BUY BOOKS DAMMIT !

Combat Relics · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 149

Specialized and organized, Illustrated Information.

It is one of the critical components of the decision making process.
Reference books, distill the experiences and knowledge of dozens, or even hundreds of focused people into a specialized volume.

The results of many thousands of hours of human endeavor, can be bought for a reasonable sum, and be permanently available to aid in collecting.

The combined cost/value of each trip to a convention, or a collectors house, the hourly worth of the discussions. would be staggering. The shopping time, the examination, deliberation, and the photographing of items by each contributor would add up to a small fortune.
Experience of a lifetime of acquisition of specialized understanding of the subject is not calculable.

On top of that the business cost of bringing the product to market and distributing it is very expensive in time and money. WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT THAT BOOK?!?!

The EARLY reference works were once inconsistent in accuracy and completeness in the beginning years of this hobby. Many replicas were pictured to show the basic look of the described item. Text was sometimes asserting as fact, the poorly considered opinion of the misinformed writer, and those he knew, who helped flesh out the pages.

Works now tend to cost $50-$125, but are vastly improved. Many people with vast knowledge, now contribute to exploring the details of any subject. The photographs alone are an education! They can also help a person who is not yet focused, to select an area to specialize in.

There are sometimes a few inaccuracies, also a bad piece occasionally is pictured. This is not by design as once was the case, but a simple mistake. (Hard to correct once the books are in libraries everywhere!) Also there seems to be a tendency to assume if something is not in a book it is not original. This is the place where there is no substitute for knowledge and experience.

Why anyone collecting in this minefield would not have every relevant reference and network with others is beyond my understanding.

A few thousands of dollars can purchase a world class reference library.
A few hundred in a single area of interest in the hobby can save those thousands of dollars in mistakes.

As you see I can think of many reasons to acquire these books. I have no reasons for not doing so.

I advise collectors to buy and use these books. It is the fastest and believe it or not, the cheapest way to gain knowledge.

Avoid being the guy who writes 'Can anyone tell me if this is original ?'; in every blog thread you start! It just reflects poorly on your committment to being a serious collector.

SAE77 · Joined: 19 Sep 2007 Posts: 4

You're right. References are essential. That said, show me a book that shows me every single fake dagger ever made and I'll stop asking questions about them! Laughing

Combat Relics · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 149

If only that could be!

There are some books containing fakes or altered pieces which are not identified as such! Ah the early masterworks! And that is not just daggers.

There have been some attempts, however the industry in replicas is as hard to document as an accurate current pricing reference.

Books and research are simply a valuable tool in your arsenal.

Without books, or the internet, I believe you have lost a critical asset.

We each need to have as many resources as we can muster, and know how to reason through the vetting process as well.

jasonr104 · Joined: 25 Apr 2008 Posts: 30 Location: Toronto Ontario

I have ''A Collector's Guide To: WWII German Medals and Political Awards'' By Christopher Ailsby. Since im new in the area of German WWII Militaria its a pretty good book to start with. One thing i noticed when i started shopping around for items is that prices vary a lot from place to place. This book provides lots of info on items and the makers of the items. Gives some background info as to how they were awarded and things like that.

I have also just ordered two books from Amazon ''A Collector's Guide to Third Reich Militaria''and ''Detecting The Fakes'' both books by Robin Lumsden.

Most of my info comes from the internet but not everything online is correct or even there. Hopefully these books will help me make good informed choices....as i dont want to be posting in the medals section asking if this or that is real/fake lol

reicher · Joined: 19 Jul 2007 Posts: 9

Go ahead and ask questions. How else will you learn? Book are fine but they don't tell the whole story. By the way, this forum does not like '' marks, so insetad use a double ' and it will look like this ''. You can edit your post if you want. Good luck and welcome to the asylum.

	Militaria Forum Forum Index -> Books and Reference	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1