Doesn't seem to be much of an uproar, and I hardly see the comparison to parting out a grouping of medals as valid. Groupings are individual components, a dagger is an integral unit.
Now, if you busted up an EK2 to sell the core, frame and ring separately, then that'd be a good comparison.
I personally am against tearing apart a dagger to turn a fast $ on ebay, maybe some are for it, some don't care.
I think it shows that the person doing it is in it primarily for the $, and, like other things, "historically significant" is in the eyes of the beholder - And the majority of these likely were not ill-used or neglected until he got ahold of them.
It may be tempting to think "Oh, theres a gazillion of them out there, a few dozen broken up here and there isn't going to hurt".
Fact is, theres a finite number of these relics out there, and the relative short supply of TR items vs the amount of people who want them is fairly low, which is probably the main reason pricing has spiked so much.I can't say these are "sacred" to me, but I respect them as a collector for what they are, no matter if they are factory fresh, or salty with flaws ,,, And I'll be damned before I ever consider mutilating one just to put a few extra $ in my pocket, I'd expect to be treated as a pariah among other collectors if I did.
