When I was buying M1's on the reg, I was getting them off of Ebay, but i spent a lot of time each day searching. And I bought cheaply, I had a lot of spare time and I would search and search.... and some of the best things I got were just plain luck. In that they were listed in correctly etc etc and so not as many people saw them. So its time luck and of course money. And Johns suggestion above is just a great one as well..      

Put yourself out there. Make business cards. Go to antique stores and ask for stuff, leave your card.   If I had the means, i could see contacting scrap yards and state armories looking for inventory. I mean, if you just call folks, you'd be surprised what you can accomplish. I was a librarian and I would just call magazine editors and not only get them on the phone but they would talk to you for 20 minutes. Just tell them what you're after. They made millions of steel pots. Piles of that stuff still has to be around.

Nice Navy grouping, really like the Vietnam pieces.  Do you envision displaying these as a small vignette?  Do you rebuild missing items such as ribbon bars or miniature medal bars so the uniforms look more complete?  I ask because these are the type of mental gymnastics I go thru when becoming the caretaker of a Veterans collection.  I strive to be able to tell some portion of his/her story by way of the artifacts.  Sometimes I'm successful, many times not so much.  If you have any female navy groupings I would be interested in photos if possible. Cheers, Armygas

You're right! I wish I had been snatching these up back in the 70's and 80's. I had no clue. And Im not meaning to knock the helmet in the OP's post. Its cool. Just at my stage in the game and really since I started collecting seriously, I've always searched for good stuff at good prices. This one with the Majors rank seems to me like its gone past what it would be worth. To me.

dang that's a steal! I meant as cheap as they used to be, like finding a named airborne helmet for 5 bucks in a surplus store kind of thing.also bad wording on my part. good for you. I am much younger collector compared to most on here, so I haven't had the oppurtunity to experience out in the wild finds yet, All I've been told is to keep looking and trying because you just never know!

Next set is a private purchase with the top and white cap being named but no manufacturer tags in the pants or top.   Henry Earl Hundley joined in 1918 based on a comment "release to the Navy" on his draft card from June 1918.      

Bought these two lots from an online auction thinking they were from the same guy, A.P. Hundley. Received them today and lol and behold turns out to be father and son.   A.P. is up first.  His appear to be standard issue with pants and top having a tag from the manufacturer. Not sure why the pics are coming out so gray in some of the pics.     Arthur P. Hundley enlisted in 1943 (at 17) and is documented in landing craft school in 44.  His brief obit info says he served in the Pacific in WW2.                    

"the days of finding named untouched front seams was a long time ago" Oh I dont know about that. I got this on ebay last August under $700.00. There are still deals to be found online. But it involves a lot of searching and some luck.  

Do you know when this Ssilor served aboard Iowa?  My dad was aboard, 1952-1954.   As far as the paint goes, Navy helmets were not issued to individuals. They went to Battle Stations, ( referred to as GQ or General Quarters Stations).  We would find one in good shape, make sure it had all the parts and put our names on them, after sizing them.   They generally got repainted every 6 months to a year, ( or so). Got painted with what ever paint was closest to the paint locker door 🤣. They got recycled routinely. They could go from station to station. When ships decommissioned, they were, available to other ships, or went back into the supply system, for reissue to other ships. In 26 years, I saw CS New helmets, once. The rest were just reused, rebuilds from scrapped ships.   In 1973, I was finding fixed bale helmets with the big bulky (Firestone?) liners. 

Anybody know what kind of dog tag this is.came from estate glenside area Pennsylvania. Think it's homemade tag.thanks for looking