Is a collecting interest life-long?

It is a rare thing to nd a collector who has stayed focused on the same niche for more than 30 or 40 years. Being one of those guys who has been collecting since he could walk and say, “Can I have your medals?”, I have changed paths many times. It hasn’t been without regret, however.

IS AN INTEREST LIFE-LONG?

I just returned from a show and got to thinking.

During a lull in the show, I noticed a small U.S. medal group consisting of an Indian Campaign, Spanish Campaign and Philippine Campaign medals. All were numbered, and all traced back to the same guy: A Minnesotan serving in the 21st Infantry. I was hooked. I wanted to add this set to my collection. As I paged through the research, we talked about the group. He said he had put a price tag of $4,000 on it, thinking no one would pay that outlandish amount. To his surprise (but not mine), someone had offered him $3,800, and “was probably going to come back.” My heart sank a little — for two reasons. First, I couldn’t divert that amount from my main collecting focus: WWI AEF Tank Corps stuff. That kind of money could land me a nice of cer’s group with a Model 1911 pistol (something I have been offered and have been saving funds to purchase). Second, I recognized something I used to do as a young collector that has left me with a regret or two.

SMART TOO LATE

One of my very rst “focused” collecting efforts was when I bought all the Hitler Youth (“HJ” or “Hitler Jugend”) material I could nd back when I was 17 and 18 years old. When I set up my goods at a show, I also took my Riker mounts lled with HJ material, including an HJ Skiing Badge and a numbered, cased leader badge complete with the kid’s award document (“Sportbuch des HJ Fuehrers”) and membership card with photo. In the realm of Third Reich material, not great items, but for an 18-year-old kid, pretty darn good things!

Of course, I had to show off those items. Not having anywhere to do that other than a show (no club or local collectors where this could be done), I displayed the items on my table with that all-but-genuinely-detested sticker, “NFS” (“Not For Sale”). Well, that sticker wasn’t much of a defense. When some old, seasoned collector started laying hundred dollar bills in front of me, my “NFS” attitude eroded to “WMFS” (“Well, Maybe For Sale”) until it reached inside the adobe walls of my mental Alamo: “WTF!” (“Well, That’s Fine”…or a close variation of that). I took the money, and the cornerstone of my HJ collection was gone. Within a few weeks, so was the money. I decided to switch my collecting focus to 1950s Bundeswehr Paratrooper material.

By the time I was 22, my paratrooper collection had grown to include several named insignia sets that included gorgeous bullion paratrooper wings and a couple of ne helmets. What became of the collection, you ask? Well, same pattern as the HJ collection: I took the stuff to a show. I didn’t really want to sell it, but rather, show it off. Just having the stuff on my table, however, led to someone talking me into selling my best stuff, leaving me with low-end Bundeswehr material. The “plums” were gone, and all that was left just wasn’t that exciting.

WISDOM FROM AN OLD SAGE?

Well, as all military show conversations go, someone who actually was going to buy something interrupted ours. As the young man conducted his potential sale with a cash-carrying customer, I returned to my table. I sat down and began thinking about the medals, and the young man’s situation.

His mother was quick to lean over to tell me how much she admired her son’s interest, and how he funds the collecting all by himself. She even mentioned the dilemma he was facing with the medals. “That’s a lot of money, but he doesn’t have anything invested,” she divulged. “He found them in a box of trinkets he had bought at a ea market.” Wow! Some guys have all the luck!

Old habits die hard, and “money for nothing” is one of my toughest habits to break. My rst thoughts were, “In the medals for nothing and walk away for $4k? Where’s the debate?” I didn’t offer any advice though, I sat there thinking about it as people came up to my table to talk about the magazine or ll out a raf e ticket (we were giving away free subscriptions and books).

Eventually, I tried to picture myself in his shoes. If I were 18 and just nding my collecting path, I would consider myself pretty lucky to have found the medals, but I wouldn’t appreciate how lucky I had been. Having put on a lot of miles since I was 18, I now know, named, pre-WWI medal groups (or identi ed HJ Leader badges, for that matter) don’t pop up too often. One thing I did know, whatever the amount, the money will go…and be replaced, repeating the pattern many times.

When we were able to chat again, I commented on just how special the group was, adding, “You may not be interested in pre-WWI stuff right now, but your collecting ‘palate’ is still developing.” I advised, “You are into these medals for very little. You can only sell them once. You probably won’t have a chance at something like this again unless you are prepared to pay retail.” I concluded by suggesting, “You might just want to put them away, take them home and keep them in your collection for a few months. If they are worth $4K today, they will still be worth that much six months from now.”

DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONS

When I returned home after the show, I shared the story about the young man and his medals with my partner. Before I could tell her what I had advised, she blurted out, “I hope you told him, ‘TAKE THE MONEY!’” Wow. Didn’t see that one coming. I forget, though, she has never — ever — been bitten by the collecting bug. She doesn’t appreciate the sense of connection to history one gets from holding a man’s set of medals or gazing at the uniform he wore at the Somme in 1918. She does, however, have an innate appreciation for the value of a dollar and how many of them a young person will need to pay for college!

- Preserve the memories