Dieter3

This is a modern piece - 2003 to the present! (I think it was 2003 anyway where they made the change from the previous style).

Hmmm. The mint must have info on this. Rich, or anyone, do you have any contact leads at the mint for questions of this nature? Do you think they'd even bother dealing with individuals for these sorts of questions?

Funny you should mention that! I actually paid significantly less for this cased Annexation medal than the average non-cased one goes for over there! Same with the Census medal - when they do come up for sale, the prices in Japan seem to be really up there, again way more than I paid for this one. No idea why.

On the right, a late Sacred Treasure 6th, prior to the change to the new style. "1B"?

Approaching mint condition but the tarnish holds it back, otherwise it really is excellent. I might try to clean it up at some point, but I've not the patience at the moment! I find these pieces very interesting with regards to the letters and numbers stamped into them. Rich, you had one recently on your site - do you recall the code stamped on yours? For that matter, anybody with these, what codes do you have? Do these indicate manufacturing sequences within time frames? I know at least the later post-war Sacred Treasures up to these (pre-2003?) had similar codes stamped into the top of the suspension knobs. Would love to know more about these codes. Anyway:

I don't think I've posted this particular one before, advanced apologies if I have. Pretty nice medallion here, ribbon more soiled than I'd like, case a bit beat up - but since they are pretty tough to find complete, I'll take what I can get!

I know I haven't posted this one before. A bit more soiled than I'd like, still on the hunt for a real clean specimen but this will have to do until such discovery! :

You guys gettin' bored with this yet?

I wouldn't exactly call these rare, perhaps somewhat uncommon - Gold Special Member's Medal : $157.50!! Nice gilding, but WHEW!

Dieter, I have had trouble with this guy, too, but it was just because he bid but never paid. Actually, ebay is rife with non-paying bidders, which is frustrating.

However, as you mentioned, complaining to ebay is a waste of time. They have little or no customer service and don't seem to really care one way or the other.

I don't think it is a scam ring. It is most likely all the work of Winston Djie from Singapore.

Rich

BINGO!! That is the guy. I have been communicating with the new ID - this person insists he is not the same person and that the pictures are identical because they all meet at the same place and use this place for this kind of activity. REALLY????? Well, sure - anything is possible - but these pictures are 100% identical. Yeah, I guess one could loan photos to the other for use, but that was not stated. I wonder if he did not pay you thinking you might actually send something in good faith!! AT least you didn't lose the items, but I can certainly see the frustration with having to re-list the item and all. If this happens, do you get double-slammed by eBay for fees??

Yeah, I pinged this "new" seller - he claims the "other" seller is a friend of his and they are part of some Orders collecting group and he was encouraged to sell things that he has collected on eBay - gosh, sure is funny that this new seller is selling the exact same items with the exact same pictures as his "friend". Gimme a break. Sure, I suppose there's a chance it is a different person - perhaps part of a SCAM ring.

Unfortunately, the item I sent went without any tracking or insurance. It's pretty pricey for foreign buyers. eBay told me to go pound sand. If I could prove delivery, totally different story. I could duke it out with eBay, but it's not even worth my time. (It's not like I lost a lot of money, unlike other sellers! It's more the point of it). I suspect the dude gets heat every so often and has to change his "operation" from time to time. :violent:

Gents,

I know several of you are eBay sellers and may have already had dealings with this person on eBay - if you have sold to him, I hope you didn't have any issues. If you have not dealt with him beware - I believe he's ripping people off. If you have dealt with him and been screwed, I'd encourage you to contact eBay and make a complaint:

Most recent user ID was: captainzhuang - based in Singapore. He has changed his user ID at least once prior to this. I had sent him an item several months back - he claimed not to have received it - I actually kept in close contact with him asking if he had received it or not as several other items had already been received that went out at the same time to farther locations, but his had not. He said he had not received it, I asked him to keep me posted but rather than try to work things out with me, he opened up a case on eBay which immediately freezes a seller's funds and forces your hand. ALAS - lesson learned, I had not sent it with delivery confirmation so I lost completely and had no choice but to refund him (well, buyer protection covers him and I lose the money AND the item.) Never had an issue with items going anywhere, Russia, Aussie-land, Europe, this was the first. Anyway.....

I was recently contacted by another seller - sent a nice medal, this guy claims there was nothing in the package when he received it. This seller started reviewing transaction between this guy and other folks and concluded this guy is full of KRAP. He contacted other sellers (of medals) that had the same thing happen - sent three medals, only two were in the box, never got the box, nothing in the package, and so on. COMMON. Either the guy is dishonest, or Singaporean customs/post has some thieves. (I suppose this is possible, but I doubt it - Singapore seems to be a pretty straight-shooting country for the most part.) I firmly believe this guy is ripping people off. This other seller is encouraging people to contact eBay if they feel the same way about this guy and file a complaint. Please do note, it is almost impossible to PROVE anything, so I can't outright call him a thief - but I believe him to be so.

So anyway, like I said - SELLERS BEWARE with this dude. I'd be very interested to know if any of you have had dealings, good or bad with him.

This dude is a bottom feeder. So recently he's been trying to sell some stuff (some of which I believe he ripped off from me) as "sailordjie" - totally the same guy, that's his last name if I remember- "DJIE", now he's pawing stuff as yet another ID: vision201111 with ZERO feedback, but same items he couldn't sell as sailordjie - why would any honest eBayer change names so often? DUDE is a scam artist.

Not a record, but I guess the ribbon bar valued this thing at $140.00+!!! WoW!

Thanks! It's not perfect, but it's a pretty good one! I really wanted to have the wrapper, not all that common, so it was a good piece to acquire. I forgot to post it, here's the Osaka mint mark:

Good eyes Paul! I can barely read that on screen!

Pretty good shape, a few case abrasions, little spot stains on the wrapping paper, - but overall a nice piece:

Let's get some more chatter going gents!!!

These aren't necessarily unusual, maybe a bit less common to find - hallmarked 8th class awards - I find these all somewhat puzzling though. Here's an "M" hallmarked piece and a "N" hallmarked piece, Osaka Mint, and (I think) the Nippon Medal Making Company respectively. I can't say for sure, but I think the "N" piece may predate the other by a bit - it does have a larger mirror - but maybe this is just a difference in the makers' dies? The case kanji are similar in style - and all of the hallmarked pieces I've seen seem to come in cases like this. Both rosettes are hallmarked with the katakana "ス" - which I still don't quote get, but assume it is some other makers mark - perhaps all the makers contracted a single company to make these rosettes?? At any rate, these hallmarked pieces seem to fall within a date range that based on general observations put these into the 1920s to early 30's. Don't know - certainly open for discussion and enlightenment of this!!!