Any advice on selling Germany wwii medals?

viccig

Hi there,
was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on where to offer for sale a number of German medals.
My Grandmother in law has a number of collectable items left to her by her late husband. His Grandfather, was a sergeant cook in the middle east 125 regiment, and the German prisoners would trade medals and other items in exchange for extra food.
She has asked me to help her to sell them after I stepped in when she was offered a paltry sum for the full collection and although I know nothing on the subject, believe she deserves to receive closer to what they are worth. Ideally she would like them to go to a genuine collector as opposed to someone just looking to sell them right away for profit.
Anyway, apologies for the long winded post. I'm just unsure how to proceed and the best place to sell to ensure all parties involved are fully protected?
Any help or advice would be very much appreciated
Vicky

porto_bello

Medals vary hugely in rarity and value, from a few pounds to many thousands. I'd have a hunt around on the internet to identify exactly what medals you have. You may find something rare amongst them, which a typical medal dealer will quietly give you a few quid for and sell on after adding a few noughts!

If you have a camera capable of taking reasonable close-up photos, you could take one of each medal and try uploading them to military forums, asking users to identify them.

Once you find out exactly what medals you have, it should be easy enough to find out what medal sellers are selling each of your medals for and thereby get a good idea of market price.

theoretica

If you don't want to put a lot of effort in I would suggest seeing if you have a reasonably local auction house which does militaria auctions and asking them for an opinion. I understand ebay has a policy against things which it considers Nazi memorabilia.

viccig

Thankyou for replying!
I have spent quite a bit of time hunting around online, with varying results! I'm also struggling to find a suitable UK based forum.
I know from looking at pictures I have an iron cross 1st class, a Hitler youth pin and a German artillery badge. There are a number more that I can't seem to find exact examples of and the ones I do seem to vary in price considerably. I also have an armband with the swastika on that I've struggled to find.
Theroetica : I beleive you may be right , there are also very few sold examples on eBayto give me much indication of value .
There is a specialist auction houseabout an hour and a half away from me, it's not that I don't want to put the effort in, just a bit nervous of the risks of selling this type of thing, especially since they aren't mine!

RFW

viccig wrote: »

There is a specialist auction houseabout an hour and a half away from me, it's not that I don't want to put the effort in, just a bit nervous of the risks of selling this type of thing, especially since they aren't mine!

A lot of auction houses have free valuation days and some do valuations by email.

preable

Most auction houses have days where you can just turn up and get a valuation or go on dickinsons real deals lol

carolinabirichina

German WW2 memorabilia is very popular on ebay and sells well.

I sold some items recently eg. an ordinary Iron Cross medal for nearly £50

Do not use the word Nazi in your title or in the description as ebay will pull the auction and you will get a strike - I know this to my cost as I tried to sell a German army belt buckle with a swastika design on it and my listing was removed within 30 minutes. How they thought that selling an old WW2 aluminium belt buckle equated with glorifying Nazism I don't know, but I got a strike which lasted for 3 months.

I think that you would get a better price selling on ebay because you are selling direct to the collectors out there who are prepared to pay good prices for items. If you sell to a dealer then he is going to give you less because he has to sell it on and auctions charge commission.

soolin

I deal a little in medals and echo the above. For a quick and easy sale with no risk sell them to a bricks and mortar auction house. For best price either try a London dealer direct, or ebay them (choose your titles carefully).

I buy at bricks and mortar auctions and can turn a nice profit re selling them on ebay-very often to US or Australian. However, for German items I do tend to stick to UK only due to some import issues in Europe.

The prices are not good at the moment, so it is a gamble on whether the prices will recover later, or continue to fall. I decided to sell off all my stock a while ago and have stepped back to watch the market now for a while.

lindseykim13

My DH collects these bloomin things and my tips for getting them on ebay would be to list as ww2 german medal, cover any swaztika on the medal with a tiny sticker or bit of paper when taking your pics. The buyers will know exactly what is under it but will prevent ebay from pulling it as they don't allow nazi items.
Other than that lots of pics and say where they have come from in your listings people much prefer to know that it came from a grandfather ect than the possibility of it being a fake as there are a lot of fakes about.