Post Your Tips!

HerrScheisse

We all have different interests and experiences while collecting, experiences both good and bad. So I think its a good idea to share our tips, knowledge or ideas as this can help all of us.

So any collecting tips you have - post them up!

1/ Try to buy in the country of origin. From my experience you get the best prices. I have seen items sold in UK antique shops that are 50 to 75% cheaper in the country of origin.

2/ Always check the sides of medals. If you see a narrow concentric line around the centre of the edge, this might indicate that the medal is a cast made from molten metal in a mold. The line is caused where the both sides of the mold meet. Most medals (though not all) are made just like coins - through a stamping process. This leaves multiple shear marks from one edge to the other. These may be filed but usually you can still see traces.

3/ Do not rush to buy. Try find out the general market price beforehand as many unscrupulous dealers overprice items. If you miss out there will be plenty more opportunities.

Fuinseog

HerrScheisse wrote: »

We all have different interests and experiences while collecting, experiences both good and bad. So I think its a good idea to share our tips, knowledge or ideas as this can help all of us.

So any collecting tips you have - post them up!

1/ Try to buy in the country of origin. From my experience you get the best prices. I have seen items sold in UK antique shops that are 50 to 75% cheaper in the country of origin.

this is not always the case. British medals are plentiful in the UK, but I rarely get good deals there.

Iron crosses in Germany or Austria. go to a flea market or junk shop. the grimier the better. dealers in medal shops will at best only give you market value prices.

Little Alex

Wait for a regime of world reknown to collapse completely. In particular I am thinking of North Korea or maybe Cuba. If and when they fail and finally open up, go there with a couple of suitcases full of US dollars, locate the factories where they make all the high end stuff - I mean the highest medals and awards, generals' uniforms, parade swords, etc. - and buy a couple of shipping containers full of them for a song. Then sit on them for ten or twenty years and slowly release them into circulation, like the way the diamond cartel people do.

Some Dutch dealers are said to have done exactly this in the DDR around 1990. I would imagine the people in the army depots and factories were only too glad to quietly offload a couple of crates of such stuff for some fat wads of cash.

But with what we have at the moment... I guess the "smell test". Especially for cloth items there should be an old smell, like books in a second hand shop.

HerrScheisse

What a relief! I thought I was the only one!

Sniffing ribbons and documents when the dealer is not looking:D

I loved the subtle scent on my DDR grouping - the documents all smelt like musty washing detergent as if he kept his set in his wardrobe or sock drawer!

Some scents are hard to describe - like an antique book or a dusty attic. A musty yet pleasant hint of age.

Funnily enough fallen regimes is something myself and MedalFuhrer are very interested in - part of the reason we like DDR. Its a piece of lost history. Like Vichy France.

citizen_p

Little Alex wrote: »

Wait for a regime of world reknown to collapse completely. In particular I am thinking of North Korea or maybe Cuba. If and when they fail and finally open up, go there with a couple of suitcases full of US dollars, locate the factories where they make all the high end stuff - I mean the highest medals and awards, generals' uniforms, parade swords, etc. - and buy a couple of shipping containers full of them for a song. Then sit on them for ten or twenty years and slowly release them into circulation, like the way the diamond cartel people do.

or get shot :rolleyes:, the ends of such regimes are usually bloody and full of civil unrest.
reminds me of the film "Lord of War" where Cages Character visit uncle Vlad and buys containers ful of Ak47s, tanks, and Helicopters during the collapse of the Soviet union.

wouldve loved to have been in germany at wars end, maybe not even for collectibles but for the 2.9 billion worth of gold (1987 price) taken from the reichbank, or even baghdad when they left the museums uguarded,the only two times when i can think of the invading army not accepting anything but complete surrender. not japan (not to keen on nuclear fallout) not afghanistan because anything of value there was probly taken by the russians or taliban)

Morlar

My tip would be that in general items from one country which are valued highly locally can often be found in other countries by people who do not know the value of what they have. The exception to this would probably be TR items. For example I know a collector who has bought medals in dublin and then sold them on non english language forums for a much higher price. Many dealers simply do not know what they have and don't always have the language skills or the time to find out. This works the other way around too where Irish interest medals can be sold in say for example . . england as bog standard WWI medals by people who do not know that Irish interest WWI medals are a lot more valuable in Ireland to Irish collectors.

Wibbs

My tip FWIW and it covers all collectibles is research, research, research.

Places like this are great for that. If I was going to collect say medals tomorrow, I'd be coming here and places like it. Lurking and reading and asking for advice. Folks will give you good advice. It's rare you'll be steered wrong IME. Funny enough, nutters collectors of all kinds actually like seeing a newbie get a good piece and bargain. The decency I've seen among watch, militaria and antiquity collectors over the years defo bears that out. In a way you wouldnt think it would be like that but it really is.

Secondly; patience. Pretty much nothing is the last chance you'll ever get to buy. Even the rarest thing will show up again. You may be waiting a decade or so, but that's by the by

Buy the best you can afford.

Sooner or later, you'll get burned. Its almost a given. If you're buying to make a killing, this will happen a lot. You'll get lucky too though.

After all that buy what you love. Thats the biggie.

Mousey- wrote: »

wouldve loved to have been in germany at wars end,

My dad a third cousin and an uncle were. And the stuff they told me they could have gotten for next to nothing.... :eek::) My dad wanted a camera so he went up to an american lad who was guarding a huge pile of cameras and lenses on Hamburg dock. Apparently we're talking 6ft high pile here. A couple a packs of fags later and my dad had a leica and two lenses. Prices today? Crazy money. Some of the other stuff they brought back and some they lost or gave away :eek::eek:..... doesnt bear thinking about.

Fuinseog

wouldve loved to have been in germany at wars end, maybe not even for collectibles but for the 2.9 billion worth of gold (1987 price) taken from the reichbank, or even baghdad when they left the museums uguarded,the only two times when i can think of the invading army not accepting anything but complete surrender. not japan (not to keen on nuclear fallout) not afghanistan because anything of value there was probly taken by the russians or taliban)[/QUOTE]


interesting you mention that. there is or was a collector in Branau who was street cleaner and he cleaned up in every sense of the word after the war. his collection was estimated to be worth millions.

I am not sure if you can visit his collection. you could have for a while but the mayor closed him down as he did not appreciate that kind of tourism.

HerrScheisse

Interesting you should mention that Fuinseog. I assume you mean Brannau am In on the German Austrian border?
I have been there and within 5 minutes of arrival I was picked up by undercover police and questioned. I had been taking pictures of the church.
They asked a complete battery of questions, where I came from, where I was going, what my business there was, did I have accommodation booked and if so - where.
I asked was there a problem and they curtly replied "no".
They told me they had to be very careful considering the (their words) "special history of the town".

But they would not say what the history was :-o

Anyway it was part of a historical trip, if only I had known there was a collection worth millions there! Outside the police, the residents were extremely friendly to outsiders. Excessively so in fact.

Little Alex

Mousey- wrote: »

or get shot :rolleyes:, the ends of such regimes are usually bloody and full of civil unrest.

I kind of meant that tongue in cheek!

Some countries descend into madness and chaos after a totaliterian regime falls, but others do not to the same extent.

Wibbs wrote: »

patience. Pretty much nothing is the last chance you'll ever get to buy. Even the rarest thing will show up again. You may be waiting a decade or so, but that's by the by

Buy the best you can afford.

Sooner or later, you'll get burned. Its almost a given. If you're buying to make a killing, this will happen a lot. You'll get lucky too though.

After all that buy what you love. Thats the biggie.

My dad a third cousin and an uncle were. And the stuff they told me they could have gotten for next to nothing.... :eek::) My dad wanted a camera so he went up to an american lad who was guarding a huge pile of cameras and lenses on Hamburg dock. Apparently we're talking 6ft high pile here. A couple a packs of fags later and my dad had a leica and two lenses. Prices today? Crazy money. Some of the other stuff they brought back and some they lost or gave away :eek::eek:..... doesnt bear thinking about.

I have to agree with that!