WW2 collector feeling the down side of collecting

Hi E, oh and thanks RAy ;-)) Ive been burned badly once on a fake and also on a huge militaria deal with a sphincter-muscle from Sweden.

 

Hello All...
Wow !!! ... A lot of good advice...im a collector as well.. not a seller ... to hold a piece of history in my hands no matter what it is .... IS priceless, (too me)... these guys are Great !.. Ive learned so much just by listening and reading their posts.
Many thanks & best wishes
Tablesaw

 

We all have war story's to tell.....and few who will listen...as a boy growning up in a small New England town....I had no one to turn to...and back in the 60's when I started collectiong few if any books....it was't till I was in my late teens before I meet my 1st real collector...and by then armed with my 2 book's Nazi & SS Regal by Jack Pia...I felt I know it all...And now today with over 10,000 artifacts with in the collection and some 300 books..I'm still learning...This is something that's been a part of my life so long I feel that my life has never been wasted...So you fears are just but by talking with others you will get around the mess alot better then I did starting out....I would like to post some pic from my collection at some point...If you like to know more about me and my work in this feild....you can Google my name Darrell English...Have a good time this should be fun...and not a hard time

 

Welcome to the site Darrell, and looking forward to hearing and seeing of-your collection.

 

okayyyy so can any of you old dudes tell me how much I can sell this for?

[blurry picture of something vaguely military-like]

 

Just post it on ebay, and you will make millions......

 

Let me twist a few clichés
cliché number one "it's too expensive to start collection from scratch nowadays".

Well, you have all seen some of the beauties I post here almost daily. Would you beleive I actually started collecting in 2007 only?

Cliché number two "German militaria collectors are Nazis".

I organise commemoration for aircrews REGARDLESS their nationalitiy (most of them are for allied crews) . I don't do any politics. A relic is of history and I save it from the dustbin for future generations.

Cliché number three " collectors are weapon freaks" . I have got none , don't need any , don' t want any......

I'm not telling others my way to collceti sthe best , it's just the way I like it, it may be expensive, but it's cheaper than smoking.

I have my own personalitiy and have a passion: I collect militaria , like it or not, this goes for me. I'm proud to collect and I am modestly contributing in saving part of our heritage.

Just my 2 cents (a WW2 coin of course)

 

Repped ya fro the great post and fully agree.

Heck, the first items I got (besides my Dads and Grandfathers stuff) were German items from WWII. Next was my Japanese Ariska Bayo-that I paid the same price I COULD have gotten a real SS Officers Chained Dagger--$50 bucks. Ive been kicking myself HARD, since then. I could have gotten a Ground Rohm too-for $40 bucks.

When I purchased my first guns-all were WWII German cept for an M1 Carbine that I had been making payments on to give to my Dad-but he passed away before I could pay it off.

Anyway, my main collecting interest is German ESPECIALLY WWII German, but ive been thinking of getting into WWII Russian stuff.

Since I have an interest in both German and Russian, does that make me a Communazi? :lol::lol::lol:

Hey, I think i just invented (coined) a new word. :lol:

 

While there is some truth in the cliche, I would venture anyone that says that doesn't know how to collect anything. Be it baseball cards or thimbles; you can't collect everything all at once. Find what aspect or period that interests you and focuss on that. In collecting we always should start small and work up, which doesn't necessarily mean spending more money but looking for more specific items. Much of the fun is in the hunt to find a particular type of item for your collection.

As long as you enjoy what you are doing, even if its unorthodox or an unusual way of collecting militaria it really doesn't matter what other's think. For me collecting has 4 different attributes: 1. Research 2. The Hunt 3. Display 4. History.

In doing research (1.) you hit the books and find the information you need for your collection so you know what you need to get. If you're working on building up an old soldiers ribbon rack or researching a VC group you learn a lot of other peripheral pieces of history that happened at or around the same time. Some of the most interesting pieces of trivia I've come across were in doing research where I had no idea something so cool or interesting was sitting there waiting to be discovered.

Doing (2.) the hunt is pretty self explanatory. While the internet has increased the range in which you can look, I really miss going to the gun shows when I was younger and looking through all the tables full of stuff. I'd always find something that caught my fancy that I hadn't gone there with the intention of looking for. While there still are militaria shows sadly in the area I live there's nothing, would need to take at least a 3 or 4 hour plane ride to get to a place that would have anything

Once you get either your specific collection complete (like a long term project or VC group sort of project) one the most enjoyable parts (3.) is putting them together in the display; and ultimately placing it up on the wall or on a stand on display so that you can finally take a look at your hard work and enjoy it. I firmly believe that part of collecting is displaying; buying items just to put them into a closet so they never see the light of day is in my eye disrespectful. Some of the projects that I worked extremely hard and for a very long time (in a couple cases years) looking at them in their display cases can make all that hard work worth it with the special feeling of satisfaction it invokes.

As you mention Skipper (4.) preserving the history is a great feeling. What is truly a unique feeling is to pick up your pieces and feel the history that is the item itself. Picking up a breast star that's 150 years old and imagining what kind of events that took place with that guy on is truly wonderful. Or even just a common set of wwii Captain's bars, they may have survived the normandy landing or gone on to fight along in Patton's army.

 

I have some items that someone left me after they passed on and I'm not sure what they are worth and how to go about selling them. I have approximately 20 16mm films from WW II Germany. They have library cards. A few years ago I had someone interpret the German on the front of the cannister and they seem to be construction films. I have never attempted to open them as I did not want to contaminate or subject them to the air.
I appreciate any information you are able to provide.
Outriger

 

Is this a joke????

 

Sorry, We no longer answer valuable quests .

 

Please don't try to sell something here.

 

Might be interesting to see a few examples of what these look like?

 

maybe send a private Carl this way it is not an invitation for sales on the forums, that has been done in the past with fatal results to the seller . . . .

 

Hi E, I agree. I just want to see someone put up or shut up, for a change.

 

So, it turns out a user called "formerjughead" didn't like my post in #26 which I thought was obviously tongue-in-cheek. He left me rude feedback. I didn't even know people could do at so, checking it, I see an earlier one where he threatened me. Is this the norm for this forum, where no humor will be tolerated without being given negative feedback or being threatened or is this just some freaky anomaly? As you can tell, I come here very seldom and it is certainly a rude awakening to see that someone has been insulting me behind my back...

 

Hi Nicnac, this is certainly not the norm. If a member offended you, you have the possibilty to report a post or send us a pm.

 

I am very intolerant of useless post and members who demonstrate a marked level of immaturity. If you want to play games and make snide comments please feel free to do so on your facebook or twitter account ( re: your post #26).

As far as threats or "negative feed back" please let me know what questions you have regarding my opinion and I will gladly explain what was said.