Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Its never too hard to find Japanese swords selling on eBay for more than $1k. Just so happens that last week there were more than five that surpassed that high water mark. The other thing that is interesting about this group is that save for one - all had really competitive bidding.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
You know something is good when three bidders chase it over $5,000 and the last day sees the final sale price spike by fifteen hundred dollars! Its been a long time since I've seen a blade not made in Japan sell for north of $7k on eBay so you might want to check out the classic V-42 Stiletto to see what all the fuss is about. Is it just coincidence that the same model of knife rang in at the #2 position this week albeit with considerably less fanfare. With edged weapons taking the top 3 spots you know one of them had to be a Japanese sword and this one represents that niche well. But perhaps the most intriguing item is the battle flag from a US Navy submarine. That is what I would put on my wall if I wanted to spend a couple of grand on a piece of history. The bomber jacket reminds me of a fad in the late 1980s when these jackets were the coolest things for teens to wear - my high school sweetheart had one that I would sometimes "borrow" from her.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Would you start a Japanese Samurai Sword at a minimum bid of just $1? Well I guess if you were confident that it was going to sell for over $2k with thirty bids then maybe - why not!?. This Top-5 list has a little bit of diversity in it considering that it includes a pair of navy binoculars and a tanker's helmet. If you take a look at the bidding pattern of the Navy binoculars you will see that it was just two bidders willing to take the auction over $1500 and the winning bidder came in with a pair of strong shots in the last 25-seconds to steal the win. My question about the helmet is did this really offer much protection? I guess if you were inside of a hot armored vehicle maybe it wasn't as important that your helmet be able to stop a bullet.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Whether its daggers, swords, bayonets, or machetes - there are always great selling edged weapons in the WWII category of eBay. For this post I went back over the last week of closed items to find examples from several different countries that sold for over $1,000+. Truth be told you could fill up a page just with Japanese blades that match that description. However, I wanted to included some diversity so I researched the category to find some great examples to broaden the post.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
This blog entry features the top selling items last week in the WWII subcategory for United States on eBay. One lesson that these items demonstrate is that a story with documentation can exponentially increase the value of a collectible. Would you have thought that the Case V-44 knife would sell for over $10k? If not you need to click over and read the history of this particular piece. Moving on to the bomber jacket lot - it isn't so surprising that this group of items did so well. It might surprise you to know the seller starting the bidding at .99! Every auction featured here sold for north of $1k so click the link and check them out.
