Collecting lesson

[JackADriscoll]

Here's another one. There was an 1859 date 1855 Springfield for sale for 900.00 pretty clean and I didn't buy it and I wish I had. Just something about it

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I saw this really neat bayonet for sale as a civil war Enfield bayonet. I noticed it didn't have the extension to the muzzle ring like the 1856 Enfield but my dumb reptile brain was thinking it may be some cool rare variant. Guess what? It's an 1874 Turkish Peabody bayonet. 75 dollar lesson learned. The lesson? It's probably not a rare variant you're probably just silly m

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My collecting lesson was simply "Don't buy anything in a category that you know absolutely nothing about." About 9 or 10 years ago I purchased a handful of "Civil War era" dental instruments which I intended to research, place in a shadow box, and give as a gift to my daughter in law who is a young, practicing dentist. She does appreciate history! One of the items, a bone handled tool of some type, had indeed been authenticated by the seller (who I knew to be trustworthy). He had NOT researched the other instruments, but I figured that with one authentic tool of the era with a value of about $80 to $120, it would be worth the gamble for me to get the other instruments in a package deal, research them myself, and go for it at a total price of something like $160. Bad Decision - I could not identify some of the instruments within 10-15 years, and two of the instruments were from the 1940-1955 timeframe and were of practically no value. Fortunately, the seller was willing to give me a Store Credit equal to the amount that I had paid him, which I gladly accepted and used for some known items. Whew!

 

[JackADriscoll]

My collecting lesson was simply "Don't buy anything in a category that you know absolutely nothing about." About 9 or 10 years ago I purchased a handful of "Civil War era" dental instruments which I intended to research, place in a shadow box, and give as a gift to my daughter in law who is a young, practicing dentist. She does appreciate history! One of the items, a bone handled tool of some type, had indeed been authenticated by the seller (who I knew to be trustworthy). He had NOT researched the other instruments, but I figured that with one authentic tool of the era with a value of about $80 to $120, it would be worth the gamble for me to get the other instruments in a package deal, research them myself, and go for it at a total price of something like $160. Bad Decision - I could not identify some of the instruments within 10-15 years, and two of the instruments were from the 1940-1955 timeframe and were of practically no value. Fortunately, the seller was willing to give me a Store Credit equal to the amount that I had paid him, which I gladly accepted and used for some known items. Whew!

That's a happy ending

 

[vmicraig]

Been there, done that. I've made several spur of the moment online auction purchases over the years that I later regretted, the last one being a Lefaucheaux I grabbed online that turned out to be a Belgian copy. While I get irritated with myself for not doing better researching, I also remind myself its not the end of the world. In many cases, we still get something that might add interest to our collections, even if it's not what we had intended buying. I chalk it up to impulse and keep telling myself I'll do better next time. Unfortunately my wallet has reminded me of that on more than one occasion!

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Been there, done that. I've made several spur of the moment online auction purchases over the years that I later regretted, the last one being a Lefaucheaux I grabbed online that turned out to be a Belgian copy. While I get irritated with myself for not doing better researching, I also remind myself its not the end of the world. In many cases, we still get something that might add interest to our collections, even if it's not what we had intended buying. I chalk it up to impulse and keep telling myself I'll do better next time. Unfortunately my wallet has reminded me of that on more than one occasion!

Yep! I was lucky not to lose money on my blunder.

 

[Old Soldier]

I buy online due to the fact that I cannot get to the major fairs in the UK and have limited funds. When you start, you tend to trust the pictures and statements, but as time goes on, you get more skeptical and start looking for clues to the identity of the item. My main subject is what we term as 'obsolete calibre' firearms - mainly black powder arms, both pistol and long arms for display only. ('Obsolete calibre' refers to breechloaders/revolvers for which there is no commercial ammunition available). Antique muzzle-loading arms intended for display ONLY are also included. This means I can buy a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 1889 made in 1890 but not a 1889/95, K11 or K31. This also means I cannot buy a centre-fire 12-gauge shotgun made in 1870, a Colt 1873 pistol, nor a Lee-Medford made in 1890.
Trying to find a Britsh-issue P53 is well-nigh impossible and those that are available are extremely suspect and look more like Indian/Khyber Pass/Nepalese copies. You do have to know what you are looking for. There are plenty of CIVILIAN/private-buy ones around, but they suffer the same problems as the Confederate P53s - are all the parts from the same rifle? There are many Belgian copies too as well as Belgian ones made for Enfield - even converted sniders!

 

[vmicraig]

I buy online due to the fact that I cannot get to the major fairs in the UK and have limited funds. When you start, you tend to trust the pictures and statements, but as time goes on, you get more skeptical and start looking for clues to the identity of the item. My main subject is what we term as 'obsolete calibre' firearms - mainly black powder arms, both pistol and long arms for display only. ('Obsolete calibre' refers to breechloaders/revolvers for which there is no commercial ammunition available). Antique muzzle-loading arms intended for display ONLY are also included. This means I can buy a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 1889 made in 1890 but not a 1889/95, K11 or K31. This also means I cannot buy a centre-fire 12-gauge shotgun made in 1870, a Colt 1873 pistol, nor a Lee-Medford made in 1890.
Trying to find a Britsh-issue P53 is well-nigh impossible and those that are available are extremely suspect and look more like Indian/Khyber Pass/Nepalese copies. You do have to know what you are looking for. There are plenty of CIVILIAN/private-buy ones around, but they suffer the same problems as the Confederate P53s - are all the parts from the same rifle? There are many Belgian copies too as well as Belgian ones made for Enfield - even converted sniders!

Whats your favorite UK auctions site?

 

[Old Soldier]

Whats your favorite UK auctions site?

I rarely use auction sites since they don't advertise, you have to search. There are quite a number, but they keep their stock online for years after the auction. I saw one for 2018 yesterday!! I have only run into ONE current auction in searches this week. There are a number of sites/shops/stores selling online and I tend to use those since the auctions rarely have detailed photos of the items and, as I said earlier, you make darn sure what you are buying before you put your money down!

I bought a Gras which was a reasonable price and looked good in the photos. It had a stock repair so it was downpriced. It was also obviously rusted and pitted at some time. When I got it, the stock was a disaster area, with oil-blackened stains and carbonised wood which did not show on the photo as it was dark varnished. It is in the process or restoration with lots more major stock repairs! The only saving grace was all matching numbers, (receiver, barrel, cocking piece, bolt body, bolt head and butt) so worth working on.

 

[bayonet]

I rarely use auction sites since they don't advertise, you have to search. There are quite a number, but they keep their stock online for years after the auction. I saw one for 2018 yesterday!! I have only run into ONE current auction in searches this week. There are a number of sites/shops/stores selling online and I tend to use those since the auctions rarely have detailed photos of the items and, as I said earlier, you make darn sure what you are buying before you put your money down!

I bought a Gras which was a reasonable price and looked good in the photos. It had a stock repair so it was downpriced. It was also obviously rusted and pitted at some time. When I got it, the stock was a disaster area, with oil-blackened stains and carbonised wood which did not show on the photo as it was dark varnished. It is in the process or restoration with lots more major stock repairs! The only saving grace was all matching numbers, (receiver, barrel, cocking piece, bolt body, bolt head and butt) so worth working on.

Sorry I have to really want something from a UK auction to be bothered anymore. A 250 year old sword I won took like over 2 months to get to me. It has to be approved by customs (as if it's a deadly weapon!), pay the shipping, pay the VAT, to of course pay the auction house 20-26%. Just ain't worth it, used to be so much easier. Forget Italy auctions they now take over 3 months (yes end of June will be 3 months waiting on a sword). They too used to be so much easier. Go with Australia auctions, won a 250 year old sword and had it in my hands in 2 weeks! Germany is better too.

 

[bayonet]

Sorry I have to really want something from a UK auction to be bothered anymore. A 250 year old sword I won took like over 2 months to get to me. It has to be approved by customs (as if it's a deadly weapon!), pay the shipping, pay the VAT, to of course pay the auction house 20-26%. Just ain't worth it, used to be so much easier. Forget Italy auctions they now take over 3 months (yes end of June will be 3 months waiting on a sword). They too used to be so much easier. Go with Australia auctions, won a 250 year old sword and had it in my hands in 2 weeks! Germany is better too.

Oh I forgot to mention I'd had to fill out 2 customs forms they sent me and send them back. Again didn't have to do that in the past.

 

[Old Soldier]

Oh I forgot to mention I'd had to fill out 2 customs forms they sent me and send them back. Again didn't have to do that in the past.

I had a similar situation with some bayonets from N Germany - British VAT and import duty to pay! (We are not part of the EU any more.)

 

[Salterr]

I think we've all been there, it's just the art of collecting I think. Things always pop up when I can't buy and when I'm looking it takes months to find something. I regret not buying a triple border cavalry colonel set of shoulder boards. I thought $900 was insane at the time but I still think about them almost a decade later. I wonder who has them.