We just had our annual Militaria Auction in Wellington. I didn't get to attend being far north of really really windy welly but as there was a bunch of enfield related items I did put in a couple of postal bids. Overall there was something like 1600 items, about a third of which was guns, a third in parts and the rest in books, daggars, uniforms etc.
There was what I thought was a really good range of enfields, from military to target rifles, at my a guess about 25-30 rifles.
In the end I might have the top bid on two of my items of interest, one of which I hope is a long long sought after copy of James Sweets 1954 book, with stiff cardboard cover no less, for ... $85. lol, but I've wanted that for at least 5 years, so the price was worth it.
(On that note btw, regarding the name saving I've been doing on enfieldresource.com to encourage the Sweet family to reprint that book, I have been able to pass 100 names of folks who'd like a copy of that book. I haven't spoken with them recently but I hope thats a lot of incentive for a reprint)
Something I've noticed at this auction, and also the other auction where all the army no8 enfields were put up for sale, is that prices for the items I was after were all at about real world retail level, with very very few items looking like bargains pricewise. There's no doubt that simply having access to these neat things has a value of its own these days, and I think is whats making auctions no longer the haven of wholesale prices or sub wholesale bargains for enfields and other classic militaria.
For those interested their website is Page Title
At last, my very own 1954 Sweets book, awesome!
