kutani maneki showed up on Ebay!!!

look familiar?


hmmmmm, I screen capped it since the auction won't be up forever, but it's too tiny to read here. important bits:

I bought this very large and old maneki neko from the estate of an Asian grandmother here in the Los Angeles area a few years ago. Kutani in the 1950s produced sevral sizes of porcelain maneki nekos that matched this one in general appearance. This one, at 9 inches tall, was the tallest of the size range I have seen. This size is seldom seen on eBay. I would not consider selling him, except for the fact that I managed to buy a matching set of two different sizes (which included a second 9" cat) from a local collector only a year after I bought this one. It seems selfish for me to keep him as an extra without giving you a chance at enjoying him. I hope you will be enchanted by his exceptionally friendly expression as much as I was. He is marked with the Kutani symbol, and the word "handpainted". I suspect the old lady who had owned him bought him from a specialty shop here in the L.A. region. The grandson who sold this to me thought she had gotten him around 1955, which would place him in exactly the same period as the pair of cats I bought from a collector later. The half-size cat from this production line currently goes for $250 and up, when he can be found at all. This larger size (when findable) seems to be in the $650-800 range. To be fair to you, and to give you an opportunity, I am basing my start price solely upon the price I paid a few years ago - and the prices of good maneki neko have been rising ever since. Yes, I will consider placing a Buy-It-Now on this auction, at a higher price. This cat will arrive well-packaged to avoid damage (he is near-mint), and will include a modern small collectable maneki neko trinket which I got from a collector in the greater Tokyo area. Please do see my other listings, as I will be offering a few other special maneki neko cats from my large collection this week.

my kitty is just over 6 inches. sooooo, maybe this person is smoking crack, i don't know, we'll see if it sells. if it does.... I got quite the deal on my kitty. $14.95 plus tax. I was thinking I'd seen similar manekis go for around $50.00 but it had been a while since i watched for any on ebay.