Pics from the show

Well, the Vintage Productions show is officially over - and what an event it was! Sure was great to see all of our old friends here - and nice to make some new ones as well. For some reason we had several swords consigned to us this event - US, German, and Japanese. We hoe to have them live on the site and up for bid very soon.

Among the other items we're bringing back is an AMAZING collection of official original pictures and documents from the Nuremberg Trials - a true piece of history. It was definitely quite an experience to be able to look at something like that up close.

Anyway, I'm headed back tomorrow eve, and John is staying for a couple more days to meet with some costume houses and other consignors. Turning out to be quite a productive weekend for Manion's.

Here are some pics from the event, enjoy!

California Uber Alles!

We're here at the West Coast Historical Militaria Collectors Show in Pomona, California. It is a fantastic event, very well organized and smoothly run by world renown Vintage Productions - visit their site and check out their inventory of quality militaria and historic collectibles.

If you are a militaria dealer, who regularly sets up at shows, you definitely want to add this one to your list. If you are a collector, you will be very hard pressed to find a better opportunity to find items to add to your collection.

We've already taken in quite a bit of consignment, and have commitments from several dealers who are dropping off boxes after the show. So, if you couldn't make the event - check back with www.manions.com to bid on items consigned during the show.

Multi-tasking at Manion's

As usual, there is quite a bit going on here at Manion's International Auction House. We're still processing the "Million Dollar Collection" recently consigned to us. Right now, every single person who works at Manion's is often doing at least two or three different jobs - some more than others. Describers taking photos and assessing consignment before it comes in; the girls from shipping are now tagging items in half the weekand Conway is constantly setting reserve bid prices (you thought he was hard to get a hold of before...).

Gary is not only making sure the items get up on the Manion's site, but is: answering List it Yourself questions, posting items on eBay, setting up ProxiBid auctions, taking photos, designing ads - and pretty much whatever he can do to make things run smoothly around here.

Sue and Carol are not only dealing with customer service issues - they are now cropping and tweaking photos as well. Guy is constantly tagging items in as well, in addition to doing descriptions and following up with consignors. And on the weekends - you should see what this guy pulls out of garage sales and thrift stores...he's like a bloodhound for the stuff!

Long story short, everyone here is working their hardest to keep our forward momentum rolling strong. Things are going better than ever and we certainly appreciate the support of all our fantastic customers.

Looks like our next road trip will take us to the Military Relics and Weapons show in St. Paul, Minnesota at the state fairgrounds. This is a great little show that is getting better and better all the time. I saw a few of our European customers were in attendance last time, indicating that word has gotten out across the pond. Of course we will be accepting consignment at the event - so get those boxes packed up and bring them down to the show!

Also, we have an amazing historic aviation collection that will be going live very soon. Some of the items in this group will make you drool - especially if you are an aviation enthusiast, military and commercial. Personal items and autographs related to notable figures such as: Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, Wright Brothers, Admiral Byrd, Lafayette Ecadrille pilots, astronauts, Flying Tigers - and on and and on. Simply amazing. We're taking care of some final details and hope to have the date set soon - stay tuned to Manion's Collecting News for more details!
Here are some pictures - as you can see, we've got a TON OF STUFF! But don't let that stop you from consigning; we're rotating new items in with the old and getting them online as fast!

More consignment than ever

It is official. We have more consignment at Manion's than ever have before!

Many of you have viewed, and bid, on the sweetheart and other items consigned by the family of William R. Forsen - there are well over 1000 different groupings in that lot. I thought that was big. John and Joe just returned from picking up the biggest single group of consignment Manion's has ever received, according to John (and he should know). It is mainly US related, sorry German enthusiasts, and there are some absolutely fantastic aviation related pieces in addition to the largest collection of unit histories in private hands, and insignia spanning from the Civil War to modern day.

As if that wasn't enough, the day after that collection came in, Jody and Guy returned with another Penske truck loaded with another highly significant collection of aviation items. Apparently the collection was sought after by the Smithsonian, but the family decided to auction the items through Manion's. Good news for the collecting community, as many times when items are donated to a museum, especially on the scale of the Smithsonian, they are never to be seen by the public again. In addition, most people do not realize that once you give an item to a museum, they are free to do with it what they wish. Many times, these items are rapidly sold to cover overhead, much to the chagrin of those who thought they were doing the right thing with their cherished items.

We're rotating other consignment received to be processed at the same time as these collections - so by all means don't stop sending it in. These collections are going to attract a lot of attention to the site - we already have around 10-20 new people signing up each day (which is another first for Manion's).

I've attached some pictures of the collections in the process of being cataloged...I predict some weekends of work in the near future! Those of you who are familiar with our facility, check out the massive amount of boxes yet to unpacked down in the break room area - that's right, we had to utilize every bit of space.

Things are looking good at Manion's...stay tuned to Manion's Collecting News for updates!

Militaria in the news

Hello again, greetings from Manion's Collecting News.

We have been bustling along here at the auction. We're getting all of the consignment we brought back from The Show of Shows military collecting event in Louisville, Kentucky. It looks like the first of the SOS special auctions will begin this Monday, March 10 and end on March 24th. We're running between 100-150 items in this first auction, which is a very small portion of what we brought back, but we wanted to be able to coordinate it with our Military Trader ad so we expedited the process so we could get the ball rolling. The second auction will have more items available and should go live soon after the first special Show of Shows auction ends.

There have been a couple of interesting articles related to militaria as of late, the first questions the ethics of selling WWII German militaria at auction in New Zealand, and the second is a very interesting Newsweek article "Badges of Secrecy". The link is to an interactive website where Trevor Pagelen, author of the new book "I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me", a new book about secret operations. There is sound and video, as Pagelen himself explains the symbolism behind the badges - highly interesting stuff here...

Nazi relics auction "distasteful"

Badges of Secrecy

Oh yes, in case you missed it, and you certainly would if you do not live in the Kansas City area, our own Jody Tucker was featured in the business section of The Kansas City Star on Tuesday. The article was about Internet businesses in the metro area - how can you do a story about that and not mention Manion's? The Star felt the same - and even included a picture of our fearless leader in one of the isles of our storage area. It was pretty cool - thank you Suzanne King! I'll try to get a pdf of the article up soon...

In addition, we are in the process of bringing in some high-profile collections from world renown collectors. John and Guy are headed out on Monday to pick up a massive collection of mainly US items, and next month Jody and Guy leave to collect an very advanced aviation collection with some absolutely amazing pieces of aviation history (the word is that the Smithsonian tried to get a hold of it, thank goodness the family did not agree to their terms or it would be sucked into the black hole never to be seen again!). Also, yours truly is working with the family of a local collector this weekend to catalog several hundred items, also mainly US, which will soon be featured on the auction.

Things are looking great at Manion's - check back soon for more information!

Stolen Valor Act update

Greetings militaria collectors!

I just read this story in the Oroville Mercury-Register online, and thought it would be a good time to revisit the Stolen Valor Act. Looks like they've got another one - Michael Alan Fraser is accused of violating 18 U.S.C. Section 704 (b) - False Claims about Receipt of Military Decorations or Medals.

Most of you will remember when the Stolen Valor Act was originally signed, there was widespread fear that militaria collectors would get the short end of the stick on this deal. Even after it was determined by officials and concerned parties that the legislation was worded to only affect those who possessed military medals for fraudulent intent, a "wait and see" outlook was held by many collectors.

Well over a year later, it appears the collecting community is out of danger. While many phonies have been prosecuted under the national law, and many states have instituted their own Stolen Valor legislation, there has been no backlash on collectors of military medals to date.

In our endeavor to monitor the news for Stolen Valor Act updates, I have compiled quite a collection of links to related news stories. In fact, I have provided a "Stolen Valor Act" link on the right side of the page where I frequently post articles from across the nation. If anyone has any more information they would like to provide - please do not hesitate to contact me.

Also, I thought I would provide a link to the P.O.W. Network Phonies Index this site has nationwide information about suspected military phonies and appears to be updated regularly. If you suspect someone's story doesn't quite add up, check their list...you may be surprised and find a name you recognize.

Nazi Gold

Hello all.

We're busy here at the auction organizing all of the consignment we brought back from SOS. Looks like we're going to run one or two special special auctions exclusively featuring items we brought back from the Show of Shows. We just tagged the first lot in and it's on the way to photography as I type.

Also, for those of you who know her, it's Gail's 50th birthday today. If you talk to her on the phone anytime soon, be sure to wish her a happy one (or give her your condolences).

Some of you are no doubt already aware, but treasure hunters have begun excavation of man-made caves thought to hold massive amounts of Nazi treasure - here's a link to the article.

Hope this finds you all well, and check the site soon for items consigned during the greatest militaria collecting event on the planet - The Show of Shows in Louisville, Kentucky.

Back in the 913

Hello again militaria enthusiasts!

Well, the great Show of Shows live blogging event was not quite the flurry of activity that I had hoped, but I was able to take some pictures and make some posts. As it turns out, the Verizon broadband card I employed for the task was having a bit of trouble in the expo center - sometimes it would work great, and other times it would chug along horribly slow. In addition, the battery on said laptop was under performing as well. I would have to go out into the foyer of the building to really get it to work in an acceptable fashion, and that meant leaving my colleagues to fend for themselves at our tables, which were constantly being visited by Manion's customers old and new.

At any rate, the Show of Shows military collector extravaganza was once again absolutely mind-blowing. I barely got any time to shop for myself. Of course I was there to work, but usually there is a bit of down-time where I can go out and look for items for my collection - this did not really happen this time around. We were BUSY. In addition to collecting a ton (literally) of consignment, we brought some interesting items (currently on the auction) for display and they really attracted a lot of attention. Especially the Luftwaffe M40 single decal helmet that had the original stamps and mailing address fixed to the front (see above pic). Apparently the WWII GI who scored the item just slapped the needed material on the front and dropped it off to be mailed out - imagine doing that today!

The Show of Shows is such a huge event you can walk down an isle twenty times and see something new on each trip. We were located right near the front, and at one point a gentleman came up to me and said that his nephew had a table there, and was wondering how he would find it. I tried to tell him that he needed to go get a program, look up his nephew's name or organization, then locate it on the floor plan. He wasn't interested in doing that and said he'd just wander around and would find him eventually. I wonder how that worked out for him?

I did come away with a couple of items: A copy of On the Ground: the Secret War in Vietnam, which I was fortunate enough to have signed by co-author John Peters, and a very cool french made, 1920s era, lithograph of a Doughboy sneaking across a WWI battlefield with a grenade in one hand and a Colt M1911 in the other. The lithograph was really the only thing that grabbed my attention throughout the entire event. I was walking down an isle, and caught it out of the corner of my eye, and walked right back to it. The vendor was very fond of it, too, and was enthusiastic that I shared the opinion. He made me a great deal and it is currently my favorite possession. I'll try to get a picture of it and post it at a later date.

In addition, I did get my well worn copy of Band of Brothers signed by three more WWII 506th PIR vets: Shifty Powers, Buck Compton, and Don Malarky. These guys are freaking rock stars at these events. Obviously they had no idea they would be so famous; they all seem to take it pretty graciously. They are always hosted by a top notch outfit called Valor Studios. For someone who loves militaria, Manion's is a perfect place to work, but I must say I am jealous of those folks. Check out their website, and make an investment in a historically important work of art.

Unfortunately, the 506th Vets didn't stay at the Executive Inn this year. Nothing quite like sharing a cold one with Earl McClung in the hotel bar. But being so spread out, the hotel doesn't exactly lend itself to a man in his 80s getting around expeditiously and they chose another accommodation.

Speaking of, the word was that this is the last year the hotel will be around. Apparently they are going to bulldoze it for much needed expo center parking. Personally I have mixed feelings. The place is rundown, I don't think anyone can argue with that, but there is something about that "Shining-esque" decor that you just don't find anymore. The hotel bar is quite a place, too. Imagine all of the deals that have been put together there over the years, if those walls could talk...anyway, my buddy Ben and I gave her an excessively appropriate send off Saturday night. So if you feel like you should have as well but didn't get the chance, rest assured we took care of it for you.

Here are some more pics from the show. So nice to see all of our old friends there, and a special thank you to all of our new consignors. We unloaded the truck this morning and have mountains of militaria to sort through. We are already underway processing them, and hope to get them up soon.

For those who couldn't make the event, we are going to do a special Show of Shows auction featuring all the consignment we collected at the event. Granted, it's a tiny fraction of all that was available, but we brought back some GREAT stuff and are happy to bring it to you. Stay tuned for more information!