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!