what you should do is be sneaky like your picture and make him an offer before he does reserch on the helmet. if make him an offer and he doesent know the going rate of a helmet you might just get it
but what ever you do i hope it works out well.
regards,
-Patrick
I called the owner of the store again. He said: "Oh... yeah... I haven't really had the opportunity to price any of the military stuff yet. It really isn't a priority of mine... selling that stuff doesn't pay the bills"
I was PISSED. I've shown interest in the military items he has, and obviously I'd be paying real American money for them. I told him that me buying them would be better than them taking up shelf space and not making him any money.
He said: "My friend who knows military stuff is flakey. Sometimes he comes in twice or more a week. Sometimes he doesn't come in for months at a time... I have your number. I'll get back to you..."
Giz im afraid ide be inclined to tell him to stuff it, if he thinks that antique toys are a bigger seller than militaria and "that stuff" doesnt pay bills, the mans a complete fool and has no business sense, a right plonker
GIZMO, you having a rough idea of the value (and what you'd pay for these) did you ever think about just walking in and making him and offer he may not be able to refuse? I don't know the value on the M18, but if the doughboy is an M1917A1 with a good clean liner, they sell for upwards of $200. He might have picked these things up for next to nothing and $100 might sound real good to him....you never know. I've thrown numbers at guys in antique shops that they've jump on...made me feel like I offered way too much.....!
I tried... The man said: "Wow, yeah... that sounds good... but this thing could be worth so much more... I really need to look into it" But then the jerk doesn't look into it. Keep in mind that I've called this guy a few times since I created this thread. Damnit, I'm so fired up about this!
By the way, I think this guy doesn't know what he has... but he thinks the stuff is priceless. He has a Japanese soldier's personal flag with kanji characters on it. I told him these flags were passed around among family and friends to write well wishes... and they had priests write words of protection on them. The soldier would then carry the flag as a good luck charm. I told him I've seen them sell for as low as $50, as expensive as $300. He discredited what I had to say and insisted that: "These things were taken on secret missions and the script is actually secret orders."
WHAT THE HELL... I'm so frustrated! not cool
Like i said the mans a plonker, what will happen is that despite whether his "flakey" friend comes round or not he will stick an extortionate price on it and wait for some dumb schmuck to come along and pay it, but he wont sell it to someone who knows better
I would just leave them be. You can find these helmets elsewhere and not have to deal with this headache. And as Dave said, now that you have made an offer he will probably post a price much higher thinking you may have been trying to pull a fast one on him.
Alec
I hate guys like that...........
Regards,
Steve.
Similar Threads
Bookmarks