The state of the Hobby

[Agitatorn]

Interesting video about the hobby.

Militaria Review Episode 8: State of the Hobby - YouTube

[KMMorris]

I assume he will go the way of Joe Rivett, with all the dealers who have YouTube channels reporting him.
He has some valid points tho.

[CBH]

The idea that this hobby is dying certainly isn’t new, but for some reason prices continue to rise, and demand continues to out strip supply.

[TWS]

I assume he will go the way of Joe Rivett, with all the dealers who have YouTube channels reporting him.
He has some valid points tho.

There's a certain very self-promoting dealer who shoots a video from every big show, SOS, MAX, etc. From what I have seen (and no, I don't watch all of his videos - I can't bear it) he habitually devotes long segments of film to feature his buddies. It's literally a who's who of people to STAY AWAY FROM at the shows.

[TWS]

The idea that this hobby is dying certainly isn’t new, but for some reason prices continue to rise, and demand continues to out strip supply.

I partially agree with you Chris. For some reason, prices lately have been stupid on some categories of TR items. One theory I have is that collectors have been forced to constrain their lifestyles due to Covid and therefore have more spare cash to spend on goodies for their collections and the dealers have happily raised their prices to grab as much of this "Covid cash" as they can.

As far as supply, let me offer an alternative view: I think supply may be going up. What???!!! Yes, I said it. It might be going up. The boomer generation is coming to the end of its life cycle and represents the largest cohort of collectors. In the past 3-4 years I have seen many, many large collections go up on the auction block due to the passing of the collector. Furthermore, I know of numerous collectors in that age bracket who are starting to divest themselves of their collections as they face their impending mortality. I know it sounds harsh, but it's a fact. An additional age-related factor is a new round of sales of groupings from German families. Age-related because now the items are in the hands of younger descendants who never knew the soldier personally and could really care less about great-grandpa's old "junk" and want stuff with swastikas out of their house lest people think ill of them. When they figure out that the stuff their mom and dad kept out of sentimentality - which they don't share - can pay for a trip to Nordsee beaches or Bali or help with the down payment on a new BMW, they happily cash out.

[Chopperman]

Participation in on line forums might be dying but I think collectors are
still collecting.

[KMMorris]

There's a certain very self-promoting dealer who shoots a video from every big show, SOS, MAX, etc. From what I have seen (and no, I don't watch all of his videos - I can't bear it) he habitually devotes long segments of film to feature his buddies. It's literally a who's who of people to STAY AWAY FROM at the shows.

This hits the nails on the head, he use to walk around the show and talk to dealers almost at random. Now he seems to pump up certain notorious dealers it would seem, and embellish some of the outlandish fakes. Toms obsession with random junk silver wear seems to have become his passion over daggers. Lets not forget his Olympic and Party day HJ knives that have been for sale for about 8 years now.....