How NOT to store your WWII German edged weapons

Yikes! We'll file this one under the Homer Simpson 'Doh!' category . . .

Within the last week or so we received a large box of edged weapons for consignment, mainly of WWII German origin. So, we open the box and a bunch of oxidized metal flakes and brittle pieces of leather fell all over the floor. Not a good sign.

We pulled out about 15 or so edged weapons (SS, Prussian, Japanese, etc.), spread them out on the tables, and almost cried. It turns out the guy had them stored in a wet corner of his garage. We're talking tens of thousands of dollars in nicely preserved condition, but as they are we were thinking only a few hundred each. Well, as of today the senior SS NCO is up to $1500; it will be fun to watch.

Tour of Manion's International Auction Warehouse

Whenever we give customers and consignors a tour of our facility, they are always impressed by our operation. People have an idea in their mind of what we have going here, but really there is absolutely no way to understand the MASSIVE QUANTITY of militaria we are dealing with if you have never come in for a visit. Of course, logistically this is impossible for many.

At any rate, when we give visitors the nickel tour - it is never what they expected. They are especially blown away by our warehouse area; we've seen many jaws hit the floor. Thousands of square feet, full of floor to ceiling shelving, with tubs, boxes, and sleeves containing more historic collectibles than, I'd venture to say, anywhere in the world outside of the Smithsonian or similar organization. The comparison has been made many times to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when they are storing the Ark away, never to be seen again. Well, it's not quite like that - but is pretty impressive. Watch the video below to get a better idea of the quantity of militaria material we have on site:

More than militaria - Early American Stoneware Special Auction

While we're known worldwide for military collectibles from all countries and time periods, we're also able to process a wide range of other collectibles. When we received a call about a massive crockery collection, we were pleased to get the opportunity. It's a pretty big collection of near 200 different pieces: jugs, pitchers churns, pots, etc. with a variety of glazes. The couple who consigned the pieces spent decades building the collection during their travels in rural areas around the East Coast. We're starting this one out on Proxibid to see how it goes, some of them may move to our main site (www.manions.com) and others may go to eBay - we'll see how it goes.

That's the thing about Manion's. Our large facility in Kansas City, Kansas, and proprietary auction software affords us the ability to provide consignors with many different options: from online auctions to on-site live events. We work hard to realize the maximum realized prices for consigned items - the more money you make, the more money we make. We're invested just as much as the collector!

Many other auction companies require items to be received six months or more in advance of an auction - Manion's can generally process an entire collection within a couple of weeks; and send in a single item and we can get it up for bid that same day!

Again, there's no place like this place and we certainly appreciate all of our good customers who have stuck with us during these trying economic times.