Crazy prices

sammyb · Joined: 10 Jul 2007 Posts: 9

I just saw a seady Heer em combat tunic for sale on this site. I couldn't believe the price! I know things have gotten expensive but this one is downright insane. Isn't there a limit? Can you just ask any price for something and expect collectors to pay it?

Frustrated

Combat Relics · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 149

I see this situation in this way.

A seller has an item and he decides to sell it on one condition. That getting a certain amount for the piece will compensate him for the loss of it.
He fully realizes that prices have gone up, and he will most likely not have a similar item again as it would cost even more to replace in the future.
So he sets a price he can accept and waits, knowing if it does not sell it will eventually be worth more than he is asking now. If he sets his price too high it may not sell Though, so there is reason to try and be accurate.

A buyer looks at a piece, and the price. He wants the item, but remembers an earlier time when he passed on one for half as much as too expensive.

Meanwhile gasoline has gone from $1.25 to $3.45 a gallon and everything else has gone up as well. Original 3RD REICH militaria as a category has consistently performed flawlessly as an investment. Buyers are eager to have this dynamic work to their advantage and are downright giddy when they resell later at huge profits.

Still buyers often only focus on the asking price, and disregard every other factor (until THEY own it or want to resell it!). They want it, and they want it cheaper. Even cheaper , if possible, than the seller originally paid for it.

Have you seen the price of a US Civil War Canteen or Belt set?
Is the Civil War as important to world history as WW2?
Was WW2 the most important single secular event in the last 1500 years?
How about having the most impact on the world today of ANY event caused by man?
Is it on TV every night some 60 years later?
Does every human who has a TV or attended a school know who Hitler was?
How do you arrive at the worth to you of a relic of historical importance?
Apparently the answer seems to be, just give me a dirt cheap price.

Some interesting things can happen as a result of this approach. A buyer can chance being considered a cheapskate, or shark by the seller, and be written off his list of potential trading partners, as not being serious.

He can end up classified as a whining wannabe, too lazy to put in the work and hours, to find the cheap deals he needs. (Still those deals are out there, if you put in the effort and are willing to accept only what you can ferret out)

He can do without things, and feel persecuted because he is not rich enough to compete in the market.
Or he can accept the realities of the market, and collect what he can accomplish on his budget.

I think about time as money. You can get more money but time is finite.

If the perceived overprice of the item in front of your nose right now, isn't easier to pay than wasting hours, days weeks, or years to find another similar item, Don't pay now, and keep looking, and looking , and looking. Look until you find one the seller has no idea what to ask for his relics in the world with an internet.
Yeah that is REAL likely to happen.

If I found a well worn Ferrari, and I considered myself a car collector, I face exactly the same dilemna. There it is! He wants this much! I do not want to pay that much! He will not take less!
Too bad, so sad, and deal or we move on!

This happens all the time, so why complain? There are a million things out there I would like to have and I cannot afford. It is like cursing the wind, it gets you nowhere to make the effort.

Don't like what militaria people ask for relics? Just TRY to buy from an antique dealer!

The Thicket · Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 86 Location: Right Here.

Great points!

Let me just add a few thoughts as I think this will bring in a clear picture for some. I go to at a minim 300 Estate sale per year. Years ago TR items were at most all of these sales, not everything being a MINT SS Honor dagger, or other type high level items. But there were Helmets, Belts buckels, pins medals etc.. You get the point.. The point now is its maby 1 out of 500 estate sale anything related to this era can be found.

Last week I left bids on 6 medals and Badges, I left what I felt was a bid that I would in fact get these items. I was dead WRONG. A Spanish Cross with Swords in Silver sold for near $2000.00, a Gau Baden Badge in Silver brought $1100.00.. a Broken Luftwaffe GA b brought, $300.00... The point is this; here we have a few items in an out of the way estate sale, and yet the bids were what you see.. This shows that the values are there and collectors will pay when thier feet are put to the fire. I feel that collectors have become way to lazy. There are NO DEALS out there anylonger.... Thats the facts folks, the internet has crushed that fantasy.

I see daggers I would have not paid $50.00 for 20 years ago now selling for $500.00 - $700.00... My God a Plain Jane Navy by Alcoso sold on August 27n 2007 on Ebay for over $1800.00 this dagger was about a 8 out of 10 condition at best..

Combat Relics · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 149

I must echo this. Why am I out of the buying population with many years of experience? It is because I seldom find a price that does not make me want to slit my wrists for not buying much earlier!

Sure I am happy to see my items sell for 2007 prices, but will I replace them? DOUBTFUL. Look at the websites of many 'big dealers' and note the lack of the top tier of any category. Those guy's prices were considered insane by the rank and file too. Yet their most desirable and Signature pieces have vanished and are not being restocked due to the fact that it costs more to restock than they sold their item for!

It was the well paid professional who said 'it is this or a trip to Hawaii and I have been to Hawaii before' and bought the good item. If you don't have money to spare, it is not the fault of the marketplace. Nobody forces guys to select 3rd Reich as a collecting field.

The vets are dead or soon will be. Very few of the living vets I speak with still have anything signifigant. His kids took it to show and tell, and it vanished. They had a yard sale, and sold it. A nice man gave them $50 and hauled all those greasy guns away from mom's house. or my personal favorite, 'I threw that stuff away years ago'.

Hey whatever the situation, the plain fact is that real stuff in good shape costs what it costs. It isn't going down (like our wages) it is likely going to be as solid as anything else you invest in. Look at real estate, DOWN!

Where is all the bitching, about the things that caused this to happen to the most signifigant investment most Americans will ever make?

wyatt265 · Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 6

Folks! folks! folks!

I started collecting militaria in 1970, I gotta say the prices are totally out of hand. but what are you going to do. What happened to the splinter pattern smocks for $60.00 Darn, what happened to the 25 cent a gallon gas of the same year. I have recently just gotten to a new area of collecting and have suffered sticker shock....... Doggone, where is Norm Hobson when we need him.

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