Is it inflation or insanity!

[mvm71]

Since I have started collecting WWII medals, signed photo's, and other relics I have noticed a sharp increase in the pricing. I can remember when in the not too distant past (about the last two years or so) when one could purchase a EKI for under $125 no matter who made it or what style it was. This also goes for almost every other medal or award. It seems that websites that sell "Militaria" have sprung up overnight in an attempt to capitalize on the large sums of money some people are willing to pay.

Another example comes from a Ebay/Epier seller who offers signed photo's of Knights Cross winners. Just over two years ago almost all of the sp's starting bid was at ten dollars. Now nearly every sp is starting at more than double. Although the prices have gone up the dealer is reputable and I have no doubt in the sp's authenticity. I just wanted to mention the rising costs of our hobby because I didn't know if I was the only one who has noticed this alarming increase in pricing over the last several years. I enjoy collecting WWII militaria but this "inflation" is really biting into what I can acquire in both quantity and quality.
Thanks,
Mike

[W. C. Stump]

NOTHING NEW

In the 50's I bought lovely Iron Cross 1st Classes cased for $5.00, Knights Cross for $15.00. Throughout the years nothing, and I mean NOTHING, in the field of Third Reich collectable has ever gone down in price. This inflation trend applies to all fields of collectibles of military relics from all nations. Japanese rifles in the early 1950's sold for no more than $5.00 to $8.00. Look at the cheapest one today.

[Robert P.]

Mike,
It's supply and demand. The demand has become monstrous by all of the new collectors in this field. The supply is definately not keeping up. It's a seller's market. With a computer in almost every home in America and elsewhere the hobby has gone to the entire world. I can remember when items would sit on a sales website for weeks on end going nowhere. Now we have two or three 'half-hour-frenzys' every Friday morning, and one or two on Wednesday morning. And if you don't have DSL, your nearly out of luck. Almost everything has doubled in cost over the last two years, maybe more in some instances. One of the last places to find quality at an affordable price is right here on the e-stand.
To look on the bright side, I still enjoy collecting very much. I expect I always will. I bought my first German piece when I was ten years old. It was a WWll Heer helmet and I bought it from the classified section of a 1960 Field and Stream magazine. As a kid I wore that crazy helmet all over the small town I grew up in, people looking at me all the time. My uncle, a WWll vet, snuck it out of our house one day and threw it away. Broke my heart. I then started collecting mint 1939 EKll's to take the helmet's place. And in all of the fourty-some years I have collected, I have never found a hobby that has stuck with me more than this. So to answer your question, maybe there is a little insanity to it all but, for me...I like it. It's instant gratification when Detlev answers your order with, "it's yours"...or when a dealer e-mails you with photos of a badge he just got in.

Robert

My last aquisition...a stone mint early Deumer. I love it! Sold a lot to afford it.

[Rick Research]

Actually, it ISN'T a sellers market. A very few Celebrity Dealer Gods seemingly can sell anything at ANY price to a very few people who... are willing to pay their prices.

What I see at shows and often at "mere mortals" websites... is the same merchandise (great, good, indifferent, or plain old junk) languishing indefinitely, all priced like the Crown Jewels. "Book price" for mint items is now applied to... corroded, damaged throw-aways.

Around here, I know at shows dealers whose stock I can safely simply walk on by... because it never changes. Oddly enough, too high prices DO go up... on the same unsold stock.

I was able to collect Basic Stuff as a kid in the 1960s on a CHILD'S chores & birthday (and that's when you got a BUCK in a card, not $100 checks when you were 6 ) money.

There is simply NO "basic tier," to use a cable TV metaphor, for collectors of any age to BEGIN, any more. There is no safe, cheap, experience/confidence gaining stuff to begin building KNOWLEDGE upon.

And far too much of the Excessive Demand supposedly driving prices out there is from people who are motivated by the supposed Money Making Investment Opportunities in Perpetually Rising Prices. These "investors" are NOT interested in using their own brains, let alone having the slightest appreciation of HISTORY-- they want a CDG to TELL them what to buy: "Because it can only go up, so buy buy buy NOW!" Swamp land in Florida, anyone? You can have this bridge reaaal cheap!

Perpetually Rising Prices that are actually driving DOWN the numbers of collectors, in my personal observation over the last 35+ years. Oh sure, somebody new MAY buy a hideously expensive item or two... and the odds these days, given lack of homework, half will be fake... but they do not (indeed CAN not) stay IN collecting. What HAS increased, in my personal observation, is the EXPONENTIAL growth in... tire kickers.

This is a HOBBY. It is not how you "invest" your money now to cash in at decades away retirement... and anyone who ASSUMES that the current "investment" frenzy bubble is never going to burst... has never heard of the 17th century Tulip Mania or the Great South Sea Bubble. Pop goes the Get Rich Quick Without Using Any Brain Power Scheme!


because by then, assuming we somehow survive the relentless drive of mindless Political Correctness already assailing our hobby, this "market" is going to be completely priced out of New Blood, and reduced to the same sort of High Rollers who now collect... Napoleonic stuff.

[Ralph A]

Say what you will.

But KC's aren't ever going to be $15 again.

[Robert P.]

When I say that it is a 'seller's market' I am of course sharing my opinion based on the way I see it. To start with, I live in the remote S.E. section of Washington State. Here we have sagebrush, sagebrush and wind...no shows of any kind to go to. Seattle is the nearest show. No flea markets and not any good antique shops to speak of either. So you can see that I am already at a disadvantage. My buying is almost exclusively through the internet. I'm sure there are many others who are in the same position. When a dealer posts a piece for sale and attaches a price to it, it sells...for whatever the cost. If you don't move quickly, it will be lost to another. I understand this generates a 'hurry and buy' knee-jerk operate conditioning within us. But that's all we have. I mean, what are the options available to us? Dealer's prices are what they are. I think what helps generate higher prices is the demand itself. I've watched the popularity of the Luftwaffe flight badges rise recently, and with it the prices. The dealers know they are very popular and that they are becoming harder to locate. They know they have a great market for them. A lot of people are willing to pay the prices they are asking. Nothing new under the sun. I'm guilty of supporting this recent pricing hike. But on the other hand, what other options do I have? I can certainly understand your views. There would be no market if it wasn't for the buyers. I think it takes a balance. The dealers have to make enough to stay in business, at the same time not driving away buyers with too highly priced goods.
Thanks for your views.


Robert

[Ralph A]

Oh, don't mind Ricky.

He's just sore because his Saxonish-Baden Henry St. John Military Service Polygon 3rd class w/swords & etc. hasn't appreciated like the nasty, zincky stuff....

[Rick Research]

That is SO true:



Because what I collect (because I actually LIKE it, and for no other reason) is Remarkably Immune To Economic Fluctuations: inflation AND deflation proof... because nobody else wants it!

If you fall into Massive Investment "Collecting" of what you hope OTHER people will someday not only want, but pay YOU money for... you won't ENJOY "collecting," will you?

[Ralph A]

My Master Plan...

is to buy it all, and corner the market.

It's working with the tinnies....