Heading off to a huge military estate sale, what should I know before buying?

[Wagriff]

Best of luck! Bring back a steal of a treasure that will knock all of our socks off!

[Horrido]

How long is a piece of string?Going there without a good dose of knowledge,which is usually made up in long years of collecting
, is like going to a Korean TV quiz show..having to rely on pictures to figure out what the question's about!
The best of luck to you Jule...bring a laptop along and check the item(s) you may be interested into against originals here!
Best

[Julekpl]

I will bring my laptop, and hopefully they have internet there. I will send pictures of items that may be interesting...Anyways, thank you all for the tips, I will be cautious.

[Ben Evans]

Hard call, the best thing really is knowing your stuff (or in Scrooges case send photos to me on his smart phone) lol

[Julekpl]

I kind of have an idea as to what I am looking for. A Japanese and German helmet (just not luftschutz) maybe a new k98 bayonet, and possibly some kind of knife. Who knows, I might find something else. The sale is this Saturday, and I was informed that it consists of around 250 vendors, most of which are reputable.

[BOB COLEMAN]

If you do not have the knowledge, an auction is by far the worst place to buy at. All auctions sell everything "as is." That means you have no recourse if you buy a fake. Do not let your exuberance for this auction overpower good sense.

[Julekpl]

I try to be very careful when it comes to auctions. I have made purchases on auctions if and only if I am certain an item is 100% authentic. Well 9am eastern time is the sale. Thank you all for the help, and I will post more things if I am uncertain.

[Julekpl]

Ok, I am back. Let me just say this was retail priced capital. Some of these sellers just don't understand what they are selling or what the items should go for. I have seen vendors selling Afrika corp pith hats (fair condition) for around $2,500! Even when I tried to ask for a reasonable price on a 1942 pith hat, the owner said that he purchased it for $1,500. I wold him he was ripped off and the guy got mad. Another vendor had some nice belt buckles, but too high priced IMO. $400 for a HJ buckle? Other than that there were many vendors with fake Fallschirmjäger helmets. I did however see what I think was a 100% original luftschutz helmet and possible a nice SS. I caught some guy trying to sell a Spanish ww2 helmet as a "German ww2 Wehrmacht helmet" Note the missing piece of the Spanish helmet on the front. here are some pictures. I myself did not make too many purchases, however I did buy my first helmet, a Feldpolizei with Swedish (I believe) liner But there were no maker marks inside (but i got is very cheap), and I purchased a Paul Weyersburg & Solingen bayonet, however I do believe that the frog is a reproduction, the leather squeaks too much when bent and the belt loop hole seems to be too small for those German belts. The frog is also labeled "Gustav Reinhardt Berlin 1942" O ther than that I have included a few pictures with some nice guns they had on show. I would have posted more pictures, but my camera ran out of juice.

[KradSpam]

M40 SS is certainly fake, the M40 luft looks like a good hkp.

[Sir Payne]

I'm not a big fan of that SS helmet, decal doesn't look right to me. The Luftwaffe helmet is good though, did you happen to take a look at its price tag?