40MM Cutaways, worth?

[grog18b]

Howdy Gents, I have several 40MM US and foreign low and high velocity grenades (all inert) and was wondering what the approximate value on them be if I made some of them into cutaways? Are cutaways more valuable to collectors, or less than an inert complete round? I've seen a few go for quite a bit of money. I do replicas of 40MM, mostly low velocity, and have done some props for movies such as the Terminator series, and also some for historical displays and museums. I am able to replicate fuzes, casings, and projectiles, and producing a cutaway should not be a problem, even using mostly original parts. I guess my main question is, what would collectors value these at if professionally done, with mostly original internal parts, mounted on either a presentation wooden base, or in a display box with glass cover?

Thanks guys, GROG

 

[DEADLINE222]

I have been collecting inert ordnance for almost a decade, and the incontrovertible lesson I have learned in terms of value is:

It is subjective, based on the individual and often determined by an irrationally high, final bid on Ebay.

On some days I have paid nauseating, high prices for a specimen and on the next day I will succumb to the old "I don't want to carry it out of here, so how much will you give me."

Ergo; pennies on the dollar.

Read the next sentence very carefully.

I dislike placing a value on an item, because every time I value something; doing so gradually prices me further and further out of the hobby.

However, I will do my best to answer your question as both a collector, restorer and fabricator. Depending on my enthusiasm, level of fatigue or blood sugar; it goes something like this:

"One dollar a millimeter" =Mint condition, including stenciling.

"50 cents a millimeter" =Aforementioned over 75mm.

"25 cents a millimeter" =Poor condition over 75mm.

''5-20 bucks'' =Poor condition under 75mm.

Bomb casings in any condition =Spare no expense / crazy money. :tongue:

I make around $15.00 an hour at work, so I often base my fabrication rates around that.

So....a now poor condition 40mm whatever that took 10 hours to restore and/or cutaway would cost around $170.00.

However, out of my tons and tons of inert ordnance, I don't own a single cutaway.

Cutaways, like German and Japanese ordnance (because of insane asking prices) are not worth turning my head for.

On a side note....

Real world, non-Ebay auctions are weird. They are a magical place where worthless scrap metal is first assigned a monetary ''value''. I don't understand these events yet due to my relatively small amount of experience. All I know is that at these events my value system is incompatible if not unnecessary.

In summary, when it comes to value, I have come to the conclusion that only inert ordnance collectors collect inert ordnance. No one else has a clue.

 

[Slick]

Yea. What he said. Exactly. Except for the bomb casing thing. Too heavy to mess with.

 

[pzgr40]

However, out of my tons and tons of inert ordnance, I don't own a single cutaway.

Cutaways, like German and Japanese ordnance (because of insane asking prices) are not worth turning my head for.

Times have changed..... when I started -legal- collecting in 1983 the standard phrase on collectors meetings when offering a cutaway model was ; "a quarter is missing, so I am only willing to pay 3/4 of the price" at best, most people did not even want to have any cutaway models in their collection.
In facto, I think I was one of the first ones in the Netherlands that was interested in a cutaway models collection only.

 

[US-Subs]

No such thing as too heavy, but they are still just scrap metal with no intrinsic value. Pretty, pretty scrap metal.

 

[grog18b]

Thank you all for your responses. I am also capable of making cutaways of fuzes, and mines, as well as initiators (switches for you Brits ) I appreciate the time you took in responding. GROG