Manion's Auction Site Out of Business

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

One of the long time auction houses in the U.S. has closed its doors. From what I read online, Manions warehouse is up for sale and a lot of the consigned items are now in the hands of a lawyer. Manions List It Yourself Auctions still exists but with very few items and no doubt it will disappear shortly.
I have many good pieces that I acquired when Ron Manion used to put out lists from "The Fox Hole" and later when he started Manion,s International Auction House. They were not always correct in their designation of an artifact and this sometimes let me acquire an artifact at what I considered less than it's actual value. Always a boon to the collector.
Ron saw the hand writing on the wall several years ago and sold the business, no doubt, for a good price. The site was often a good reference for pictures even if you didn't buy there. I know TJ used to visit often as he has posted a number of pictures from Manions.
The number of places where one can buy militaria steadily decreases and with the escalation of shipping costs things are getting more expensive by the day. In any case, life goes on and summer has finally arrived!!!

Regards,

Gordon

[blinky]

Wow, talk about an end of an era. There was a time when I looked forward more to the new catalog than summer vacation. I still have several Japanese items I bought from there, a few over-paid-for, a couple of duds, and more than a few really neat pieces I know I'd never be able to find today. It's a pity it wasn't put out of its misery years ago before so many good memories were spoiled by the mess of the last few years.

[Collectinsteve]

Just be glad you were on the buying end of things and not the consignment side. They have apparently been ripping off people for several years. Just look at the formal complaints here:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/misc/...s_auction.html

We're talking about hundreds of thousands of Dollars by the looks of it. It might even be possible that the people that won, and paid for, items listed in Manions could be gone after for "receipt of stolen goods". Though that would no doubt be quite ugly path for the courts to go down, so I doubt they will.

Yuck.

Steve

[Gene T]

This rather depressing thread on the community forum has been running off and on for the past nine years. so the writing has been on the wall for quite a while indeed: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=92149

It's hard to tell what triggered the downfall, whether it was intentional wrongdoing or just poor business decisions and/or bad luck, but it's clear that once they lost the confidence of the consignors, there was no escape from the downward spiral.

I've only bought from them, and my experience largely parallels those of Gordon and Blinky. Even as consignors abandoned them in droves over the years, they still managed to secure some interesting collections and estates every now and then, so I continued to visit their site. Towards the end, I almost felt guilty buying from them, knowing that my payments were less and less likely to find their way to the consignors. However, I figured that if I did my part to help them stay in business, then at least there was a (slim) chance that they would recover at some point and pay back their debt. I guess it was more wishful thinking than anything else.

As their offerings declined, so did the quality of their packing. What was once neatly folded and carefully wrapped in protective plastic sleeves became haphazardly buried in styrofoam peanuts. They even managed to ship one of my last orders to a different customer, who, amazingly, forwarded the item to me at his own expense, along with a very nice note explaining what had happened (my order was packed inside his own order - had he chosen to do nothing, my order would have vanished without a trace). It is quite ironic that this will now be remembered as my most positive Manion's experience, and is one reason why I will miss the place.


Gene T

P.S., Since the items were voluntarily consigned, they couldn't be considered stolen. The buyers paid Manion's in good faith, with the understanding that all but the commission portion was to go to the consignor. They have no control over the payment once it's in Manion's hand, so they can't be liable for what Manion's chose to do with the money afterwards. I can't imagine any court coming after the buyers for Manion's failure to uphold its end of the bargain; if it did, how far back in time would it have to go to "recover" the goods?

[uscob]

I had business with them only one time and must say, everything went fine back then.
I just have a German house what still owes me Items and money.

[Nachrichten]

Gentlemen,

One of the long time auction houses in the U.S. has closed its doors. From what I read online, Manions warehouse is up for sale and a lot of the consigned items are now in the hands of a lawyer. Manions List It Yourself Auctions still exists but with very few items and no doubt it will disappear shortly.
I have many good pieces that I acquired when Ron Manion used to put out lists from "The Fox Hole" and later when he started Manion,s International Auction House. They were not always correct in their designation of an artifact and this sometimes let me acquire an artifact at what I considered less than it's actual value. Always a boon to the collector.
Ron saw the hand writing on the wall several years ago and sold the business, no doubt, for a good price. The site was often a good reference for pictures even if you didn't buy there. I know TJ used to visit often as he has posted a number of pictures from Manions.
The number of places where one can buy militaria steadily decreases and with the escalation of shipping costs things are getting more expensive by the day. In any case, life goes on and summer has finally arrived!!!

Regards,

Gordon

Amen to all that.

My bidder number was 181 (when Ron was still around). Loved getting the catalogue in the mail and loved putting in the bid (by mail), then waiting for the letter telling me what I got.

Such fun ....................

N

[oldflagswanted]

way back when ???

...I have many good pieces that I acquired when Ron Manion
used to put out lists from "The Fox Hole" ...Regards, Gordon

GC:
Ditto that, and for $10 bucks Ron would even
tell you who bought an item you missed so you
could do a trade deal directly with "TFH" buyer.
I heard that some folks even coveted having the
front cover featured item, I have an example.
OFW

[Tom B]

Rip off was the name of the game in the last several years ! Thank God I'm not one of the poor bastards they screwed !!!

[helmet guy]

Amen to all that.

My bidder number was 181 (when Ron was still around). Loved getting the catalogue in the mail and loved putting in the bid (by mail), then waiting for the letter telling me what I got.

Such fun ....................

N

My bidder number was 0059, I started getting their catalogues early on when Ron checked the items himself and prices were low. I picked up many great helmets and insignia from them over the years. But like anything else, a good thing only lasts for so long. I believe that their last good years were the early n90's when many items from them came out of eastern Europe after the wall came down. I stopped with them over 12 years ago, when they changed hands, were too big and had become impersonal with many questionable items and increasing shipping costs. Too bad to crash and burn that way. Does anyone know what ever became of Ron? I remember when he put his vast insignia collection up in one of their auctions, that particular catalogue was about double it's usual thickness! .

[helmet guy]

What ever happened to Mohawk Arms ?

Now that the subject of Manions is up for discussion, what ever happened to Mohawk Arms a.k.a Ray Zyla?

[Ed.Anderson,Jr.]

They had an auction about a week ago. Regards, Ed.

[Tom B]

Yes, Ray is still up & doing business Tom