When I look at a keris I do not appraise its value as a totality, but piece by piece:- the value of the blade is X, the value of the hilt is Y ---and so on. If everything is nice, original and of one piece, it gets a loading, if we know its history it gets another loading, if it does not require any work at all it gets another loading.
With these two keris I appraised them as married, and requiring a lot of work, possibly in need of having blades changed, or a new set of dress made for one blade.
Yes, there are much, much better keris out there, but even the very worst keris has a value, and the value of these two keris is very much higher than the price they realised.
I do not sell on Ebay, and the only couple of keris I have bought off Ebay were ones that I had sold. I buy other things on Ebay, and my approach is to bid the highest amount I am prepared to pay, and to bid that amount as near to closing as possible.I used to just put my bid in at any time, and then forget it, and although this was often successful sometimes my bid would get wiped out in a bidding war. These days if I lose something, it goes for a price I was not prepared to pay anyway, and often that price is pretty stupid. When I win I usually pay a fair market price, and in my estimation, this is the key:- you don't try to get something as cheap as possible, you estimate a fair market price, and make that price your highest bid.If you get the item for less, you're winning, if you don't get it, you still win, because you have not paid more than it is worth. If you pay your highest bid, you've broken even.
In fact, I bid pretty much the same as I would if it were a live auction.
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