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Dave Online Content OP
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SS daggers - market place scarcity. As most of you know, I am primarily a collector of early, maker marked, SS daggers.

It seems to me that these SS daggers – either in good condition or rare or both - are much harder to find these days. Particularly the rarer ones. I doubt that the number actually in collector’s hands has decreased. I think it has increased due to daggers still being sold by GIs or their children or grandchildren.

Possible explanations:

1. With much improved communications (Internet + digital photography) they are passing between collectors.

2. Dealers have waiting lists so what they acquire never makes their lists or website or show displays.

3. Existing owners are sitting on them.

4. Russians bought them and we’ll never hear of them again.

What are your thoughts?

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Originally Posted By: Dave
SS daggers - market place scarcity. As most of you know, I am primarily a collector of early, maker marked, SS daggers.

It seems to me that these SS daggers; either in good condition or rare or both - are much harder to find these days. Particularly the rarer ones. I doubt that the number actually in collectors hands has decreased. I think it has increased due to daggers still being sold by GIs or their children or grandchildren.

Possible explanations:

1. With much improved communications (Internet + digital photography) they are passing between collectors.

2. Dealers have waiting lists so what they acquire never makes their lists or website or show displays.

3. Existing owners are sitting on them.

4. Russians bought them and we'll never hear of them again.

What are your thoughts?



Not only all of the above; if you sell one or two where are you going to "invest" the proceeds???

Last edited by Texasuberalles; 09/19/2015 08:34 PM.
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Dave Online Content OP
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Having other hobbies plus a 25 year old house, I would never have that problem :-)

Good conditioned SS daggers are one of the things that sells reasonably well these days, if you can find them.

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Dave, I don't think they are that hard to find. Much, of course, depends on your cull factor, taste and what you are looking for. What I see is SS daggers, including early ones in nice condition, just aren't selling, even at bargain prices. This is true for most German militaria. There are exceptions, of course. The hobby is in a funk and probably will be for some time to come. Most of my recent sales, not just daggers, have been outside the USA. The seller these days almost has to practically give something away to sell it. American collectors don't buy as often as they used to, especially here on GDC. The economy is worse than depicted by the government and the media, and disposable income is not what it used to be. Unemployment is high, the future is uncertain and hobbies are taking a back seat to everything else. I have a number of daggers I would like to sell, but know they must be listed ridiculously low to even hope to sell them. So, I will hang onto them. Perhaps established dealers are doing better than private sellers. I don't know.

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There are still lots of nice SS daggers out there... But a lot of new collectors they don't want to invest the money anymore....maybe because they don't have it. Like Grumpy said, there's lots of unemployment so it's not easy for the new collector to start in the first place. For Canada there is the CAD and USD exchange rate as well. At the moment it's not really good to buy from the US as a Canadian because the CAD is a lot weaker than the USD.

And there's the Russians that get away with lots of stuff! LOL - JK!


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I think that the strong US dollar has really impacted the sales of collectibles to out of country buyers. The Russians, who were one of the key drivers of demand for a while, have their own economic problems on top of the weak ruble vs dollar, so sales to that country are down to a trickle so my dealer friends say.

Within the USA, I think that the factors mentioned above (economic uncertainty, worries about job losses or reduced incomes, no real economic growth) has impacted internal sales. The relatively high prices for even more common items makes most people think twice about what to spend their money on.

As an aside, I think that the high US dollar compared to other currencies (especially the Canadian $ which now makes items cost 35% more just in exchange rates) is driven not by the engine of economic growth or stellar US economic performance, but by the uncertainty in the rest of the world... for example the Greek meltdown and the European-German response to through good money after bad, caused many people in the world to move their investments out of Europe and into the relative safety of the US.

Collectibles are not currency and are not liquid.. to move them takes time and patience.

John


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Dave Online Content OP
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Exchange rates don't favor buyers outside the USA. The Ruble is worth dog biscuits and major currencies - like the CAD, Aus$, Euro, Chinese Yuan are all down.

But that should favor sellers from those areas. A dagger bought by a Canadian 10-15 years ago is 30% better off even if sold at the same price in the US.

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On the supply side new woodwork daggers are getting far scarcer and in poor condition than what we seeing even 15 yrs ago. smile

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Also . 15 years ago E-bay banned the swaz. Many nice SS and SA daggers were pulled after being reported as offensive. Then culled by enterprising collectors outside of e-bay for short money . Some were kept, others put into circulation. There was more critical mass so to speak.

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Originally Posted By: lakesidetrader
On the supply side new woodwork daggers are getting far scarcer and in poor condition than what we seeing even 15 yrs ago. smile


Agree with Paul. A recent find. Undamaged, but neglected.

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Dave Online Content OP
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I agree with Barry and Paul about scarcity and condition.

I'm not sure about eBay and the better SS daggers. I watched that pretty carefully and saw only 2 or 3 that I wanted. Lots of SA - few SS.

You see very little even advertised today

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I attended an auction of militaria last week that included a large number of decent TR daggers. Russians were there buying them up literally by the arm load. In spite of that, I was able to acquire a very special SS dagger that I will discuss in my lecture "The Collecting Edge: Researching Daggers, Totenkopf Rings, and Pins of the SS" at The Max Show next week.

Enjoy!

RossK.

www.ssdaggers.com
www.ss-numbers.com


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heer oberst.
nice to hear that you aqired a ss dagger at this auction i havnt seen many russians at any recent events last year they were absent from the max and sos show we could count them on our fingers hope they show up at this years max show i have all ready loaded your liquid drugs diet coke in meine truck ready for the max i wish you luck on your seminar on ss daggers and ss honor rings hope you mention me in your speach andy militarynut who knows maybe i will get some one to buy at the show to look at some rings thanks so much get there safe andy

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I simply think that SS daggers are the most desirable and hence, rarely offered on the market, simple as that.

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Dave Online Content OP
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Exactly, Pat.

The few that are sold go from one fellow to another. Or, if consigned to a dealer, sold to someone on a waiting list.

Will you be at MAX ?

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I will have some available at the MAX Show and Ross's seminar is a must attend for anyone interested in SS Daggers with numbers.
Friday evening starting at 7:30PM in the ballroom of the host Double Tree Hotel


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I will not be going to the Max show, though I would love to, it has been 3 years since I've been to my last show. I'm hoping to be going next year, it will all depends on the currency exchange rate. wink

Last edited by Patrice; 09/24/2015 04:27 AM.
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hi members
i believe i will have one of the best conditioned ss chained daggers in the show if your at the show please come and look i am in room c on the wall im the good looking man wearing my new red donald trump hat make america great again nanny1fl@aol.com thanks guys have a wonderfull show andy militarynut

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Andy,

Really? Donald the Dump? Say it isn't so.

John


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The Donald Trump sideshow... isn't that similar to how Hitler came to power? Just sayin'...

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The Donald Trump sideshow... isn't that similar to how Hitler came to power? Just sayin'...

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Dave Online Content OP
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SS daggers, gents, not politics, please.

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hi dave
sorry your right no politics just daggers . if any one here wants to talk to me about my hat at the max show or any where else i would be happy to explain my thoughts and my views god bless america and most of all god bless our soldiers see you guys soon best andy militarynut

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Sorry guys...no politics, only political daggers here.

Andy, I would love to see your dagger but I won't be at the show. Too bad since the talks hosted by Ron Weinand look like good ones.

John


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hi john
thank you for your intrest can you give me your private e mail my bride has some pictures of this beauty from my private collection thanks andy militarynut

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I agree that SS daggers most likely will remain the most wanted 3R daggers: for obvious reasons.

What I believe this hobby really could use to get it boosted again is:

- Less production of & dealing in fakes: this burns and scares off too many new collectors

- Less activity in the "In Memoriam" forum: a whole generation of passionate collectors seem to pass away... not being replaced I think...

- Another Spielberg's "Saving private Ryan"-like, super hit WW2 movie, like only you Americans can produce them in Hollywood. The "Night of the long knifes" would make an excellent storyline... smile

Best regards,

Herman


You never have enough HJ-knifes!

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