How long have you been collecting Vietnam militaria ?

[Michael N]

Patrick and Owen,

Thank you for the information, need to go book shopping asap. Patrick will pm you soon. I purchased a few things so far at the last show will try to post them soon. In the process of moving right now, but once I have the room set up it will be easy.

Yes its very addicting!

Best,
Michael

[Gil Burket]

And now a message from the Dark Side....

Greetings one and all! I signed on about a month ago after the recommendation of several of the members here, and I am amazed at the amount of material and the quality of discussion on this forum.

The very first Vietnam Era item that I had was a Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club patch given to me as part of a Cub Scout event around the mid 1960's. I had a vague idea that it had something to do with Vietnam, but not much more than that. The unique thing about it was it was at least 5 inches across or more and had been manufactured in the USA (Philadelphia, to be exact). Foolishly I traded it away years later.

I really did not develop an interest in Vietnam in particular until about the mid-1980's. My real interest was collecting US military field uniforms, and intially I was collecting everything worn in the 20th Century. That turned out to be a bit ambitious. While living in Hawaii, I stumbled on two fully badged uniforms from the Vietnam period at a swap meet, and I was hooked from there on out.

A few years later I was into the insignia, including ARVN and other South Vietnamese forces. I had established a trading relationship with a vendor in Hong Kong who started sending me items he was finding on his trips to Vietnam. In turn I began selling these to collectors in the US. Unfortunately I was quick to discover a number of them were fake, part of the first wave of reproductions that hit the collectors market from Vietnam.

If you have ever had to contact friends that had trusted you and tell them that you needed to send them a refund for that bogus item you just sent them, you know this is no fun at all.

I started asking other collectors about fakes in the market. Everyone knew they were out there, but there was very little written up about them. About the only thing on record was Clem Kelly's Vietnam Insignia Collector's Newsletter which usually had a page devoted to the latest fake or reproduction that had showed up.

I suggested to Clem he should write a book on identifying the fakes. He turned it around on me and suggested that I should take that up! That was around 1994... and I have been doing it ever since.

Today my claim to fame is to have the largest known and admitted collection of reproductions from the Vietnam War. I've put so much time into tracking these down, figuring out where they came from, and documenting how to identify them that I've time for little else. And as best I can, I have tried to share that information with other collectors.

I do pick up photos of ARVN soldiers in uniform, and one day I hope to publish a collectors guide on these. But as everyone here knows, that will be a major project in itself.

[kammo man]

Gil
Welcome to the WAF .
You are a true gentleman on the US forum and I think you will be a massive asset to these expanded pages on everything Vietnam !!!
You will find old friends and new on these pages .
See you soon
owen

[Patrick Dempsey]

You are a true gentleman on the US forum and I think you will be a massive asset to these expanded pages on everything Vietnam

Gil,


i can only echo that statement, welcome aboard.

[Stahlhelm]

I just got into collecting North Vietnamese militaria about five of years ago. My interest began after traveling there twice with my then Vietnamese girlfriend, getting the off-the-beaten path tour into the countryside and everywhere the simple tourist rarely goes. I visited the Củ Chi tunnels, Da Nang, Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, and the presidential palace in what was Saigon, as well as many other historic areas related to the Vietnam War. Later, from this experience with the history of the country, and after attending the SOS, as usual, I began checking out the various NVA and Viet Cong militaria available, as well as picking up militaria from local veterans. My own uncle who is a Vietnam veteran even gave me a very nice field-made Viet Cong fighting knife, a sun helmet, and an NVA flag he captured and brought back himself, once he found out I was interested. Since then, my interest, along with my knowledge of the militaria (as well as all of the history related to it) has grown exponentially. And learning about the actual history is maybe the most compelling thing of all. What started out as an interest in the popular WWII German militaria dozens of years ago, has since branched into so many others I would never have expected. But, of course, I'm sure I'm not alone when it comes to that!

[pete]

I'm quite interested in the VN stuff now. I havent bought anything yet though, just gathered contacts so i can start email conversation to eventually buy something fair and correct (Tiger stripe, M1955 Flak, Named Jackets, Zippos). In normal work we are out in the Battle areas daily doing UXO work, these areas, mostly over grown are untouched, and what is coming out of the ground is amazing although its the law here that you cant keep or collect anything.

I saw a set of Tiger stripe (ARVN) in SAIGON over xmas in one of the little shops in the Militaria markets. They obviously know the prices as the guy wanted 800 USD. Anything you point at they refer to ebay (highest price option). I didnt see any option to haggle in the standard Vietnamese way (3 times: 500,000 VND refused becomes 350,000 which becomes 150,000 as you have already walked away- no way i was paying 800 USD for those IN Vietnam, maybe Internationally, but not IN Vietnam. I did have the opportunity to see a named USMC Utility cap (later a big FBI man) who i could report to his local Shriner's club and family in case they want to buy it. I will post these Tiger pics as soon as the server allows it. There were some ARVN Rucksacks totally new with tags, and some used ones, all overpriced (Literally 150-200 USD each and they wouldn't budge, same story with boxes and boxes of brand new crated Jungle boots that i saw in HANOI).

Next door was a shop that was more reasonable and easy to deal/talk with and at first they offered me the repro tiger caps etc, when i asked to see the real ones, he offered to let me visit his house where has the all the real stuff. I will have to do that next time. he was about the only one from the whole trup that you could bargin with. They knew "George P" as he has sent them repro Tiger stuff that they showed me at least a cap.

Best part was the live cluster bomb in one of the shops that they know is live now and i hope its been taken away

I have to say they have hand painted alot of stuff to look pretty darn convincing, example ARVN helmet liners, only if you pick up one the rest are identical underneath


Best REgards,

Pete

[pete]

.

I suppose this is "real" Tiger stripe?

[kammo man]

Pic is out of focus but set appears wartime


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[chrischa]

Not been collecting Vietnam long, had the hemet a few years.
My main interest is Third Reich but I’m fascinated by the Vietnam War after reading first hand accounts since I was young.

This is my newest purchase, a Vietnam War era M16A1.




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[RBailey]

Good thread Kammo. I started collecting in the early 1970's when the war was still going on. As a young kid, we would watch it on tv. At the time, this stuff was not considered "collectables". It was mainly viewed as used "military surplus".

Here is my Starlight night scope. It still works!!! It makes a "humming" sound, when turn on.

Robert

[chrischa]

RBailey that is a very nice bit of kit.

Does it deteriorate with time?

Also, the second to last photo of the soldier with the scope and a suppressor is a great image, obviously working at night. I suppose to deal with enemy scouts etc around a base camp?

[pete]

.

I think the tubes do deteriorate overtime and distortion or degradation of the image is caused. I'm not sure thought if that can be actually slowed or prevented, i just remember these in the Army (I think we had the AN/PVS-4) and they always harped about not destroying the tube life or tube through misuse.

I remember a Bosnian from BIHAC Pocket 92-95 telling me that they could take those types of old generation NVG and gather rotting wood (bioluminescence) and place it in a pile in front of that kind of old scope and it worked better somehow on dark cloudy nights, so he said.


Pete

[chrischa]

Thanks Pete.

Good information.

[RBailey]

Thanks for the replies. If you look close enough, there are some light shades of grey inside the tube. I think that keeping it in the case, it will help preserve the scope.
The rifle does not fire and is only a wall hanger. It is very heavy with the scope mounted.

Robert