ARE THEY REPRO'ING ARVN PACKS?

[BEAST]

I stopped at an Army surplus shop today and he had two near mint condition ARVN packs for sale. He wanted $90.00 each for them and the only wear that I could find was the green discoloration on the buckles on the straps. Have they started to repro these packs?

[doyler]

Beast

 

I do not believe I have seen a repo.The green oxidization on the buckles is common.I have one from a friend that was a VN vet and it has the "green" on it.I would say they were good packs.

 

RON

[Greg Robinson]

I've noticed that they're more common than they used to be. A couple years ago I saw several unused "ARVN" rucksacks for sale at a local army store and was tempted to buy them. But a Viet Nam war militaria dealer advised me to be careful since the market for those was way down. And he was right.....at the time they were all over ebay selling cheap so I don't know what's going on with those. Back in the 1970's I could buy those in mint condition for $25.

[coolman]

green oxydization cannot be done within 2 or 3 months...its comming after years...unless if they are stored in wet horrible conditions but that will affect the web badly the whole rucksack will roten within 3 weeks so i'll say they are original or repro-manufactured using original buckles

[Greg Robinson]

I suspect this is another example of a Viet Nam War item that was once very collectible. Then somebody found a warehouse full of them somewhere in SE Asia and brought them into the US flooding the surplus market. In the 1980's and '90's those were hard to find and steadily rose in value but then all of a sudden everybody had them and all you see are unissued condition.

[coolman]

I suspect this is another example of a Viet Nam War item that was once very collectible. Then somebody found a warehouse full of them somewhere in SE Asia and brought them into the US flooding the surplus market. In the 1980's and '90's those were hard to find and steadily rose in value but then all of a sudden everybody had them and all you see are unissued condition.

yes...i think is original NOS...green oxidization is not an easy thing to copy...needs alot of time...you can see it on M45 cargo & combat packs & other really old gear

[BEAST]

Thanks for all of the responses! As far as condition is conccerned, it would have been nice to pick them up. Price seems definetly out-of-line though. I did a quick look at eBay and saw the highest realized price was $62.00.

[Patrick.]

Hello all,

 

these packs are entirely original and were all over the market in the last 14 months or so, i seem to recall they were part of a large cache found in Thailand.

 

I have seen the price fluctuate from $75 to $120.

 

 

 

Patrick.

[bfryar44]

I saw a large pallet of these unissued ARVN packs in the mid 90's. They had just come in from DRMO sales and had been shipped to a surplus warehouse that I would dig through on occasion. All of them were in unissued condition and had the green oxidation on the the metal hardware (easily cleaned). The box was marked Ft. Benning and there were at least 200-300 packs. Without a doubt original.

 

Bryan

[Mr-X]

Available right now in Saigon mint for US $25. But of course you have to factor in the airfair....

All have an amount verdigris on the buckles.

 

Your packs will be original.