Bill Shea's WWII Memorabilia Blog RSS

WAR BOOTY: Creepy hobby, historically important, or the spoils of war? Bill recently spent time with Chris Vernon, of the Star-Metroland, to offer his insight into the controversial hobby of collecting militaria.        **READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE**     1. Explain to me your customer profile. What does the average collector of Third Reich militaria look like?     Do you remember the song called “Universal Soldier” by Donovan? That would describe my customer base. I have blue collar workers as well as a supreme court judge. I have customers who are Baptist ministers and others who are...

RECAPPING THE SOS 2018   Well, the 2018 Show of Shows, or should I say Super Outstanding Show, is “history” and it is definitely one for the books. If you didn’t get to make it to Louisville this year, please consider putting it on your “must do” list for 2019.          As always, there are a few different factors which make one year different from a previous year. The 2018 SOS was no exception. Once again it took place in one very big hall at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, KY.  When we walked in on Wednesday...

One of the main concerns I hear from potential collectors is that authentic German World War II items are too expensive. The guy earning an average wage cannot afford to collect these “rare” relics because of the cost. Many new collectors shy away from collecting and don’t even get started because they speculate that these collectibles are simply too costly.     They say they love the history of the events leading up to WWII and know a great deal about the Axis powers including The Third Reich, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan because they have seen the movies and...

CONDITION, CONDITION, CONDITION!!!!   Dear German and US Militaria Collectors...Lend me your ears and your eyes!     You've heard the expression pertaining to real estate...location, location, location! You may have heard the expression regarding displaying your militaria collection...presentation, presentation, presentation!       Well, here is another term you should consider...condition, condition, condition! For this brief overview, let's talk about German/Nazi helmets from the Third Reich (1933-1945) and specifically World War II.     This time, I wanted to share with you two German M-42 (Model 1942) Army Combat helmets. Here are two examples:        This is in...

 This and hundreds of other exciting stories of WWII treasures will appear in Volume III of my series THE STORIES BEHIND THE TREASURES OF WORLD WAR II "The Making of a Collectorholic". I hope to have that ready sometime in late 2018.   The Saga of the Never Been Told Story of the "U-505 Commander’s Pistol"   I  could write a book about this one but I’ll give you the condensed version. Otherwise, I won’t live long enough to write all of these stories. My obsession with military history and collectibles has taken me all over the globe. Yet some of the best items...