High dollar Garab/Talibon
 

The following pair of Garab/Talibon surprised me by fetching a pretty high price, for eBay, from a couple of bidders whose ID's I've seen around for awhile. The larger example is old and a great complete specimen and where the majority of the value lies, but the bids still surprised me.

http://home.swbell.net/mmontoro/garab.jpg

Here is the link to the closed auction :eek: :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

Whoa! I've apparently got a lot to learn! I never would have guessed.

Steve

The big one is nice but the smaller one is pretty beat up. The starting price is way to high and the problem is if you try and sell it you will most likely get half of what you paid which is what I think it's true value really is. Ebay can be a double edged sword and on occasion one gets cut :( I attribute the high selling prices seen of late to the "I gotta have have that one syndrome". I have a few friends that hit some of the local gun shows and pick up the same items for fairly reasonable prices.



Lew

I think even half the price is still a bit strong.

Speaking of high prices. I passed by a table at Timonium last week and the seller had a selection of what looked like some old Bowie knives. I stop and picked one up it had a $975 price tag with a description saying Texas Civil War Bowie knife. It really was a recent cheap copy made in India with a yataghan style blade that was buried in the ground and rusted to make it look old. At least the person who won the auction on those two Philippine knives got the real deal. I would hate to have bought that Bowie to find out that it was really worth $19.95 :eek:

Lew

ouch!!!!

There's something wrong with paying twice what something is worth ; the large old talibon/garabs are getting scarce though .

Blame it on ebay fever .... :rolleyes:

It's all supply and demand...simple economics ;) !

But consider that the more we learn about a weapon and the people who used them, the more valuable that weapon becomes. Such is the case of the garab....the favored sundang of the notorious Pulahan. That fact alone can justify that price to certain collectors. If we didn't know about the Pulahan or their notoriety, then the garab wouldn't be worth as much ;) .

And look what happened to the tenegre in recent years....prices have almost tripled since their first discussion on this forum.

Fortunately, there are other sundang just as notorious as those.....

...that have yet to be spoken of here :D !

Maybe you should consider that the buyer is living in Holland?

So the cost for him to go to Gun shows in US to maybe find a Garab is probably much higher than buying it at this price?
There aren't that many Visayan swords in Europe (except maybe in Spain?) out of historical reasons.
Ebay is very good for levering out prices. I am especially happy about it living in Europe and being interested in Filipino blades.
The only Garab I have been offered in Europe was from a dealer and he refused to go lower than $ 1.760!
So I picked up one at eBay instead for a price that probably was $ 100 higher than most of you would consider fair?
But I was, and still am, very happy with that price considering my alternatives.
FYI I have bought rare Indonesian swords from the same dealer at prices that I could double anytime if I would like to sell them in Holland or US.

The specific guy you are discussing is however quite used to eBay and maybe in this case it was also a combination of 2 snipers at once who had a bit to high max bids?
Sometimes happens to me also :rolleyes:
But in the long run...

Michael

Hi Michael I agree with you that he puts the sniper a little bit too high

The same with the Bras Sumatra shields I see them sell for more than $250.00 I bought last 3 for 35.00 euro each (old ones)

I think you're right Michael...Europe, the Netherlands in particular, seems to have the edge in Indonesian pieces, while, the US might have the edge in Filipino pieces. And, like Michael says, it's all about history!

Yes , if you have ever read Vic Hurley's Jungle Patrol you would definitely thirst for a garab . :D

And if you've ever seen Lee's example , well ........ :eek: