A bit of an OT rant,... (long) ...
I have to vent just a little bit, guys. I'm sorry.
This is an item that was being sold by a buddy of mine (let us call him 'Tom').
https://www.milsurps.com/images/imported/deleted.gif
Regardless of their contempt the self-important ostriches at ebay have for us, they are still a bit of a center for such sales. You can see the auction here;
http://cgi.ebay.com/Case-V-42-FSSF-K...item4ceede3646
It is an amazing item and what should be just about the pride of ANY WWII blade collection - a borderline museum piece with provenance and one of the holy grails of the area as I understand it. I don't care if you like it or hate it because I am just going to tell you a story. It seems that we have gotten so caught up in the search for these items that we have forgotten why we do this - it appears that the quest for the objects has often been overtaken by egos, jealousy, envy, and spite - and we have forgotten that a large part of the value of these items is that they represent a time and place when an entire generation selflessly gave to us, when 'uncommon valor was a common thing'.
More is the shame.
In this story, it took several years for my buddy, 'Tom', to finally get the last owner to part with this group of items and as sometimes happens in these convoluted deals, one of his 'friends' ended up with it in trade and without knowing or remembering that Tom was interested, he then turned around and gave it to my buddy to sell for him (kinda thick-headed but he really didn’t remember that Tom was interested) ... So the item for sale is not even his item, Tom is just selling it because he knows what it is, and the rest is just a bit of salt in the wound. Of course he would never say any of this but I really don't care and I thought you guys might like to know just a little of how screwy things can get (which you are probably already well aware) and just exactly where that can lead.
The piece is right as rain, missing its original scabbard but gorgeous (the box in which it was stored even said on it "scabbard stored elsewhere" though no one can find it). It is part of a grouping of items and has a great deal of provenance that comes with it, including the vet's jump wings, a Silver Star and the actual dog tags of the fella to whom this knife was first issued. His kid was a dope head so he gave everything to the neighbor directing it to be given to his kid if he ever got his head straight. The kid didn’t. The items themselves are quite amazing because the vet had served all over the world - from Kiska, to North Africa, Sicily and Italy and then D-Day in Normandy - I never knew one soldier would serve so broadly. It is a great, documented piece with provenance to a real person - an average Noble American of that time who went home and spent the rest of his life within sight of the house in which he was born. But Tom just wanted to sell it now.
Trying to sell it, however, has turned into a nightmare for him - he has been called every name in the book by potential bidders and threatened to be 'outted' for being a fraud among other things. Lowball offers, insults, nit-picking, more personal attacks - you name it they tried it. As is often true - this top end item brought out the kooks in spades, but an avid collector of several things, Tom has sold some top end items in other collecting areas before (for a hundred grand and more), but there was nothing like the behavior that he saw surrounding this knife. Initially, there were no other Case V-42’s for sale, and then suddenly there were several up for sale to compete with it - something he found odd but, ... whatever. Then the emails started - up to several dozen a night when he got home - and many were aggressive and with the name calling or insults to his questionable parentage. What at first was amusing became ever more intense and it finally seemed that someone was actually orchestrating a plan to undermine the item and/or the seller. One particularly aggressive emailer even gave an actual order to 'pull that auction' because the item was clearly a fake. Well, Tom knows it isn't, but the guy shouting orders went thru great lengths to explain that it was a fake because there was no pin thru the pommel (so excellent is the item that it could barely be seen under the finish and would not show in a photo).
Suddenly one night the auction was cancelled by eBay. The explanation that it is against ebay policy to sell Silver Stars and other such medals, yet there are many that sell just fine on ebay. Then it is noticed that there is another seller with a V-42 that goes to great lengths to point out his pommel pin and that any then in the text of the auction goes on to state that lacking the pin are fakes. Some of the language of the sale ad is stunningly similar to the unbelievable emails that Tom had gotten from the pommel pin guy - leaving him quite certain that they are one and the same person. Did that other seller get his auction pulled? Or was it one of the others that emailed IMMEDIATELY after the auction was pulled trying to buy the item for a pittance (more than a reproduction but hardly what it finally sold for). Dunno, it's just kinda cruddy.
For several weeks he just ignored the whole subject and tried to not fume about it all, but hoping to sell it still and thinking this might in fact be the holdup, Tom had to actually clean a bit of the original finish from the pommel just to get the pin to show in a picture ... how ridiculous is that (though 'pommel pin guy' got a nice ‘now STFU’ email when the item was relisted … obviously the most aggressive pseudo-expert didn’t know his arse from a hole in the ground … but that didn't stop him from kicking and screaming as much as he could muster ...).
Predictably, the shenanigans started again when Tom re-listed the item a second time - this time without the medals. Again there were none of them for sale, and when he put it up suddenly there were several again to compete - oddly, several were the very same ones that had appeared with his on the first go around (that Tom thought had already sold, ... go figure ...). Personally, I never thought a knife would have a coat-tail that other knives could ride on, but there it is ... I am sure there are more tricks to why this is done, but I just couldn’t care less any more.
The seller, Tom, is a good guy but when I spoke to him two days before the end of the auction he said he’d had enough. Initially, he thought he might end up with the item if it didn’t sell but by that time, he no longer had any interest in ever owning it - at all - at any price - ever. The piece is a scourge and after the wringer he’s been run thru he almost hates to even look at it any longer. Why buy something like that if this is what happens to you when you try to sell it! At that time, he felt so strongly that I absolutely guarantee you, if he got any more angry BS filled emails he was gonna lose it - he was angry enough that I know he would film himself melting this knife down as he reads all the emails and blames each of those guys for his actions, and then he would put the melted slug of metal back on ebay as a ’former case v-42 once owned by a Silver Star awardee‘, along with the video on you-tube so you could all cry over the destruction of something so fine. I kid you not - I have seen him do exactly such a thing and walk away wiping his hands.
It is because some of you guys are absolutely insane - yes, even some of you reading this - and your over the top behavior is so ridiculous that this is what it evokes in people. I understand going after the fakers, but NOBODY wants to deal with that. There is no reason why anything should be this difficult to own or to sell. You guys are killing your own collecting areas and destroying those markets when these are the tactics you employ to collect your items. If this is how you treat those in your area I guarantee you that there are fewer people in your area and it is directly because of you - it drives people away and even seasoned collectors are discouraged.
After hearing more of the details of this story I can tell you for certain that I would never want to own this item - I will be more than satisfied to look at the pretty pictures of these in the books. Why would a new collector be motivated to enter such an area when this is what they face. The answer is that they wouldn‘t. And fewer and fewer of the seasoned guys will bother extending themselves either - why own it when you can‘t get rid it without great pains. And you guys with all your shenanigans and bravado will all end up being stuck with high priced items that nobody wants - nobody, new or old, is going to bother buying it when the people involved have made selling it such a nightmare. Without any buyers, all of those things that are so cherished and that folks worked so hard to acquire, will end up being worthless ... including and especially some of the top end items like this.
Congratulations.
The only reason that ‘Tom’ chose to not melt the thing down is because there were actually 2 bidders that were outstanding thru the whole process, and they wanted not just the knife but to keep the grouping all together (one of them is connected with a Special Forces museum and is really interested in the history surrounding the item). Thanks goodness there are still decent people to counteract the lunacy, but they didn‘t even win it. In the end it was two new bidders who quietly knew what it was - but the item had walked a very treacherous path before they even entered the picture and I feel sorry for any new guys that have had to go thru such a wringer, whether to buy or to sell. The games being played, the attitudes of supposed ‘experts’, the over the top tactics by people who appear to need therapy (or a lobotomy …), the jealousy and envy - it is amazing. Is this what we really desire for our hobbies, for what we want to do in our free time; artificially manipulating situations so advantage can be take of someone who may not have the wherewithal to withstand such abuses, just so we can hoard and gloat or whatever? Running around like a bull in a china shop with big shoulders, flying elbows and big egos and leaving an absolutely huge wake behind?
As for me, well, I’m just telling a story … telling it so that perhaps the good guys in each area can understand how important they are to their hobby. So that each of you remember that the longer you do this, the more important it is to go out of your way to make sure that you are encouraging instead of discouraging. So people understand that on the internet your words have a much bigger footprint and you speak for much more than just yourself, and that you really can change the fabric and nature of an area - for good or bad - so try to check you ego at the door before you start typing. You don’t have to be a leader in your hobby if that is not in you, but try to at least be a positive instead of a negative, and remember that it is all supposed to be for fun so sit back and try to enjoy it … the rest will hopefully just happen.
Best regards all.
