Recent estate sale find!

**serialins0mniac** · 04-05-2013, 02:35 AM

Found this set at an estate sale unfortunately wasn't able to get a name or information about the original recipient.

**Javelin4life** · 04-05-2013, 06:15 AM

That's a nice group of medals you got..It looks like he was part of the US Merchant Marines...Is that a full wrap brooch naval reserve medal?

Alex

**serialins0mniac** · 04-05-2013, 06:25 AM

Which one?

**Wagriff** · 04-05-2013, 06:46 AM

Superb Merchant Marines Set! This lad saw Action! The MM have always held a special interest for me and this is an Excellent set of awards. The top left ribbon is the Atlantic War Zone Ribbon(no medal) and the top Right one with the horizontal stripes is the Combat Bar-which meant that he and his ship were in direct combat with the enemy. The medal on the top between them is the WWII Merchant Marine Victory medal.

Bottom row left is the WWII American Campaign Medal and to it's right is the WWII European African Middle Eastern campaign Medal. In the middle of the bottom row is the WWII Victory Medal and to it's right is the Naval Reserve Medal. Bottom right is the National Guard Armed Forces Expedition Medal. Did this set cost much?

**serialins0mniac** · 04-05-2013, 06:50 AM

Not much at all, I guess I did well?

**Wagriff** · 04-05-2013, 06:55 AM

Well....I wouldn't start booking the Caribbean vacation just yet, but they do have some fair value,for sure! Not to mention they must certainly have an Amazing History to them that we'll never know!

**LizardKing** · 04-05-2013, 07:24 AM

Hello my US friends!!! As i hear more and more about "estate sales" at your country i would like to ask wtf is this thing and you always find hidden treasures like this... I see items like german helmets, german medals, swords, daggers, armbands, shoulderboards, cufftitles and in general items of great value being sold at "estate sales"... What exactly is an "estate sale"? Is it like someone moving to another house and is selling at his yard some of the stuff he doesn't want any more? Or he just got tired of some things and placed them on the pavement for the passengers to take a look and buy whetever they want? Please enlight me...

**Wagriff** · 04-05-2013, 07:40 AM

Hello Lizard, Basically, you've got it right. An estate sale can be the clearing out of a house by a deceased person's relatives or it can also be when a person moves, as you say, to another house and is selling off things he doesn't wish to move. When it is from a total house clearance for a deceased person, an estate sale will always be full of interesting surprises. Perhaps the person's family does not want Anything from them or maybe they couldn't even Be there to supervise it and have simply had someone locally do it for them. They can get quite large and complicated, depending on the size of the person's house they are cleaning out and the amount of personal items they had in it.

**LizardKing** · 04-05-2013, 07:53 AM

by Wagriff

Hello Lizard, Basically, you've got it right. An estate sale can be the clearing out of a house by a deceased person's relatives or it can also be when a person moves, as you say, to another house and is selling off things he doesn't wish to move. When it is from a total house clearance for a deceased person, an estate sale will always be full of interesting surprises. Perhaps the person's family does not want Anything from them or maybe they couldn't even Be there to supervise it and have simply had someone locally do it for them. They can get quite large and complicated, depending on the size of the person's house they are cleaning out and the amount of personal items they had in it.

So that's how you find all these great items waiting to be picked up by someone who knows their true value! And i guess that the guy that sells i.e. an SS dagger doesn't know it's true value so you may score big there, right?

**Wagriff** · 04-05-2013, 08:08 AM

At a good estate sale, you never Know what you might find in the bottom of a box from a drawer that was dumped into it, or in a box down in the basement or tucked up in the attic and forgotten for decades. The house needs to be cleared out from wall to wall, and so Every little thing that is in it Must go. In many cases, the sellers have no idea what they even have in the lot and even if they do, sometimes they do not Care, but want to simply clear it all out and be done with it. In countries like England, who have had people and soldiers all over the planet for Centuries taking care of the British Empire, these men hauled Unknown treasures home from the 4 corners of the planet and gave them as gifts to their families, girlfriends and who knows who else, only to have the item be stored away after being looked at for a few decades and then stuffed in a box for the next couple of centuries. Many amazing things have been found in these kind of sales. Quite often, the present day owners no longer have a Clue as to what the object is,where it came from and what it's story is anymore, so they "get rid of that dusty old thing" for whatever they can get for it. Sometimes, much of it even ends up in the trash and is lost forever. Hunting for treasures at these sales can be quite fun!