Civil WAr Memoribilia

[westen44]

Well, to close the thread, I picked up a cavalry saber

I just happened to be flipping through the channels not long ago and saw one on TV that sold at an auction for $1600.  It was a Union one.  The guy took it to a dealer who wanted to pay $1100.  But the seller wisely used his patience.  Buying one for $500 and selling it for $1600 sounds like fun. 

[Blackbird]

I just happened to be flipping through the channels not long ago and saw one on TV that sold at an auction for $1600.  It was a Union one.  The guy took it to a dealer who wanted to pay $1100.  But the seller wisely used his patience.  Buying one for $500 and selling it for $1600 sounds like fun.

Well, it can depend really.  Mine was 575$, which is about par for this maker.  There are others that will be more, but that's high for a cavalry saber unless there's something unique about it, or maybe has a certain provenance etc..To me, $1100 is up on the high side.

[westen44]

Well, it can depend really.  Mine was 575$, which is about par for this maker.  There are others that will be more, but that's high for a cavalry saber unless there's something unique about it, or maybe has a certain provenance etc..To me, $1100 is up on the high side.

They did say there was something unique about it.  But it didn't make much sense to me.  I can discuss Civil War battles, but just don't know much about collecting at all.

[Blackbird]

Confederate anything can be 4-5x the cost of a comparable union piece, and you can't be sure on a lot of it from what I can tell.  They were more of a hodge podge army, had less money than the Union...uniforms (and colors) weren't consistent, they collected a lot of union weapons - and unfired bullets from casualty Union soldiers.

[westen44]

Confederate anything can be 4-5x the cost of a comparable union piece, and you can't be sure on a lot of it from what I can tell.  They were more of a hodge podge army, had less money than the Union...uniforms (and colors) weren't consistent, they collected a lot of union weapons - and unfired bullets from casualty Union soldiers.

I understood right off why Confederate would be worth more.  But what didn't make sense to me is why a saber would be worth more if it had been used as a grave marker (whether Confederate or Union.)

[Grog]

I just happened to be flipping through the channels not long ago and saw one on TV that sold at an auction for $1600.  It was a Union one.  The guy took it to a dealer who wanted to pay $1100.  But the seller wisely used his patience.  Buying one for $500 and selling it for $1600 sounds like fun.

Antique Roadshow on PBS had a similar sword go for around $30,000............ That was a number of years ago & they were busted for falsifying their program. I don't remember the exact particulars, but for a short moment in time, I thought I really had something....................!

[Dave W]

Antique Roadshow on PBS had a similar sword go for around $30,000............ That was a number of years ago & they were busted for falsifying their program. I don't remember the exact particulars, but for a short moment in time, I thought I really had something....................!

Pritchard and Juno and the Pickett "watermelon sword" controversy. Both of them pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges.