Hi, Paul ans all members,
This is the phenomenon that came up past few years, specially in ebay for vintage (or rather antique) bike/parts.
There are over 60 known serious bidders from Japan in ebay, this guy (current high high bidder) is known as top of the list of bidder I have, he will set new records all the time. Quite few of our member had sold some parts for very high prices and also lost bids for those guys.
American ebay is the center court of bike collection auction, a guy from Germany are selling more item to Japanese bidders than American. So as some known sellers from Britain and Italy.
This certain seller makes many trips to France and buys a lot of items that Japanese buyer wants, and he know them very well. I saw him selling over 20,000.00 in a 2 weeks before. He lives in California, and many of us know him. I think he is the champion seller of French touring bike stuff.
Because of our internet (ebay), communication by English, and US Dollars, we have our pleaseure to see those international bike/parts buy sell dramas here in our mailing list. Are we still keeping up with ebay records sales in C-R site?? You can find quite interesting stuff.
BTW, I saw the buyer(Kauzo) spent over 20,000.00 in a less than a month!
Those who want to see who are the top 10 Japanese bidder, I will be happy to share with you off list.
KEN TODA, in High Point, NC,still studying this classic bike trade phenomenon!