Delayed intro, since Sept 2025 from Massachusetts

[MA-Collect00]

Hello everyone,

 

I’m somewhat new to the forum (September 2025) and fairly new to collecting U.S. militaria. Over the past couple years I’ve been getting more interested in it and have been spending time researching through books, online sources, and especially browsing the older threads on here. There’s clearly a huge amount of knowledge here, and I’m looking forward to learning from everyone.

One thing I’ve realized early on is that I tend to be pretty particular when it comes to originality and authenticity. I’ll admit I may be a bit picky or detail-oriented, but I’d rather learn what is historically correct than build a collection that only looks good on a shelf.

Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed a few things that made me curious and I’m hoping to better understand how experienced collectors approach them. For example, I sometimes see people looking for empty medal presentation cases, or selling medals like Bronze Stars without boxes in the range of $5-$10. I’ve also come across bayonets such as early M1905 or M1917 examples paired with later fiberglass scabbards instead of the earlier leather or canvas types. I realize the military often reissued equipment from WWII into the Korean War period to the Vietnam War period, but I’m learning when combinations like that might actually be correct due to service use, or if they may  be parts that were put together later on the collector market. Still working on expanding my knowledge. At this point I’m trying to learn as much as I can before making (pricy) purchases. 
 

Thanks, and I’m looking forward to learning more from the experience and knowledge of the members.

Dave

[Rakkasan187]

Hi Dave,

 

Welcome to the forum and you have asked some legitimate questions that I am sure you will get a lot of feedback on...

 

Looking forward to helping you along the way..

 

Best regards

 

Leigh 

[MA-Collect00]

Thanks Leigh.
In the past few months I’ve posted a few questions (concerns) about helmets and knives. Also just general question(s) about items I’ve seen at shows, on the forum or other online sites.