I first starting collecting US military medals when I was about 15 years old. No internet back then. You had to do it the old-fashioned way. Many weekends spent going to garage/estate sales, flea markets, thrift stores, antique shops, etc. Of course, I had to recruit my friends to be field agents for me as well. Since cellphones were nonexistent, my agents would report back to me what they may have discovered. I would then have to make a trek to the discoveries location and see for myself. Good old-fashioned leg work. I have to say that my friends did from time to time make some really good finds. But, it was a lot of dead ends as well.
I have to give a big shout out to my Uncle Terry. He was a garage sale aficionado! He never worked on Saturdays. But was up before daylight planning his route around town to catch as many of the sales as he could, “before all the good stuff was gone”. And he did reel in some really good finds for me. Too bad he is gone now to the Big Garage Sale in the Sky. I miss him.
Times changed when a little company call eBay started up. Many collectors say that it had a very detrimental effect on the collecting community. And, for a time, it probably did. But, I recall the first time I attended a convention of the Orders and Medals Society of America (for the uninitiated – the OMSA is one of the few professional collecting organization is the US).
One of the other members made a comment about people buying medals on the internet – “I don’t collect that junk”. Junk, not really. And, yes, it made me mad that he said that. What he didn’t understand is that I knew exactly what he was talking about. The prevailing wind in collecting circles is that you should only collect the medal that was the first one cast by the official manufacturer. My comment to my fellow collector was that he better embrace the internet and people like me because if he didn’t, this hobby will die a slow death.
That is not to say that collecting the originals of the early numbered campaign medals is not a challenge. It certainly is. But, new medals are created and manufactured on a regular basis. Real government issue stuff. So, if I have a first run of a Defense Distinguished Service Medal (created in 1970) it’s just newer not junk. Think about it this way - If your parents, when you were born, bought one of every new stamp that the Post Office issued by your 18th birthday you would have had a 20-year head start on a great stamp collection. That’s how collections start, especially when you were young like me. I couldn’t afford a numbered Spanish Campaign Medal when I was 15 making like $10 a week. I had to collect what I could afford and what I could find. As I have gotten older I have been able to add more expensive items to the collection (don’t tell my wife). I suppose the moral to this story is to embrace the new collector or hobbyist. Help them down the path. We all have to start somewhere.
Ok, I can get off the soapbox now and get back to the story. Like many hobbies they ebb and flow. During tough economic times, the hobby wains. When times are better, the hobby gets re-kindled. And that is how it has been over the last couple of decades. I keep trolling flea markets when I travel. I will stop at the odd garage sale. But mostly the internet is where I shop. I am to the point now where I would be considered an Advanced Collector. For those of you who are not familiar with this term let me explain. Put simply this means that at this point everything you want to add to your collection requires an adjustment to the household budget, or the selling of a kidney! Really.
I have never gotten the urge to also be a dealer. Some collectors will buy medals with the intention of re-selling. The money that they earn form their sales gets put back into their own private collection. I know several collectors that have done this for many years. And they have really great collections. I also know some collectors who started down this path but never really got there. Me, I collect for the history. I collect for me. I don’t think that I can remember ever selling a medal. Though I have given many away.
This is a life long journey for me. There is a beginning, but I hope, no end.
