If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
My wife's uncle died at the age of 84 in the town of Danville, VA during December, 1999. He had collected antiques all of his life and he had several old barnes in his back yard. In the loft of one barn I found a set of old shackles dated to the mid-1800's, a Roby 1860 Sabre, an old wood canteen with CS on it with Danville, VA carved into it. One old Officers sword with a knights head on the handle. Inside the home were an assortment of old 1800's muskets and rifles. I had a choice of selling the estate at an estate auction or E-Bay. So I sold everything on E-Bay and Gun Broker.com I purchased some of the items myself with my 25 percent commission. We even found a bag of jewery in an outside freezer that included many working pocket watches. They averaged about $500 each on E-Bay and some of the old 1800's clocks went as much as $800 each. Funny that an Antique clock store offered me $50 for three of the clocks and I sold them on E-Bay for around $1,500 for all three.
But everytime I see something listed as "Barn Find", I pass.
Then again I have seen a vast collection of Civil War items in the home of a 93 year old woman. Her son is 60 years old. If he suddenly died you could very well see his items on E-Bay and he has uniforms, kepi's, forage hats and much much more. All the items for WWII that is in the SC Confederate Relic room is on loan from this very person and he will be featured on History Detectives on 07/07/08.
Leftcoast Yank,
The worth of any artifact in the economy of 2008 is difficult to figure. This weekend Heritage Auctions is holding an auction in Gettysburg, and there are several outstanding hats/caps. You can find much of their listings on eb*y.
To see an oustanding photograph (set actually) of an original CW contract forage cap go to Antiqueguns.com and click on Civil War Militaria. They have had this hat for quite some time priced at $2000.00. As a site Antiqueguns.com is generally overpriced (personal opinion) and seldom seems to sell much, but the close-up photographs of this old veteran are worth seeing. Good details.
Steve Sullivan
Comment