Rembering Old Dealeers

[timothy]

Would like to see what the interest is in old dealers in the days for you older collectors Like Globe militaria, Unique imports, NCHS National capitol sales, Der Gaulter etc I have posted some old catalogs out of the 1980"s House of Swords KC area where I always got good stuff Edged weapons Dress bayonets, Combat ones etc. See if anybody else remembers the days before internet and all you had were lists so to say. timothy

[bigmacglenn]

I remember those years before the internet...amazing how much business was conducted this way, but there were few alternatives back then... The author Roger S Steffen from Kentucky was/is another old school dealer who sold me a nice enlisted Luftwaffe M43 for $40.00 in 1980 from one of those lists and took my order by phone personally...Good reference material was scarce and I recall when Brian Davis' book came out it was a minor sensation!
Actually had a dealer at a show in Louisville, KY let me take home a Screwback EKI and send him the money (which of course I did)...I was about 13 years old...
And although I wouldn't want to go back, I still think we've got an edge that can't be acquired on the computer alone...
cheers, Glenn

[Friedrich-Berthold]

mask35.jpgasset-1.jpgasset.jpgcatalog x2.jpgNotary .jpgCap in 1991..jpgManion's catalog '78.jpgcatalog x2.jpgcatalog x2 1.jpgFor much of my life, the above is how this all worked, truth be told. It had its merits, to be sure.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

der_herbst.jpgIt had its trials, but it was slower and less nerve wracking than much of the collateral damage we endure today, I shall say. The human failings were there, but it was all somehow on a small scale, and even picturesque in retrospect.
The glamor dealers started hereabouts in the '80s, I guess, and they laid the foundation for the razzle dazzle in the internet. When the inflation kicked in with the oil crises of the 1970s, what had been a slow paced thing became monetized, and began to lose its innocence. All the old line collectors in my region with whom I started are quite dead, save perhaps for one notorious one who shall remain nameless. The old line collectors I knew had begun to collect before 1939, or during the war, and most of what they had was quite real. The fakes were primitive, and though there was a lively fakery trade, it was also pretty transparent. I started to buy in Europe when I was 19 years old, which was amusing since the dealers in said items were old line Nazis, in many case, and also picturesque as were the fakers of the time. I met some of them in Wien around the same time, characters out of Graham Greene's Third Man. Young people cannot easily imagine this biotope, but I have fond memories of it, to be sure, which is a normal function of having entered life's autumn and its shadows in fading light.

[Wagriff]

Sadly, many of the old dealers of the day were selling copious amounts of fake rubbish as well as good items. Joe Walters of the House Of swords and Militaria was one of the absolute worst flooder of fakes in the hobby. His Civil War swords and other treasures were mostly made in India and God only knows where his fake German uniforms originated from. Many of his pre-aged trash is still proudly residing in collections to this day. He Did, however, cleverly have Good items sprinkled very sparingly in amongst the garbage. Globe Militaria was another purveyor of repainted dolled up junk. Piles of old German helmets and "uniforms" all reworked from anything that looked vaguely like a real piece. You could buy any type or style of German helmet you wanted from them-KM,SS, Heer...anything. Or, if you wanted something more exotic, you could send off a few bucks and buy a Fez or, perhaps, a French gas mask still in it's paper mache case. There never was anything Really decent or genuine that was worth anything, but their catalogs were fun to look through. Joe Walters had some of the most amazing "things" and superbly made catalogs in the business. Unfortunately, there was Nothing he wasn't greedy enough to fake and foist onto innocent but naive collectors. He ended up getting himself shot in the head over a bag of buffalo nickels and a sack full of (probably) fake Civil War swords.

Then you had the yellow blonde haired man with the million dollar smile-Roger Steele-out in Hollywood that would and did sell total trash to anyone with a dollar in their hand. Always with amazing photos and stories behind them, of course-such as the SS-SD silver skull rings excavated from graves in Holland....available in any size you needed, of course. Eventually, he ended up laying down in a dirty parking lot with a chest full of bullets too. Or how about the famous Ken Lane in Germany? Good stuff....bad stuff..old and new-he sold it all. Cheerful friendly guy who would take the air from your lungs if he thought he could turn it over for a buck or two. Unique Imports was another twin to Globe. All sorts of odd stuff, but nothing to ever get excited about. And THEN..you had good old Colonel (or was it Major?) Charlie Snyder..USAF Retired in Bowie Maryland, selling Hitler watercolors, Eva Braun's lips stick and anything else he could sucker people into buying. Sadly, he's Still at it today....

No, today, like it or not, for what it's worth-the sellers of the hobby are kept more on their toes by, precisely, sites like This one to help police them from continuing on in the footsteps of their predecessors. It's not so easy to con people out of their money when you have sites like ours here to catch them out before they can sell it to some poor guy that actually had to Work for that money. You still have the Eastern Euro block pouring shiploads of trash onto the shores of the World, but at least it isn't as Easy for them as it Once was. This is not to say that the old days were All bad-many of us put together considerable collections back then-collections that would be impossible to do so today. But we had a job ahead of us to do it. Back then, we were on our own and had to learn the hard way inch by inch. There are collectors Today that snivel and moan about having had to do just that-learn from books,other collectors and just plain old Research, but there's not a one of them that wouldn't have loved to have had it as easy then as it is today. Can you imagine the knowledge and collections that would be today, if the internet had existed back Then? It boggles the mind... Collectors now have unlimited information available and connections and contacts that would have taken a lifetime to make-all at their finger tips. Sure, prices were different then, but so were Wages. Fakers weren't as sophisticated as they are today. Some of the fakes today are Pretty damned Good. Do I miss the old days? Oh sure...it was more Fun-more Interesting. Learning something new all the time. But would I like to go back to those times? Not a prayer....

[sandgroper]

I reckon you are dead right William, with the Internet while we are open to all kinds of fakes etc... We are also open to the collective knowledge of people that have been collecting for many years. I think the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. The Snyders of this world must hate this site for exactly the same reasons we love it!

[BOB COLEMAN]

When I was a kid, I found a dealer in La Jolla, California working under the name of the Alter Oberst. He would send out mailings of mimiographed sheets stapled together. This was in the late 1950's and his selection was always huge and genuine. Maybe someone still has some of his old listing sheets around. It was always about fifty two sided pages.

[maximus71]

I like the prices!!!!!

[timothy]

Wagriff you are dead on I love what you said sounds like you remember them days too take a look at a old Globe piece from Jack German WW2 W/ss reversable Helmet cover two hundred dollars. Original all right made from old shelter quarter I posted it here while back just for fun I already knew what it was and you would be surprised at the people that responded with the same thing especially over on another forum. On another note House of Swords I always got good things from him but I was only buying dress bayonets, and Service 84/98 no body faking them in those days too many real and cheap ones. I sold Joe some things and he always paid me. Old Roger Steele had a impressive list of helments especially his Waffen SS ones he elaborately described I wonder how many were real and what if this forum or others exsited then how much different it would have been. Yes we were flying blind in those days helmet books like Floyd Tubbs which was good and later the Goodaple and Weinard books and then even some of them have been questioned. That is about all you had not to mention the crooked dealers that prowled the Gun and Knife shows in them days. Good thing I stuck to K98 and G-43 in them days but I did get stung on some helments statements from them like Guaranteed original Waffen SS or should have been BGS I got one once. Doctored up Bayonets and daggers were OK back then for the most part I did get stung on a so called RAD "Fat Man" from a dealer still going today and he is MAX certified. Thanks for the memories I have learned a lot in my older years thanks to these forums I just wish I was armed with this knowledge back then. timothy

[Danmark]

I like the prices!!!!!

Ah yes, but don't forget what the weekly wage was back then. I was earning $250 a week in the early 80's so $175 for an army officers dagger would have killed me ( or my beloved would have for spending the mortgage money )