Being taken for a ride

[MG42UK]

Hi Guys

I am not sure if this is a cautionary tale, a rant, or just an observation on the Militaria market in the UK (maybe it is all three), but I thought I would share a recent experience I had with a UK Militaria seller/dealer. Said dealer (who shall remain nameless) was selling a rare item I had been coveting for a while. Unfortunately he has the ability to stock very rare items, but also charge at the very top end of the market. In the past he has asked me to offer items in p/x which I had not wanted to do, but on this occasion I decided some p/x would actually help churn some items from my collection this new addition would sympathetically replace/enhance.

I started by offering a budget that I had for the item, and the dealer then said 'I can't do that, but can you offer anything in p/x instead', so over two weeks I went to him with three items that cost me retail around £4.5k in total, and at the end he said 'okay, that should work', knowing the retail (and even trade) value of the items I had offered, I then asked the dealer what his position was now on the trade given what I had offered and was a bit shocked when he basically said with the p/x and my original budget limit, I could have the item (the difference between my offer and the retail price being around £1, 700.00). Not surprisingly I politely declined the offer and decided to invest in new items elsewhere. In my opinion a more commercially savvy dealer would have compromised and met me half way.

The point I am getting at, is that not for the first time, many dealers seem happy to charge sky high prices to customers, and then not even blink when they try and fleece those same customers when they want to sell or trade something. It is true that some dealers are better than others, but for a few years now certain dealers have been consistently pushing-up prices, especially for WW2 German, yet will still try and low ball buying those and similar items from collectors.

I know a hobby is never about making money (unless you are an investor), but we all recognise the inflation in our hobby over the last decade or two, and especially in the last five years, and most of us hope that, in such circumstances, we can at least make our money back if we have had items that have gone up by a half or 100% retail in the time of our ownership.

This cynical approach by many UK dealers (and I am sure it is the same in other countries) to screw their customers at both the point of sale and purchase really bugs me. Suffice to say it has somewhat dented my willingness to part with and p/x items in future. Don't get me wrong, I understand the difference between trade and retail pricing, and that dealers need to make a margin, but the greedy ones will only alienate good and loyal customers and they will take their business elsewhere.

Rant/observation/cautionary tale over! LOL!

[BrodieBartfast]

Your observation is an astute one, and very true. Every UK-based collector who’s tried to sell something in the last couple of years (and almost certainly non-UK collectors too) will have experienced this. It all boils down to greed, as you observe, and as long as there are collectors who continue to pay their sky high prices and accept pittances for the things they sell, the practice will continue.

There’s been talk of a crash in the militaria market coming sometime soon, but I can’t see it happening. The open market is pretty dry these days, with most quality militaria changing hands behind closed doors, often between dealers and a select handful of their richer customers. The rest of us are left with the scraps, and as time goes on, we pay more even for those.

Deacts are a good case in point. Just four or five years ago, a Yugoslavian M53 machine gun would set you back £650 at most. Nowadays, prices for them have climbed almost as high as bonafide German MG42s. This is true across the board, not just deacts. Even common items now cost more, with many higher-end items heading into financial territory that’s inaccessible to the majority of collectors.

Do I think this will lead to the aforementioned crash? No, because a handful of rich collectors will always be enough to float the market, and no matter how high prices go, they can afford them, so things will just keep on keeping on.

We just have to hope. All we can do is grin and bear it, until something changes — if it changes.

B.B.

[MG42UK]

Hi BB

I appreciate your comments, and totally agree with you. But my real beef is dealers wanting their cake and eating it, not only charging sky-high prices retail, but then underpaying for those same items, off often the same customers, when they want to sell or p/x.

To me it is having a very toxic effect of my enjoyment of collecting, and dealing with the purveyors of these goods.

[mametz]

Don,t be shy name the dealer they want the penny and the bun, always been the same buy off other collectors.