WW1 100th Anniversary - Price affect on Militaria

[gnome45]

I think prices will definitely increase due to 2 factors the GFC will most likely have run its course and people will be more likely to open their wallets again and the 100 year anniversary. I would also think that once a coupleof years have passed that those who arent collectors will probably sell off what they bought causing prices to drop again. I personally hope prices to rise as i have a vested interest and will be stocking up on items till 2014.

[Falschirmjager]

Ok I've been considering this for a time now, and it's indirect/direct affects on the collecting market.

With the advent of the 100th Anniversary of WW1 looming in just a few years, I would like to see the predictions of the members of the expected price escalation where WW1 militaria is concerned.

Within the 18 months or so run up to 2014 the media will start to ramp up with various documentries and stories of the war, and thus ramp up the general publics interest ... and thus hype militaria prices !

So !!! what are your predictions as to what items will increase in value, .. and by how much !!

(It will be interesting to look back in 5 years and see how right or wrong the predicted increases are !!).

Medals !

I will kick off with WW1 British medals ... (singles to be exact ! ... the ones that have always been overlooked because of being split from either their pairs or triples).

At present .. singles are fetching between about £15 to £40 depending on whether their a casualty or specific regiment ..

My guess is these are going to at least double in the next 5 years ..

Regards

Gary J.

At this point in my life at the grand old age of 46 i can reminisce of the WW1 medal grouping i had to a Sergeant Charwood of the Worcs Regiment of WW1. I was given his medals by his son who served in WW2 and had no one else to pass these treasures onto. Problem was back then being a lad i swapped them for something really quite worthless when i look back. That WW1 group now would have quite significant value as the Sergeant later commited suicide after being wrongly accused of stealing from the local post office where he worked after WW1. It was later found he was perfectly innocent but just the shame this proud man must have felt at that time was enough. I had quite a substantial collection of WW1 items as years ago they were cheap and very plentiful as were dug WW1 relics for many years up until the late 1980's when people had the idea of digging and then selling WW1 relics. Now with the internet revolution the whole subject became world wide and demand has soared eversince and i agree that these items will increase further around the 100 year anniversary. WW1 was without single doubt one of the bloodiest and costliest wars ever fought-can you imagine being on the Somme on that fatefull first day where over 60,000 were either killed or wounded-what went through the minds of those going over the top into a storm of rifle and machinegun fire and the shrapnel from the artillery shells exploding all around and seeing men literally blown into pieces. WW1 must have been terriyfing despite the awful conditions of living in the trenches particularly in the ice and snow. I beleive as do the other members that the prices will increase but bargains will still be found on car-boot stalls, junk shops and occassionally on the internet. I think most of us will watch this space as they say and it will be interesting to see how the prices are in the dealer catalogues and on the internet in general. Another factor has to be that the French authorities are starting to place bans on relic digging in certain areas and confiscating items that have been dug in some cases-even legitimately and all these factors eventually affect prices. I hope that this field of collecting continues and it might be a good idea for members to post up some pictures of their favourite WW1 items-i certainly have a few i could show. Regards, Tim.