Zimmerman skull

[rott51]

John,

I think this is a wonderful skull!! Not sure how you would upgrade it?

[viva_giulio]

LOL, obviously you are unaware of anything other than the more common skulls. I have offered outrageous prices for an aluminum S.P.40 and still haven't found one in years. There are several variations that are very rare my friend, and the more common ones are getting harder to find every year.
If skulls are just falling out of the sky in piles, why don't someone show them all?
I personally do not believe that the prices will fall, because if they do, I will buy them all.

Anyway, I think that the 499/41 skull that stated this thread is nice, but the condition is just not quite as attractive as some, and therefore it might need to be priced just a bit lower than some.

Best, Chris

...you could understand that i speak in general.

And market isn't done not only by collector, as you, that want find variant.

You will buy them all? you could done it in 2006/2007/2008 and early 2009 when, for a very good tk with both prongs you could pay 400/600 euro.

However i don't like to speak of "nothing". If this tk wasn't sold the reason could be two:

1 price / condition
2 too much time in estand

However in some sites there are incredible set priced over 4000 dollar.

Quite half of this price... was the amount i paid a set (2) of officier LAH panzer shoulder boards (cypher).


But... i saw many and many , in the last 5 years, sets.... but i found (and saw) only my LAH officier shoulder boards.

Now... you are free to spent the amount you want!!! As me.

[john mack]

ss

A very good discussion , I do appreciate all of the posts on this thread . I will see what it will yield on good old Ebay and possibly that will tell us the current market $ is at this week .I do not have high expectations as it is the end of the tax season and general speaking this is a poor time of year to sell IMO.

[bwanek1]

The term "bubble" is being misused here. Bubbles are created in markets for which items are bought primarily as investments, and current prices are driven by speculation of future prices. That is not what collectors do! Though most of us refer to our collections as investments, the reality is that very few of us truly use our collections as such and our buying behaviors reflect that. We buy items for our own pleasure and the prices we are willing or not willing to pay are driven by that, not based upon an intent to sell them at some future date for the purpose of turning a profit (regardless of what we tell our wives).

There may be a few people who use militaria as an investment, but they are a tiny minority. There is no large group of "investors" buying up militaria in such quantities as to create a false demand that could artificially inflate an entire global market (a bubble). The market demand forces in this field are primarily based upon what value true consumers place on the items for their own, personal enjoyment. Therefore, analogies between the militaria market and markets like the housing market, which involve future price speculation simply do not apply.

Since the militaria market is one fueled by disposable income, not necessity or investment, it is heavily influenced by general economic conditions. The amount of money spent on militaria (like any other "luxury" item) will go down during periods of economic downturn. That is what we are seeing now. People have less extra income to spend on things like militaria and that is reducing demand and driving down prices. However, normal belt-tightening by consumers during lean times is very different from a bubble bursting in a speculative investment market.

There are some long-time collectors who have amassed collections of such size and quality that they could affect the world market in a short period. If one of these collections were to be dropped on the open market all at once. The market is not large enough to absorb such a supply glut all at once and it would drive prices down for a year or two. However, after that collection is absorbed into many other collections, the normal supply/demand forces would return prices to pre-glut ranges in reasonably short order.

[bwanek1]

Sorry, I just realized that I put my above post (#19) in the wrong thread. While it applies to some degree here too, it was really intended for this discussion:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=507787

[cysior]

What is reasonable price - close to dealers price ? I bet some of you guys don't buy these TK for $2500, $2000 or even $1500; you know a lot of guys in this hobby, dealers, you search portals like ebay, private sales, auctions etc and you got good deals; bargains.

[Steve T]

What is reasonable price - close to dealers price ? I bet some of you guys don't buy these TK for $2500, $2000 or even $1500; you know a lot of guys in this hobby, dealers, you search portals like ebay, private sales, auctions etc and you got good deals; bargains.

The Ebay market suggests less, it sold for $1000 so still a good amount of money but less than what you guessed at above.

[maestro]

...unless you get suckered into one of these for $40+!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Waffen-Totenkopf...item3a65265efa
.. i agree with Steve, few months ago a deschler cupal off a visor went for mid $700's.. .... if there was a guarantee, as with most WAF related items for sale on e-stand, then perhaps it would command a larger audience of true collectors. and higher prices..

[maxmin todt]

your skull is

[Matthäus Klein]

Anyway, I think that the 499/41 skull that stated this thread is nice, but the condition is just not quite as attractive as some, and therefore it might need to be priced just a bit lower than some.

Chris is right.. there appears to be a small piece of the skull that broke off or something.. hard to tell from the picture.. compared to one selling that is all intact.