Honesty in collecting

[Adrian Stevenson]

I look forwards to seeing it! As you say, much better than money.

Cheers, Ade.

[AMTG]

I will post as soon as she arrived, could be a week or so

[GIZMO8Z]

Something very similar happened to me recently. A fellow teacher approached me with a WWI U.S. doughboy helmet and a mystery American Civil War musket as objects to use in my history class. She gave me the helmet, and she was very eager to pass the musket on to me because: "a man at an auction house offered me $50 as a favor because they made so many of them and they really aren't worth very much."

I was shocked by this and promised to help her research and put a proper value on the musket. It turns out that a similar musket in great condition is worth $23,500... hers isn't mint by any means... but its worth a whole hell of a lot more than $50!

to you for doing the right thing!

[Falschirmjager]

Just a thought, and by no means a damnation of anyone

I recently was posed with a moral quandary...

One of my wife's work colleagues heard of my interest in collecting German militaria....it seems her grandfather survived the war and emigrated from war torn germany reestablishing himself in Australia and prospered....he recently passed and she was tasked with sorting his affairs. On cleaning out his basement she came across a trunk filled with various items and his war diary, which revealed some of the secrets of his wartime activities which caused her some anxiousness as to wether tell the family....I was not, and did not want to be privy to what the diaries contained....suffice to say she asked my wife if I could come over and give her an idea of what was there and to make some connection to what was in the diaries.... It turned out he wax a Grossdeutchsland veteran and amongst his items was a SD M40 helmet, complete, some tunics, armelband, field gear, EK2 with documentation, caed silver wound badge and a sports badge....she then old me to take whatever I wanted as her main interest was the diaries, and my information enabled her to put things into a historical contest....well apart from my jaw hitting the floor and the drooling, I couldn't not tell her she had some very desirable items, that were worth a bit of money.....the collector in me was screaming, but I put her into contact with a local dealer friend, and he offered her AU8000 for the lot, which she happily accepted....
I missed out on this stuff for free, but I felt better knowing I had done the right thing.....

Any thoughts?

You are a very decent honorable person and few would have done what you did. But as said i think we are all judged some way in our actions and in how we conduct ourselves and i have been in similar situations myself. One was an old lady who had some medals in her possession, a fine WW1 group of four medals awarded to a member of her family including a Military Cross!!! I was told i could have them as they were probably worthless-i advised her of the value of the MC alone and that as much as i liked them she would be better taking them to a specialist medal dealer who would give her the going price. The medals had documentation with them too which made them one hell of a valuable set. Good news is she took my advice and had a friend take them to a dealer who made sure she got a very good price which was somewhere around the £2000 mark if i remember right which the lady was delighted with and she spent the money on a holiday. I would do the same again as its a Karma thing-your actions are being judged and may get same back if you do wrong and its just about decency in the end and we all have that i think and are capable of making the right decisions. Cheers, Tim.

[AMTG]

So many good stories, and so many forum members with integrity and honesty......glad to be a member of this forum.......I suppose we need to balance our passion for collecting items against the needs of others who dont know what they have....being offered items by people who are unsure and naive and having that personal connection with them has that trust value attached.... However,items offered on eBay are open slather!!!!!!

[Jerry B]

An amazing and humbling story, and I am not sure I would have acted as well under the same circumstances, though if ever something similar happens to me I hope I do act in a similar manner. Well done and great credit and respect to you, an honourable man

[hassiman]

I did that back in 1989 when I found an old lady at an Amsterdam flea market with 2 mint daggers ( SS & LW ) and a real GESTAPO identity disk. she wanted to GIVE them to me as she had NO love for the Germans or the memories she had of those times. When I told her what the GESTAPO disk was woth she nearly croaked. I wouldn't have anything to do with Gestapo or Krpo stuff. Too much bad karma. Anyway she deserved the money for the family she had lost all those years ago.

[AMTG]

Well done mate! When your face to face with someone like that, emotions do kick in, and the symbolism of the items becomes very resl

[AMTG]

An amazing and humbling story, and I am not sure I would have acted as well under the same circumstances, though if ever something similar happens to me I hope I do act in a similar manner. Well done and great credit and respect to you, an honourable man

Im sure given the circumstances anyone would act according to their conscience......lots of honorable members

[hassiman]

When I picked up the GESTAPO disk and realized what it was I was holding I felt physically sick... tough to explain. I couldn't wait to put it down. No question on its authenticity unless it was forgery by dutch resistance. The old lady had cleaned out her attic and these things had been is a crumbling cardboard box that had not been opened since just after the war. She had been shocked when she saw what she had. Chances are very good that that disk had been involeved in the transport of many to the camps... From the home city of Anne Frank. Even my wife... who was with me, didn't argue with my decision... even when I told her the disk was probably worth $9000+. Some folks are obssesed with the Gestapo and the SS ( check out our Marines in Afganistan smiling in front of a SS flag )
These people obviously have forgotten the 50+ Million people that lost their lives only 60+ years ago.