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Poker faces? (Share your tales!)


Sabrejet
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I've told this before about the Vietnam Nurse on the USS Sanctuary.

 

She wanted to give me her stuff.

 

But I insisted on paying for it and then overpaid.

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I was at a show and saw some interesting items and glanced under the table and saw an OD Air Force Ike Jacket with Air Force Sergeant stripes and a MATS patch. I totally forgot about what was on the table and almost broke my arm getting my money out. It didn't have collar insignia and another dealer had one so I ran to his table and bought it. There was a flea market in town I checked out earlier and a dealer had the other collar insignia so I raced there and bought it. I probably looked like a little kid Christmas morning.

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I suppose the same basic principle applies to ebay whenever a member finds something wrongly listed and for a fraction of its true value? I believe we had a thread along those lines quite recently.

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Twice I have had to restrain a big grin and wide eyes when told the price of an item...but the best was once in Italy with my wife we were in a very small village in Tuscany and I spotted a little antique store, and in the window I spotted what looked like the tip of a bayonet poking out from under some frilly looking renaissance-style table cloth....I casually walked in and asked in my best broken-Italian, "posso guardare quella?" (Can I look at that?)....the shopkeeper says "Si" (yes) and she hands me a slightly rusty and pitted, but intact M-3 trench knife! It was blade marked "US M-3 Imperial 1943" but at the time I wasn't aware that this may have been an early model.

 

At the time my knowledge of trench knives was very limited (and still is really) but I knew that it was a rare find in a small Italian village. I asked "quanto costa?" (How much it costs? ....I told you, my Italian is very bad!) and she said "dodici" ...I looked at my wife, with the "not another piece of rusty steel for your war room" blank stare on her face, and she translated "twelve" ( her Italian is much better than mine!) and I'm sure my eyes flew open wide and I repeated "dodici?" And the storekeeper said "Si", and I couldn't get the 12 Euro (about $16 US!) out of my pocket fast enough!

 

I walked out of there with a huge smile and giggling like a kid with a new toy! My wife just shook her head, but smiled, appreciating that I was excited about my find.

 

How an M-3 trench knife ended up in a small antique store in a Tuscan hill town, I'll never know, but I'm glad it did!

 

I cleaned it up and it looked real nice, a bit salty but still an original and a great find! I eventually sold it to a buddy who was a knife collector. I wish now that I had kept it!

 

Rick

 

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A very popular pass-time in the UK is what we call "Car Boot Sales" (boot = trunk)....you might have something similar in the US? They are held everywhere most weekends. People turn up in their vehicles, set up tables alongside and literally sell unwanted stuff right out of their cars. They attract crowds of bargain hunters all over the country each weekend. There's a big one, once a month, in the parking lot of a leisure centre near where I live. I go when the mood takes me in the hope of maybe finding some militaria. My best score was about a year ago when I noticed a pair of GI "jungle boots" among a bunch of other assorted footwear. I casually picked them up. They were mint/unissued, size 9, 68' dated and still with the paper tag attached and complete with the anti-spike liners. "How much?" I asked. "£10?" ($15) came the almost apologetic reply. I offered £8....he accepted. It was a good day! :)

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Good Topic Ian,

 

There was a thrift shop that I used to frequent regularly and the woman that ran the shop knew that I was always hunting military items. One day she comes out of the back room all excited showing me a great army coat that she had just gotten in. She was holding up a 1980's Delaware National Guard, sergeant's, army green dress coat. This was pre 9/11 so there were no deployment ribbons or anything exceptional. It had the infantry cord, service ribbons, collar buttons chevrons, patches and DUIs. It was a nice coat with all the original insignia but it was nothing special.

 

As she's talking to me about this really neat army coat my eyes went to the small ratty looking camouflage jacket that she had draped over her arm. It was a Luftwaffe Splinter pattern camo jacket. I wanted to snatch it off her arm but I played cool and polite and listened to her spiel about the coat. I politely passed on the green coat and took the ratty looking camo jacket for 3 bucks, it was a field made Luftwaffe splinter pattern jacket. It was small and a bit rough but it was original. I know she was scratching her head wondering why I turned down that spiffy looking army coat with all the brass and took the beat up nasty looking jacket.

 

Another time I stopped at a yard sale and unearthed a Marine camo P44 jacket and P42 camo trousers in a pile of civilian hunting camo gear. I thought I was being cool and nonchalant but when the guy said 10 bucks I pulled a 10 dollar bill off of my money clip so fast that I actually ripped the bill in half. I shoved the ripped one in my pocket and gave him another. It took a lot not to show how excited I was. It's good when the hunt pays off.

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A very popular pass-time in the UK is what we call "Car Boot Sales" (boot = trunk)....you might have something similar in the US? They are held everywhere most weekends. People turn up in their vehicles, set up tables alongside and literally sell unwanted stuff right out of their cars. They attract crowds of bargain hunters all over the country each weekend. There's a big one, once a month, in the parking lot of a leisure centre near where I live. I go when the mood takes me in the hope of maybe finding some militaria. My best score was about a year ago when I noticed a pair of GI "jungle boots" among a bunch of other assorted footwear. I casually picked them up. They were mint/unissued, size 9, 68' dated and still with the paper tag attached and complete with the anti-spike liners. "How much?" I asked. "£10?" ($15) came the almost apologetic reply. I offered £8....he accepted. It was a good day! :)

 

 

Through spring and summer into early autumn i am up at 5:30am every sunday to go to my local carboot sale...I've had some great bargains.I like to think im looking nonchalant but i probably dont!!:)I just ask 'whats your best mate?' and walk off smiling.I have a finely tuned OD radar and i can spot an LTD from 50 yards!

My latest US find was in a junk/antique shop and there on the shelf was a KW era M1 with a near mint MSA liner.Cost me £20 and they chucked in an m56 web belt 'if you like old army stuff, have this as well'.

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vintageproductions

My best isn't US but it is worth telling.

I was driving down near downtown LA and stopped at a garage sale because I saw a pile of Levi's. I bought all the Levi's and looked up at the fence where the is more clothing hanging. Right in the middle of everything was a dead stock SS camo pullover. It was so mint I thought it was fake, even down to the neck cord. I asked the lady how much it was and she said $15.00. I repeated $15.00 like it was a question to make sure that was what she said, as I was already stoked, and she said "Okay, $10.00". I paid as quickly as I could and took off.

That smock today is in a very advanced SS camo collection and was a piece shown in Beaver's first book.

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I suppose I was too young and dumb to have a poker face, but when I was 16 (about 5 years before Band of Brothers) I was busy assembling a 101st outfit after actually READING the book. Still have the crappy US Cavalry uniform that I sold my pig at the fair to afford and the excellent Corcoran jump boots that my folks got me instead of a high school class ring (at my request). Anyways, I lacked a helmet liner. Driving home from my first job mowing lawns, I had about $5 to my name and saw a helmet liner with A straps hanging from it on a nearly obscenely dressed mannequin at a store that specialized in buying crap from yard sales to flip. Nearly crashed my truck as I whipped it around and asked "How much for the helmet liner?" They said "You mean the army hat-tuh?" I says "Yeah, the army hat..." and laid down $2. Nice WWII liner, though I let a student wear it with my repro uniform for a school function and an A-strap broke trying to slip it on instead of unbuckle it. I suppose it was a look of sheer shock rather than anything poker-related, but the particular vendor wouldn't notice 4 aces if my hand was held backwards, I would think.

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CNY Militaria

A couple years ago I was at an antique store that normally has a lot of interesting items since it is on a War of 1812 Battlefield. I had purchased some US insignia from a dollar box and spotted a sword minus scabbard near the entrance, a British Model 1822 Infantry Officer's Sword to be exact. I checked the price tag and saw a $35 and what looked like a 0 after it. I asked him, "Is this $35?" fully expecting it to be $350 based on other items in the store. He said "Ok, I'll do $30." You can probably fill in the rest!

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Jeff Ashenfelter

Hey Sabrejet, yes I was a Manchu from 74-77 charlie airborne at Ft Wainright Alaska. Or as I like to call it my time at the russian front ! Speaking of poker faces, one mistake I made early on was at a gun show where a man handed me a mint afrika corp officers belt and buckle and wanted to know if I would pay $25.00 for it. I instantly said SOLD, upon my statement the man took the belt and buckle and said that maybe he should think about it. I realized that I said sold to soon and should have been slower to accept his offer.

Another time at the same show a few years later where I offer free appraisals for the promoter a young couple asked if I was the guy who could tell them the value of what they had. I said yes but was somewhat startled at the two hand carts full of stuff that they wanted me to look at. the man opened up a early DFC medal case and handed me 3 pairs of gold flight wings. At first I did not know for sure what I was looking at until I turned them over and saw some oriental writing on the reverse of the wings. The pin devise was somewhat crude and the wings seemed rather soft to me. I did recognise the Chinese Nationalist symbol on the front of the wing and then the man told me that his father was a flying tiger. OK I thought this makes sense now, the next item was a cloisonne pin which I was told later was given out by madam Kiang Chek to the members of the original flying tigers. He also showed me a ID card with Claire Chenaults signature on it with this mans name Fritz Wolf. I also saw a fantastic framed hand sewn flying tiger with many chinese glyphs under the tiger, chinese made and very striking. By now a crowd had gathered around and the gold wings were being passed around as many of the mans medals and other items were too. I began to get worried that some of this stuff would walk away and promptly ended the session. Turns out that this collection was his fathers, Fritz Wolf and that his dad never talked about the war and all of these things were found in the attic after his death. I told the couple that this would take me weeks of work to properly appraise and that even then final value would be determined by it's actual sale. I never even looked at what else they had in the hand carts. Turns out that Fritz Wolf shot down two Mitsubishi bombers as well as two fighters. I also learned that instead of selling their fathers relics they donated all of it to the Wi veterans museum in Madison WI. Probably the most historically significant group that I ever had the chance to look at, and needless to say my jaw was on the floor!

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I'm a monotone person by nature who makes very few facial expressions, so I'm told...so I guess I do the poker face whether I mean to or not

 

Ditto. I've been called stoic, stone faced, calm and composed in a sea of chaos, along with other less savory words of course by some folks over the years, lol.

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I once took Mrs Sabrejet to an antiques fair at a nearby hotel...lots of fancy stuff...art glass, ceramics and antique jewelry etc. Whist she was looking at some antique rings I was idly looking at the contents of a glass case...antique earrings, necklaces, brooches and....wait a minute...what's that?! Peeking out from beneath a bunch of costume jewelry was the unmistakable tip of a US pilot's wing! I casually asked the stall-holder if I could take a look at it. He unlocked the case and handed it to me. I knew in a nano-second it was a 100% original WW2 British-made wing. Used and tarnished but absolutely kosher! There was no price sticker, so I calmly asked how much. The stall-holder shrugged and said something like "How does £15 sound?" ($20) I offered £12..cash. My offer was accepted!! :D

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When I was about 15 and my bother 14, he was the German & Japanese collector, we were out trick or treating.We came across a snowman with a german helmet.My brother was to chicken to ask about it so I went up and asked if he would sell it.He said come back when the snowman is gone and he'll give it to me.It ended up being an ORIGINAL SA helmet with the original plastic chin strap.We ended up selling it to a friend of our's, a big German collector.Wish I still had it.

 

As far as telling the real worth of something.Sometimes I want to but if the seller is happy to get $20 for a $500 item them who am I to ruin that happiness.There were many a times were I undersold stuff and none of my 'friends' said anything to me.Oh you only want $20 but it's really worth $1000.Here i'll give you $700.Yeah right.I know two wrongs don't make a right but oh well.

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AAF_Collection

I'd much rather make a fair offer for something and in the process make a new contact,than make a low-ball offer and have that person later find out I ripped them off. I was recently offered some items which had belonged to the brother of a guy whose grouping I'd bought,the seller asked me to make an offer for the one patch,I'd seen them go for $60-$100 so I offered $80,she sent it to me for free as I'd bought some other thigs from her!,

 

Matt.

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I totally agree with m.rimmer.If somebody asked me 'what is this worth?' I would tell them and if I was interested in the item I would make a fair offer, as I have done before.When I said above that my brother and I sold the helmet it was almost 20 yrs later.We never knew what it was or what it was even worth for all those years.

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years back,probably the mid 90s,my wife went outside to make the rounds at a local mkt we set up at.i was out earlier and found nothing,she came in all exited and told me there is a german helmet outside and gave me a location.thinking it was the stripped and repainted west german helmet i had seen earlier i was in no hurry to go look.about 2 hours went by and i said i'm going out for another look,she told me again about the helmet that was in the back of a truck bed.i went out to the spot she told me and found an m35 helmet with liner and strap with a rad decal on the side,calmly i asked the price,75.00 i still cannot see how that sat there all that time.turns out it was his deceased uncles stuff and over the weeks to come i got a pretty nice group of stuff from him,11th armored vet.......dave

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In my opinion, it depends on the situation. At flea markets, antique fairs/shops and the internet, ANYTHING goes. If they have a $2500 item priced for $25 - that's my gain. On the other hand, if it is a face-to-face transaction with a person "off the street", I feel that honesty can work to your advantage. By offering a conservative estimate, and explaining that as an investor you cannot pay top retail value, you can usually buy it for a song anyway. It's all in how you handle the situation, and how good you are at negotiating.

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I probably could have said $20 and she would have been happy but I didn't want to be struck by lightning or hit by a truck later in the day.

Jon.

Jon, you're a God fearing man and I salute you !

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