Apropos really of nothing in particular, save my wife has a week off from work, so inevitably, we had to go “somewhere”.
We chose the not too distant town of Hungerford in Royal Berkshire, a neighbouring county to us in Wiltshire. Hungerford is rammed with antique shops so with our faithful hound in tow, off we went. Whilst resigned to my fate of trudging around waiting for lunch in a pub, I stumbled across this in one of the aforementioned shops:
Yup - a round for the PIAT anti-tank weapon of WW2 vintage. The label gave the price - £350 - and added “Fuse attached”. I placed it back on the shelf very carefully.
Very cool item….but the price….yikes!! £350 is equal to $477.50 here in the states. That is why I prefer to go to second hand/thrift stores over antique shops, they are usually cheaper. I recently found this US Military Officers Tableware Outfit Field Chest Mess Kit at a thrift store and paid $150.00 (£109.50) for it. A welcome addition to my collection.
This US Military Projector is another of my items I found at a second hand store that I was glad to find. I got it several years ago but only paid something like $9.00 (£6.62) for it. It works like a charm and I have used it to view both slides and filmstrips.
Another of my items I am quite proud of is a WWII US Tool Chest and tools. I got it at a second hand store for $30.00 (£22.06). There are several pictures of the chest and tools on the Railroad Modeling page.
Priceless, nice find Brian! I’m sure you know antique shops price everything for suckers, if you’d offered 200 quid and – when refused – made to leave the shop, chances are you’d make a deal. But then, what use is it without the launcher in order to terminate the next idiot that runs a red light right in front of you?
I hasten to add Tim, that I didn’t actually want the thing - just surprised to find it; I was slightly concerned that the attached fuse might still be viable, but not actually concerned enough to do much about it!
I’ve actually driven an Aston Martin - though not like that - when I was PA to one of the Dire Straits guys; he had a fine car collection (I had to clean them though as well).
After you put it back on the shelf, you should have put a note next to it saying something like, “this is the very round that blew up Michael Wittman’s Tiger” or something like that. There are probably some low information people who would buy it for twice or three times as much, you could get the shop owner to split the extra with you.
That is why I prefer to go to second hand/thrift stores over antique shops, they are usually cheaper. I recently found this US Military Officers Tableware Outfit Field Chest Mess Kit at a thrift store and paid $150.00 (£109.50) for it. A welcome addition to my collection.
