A vet from my home town died and his WWII Marine Uniforms are coming up for auction. Looks like a set of blues plus another uniform. Can you tell me what they are and possible value at auction.
The 6th Marine Div was formed primary from the elite Marine Raiders and saw battle at Okinawa. They were the only Marine Div formed and disbanded overseas. Many of them went on to be called the China Marines who at the end of the war went over to China to disarmed the Japanese Army. These uniforms are special to me and its a damn shame the family doesn't keep them. Anyhow find out the name of the Vet and no doubt their will be a wealth of history to go with it.
Thanks Dow. We knew this man and family all our lives. Come from the same small farming community. I will try and get them. Is $50. per uniform too much?
IMO $50.00 per uniform, if you are buying to resell, NO.... Of course I look at my opinion based on reselling either as a whle or parting them out.
Harsh way to look at value, but is honest from a dealer-collector standpoint.In my town here there are WW2 uniforms all over our junk-antique-consignment shops, I pass everyone up( even yesterday) unless they are cheap, and the insignia-SSI's collar discs,ribbon bars, etc are worth more than the total cost.
Uniforms are new to me. Picked up a couple in my travels but never anything elaborate or expensive. So this is more of a feal good thing.
I will let you know if I get them.
After Dow was nice enough to identify the uniforms and give his advice, my brother decided to go it alone with this one. Which is just as well. My plan was to package it and get it to someone like Dow that would maintain it. There is no real money involved here so I anticipated just a feel good we preserved history thing.
The good news is that the uniform will be displayed in my brother Newspaper Museum. He was able to get a hat and a photo of Frank in Uniform. I also told him to get with Frank's son and write down anything Frank said about the war.
So in the end, the uniform and memory will be preserved and displayed in his home town.
The farmers from Winters were interesting during the war. Children of farmers were exempt from the draft, yet most of them, like Frank, volunteered anyway. So everything about this uniform speaks of history and valor.
Anyway, thanks guys and especially Dow for helping.
Awesome! It is very nice to get these uniforms complete with inisgnia. I feel they are currently undervalued. While most do hover around the $30-60 mark, some can bring $75-150 or more for named and researched ones.
Charlie ended up paying $180 for both which included the white dress hat. There was also a Beret, new. But I do not know if the Beret has anything to do with his assignment.