Is it just me?

[Slick]

Hey Jolly

Point taken. Still, to be so upset about what someone offers and what someone is willing to pay, takes the "fun" out of the hobby and turns it into something else. Not sure what that is, but it isn't "fun". Making money is "fun". Acquiring more stuff is "fun". Being upset about it, not "fun".

Rick

[HAZORD]

@smle2009,

It's hard to tell why some things go for exorbitant prices and other things that are rare never sell. Of course it takes two stubborn people to run the bidding up, and who knows why each of them wants the thing. New collectors tend to pay a lot for crap when they first start collecting, as they are unfamiliar with how available things are and how much they should go for. Advanced collectors might only need that one item to complete their collection, so they throw caution to the wind and run the bidding up. Sometimes, they might only want one thing in their collection, and the thing they are bidding on might be something they fired or handled when they were in the military, so they throw caution to the wind and drive up the prices. The dangerous ones are the ones with unlimited cash, and an agenda. They want it for their personal collection to try to impress their buddies, or they know how they can resell it to make a lot more money. A company was mentioned earlier in this thread, that makes repros. They have purchased Russian projectiles from collections that were sold on Gunbroker, so they could have a examples to copy, so they could sell inert resin/foam copies to the military for hundreds of dollars per copy. They get their investment back on the first sale. This type of purchase is particularly infuriating, as the item has been removed from a private collection and the market is flooded with counterfeits that are too expensive for the common collector to buy and available for sale only to the military.

Another thing that has driven prices skyward, was the 9/11 attack and all the new security procedures that keep us from having any ordnance shipped into the U.S. Things that used to be scrapped out are now completely demilled and run through chipping machines that turn the metal into chips the size of poker chips. Our government is totally paranoid that someone might somehow remilitarize projectiles, cartridge cases, etc., so they destroy everything, thus making the items in collections more rare and collectable, and thus more expensive.

[Jolly Green]

I honestly can say that being "upset" about the auction I pointed out never happened. I simply brought it up when I found it going for so much when I went back through my Watch List. Something I do to see what items sold for that have gone into orbit. As Haz just pointed out, in the auction I mentioned, the item I posted about was bought by a company to copy and resell. The unfortunate thing for us hobby collectors is that something like this gives the said item a false inflated value. One that other sellers use to gauge what they want or think they should or can get.
I've learned and practice not to stress out about thimgs over which I have no control. I especially try not to stress out about my love, collecting ordnance. It is my happy place.

[Lou]

I guess I was a little cheesed when I first saw the result of that auction. Ive been in negotiation to add this exact type munition to my collection and after the auction,"boop" priced right out of the market/hobby on that deal. Funny how I could almost hear through the email that the trade cost had just gone way up. My fault for being of the working middle class I guess. No complaints though. I'll run into something down the line.......Dont know why anyone would want that example anyway? Its just a cast copy with spoon/arming parts?
And ontop of that,Ive seen a few of these here and there,isnt this example a rather sloppy cast one at that? Ive seen them way crisper,almost to the point of having to look pretty close, just to be sure.

[Jolly Green]

He's just going to copy it to offer as a teaching aid.

[ordman]

Hey Guys
Maybe Santa will bring us all what we want this christmas.
I know we have all been nice this year right?
HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS
And a cartridge in a pear tree

[Lou]

Heck yeah,Ive been blessed more times than I can count this year.
Cartridge in a PROJECTILE tree dont ya know :