Honesty in collecting

**AMTG** · 02-15-2012, 05:47 AM

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?

**Greenhorn** · 02-15-2012, 05:53 AM

AMTG

Good fortunes will come your way! You did the only thing an honest person would do every time. Hats off to you!

Green

**AMTG** · 02-15-2012, 05:57 AM

There were a number of other items, that I did not have enough knowledge on, A SS dagger being one.......but again sh e was happy with the outcome....actually I should have asked to photograph the lot for future ref, but I did not expect to see what I did

**Greenhorn** · 02-15-2012, 06:01 AM

AMTG

A pleasant surprise, I bet. One thing you could have done differently would have been to let her get an appraisal and then offer to purchase for that price.

Green

**AMTG** · 02-15-2012, 06:02 AM

I won't tell you I wasn't tempted.....to have these items, with the provenance would be the centre point of my collection......but it just didn't feel right...anyone else been posed eith the same sort of thing?

**WW2GermanDealer** · 02-15-2012, 06:17 AM

I have never been in you shoes befor. I am not lying if it were me and she said have what you want I would have taken it all, but if she said she needed money and wanted to sell it all I would have helped her out, but good for you man. I offered my great uncle vincent who fought in ww2 money for some of his items like a single decal german helment and k 98 and luger and forestry daggers and he told me if it were up to him he would sell it to you for 5 cents but it will be up to his children when he pass's. So I cryed my self to sleep that night. But atleast I got to hear all his storys and talk to him for a long time.

**Adrian** · 02-15-2012, 06:32 AM

I think your last sentance sums it up. No matter how much temptation knocks on the door, doing what you believe is the right thing will always be the right thing.

**rbminis** · 02-15-2012, 06:33 AM

I believe that you did the right thing.
That being said, I would have tried to think of other options that would have been acceptable so that I could sleep at night.
I was in a similar circumstance once, a co-worker knew of my interest and came to me with a zip lock bag of TR medals. He said that his father was a collector of lapel pins and he inherited a couple of shoe boxes of them. In the boxes were these TR medals. I told him that what he had was worth some money and that I did not know how much but, I would be willing to take them, research them and come back to him with descriptions and some sort of value. When this was done, I told him that if they did not have any sentimental value to him, I would be interested in some of them. He proceeded to give them all to me. Soon after, an agreement was made between us that I would make him a hand made knife for his son so that he could take it hunting with him. I gave him a good deal on it. We were both happy.

Ralph.

**AMTG** · 02-15-2012, 06:42 AM

I suppose there may have been a situation where I could have offered her a price, but it was so overwhelming at the time, and the last thing I wanted was ome one else in the family getting windof it and having accusations fly that I had ripped them off etc.....I figured that at least if there was a " professional" opinion on it, any argument would be voided, and onc I had passed her on to the dealer, I considered that a private matter between them....

I'm fairly comfortable with my decision, if it was meant to be, it woud have happened, but this time it wasn't my time!!!!

**RH1941** · 02-15-2012, 07:06 AM

AMTG you did the right thing . I once had a neighbor who is also a good friend bring his fathers war trophies over to sell me . The items included three daggers and a couple bayonets. At the time I could only afford to buy one of the daggers. So I took them to a local dealer that I know and my neighbour and him came up with a price for all the items minus the dagger I was buying . The funny thing is the dealer wanted to buy all the items and have me buy the dagger from him . I told him no I was buying from my neighbor.