Ugly War Rooms?

[Anderson]

You make an important point, that is the collecting bug strikes early. My grandfather started me off by giving me a few brass badges and other bits and pieces each time I visited while I was a kid. It sowed an interest that continues over 40 years later. My sons are not interested, I might have to wait for the grandchildren to find one who takes an interest.

[real steel]

The "hoarding issue" from "old timers" has hit in epidemic proportions. It's making me sick. I recently blasted everyone on my helmet forum for the ...what I call selfishness & greed. I go to major shows..collectors fill their tables with junk they don't want. They keep the good stuff locked up. Last SOS was so pathetic...I came home with a few mediocre M42 heer helmets. I had to travel 1000 miles for helmets I could have bought on line ? I could go on, but not going to.

[BrodieBartfast]

That very mortality is what concerns me about the future of the hobby. I know I'm being a tad dramatic, as I'm only a nipper myself. But what will the militaria collectors of the future look like? We're slowly edging into an era of non-acceptance, of willfully ignoring things that are upsetting or uncomfortable. Slowly but surely, figuratively and literally, we seem to be moving further and further away from the past.

I have no doubt that the hobby will survive into the future, but in what capacity? As these things grow older, they will become more expensive. There is a day somewhere ahead - maybe far away, maybe not - where the majority of militaria will be out of reach financially for the beginner collector. Why spend hundreds on a piece of history when you can spend it on the newest iPhone?

I don't mean to generalise, but you can see it every day. Or maybe that's just me being misanthropic.

Regards, B.B.

[Composite]

"The death of Militaria Collecting” has been an imaginary virtual tome I’ve often read…it’s the follow-up to “The death of Militaria Collectors”….but I now believe there’s a new one on the shelves….”The death of Collecting”….I’m now not sure if I’m a collector or a hoarder….Airfix kits, Victor comics, Man From Uncle bubble gum cards (and then Captain Scarlet), Football stickers, Thunderbirds toys, Osprey books, Simpsons toys, Ray Campi 45’s, helmets, camo etc etc…kids just don’t seem to do that anymore. In fact the closest I came to seeing something quite recently was a bunch of kids rushing around an open space, nothing there, holding their phones and looking for a yellow Machu Picchu (or similar!) which was supposedly hiding in the trees…where were those kids when they were required on Iwo Jima one has to ask? Well, it LOOKED like a version of collecting….just without the money, storage space, or re-sale value. At the weekends first outdoor fair of the year I watched kids collecting….. collecting calories from the numerous sweet stalls as they ran past “the war stuff”…and yesterday, at one of the largest antiques fairs in the country, I saw young couples WISHING they had the funds to buy stuff and smaller kids who’d clearly already got sufficient fat reserves for the forthcoming two winters eager to top up with even more calories.

There was a report recently here about how the infamous “18-30 Holiday” (Sun, Sea, Sand and Sexually Transmitted Disease) was dead…because the market was now for Instagram-friendly (no, I don’t know either!) holidays which looked good on an online post – this seemed to suggest that folk were choosing holidays which just “looked good”…to other people!!!!! Sadly I come from a generation where 36 photos (well, 28 cos the others never came out)….well 8 (because the other shots were, quite frankly, sh*t) was all I could produce and they sat around unseen in an album (that’s a book….fixed down one edge, flappy bits the other side) for 50 years until such times as someone asks for a picture of Uncle Ade for his memorial Order of Service….:-)

I don’t think youngsters have the funds to collect like we did…but that doesn’t necessarily mean they not collecting….a feature at every UK Fair now is “the rusty guys….”the dug up guys”….guys selling….errr…..rusty dug up stuff…..bits of tank, helmet shells, artillery round fuses, bullets…stuff that was actually THERE…not stuff which never made it passed the Quartermasters Store or Tailors so the cutesy little badges on the side remained perfect for some folk to keep in glass cases (for the purpose of those who’ve already posted here, glass cases are how the hyper-rich display 3 items..in a temperature-controlled dedicated room…this is NOT to be confused with an old wooden cupboard which used to contain brooms and cleaning materials!) never to be touched again.

As Mr Fast has already said, there are more distractions…other must-haves (excluding shelter and food) which have been prioritised……an £800 phone is an “essential”, satellite TV is an “essential”, a huge flat screen TV is an “essential”….in my day the existence of a red box in the village (with a phone that worked) and a 12” B&W TV (with REALLY annoying loop aerial) was good enough…but then in those days drug-crazed scum weren’t attacking 96 year old D-Day veterans with claw hammers to nick a few quid.

Times change, tastes change….minimalist / no-clutter is promoted…when did you last see a TV sitcom, with the sofa/couch facing away from the rest of the room, containing a glass fronted cabinet with “stuff” in?....and our collections probably won’t be worth what we’re paying for them….however, thanks to personal greed, the hundreds of TV programmes suggesting that everything over 15 years old was (possibly) made by Leonardo Da Vinci (that’s High School History teachers for you [take cover!!…there’s bound to be one here! :-) ]) and the ability to sell stuff online to the ENTIRE WORLD means that very little of “grandads ol’ army rubbish” will find its way into dumpsters/skips nowadays. So more stuff will survive…but with fewer folk wanting it = decline in market prices and a return to the days which, 40 years on, annoying pr*cks will be saying “I used to be able to pick those up for 5 bucks….for 4…..when I started collecting”…oh, wait a minute……….

So, collect for YOU……don’t collect as an investment……spend what you can afford to lose….…don’t fret about youngsters who now have more important “life priorities” (when they can afford them), accept that market prices might collapse…...and think about the poor souls you’re gonna leave with a pile of smelly politically unacceptable old war stuff…that’s when the hoarded stuff from ol’ timers will appear…and it’ll then be cheap enough for new-comers to pick up (or to speculate on)…..there really are many more important things in the world than militaria collecting…and a lot of them are REALLY life and death issues…..we’re just fortunate to be able to get what we’ve got and to enjoy it whilst we’re borrowing it….

However THE most important thing here is that the other guys were showing some great pics …and having fun doing so…and keyboard philosophy like this doesn’t fit here…..so forget all this rubbish and start showing your collections again….As Jane Fonda once screamed …”photo’s NOT philosophy!!”


Errr …..I might have got my history wrong on that last bit……History teachers eh? :-)

[reneblacky]

Cheers all! ouch now my head hurts.
More ugly pictures wanted!
Any way back to waiting for the Wifey to finish her fav tv show so I can get back to my retro computer game!

[Wilko]

I'm just loving this thread. Such an array of collections and fantastically well displayed. I am speechless and enjoying seeing the many great war rooms.
Wilko

[MAP]

Loved the rant Composite. Didn't "quote" a reply because it took up enough bandwidth

Said like a true crumudgeon LoL but agree.... collect for yourself and not as an investment.

Now....back to ugly, dusty, cramped, overstuffed collections

[rra227]

Path to the basement firearms safe. Rich A. in Pa.

[Danmark]

Well, if we can split the title, Rich is "King of the North" ...... and Rene is "King of the South"!


.....so far...


Cheers, Dan

[earlymb]

Because nothing bad ever happend by dividing into North and South...