WW1 100th Anniversary - Price affect on Militaria

[Ty Revelo]

Without reading everyones post my opinion is that the prices will increase by approx. 50% as Ade has already stated depending on the country of your interest and the item.

For me i have been collecting U.S. items over the past year and a half to make up another mannequin. Items are plentiful and inexpensive but i do expect the prices to rise. For the U.S. mannequin everything but the springfield rifle or the extremely rare grenade are pricey, well not nazi pricey but expensive enough. As far as field gear goes the hot items are the Bolo knife and the gas mask if you can find it complete and in acceptable condition. I'll post my photo's to this thread.

Of course the Picklhaub is very collectible and the prices on those will go sky high for the excellent ones. As you know as the years go by the leather on these start deforming rapidly and will only be good for parts as is my example that looks like plain crap.

rgds, Ty

[brochbaz]

i think merchant navy ww1 items will be great investment as these were forgotten in both wars and ww1 gasmasks and any thing to do with scottish and irish regiments thats what im focusing on as its all getting scarce to get hold of.

[oradour]

Gentleman, i really hope values will increase 50- 75% as some members predict !.. (i have a vested interest !), i was rather hoping it would top up my pension in old age !...but i think Steven M will be correct in his financial evaluation, ever noticed how the 'Corgi' Bond car skyrockets in price at or around a new 007 movie .....then after the hoo ah settles down again, albeit at slightly higher price. BUT have i the balls to sell up in 2014 !.....probably not.

[Ty Revelo]

oradour,

You may be correct in that the prices will rise and again decline. I am hoping like you that they will stay on the higher side so they can stay an investment when it comes to retirement in the not too distant future.

rgds, Ty

[CampX]

I know that with the 125 Anny of the US Civil War..many items went up 2 or 3 times thier value...and reenacting went nuts as most event for those 4 years had an average of 6000-9000 reenactors.
As for the 125 Anny of Gettysburg I was the Provost Marshal for the 1st Div ANV...we had 1800 Members there with a total of over 24,000 ( yes 24,000) reenactors on the field for Picketts Charge.

There were also over 250 full size cannon and more than 500 Confederate Cav.

When we started the advance toward the Stone Wall for Picketts Charge we had around 14,000 Confederates..it was something to see!!!

Dean

[Ty Revelo]

Hello Dean,

That must have been a heck of an event ! Do you have any photo's or a web site that i can view?

rgds, Ty

[CampX]

My mistake, it was the 135th of Gettysburg...just doa goggle searcg for 135th Gettysburg and lots of photos show up..none capture the length of the formed up lines.

This site has some good piccys...check out the Picketts Charge Panoramic at the end...shows almost the entire Confederate line..and remember it was 3 Divs deep...so you only see the forward units.

My 135th Gettysburg Page

Dean

[banksy]

undoutbaldy pricese will go up lots as its in the public eye i think wii guns will have a big hike and medals as these are affordable to most collectors therer may also be more collectors thus higher prices ! its going to get harder and harder !

[kc1]

I think that prices for common or garden items such as corps single medals will remain pretty static. Other people at present don't think there will be much of a price rise as single silver British War Medals are being brought for their silver content and being melted down. Victories you can't give them away. The price of 14 star and 15 star trios have slumped and are fetching considerably less than 2 years ago. Military Medal (the award that is) prices on the whole have come down. The usual glamour units on the whole are holding up, RFC, 1st day of the Somme, officer casualties etc BUT the big problem is that people just do not have the disposable income to spend and i think this situation will get worse in the U.K as cuts and job losses start to take effect. Sure if some people want a specific item then on auction sites a bidding war will break out but these are usually people in specific brackets, mortgage paid kids no longer dependant etc i.e white middle aged males with an interest in things military. Thats why i started a post about where is the hobby going, younger people are finding it difficult to get a foot in the door because of financial restraints and i fear that with no new blood the only people collecting will be elderly white males and then no one. The worth of what we have as caretakers in financial terms is only what someone else is prepared and able to pay otherwise its so much junk!

[soalebm]

Being a teenager when the US civil war centenial came about it really didn't affect prices that much. It took another 10 years for prices to start on their metoric rise.
Damn I am getting old.

Your right but with the way they turn books into mini series like they do on HBO it might reach a larger audience. With the Civil War cintenial you didn't have that sort of media available. If you were interested in the civil war you might have gone to a movie but in most cases you would have just read Red Badge of Courage to get your Civil War fix. Now you can download movies, virtual battlefield tours and anything else you want.