Today’s Militaria Marketplace...

[Rossi]

I've been doing a lot of my dealing ( buying and selling) on eBay Kleinanzeigen ( I think it's something similar to craigslist) and it is always quite comical what sorts of offers you get there, one time someone wanted to sell a post war black painted M42 helmet with a completely wrecked liner for 900€ and I just said, take one 0 off of that and we might have a decent price..
But also from the other end of the spectrum.. oh boy.. I could tell stories of people, to be honest I could write a whole play based on people that had contacted me or I had contacted on that site.
But I always seek to see the funny side of it, as in the fact that they are often being dead serious.
That's how I put up with this BS, I have often gone to trying to teach the unteachable on there, to no avail.
Regardless, I still use that platform since most of my small collection did come from there, you have to look a very closely and always be patient but all the items I got there (apart from some exceptions) were indeed bargains, just that when people try to bargain on me I tend to show them the door most times
Anyway, that've just been my experiences in "Today's Militaria Marketplace"
Luis

But I don't sell much, just things I have to sell, as someone who still goes to school, the budget can be quite tight

It is great to see youth and the next generation trying to enter our great hobby.

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

Only just become a WRF Club Member so this is my first time seeing this thread and I found it quite interesting.

I'm 18 and living in the UK, and I started collecting sporadically here and there probably around 15, when money allowed. I can understand why many older people think about my generation the way they do due to some of the poor examples we've made of ourselves over the years; the jeans worn around the backside and backwards caps spring to mind . However, being someone from that generation, I can proudly say for the most part we are very switched on and knowledgeable when it comes to history and the wars, not just the younger people who collect. I've went to the Western Front, and then Berlin, with my school/college and while in Ypres and on The Somme we visited cemeteries, and while in Berlin we visited the Topography of Terror and Sachsenhausen. On both occasions all the students I was with were very respectful and it was great to see.

When at some cemeteries, such as Tyne Cot especially, you do see students sat on the Cross of Sacrifice and messing around, often students from the continent, but I do not think this is a generational thing eg Us as people and our ignorance, but rather the parents of the students are to blame for not teaching them respect. Most parents teach respect, and that is why most students are respectful. We aren't all snotty nosed, entitled brats, as some people like to say with the phrase "...the youth of today..." which is so often used, and in fact infuriates me. This is by no means in response to anything in this thread but rather just something I wanted to get off my chest haha In the times we live in the youth need to be more aware than ever.

Anyway, linking back to collecting. It's really nice to see younger people getting into it, not only from a collecting viewpoint of more people being interested in the hobby, but with people of a similiar age to me I can grow my collection alongside them in years to come and start to build a web of contacts and friends in the hobby that will last for many years. For the most part I've found young collectors to be top lads, very respectful, knowledgeable and like sponges for information.. or am I just describing myself in my ideal world lol

Obviously there's a few so and so's my age into collecting, who I've had the pleasure of running into a Facebook briefly, but I think the prevalence rate for them in collecting is the same as wider society, just a minority.
Kindest Regards and sorry for such a long winded reponse,
Harvey