BUYING ON LINE

[ASHSMI]

For those of us who cant phyiscally get to africa to buy genuine goods there is always on line,sites such as ebay offer many intresting and seemingly genuine objects.For example I have just looked at numerous mende maskes for sale at a genuine looking site,but a site based in america.I dont know if this makes it more or less real,it looks right,it says in detail its right but it costs alot and is non returnable.

Prehaps yoiu need to be able to tell what is right or wrong from the picture,you can contact sellers through ebay and then you can decide if you will spend the money or not.Then I find 2 masks claming to be guine zimbabwian masks but for sale in the uk,I cant tell if they are real or not and I doubt many can.

There are plenty of websites and books to refer from and plenty of people that will tell you what is real and what is not,simply be carefull and be very carefull if you are going to spend large amounts.

[stars]

I admit that I´m a little bit torn in that direction. Certainly there are real bargains, but on the other hand a lot of these pieces offered in Ebay are stupid simple mass productions items.
If you need them to decorate your rooms, its fine. For a few EUR here its OK. Some masks are offered with a price of EUR 1, and if you are like you dont pay much more. Anyhow I still don´t like them. They don´t have the spirit of a real mask.

[gofem]

You need to know what to buy. Maybe much cheaper 
When you don´t know, its your problem.

[ASHSMI]

Saying all this whats to stop u being sold fakes in africa,there is very little gaureentee unless u watch the items being made

[stars]

Yes, this might happen, that you buy an "old" mask which just had been made some minutes ago. Okay, may be not really, because it takes its time to make the things look old.
They know all the tricks of giving things "age" and "value". Most of the tourist which think to buy a rare mask get simply rubbish for their money

[ASHSMI]

So at the end of all this have we decided how to make sure what we might buy is for real?

[THE-HERETIC]

I read this week that at least 90per cent of computer programs sold in ebay are fake,i dont know how much better the art is

[africanguy]

Probably "fake" is not always the right word. Many items I saw on Ebay are not really fakes. It is more question of age and quality.

It is no problem to take a "new" statue, digg them in the sand for a week, pour some water on it, let the sun heat the sand - and after quite short time it will look old.

But most vendors on Ebay don´t say its old, it´s just what you believe seeing it. Thats one trick, make them look older.

The other trick is to take worst mass production and make a nice pic. You don´t say its old  , you just add a sentence saying your grandfather brought it with him from Africa (whenever this happened ...).

[admin]

Hey, if you have some examples how and where to buy fine african art please let the readers know.

[Asad]

I read this week that at least 90per cent of computer programs sold in ebay are fake,i dont know how much better the art is

Probably just about the same