If you’re an avid militaria collector, vacations have a way of doubling as treasure hunts. The family heads to the mountains; your mind goes straight to the nearest antique shop or flea market. It sounds like a win-win.
Looking back as an older — and hopefully wiser — collector, I’ve come to see it differently. The things I found on those adventures rarely stood the test of time.
Case in point: a pair of U.S. WWII snowshoes spotted in an antique shop in the Colorado mountains. You know the type — they look like odd-shaped tennis rackets. I’d never seen a pair offered before, and I easily rationalized the $125 asking price. Years later, I learned they were made in great numbers for the Army in WWII but few ever reached the troops and even fewer saw use in the mountains of Italy. Most were sold off as surplus shortly after the war. The display I imagined — a 10th Mountain Division soldier in full kit — probably isn’t happening in my lifetime. And when I tried to sell them, I quickly found out no one else wanted them either.
The lesson isn’t to skip the hunt. It’s great fun to explore new places looking for military items. Just do a little homework and apply some critical thinking before you spend the vacation money the kids are already burning through with reckless abandon.