Now at these prices I don't know how much money I should carry.
A dagger or helmet alone can cost 10k.
Now at these prices I don't know how much money I should carry.
A dagger or helmet alone can cost 10k.
Yeah thats a challenge indeed, there are people carrying quite some cash there. You can draw money there, 2 tellers available.
Otherwise try PayPal like you suggested, maybe other members here have suggestions..
Cash is absolutely still King at militaria fairs -for many reasons. The exceptions are registered dealers of new books and models etc who are happy to accept Paypal,cashcards etc. But cash in your hand is the best bargaining tool for used items.
Also don't forget the second, smaller hall up the hill, even with the bad light inside you might be able to find something interesting.
The rows are numbered, so when I'm looking for something relatively common and I expect to find multiple examples I usually write down the row number and price, so I can easily go back to the best offer unless I find a real steal. This has saved me quite some money and yes, having cash money is always best. Try to be discrete where you keep your cash and how much you have though, many times I have seen people carelessly get out big wads of €50 bills and where they keep it. With some care you'll be just fine though.
The big hall is a cattle market with lots of open doors, so the temperature inside is equal to that outside... dress accordingly.
Now at ciney fair
Crazy amount off stands.
Problem is offcourse to see and decide on the spot if something is fake or real.
A high knowledge of what you collect is highly recommended.... off course
Well, we made it. First visit of this fair . And it is huge . We were there almost at opening time and stayed untill almost the end ( 16:00).
We did not see it all. It is totally impossible to see all. We were at more or less 75% off the big hall and at around 14:30 the first ones already where cleaning the tables... then still we had to go to the second hall.
The gigantic hall was freezing cold and the second smaller one was heated, therefore the second hall as last is a good idea. ( to heat up a bit before you home .
Then also, there is soooooo much that next year ( we go back ) we focus on a few items that in advance we study to make sure we buy a real one..... Because it is nice to touch and smell the items but you have to decide on the spot. And since there were many items, fake and real , that you cannot take all the books from home to find out if the item is worrh the money. That is the advantage from buying online. You can invest more relaxed if an item is real.
No-one believes me (least of all my wife!) when I say that when I booked our Houffalize holiday last November I hadn't realized that Ciney was one day later....so I booked a night at the Chateau Rendeux to sweeten the pill.
Since the death of 'Beltring' we no longer have big fairs in the UK and in the past I've enjoyed Arlon, La Gleize and Ciney itself. We only had 1.5 hours to spare and as I collect battlefield relics, armour parts, equipment , 'rust' etc I headed straight for Hall 1. Good WW2 items were actually quite hard tofind - there seemed to be much more post-WW2, cold war and outright repro stuff for sale. In a photo below you can see a tatty PaK/KwK43 shellcase priced ( 'Tiger II') at E190. At todays exchange rate that's £162. I bought my (nicer) one at La Gleize in 2014 for E60. At the then exchange rate,that was £38. Ouch.
As I don't collect insignia,medals, badges,regalia etc I didn't go into Hall 2. So for me, not so much of interest compared to the 'old days'.
Would I go again ? Sure - if I were in the area, but not as a dedicated visit from the UK. if you're new to the scene - then it is very impressive with so many exhibitors and visitors.
( Oh - and we didn't have our pockets picked, and the car was still safely in the car park... ).
Last edited by Martin Bull; 04-30-2024 at 10:37 AM.
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