1981us eBay feedback as a Buyer... 🙄 they do not even try to hide where they buy their items from. - There's a lot of "Thank You" coming from China. 

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/bin1981us?filter=feedback_page:All

Screenshots below, there are pages and pages or this...

Currently as of 22:20 GMT, Thursday 14th May with 2 days, 3 hours until the end of the auction the "Antique Collection Chinese Silver Gilded Jade Turquoise Agate Tourmaline Box" is doing rather well at USD$ 1,175

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224001727102

What is more concerning is that two of the large 'Antique Jades' also appear to be getting a lot of traction.

I just had a look at bin1981us eBay sales for the past one month. At a quick count I make it USD$ 88,000 (Eighty Eight Thousand Dollars) - Double lucky for some?!

Of these past 4 weeks of sales totalling some USD $88,000 what percentage are items over 100 years old? They are all listed as 'ANTIQUE' so one might assume, maybe above 95% allowing for honest errors... good luck finding a single genuine antique. Am I wrong? Please let me know.

So, I wonder how much this Sunday's bin1981us sales are going to total? Another USD $25,000 or more? Please let me know your guess. I will say 'USD $ 25,000' for the 50 'Antiques'. Do you think higher or lower? Bragging rights for whoever gets the closest.

What I do know is a lot of uneducated people are wasting a lot of money. 😞 

I see nothing on that seller's page that looks old. They seem to specialize in modern fakes. I say "fakes" rather than replicas, because there's a clear intent to deceive. 

That's an ugly eagle. 

Note the brown glaze on the rim, trying to replicate 18th century types but the porcelain is too thick. 

Dear Lewis, all,

I was going to keep for myself a comment about ebay buyers but changed my idea after reading the following one that you made:

 “What I do know is a lot of uneducated people are wasting a lot of money.”

My thought was heavier. The case of this seller and many others is showing an evidence: there are a lot of gross ignorant people purchasing on ebay. On top of their ignorance, they are also undoubtedly showing their stupidity. Is there another word besides stupidity to apply to someone who spend thousands of dollars on an item that they are clearly not knowing what it is?

Stupidity is also the proper word for those who thinks that genuine and valuable antiquities can be found at Supermarkets, as I already repeated many times here. Looking at the performance of some ebay sellers, it is evident that, as many items a seller has, and more successful he is.  

This is a total non sense. Where in the World one can find a real, serious and honest Antiquarian that have many hundreds of antiques for sale?

No question, there are a lot of idiots around, which are lacking even the minimum sense of logic.

Another sad question is related to ebay policy. There is no way to contact ebay for reporting these scams. I believe that Peter has a way of contacting ebay’s managers, but I am sure that, even if he will report this shameful situation to them, they will not take action. How much money ebay’s have for this illicit and shameful scam? It is largely the biggest part of their income. So, no action, money is commanding.

All what we could do, being this a Forum open to anyone, is a topic listing these shameful bandits. They are bandits, not sellers.

Giovanni

Honestly, I wasn't going to comment on here due to my inexperience compared to the veterans on here who have been doing this for years or decades, and not wanting to fan the fire; but I think there's a good discussion going on with people wearing their hearts on their sleeves; and I appreciate that. So here we go..

Meanwhile.. I spent hours upon hours of researching just to try to distinguish export quality differences between Tongzhi and Guangxu so I could label these accurately. I absolutely place honesty and integrity as a priority; but the outcomes seldom make it worth the effort.
Acquired from a trusted seller, asked several experts, offered no reserve, and free shipping. Like everything else I ever offer. 

Oh ya, eBay is charging me $175 in fees for 5 listings in a month. They don't care so long as they get their cut; the market is flooded with fakes and honesty is not a policy for most. Also non-payers on sub $50 purchases.. 50% of the time.

I wish I could say this is a one off, and tack it to the current market - but by any and all indications the market is performing strongly with all of this (hopefully) winding down. It's honestly extremely discouraging to spend 70+ hours a week doing this (not an exaggeration), and having such poor quality results and even losing money half the time I do this. I absolutely love Asian Art, especially export ceramics - and some of the connections I've made with customers have made it worth selling a pair of PROC mid-century Jingdezhen made 10" balusters valued at $200-$400 for $21 with free shipping.. sometimes.
All I want is for parts of my collection to go to loving and appreciative homes - that's what it's all about to me. But it's hard to do that when you're literally losing money selling at basement bargain prices; while absolute scammers committing fraud get praised and 4-5 figure results.

I'm moving to fixed prices from now on, which will get 20+ watchers per usual, and stay stagnant for several months. Sometimes you have to adapt with the market trends. I've also seen professional antique industry veterans who sell on there with 1000+ feedback and always authentic offerings stop doing auctions as well; and they all have the same issue/complaint as me.

The vintage site I post on which is certainly not known for antiques has made me 4-5x the income as eBay in a single week. Focusing all of my energy there from now on; eBay is simply shameful rn. 

Catawiki is hit or miss; there's only so much blue and white before it becomes dull; and their Japanese section is disgraceful with both the results, and the "experts" dating/authentication of current reproductions made in the last two decades (and obvious ones at that) labeling as early Edo or Ko-Imari. I have a wooden pagoda bridge to sell them in that case..
I sold one piece on there, the expert told me he thought it was fake, I showed him my correspondence with one of the big auction houses (rhymes with Missie's), and he backed down. I guess it performing at 300% his estimate says enough. 

I primarily sell direct to dealers right now as it is not only the least stressful, but even with smaller margins it makes me feel better knowing it's going to a place supporting good people who love the art as well, and not giving a percentage/commission to a companies that keep sliding down on the integrity scale. Money runs the market and that's understood, but there are honest ways to do so. 

/rant

Best regards, 
-JRN 

Dear JRN,

I perfectly understand you.

You spend all efforts to correctly describe the item, relying on the conviction that an honest and competent description is the best way to be adequately recognized as such, hence reaching the correct price for it.

No way. Then if you act in a “Supermarket way”: how many tons of horse and camel Tang statues you need? (Catawiki docet) or how many square meters of Ming scrolls? Then you are successful.

And even more if you play a CLEAR role of not being honest, in saying that you are not expert, etc etc.

Am I too much crude in calling stupid who throw out thousands of dollars buying from such bandits? I do not think so; it is the pure, plain reality.  

Regards

Giovanni