Taking inventory of my previous blog postings, I find an overwhelming majority of the topics I’ve covered were focused primarily on militaria that is not in the reachable price range for most collectors. These posts have been in stark contrast to my most recent acquisitions, most of which are well below $50 (including shipping costs).
In reality, most of the collectors I know are adept at rooting out the bargains at yard sales, surplus and antique stores, and various other sources. Rather than shelling out loads of cash to online sellers and taking on shipping costs, these collectors locate some very hard-to-find, and in some cases, high dollar items and groups for a pittance.
One of my collector colleagues spends time sniffing around in bargain bins in a surplus store near one of the local military installations, and once managed to locate a few sets of experimental U.S. Army combat uniform sets for less than $10.00. Subsequently, he discovered that the uniforms were rare and highly sought-after by collectors of current and modern uniforms, and could easily yield several hundred dollars per shirt and trouser set. His find was merely a matter of timing and experience as he recognized that these uniforms had subtle differences from their standard-issue counterparts.
For some collectors (like me), possessing and budgeting for the time to spend scouring these locations for the bargains is difficult. We compensate by letting our browsers and searches do the legwork in discovering the low-priced pieces. Knowledge and experience also comes into play for us as we are able to discover items in listings that are incorrectly identified or tagged by the sellers helping to keep the buyer competition to a minimum.
For the bargain-basement price of less than $11.00, I was able to acquire this fantastic tailor-made set of WWII-era dress whites with the precise rating badge I had been seeking (source: eBay image).
Still, timing and patience are ultimately the key in finding low-priced pieces. I have been in search of a set of World War II vintage U.S. Navy enlisted dress whites with a ship’s cook third class (SC 3/c) rate and rating badge in good condition for a few years. Such a set would be a great augmentation for the uniform display I am assembling to honor my grandfather. While I already have two sets of his actual dress blues (one is standard Navy-issue and the other is his tailor-made, custom set), his whites were lost to time. When an online auction for a set of whites meeting my criteria was listed for less than $10.00, I began watching, hoping that the competition would be low and I set my snipe bid.
This jumper has a nice, crisp appearance for being 70+ years old. The crow of a Ship’s Cook 3/c is exactly what I was looking for (source: eBay image).
Just a few days ago, I received notice that the auction closed and my bid had been accepted as the winner. I acquired the uniform for less than $11.00 (plus a few bucks more for shipping costs) and I was amazed that this set would sell for such a low price when so many had sold for well over $50.00 during my previous years of searching.
A check of the tag inside the jumper shows the tag of a tailor based in both Honolulu and San Francisco. I can’t wait to get these in hand to see if there are any of the typical custom features that are found in many of the WWII tailor-made blues (source: eBay image).
The bargains are still out there for those who arm themselves with knowledge and patience and have a little bit of luck.
