best charity shop find or fair bargain

[trenchwalker]

whats the best you ever find you have had at a fair.?

[Dragon]

What was yours?

Gwyn

[trenchwalker]

a mary tin and bullet pencil £2

[CROONAERT]

How about a 1917 dated 1902 pattern tunic fully badged to the NF's with 3 OS service chevrons and 2 wound stripes and a letter to the original owner in the pocket? This along with a pair of 37 pattern BD trousers dated 1939 (which the stall owner told me went with the tunic ( )) all for the princely sum of £14 from a car-boot stall in Harrogate!

Dave.

[Raster Scanning]

A couple of years ago I bought a box of used brass door knobs from a house clearance shop in Bedford. I purchased them for 2 pounds & was delighted to find that amongst the assorted rubbish at the bottom was a slightly battered, but very welcome extra.

John.

[Matt Dixon]

I picked up an MM and Trio at a charity shop in Birmingham for the princely sum of £25. When I asked the man if he was sure, he said he didn't know what they were, didn't care and wanted to get rid of them so he could fill the cabinet with ear rings.

I also picked up 10 original cap badges at a boot sale for £1.

[David_Blanchard]

When was Evans killed cannot find him on CWGC site?

[CROONAERT]

When was Evans killed cannot find him on CWGC site?

Temp.Capt. Albert Aylward Evans, KIA 16th June 1917. 13/Northumberland Fusiliers.

Is that him?

Dave.

[David_Blanchard]

Thanks, Croon.

[Chris_Baker]

I was riffling through a box of postcards at a car boot sale near Leominster in Herefordshire when I came to an old envelope. It contained other smaller envelopes. On the back of one in faint pencil 'John's last letter home'. Well, that's enough for me! I opened it, saw the 1916 date and paid up - a princely 50p. It contained the letter, plus various other bits of family correspondence. The soldier who died was John William Christopher Smith, of 1/20th Londons. I have of course been following him up. I've even seen his house in Willesden. I am planning to put a transcription of the letter on a web page fairly soon. Oh, for a photo!

Maybe not a real bargain, but priceless.

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

I used to go to a local fair held at the racetrack and find some good items every now and then but one day I came across a photo postcard for $4.50, one from the 99th RIR of British POW's taken in a raid in May 1916 at Thiepval. The sender was Major Sauer, he was severely wounded on the day he sent the card when two British shells collapsed his dugout in the village of Flers. His card led me to the research project I am working on today covering the entire XIV Reserve Corps on the Somme and my raid article in Stand To!.

Ralph

[David Blue]

When was Evans killed cannot find him on CWGC site?

Temp.Capt. Albert Aylward Evans, KIA 16th June 1917. 13/Northumberland Fusiliers.

Is that him?

Dave.

Yes indeed, that is our man.

He attended the University of Manitoba in Canada. Joined a mounted Canadian regiment in the early days of the war, and went with the 1st Canadian Continget to England. It was here that he was commissioned into the BEF.

David

[The_Historian]

Many years ago, I picked up a complete WW2 Army Education Corps' Colonel's uniform for £25. Got home, and found a Peppiatt 10/- note in one of the pockets!

Not only did it confirm the uniform was genuine (name first appeared in 1945), but the note was worth about £5 itself!.

Regards,

Gordon

[GWRCo]

Not my best boot/fair find, but my mates. He went to the Sunday car boot sale at the Safeway store on the Shore road here in Belfast about 3 or 4 months ago, had a rummage around going from one stall to the next, when he came across a khaki rubber type sheet which was tied up with thickish rope cord. I think he paid £2.00 for it, got it home, bunged it in the bath as it was a tad dry and brittle, let it soak overnight (much to his wifes annoyance), and cut the string off. He unrolled it, laid it out in his back garden, and got a very nice surprise - it was an original 1917 dtd groundsheet cape!! The lucky *******!!!

GWRCo

[Guest Hill 60]

I spotted an unusual looking knife in a local antique shop which looked very familiar but I couldn't place it, I pointed it out to my father (who collects native weapons) and he identified it as a Persian dagger. Not unusual you might think, but it was in the kitchen display-area and was marked up as an 'old bread knife £4'.

My father reckons its value was about £90

Did I get commission for finding it? Did I heck as like

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Car Boot - a company War Service badge for 10p, which I sold on eBay for £55.

General Fair - a 15 star trio, photographs and monogramed silver cigarette case for £20, which I found to be a Tank Corps casualty at Cambrai, this went to a private collector for enough to pay for a holiday in the sun for me and the wife!!

Militaria Fair - a death plaque marked 'James Hamilton Murray' which I got trade for £10. It was sold as a casualty from the Seaforths and had with it soldiers died entry for a James H Murray. Fortunately for me medal roll showed this to be a James Hume Murray. Further research showed the only James Hamilton Murray casualty was a RND Sgt who had won the DSM at Gallipoli and was killed in France. I don't know the value, but certainly more than £10.

Charity Shop - a £2 watercolour painting which went for aiction and paid for another holiday.

Of course I have also bought some real crapola too!

Ian

[Joe Sweeney]

I have two items I consider as lucky finds for a bargain.

Many years ago I acquired a pair of 1915 dated B2 ankle boots--not at a bargain. But to my amazement a pair of great war issue woollen socks were still crammed into the toes. To many people socks aren't exciting but to me they were almost better than the boots.

Also acquired a pair of SD trousers for the equivelent of about £18 in the early 1980's. Didn't really know the vintage at the time, but turns out that they conformed to pattern 5088b/1908 and this was the pattern trouser worn by the "Old Contemptables" in 14, before being replaced by variuos simplified patterns and the more familiar double button trousers after June of 1915.

Now what I got at a bargain has long since been out weighed by stuff I pad way too much for (as my wife says) or regret paying anything at all for.

Joe Sweeney

[ianw]

A car boot sale recently yielded a British WW2 commando dagger in its sheath which I luckily bought for £20 with other potential buyers literally breathing down my neck. This item is currently on eBay with a bid of £141 with a few days to go.

Trouble is "'er indoors" has this cash earmarked for items that diverge from my intentions. Some negotiations in prospect.

As with everyone else, there are a larger number of "Pups" in a box under the bed

which will never even get their money back - but it's the thrill of the chase isn't it ?

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

A car boot sale recently yielded a British WW2 commando dagger in its sheath which I luckily bought for £20 with other potential buyers literally breathing down my neck. This item is currently on eBay with a bid of £141 with a few days to go.

Trouble is "'er indoors" has this cash earmarked for items that diverge from my intentions. Some negotiations in prospect.

As with everyone else, there are a larger number of "Pups" in a box under the bed

which will never even get their money back - but it's the thrill of the chase isn't it ?

You lucky booger!!!

I made the mistake of telling 'her indoors' about one item that I sold for quite a bit on eBay, since then she regularly looks up what I am selling and does the 'financial after sales planning'

What would we do without them though!!

IanB

[Will O'Brien]

What would we do without them though!!

Become wealthy & retire early?

[InkyBill]

Simple but priceless

John Brophy and Eric Partridge's book The Long Trail, full of songs and phrases for 10p + Liddell Harts History of the First World War for the same amount.

Grand total 20p

[ianw]

I am very pleased to report that the dagger mentioned previously sold today on Ebay for just North of £300 , so both "er indoors" and yours truly can have a Christmas treat. And it stayed in the U.K , rather than going to the U.S.

And Southampton F.C put Pompey in their place ! Pretty good day all round.

[markinbelfast]

In a junk shop a pile of letters home from an Inniskilling writing with pride of the big push of July 1st of the Ulster Division and loads of details of how certain men died.....'Those letters are dear son'...'how much?'...'I need a fiver for the lot!'

[MartinWills]

I am very pleased to report that the dagger mentioned previously sold today on Ebay for just North of £300 , so both "er indoors" and yours truly can have a Christmas treat. And it stayed in the U.K , rather than going to the U.S.

And there was me going to offer to swop it for a copy of "From an Outpost" .........

[Guest Jeff Floyd]

A small autograph book for 50p.

When opened from the front, it contained school-girl poetry and autographs of friends dating from 1916 or so.

When opened from the back, it contained the calling cards and autographs of about 30 Victoria Cross recipients, mostly Canadians. That one paid for several items to feed a bad collecting habit.