Has this ever happened to you?

General
#1

Hello!

Recently, I won a shamisen at an auction on zenmarket. It was listed as junk, with pictures of two pieces of the three mitsuori sao glued together (eeek!), the skin and the doukake all yucky and moldy, rusty… All in all, you could say a very ugly shamisen (and an awesome project for me). And yes, it was so yucky, I was the only bidder. However…

I got a message from zenmarket that “the seller discovered that the item was damaged” and had to cancel the order. Whaaat? I did send them back a message, asking what exactly got damaged, if it was something that happened after the auction, or if it was something the seller forgot to mention and that I was perfectly ok with what was listed. Well, I am still waiting for an answer.

Meanwhile, I was wondering, if anything similar happened to any of you on an auction from Japan (doesn´t have to be shamisen related). The seller has a very good rating (only 51 bad ratings out of 23363, 99,8% good reviews).

I don´t know, should I just let go or pursue the order? Do I even have a chance of getting the item?

Thanks for reading my rant. I hope, no one goes through this.

#2

Hmmm, I would try to speak with the seller directly and see what the issue is. Could be that they changed their mind abut actually selling the shamisen OR, it could have gotten damaged beyond repair during the time it was up for sale. Either way, good luck!

1 Like
#3

Thanks for your support Sasha!

Yeah, I was thinking about messaging the seller directly but if zenmarket contacted him then it could make the situation look weird :)))

The seller had a whole batch of shamisens on auction that week and waaay nicer ones with one or two accessories added and a lot of bidders. Only “mine” and another ippon shamisen were left unnoticed and ranked as “F” and branded as junk.

But, yes, you are right. He could have changed his mind. :pensive: Hopefully, I´ll get an answer soon.

#4

To be honest, I rather suspect that the original seller noticed you were going through a proxy and backed off because of it.

Fear of miscommunication or other hiccups may have made them gun-shy.

#5

Then would it help if I tried to write to the seller personally (in Japanese) and let him know that I am genuinely interested in the broken thing? Still, the downside is, I don´t know if zenmarket really contacted him regarding my inquiries… Ah, the “perks” of having a really quiet middleman! :smiley:

#6

Update:
I got another message.
“This item was listed as a junk item, there were some damages according to the description. But from that time another serious damage has occurred to the item and the state is quite different from that at the time of listing”.
As I am still full of hope, I asked one more question and then we´ll see what happens then. And I stressed out to zenmarket to let the seller know he is very kind :blush:

#7

Ah too bad. But hey, at least you didn’t get a smashed up shamisen so that’s a plus. The search continues for your very own shamisen. When you find it, it will be that much better!

:smile:

#8

:smile:
True, maybe this shamisen wasn´t destined for me!

1 Like
#9

Haha, so the last message was that the item has been disposed of. A bit of a blow for someone who loves to repair things and that the said shamisen was a tsugaru… Oh well, as my friend says, can´t have everything! :slight_smile:

#10

Hi Stefanie.
Anyway if you are patient and you can wait you can get a non junk shamisen. I got 2, a nagauta and a jiuta through Buyee proxy: no damages and perfectly playing. The jiuta one is a jewel. So no need to win a junk shamisen to repair later (well, except if you’re able to repair by your own)

1 Like
#11

Thank you Francesco!
I hope and believe that one day, I will find THE instrument. For now, I am in the “rescue” mode :smiley: Congratulations on the jiuta!

#12

Ok, this is the last of the last messages.
The junk shamisen truly got thrown away *gasp * (actually super fast, right after the auction ended), and the “good” news is, that the refund came in equally fast. I can only wonder what really happened because, who in their right mind would throw away this, nice itomaki, azuma sawari, two groove sao… :

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I am keeping my eyes peeled. Anyway, I was sooooo much looking forward to give it a new life. And yes, it will take me a while to get over this. Because I did win the auction after all…* sigh *

End of rant on this thread. Again, I really hope, that this doesn´t happen to anybody here.

© 2020 Kyle Abbott