ANNOUNCEMENT FOR JUNE 2008

I must apologise to all our web site viewers for the long gap between renewing the announcement page. In 2007 I made special comment about the neglect we have shown to our special items page. I hope that continuous viewers of the web site would have noticed that we are constantly revamping the special items page, the ability to place at least 12 images for each one of these historically interesting items helps the viewers of the web site enormously and it has been reflected in the sales from the special items page. We do now pay particular attention to this and we hope you continue to enjoy looking and considering these historically significant items.

In 2008 the show calendar has continued much the same as 2007; we are still attending the two major shows in Germany in Kassel and Stuttgart and also the successful show in October in the small town of Gunzenhausen in Bavaria. It is amazing for such a small show that collectors and dealers congregate from all parts of east and west Europe, the town itself being very accessible from the major cities of Eastern Europe. The congregation at this small show enables us to be able to purchase items from Eastern Europe, which even after 21 years of open borders is still a good source of original material, even though the East Europeans have found the ability to produce excellent reproductions. We have already in 2008 exhibited at the SOS Show in Louisville, Kentucky and with its accompanying gun show in the next hall, the complex has a total of over 2½ thousand tables for collectors and dealers interested in all aspects of weapons and militaria. With regard to the Max Show, we last reported that its move to Indianapolis was not a success, the move back to Pittsburgh for the show in 2007 showed renewed interest in the show from both collectors and dealers. Our sales and purchases at that show reflected this renewed interest, hopefully the Max show will regain its previous strength. We also exhibited in Novegro, Milan, Italy in 2007 and also recently, in May 2008. At the Novegro Milan show in November 2007 we had an unfortunate incident whereby we were followed from the show and asked to stop by the roadside by what turned out to be bogus police officers and were robbed of a large amount of money. We publish this as a warning to dealers leaving shows wherever they are in the world, to be aware that this sort of crime is on the increase, therefore we would advise you no not stop for anything other than uniformed officers from the police forces where you may be located. Being a U.K. based company we obviously attend the major shows in the U.K. In my last announcement in late 2006 and early 2007 I made the comment that we very rarely find anything of what could be described as spectacular at the British militaria shows. An event at one of the shows disproved my words by the appearance of a magnificent condition Cavalry SS Deutschland Erwache standard, which although sold, is still being shown on our special items page. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the year for purchases at British militaria shows. Our attendance at the shows ensures our keeping in touch with customers we have known for over 30 years, and as I mentioned in my previously announcement we are constantly purchasing items from the same customers that we sold the items to in the last 25 to 30 years. We will be attending the Beltring open air show this coming July, as in the previous 5 years. The Max Show USA in October, Kassel in Germany November, plus Novegro in Italy also November. We also attend every show held at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham England.

One of the trends that has appeared in 2008 is the enormous change in the value of the £ Sterling against the Euro. Having traded internationally for over 30 years we do realise how much rates of exchange can play a part in the possible purchases of our items by collectors. Three months ago in April 2008 the Pounds stood at 1.45 euros to equal £1 Sterling, it now stands at 1.25 = £1, therefore our items, which are priced in euros and in dollars on our internet pages are considerably cheaper than they were three months ago and we have not adjusted our Sterling prices to counteract this. One of the problems that this gives us is that because we purchase a huge amount of our stock within the euro zone of Europe and as a consequence items have become more expensive for us to purchase, but as previously stated in the short term we have left our prices in £ Sterling the same as they were before the fall of the £ Sterling and in the short term our euro zone based customers are urged to take advantage of this exchange rate benefit. As the months go by and we are having to pay more for our items, our prices will have to rise accordingly. It is simply amazing that the value of serious collectible militaria just keeps spiralling in price. The antique furniture trade is virtually at a standstill, the art market has made very little movement in the last years, but the niche collectible worlds have resisted all of the other economic changes and the change in age generations, an interest of which has seen the decline of the antique world. To go even deeper the Third Reich collectible aspect of militaria, which has seen the largest amount of reproductions since the 1960’s has survived and shows no drop in the interest level in owning these artefacts and subsequently the spiralling prices. One of the other major factors for the spiralling prices in the militaria collectible world is the huge influx of East European funds. Since the collapse of the communist regimes in the East European States since 1989 the economies in those States have improved, money amongst a certain group of the populations is available in abundance and a percentage within those groups has become very interested in militaria. The consequence of this is that as a Company that has been very active in this world for over 30 years, we have to take the decision whether we are going to follow the prices or not. The natural answer is to stay active we have to follow the prices. When we attend exhibitions in mainland Europe and America there are a huge amount of people, collectors and dealers alike, at the shows paying huge amounts for individual items, which a few years ago would have been laughable. Internally within Regimentals we only have to look back through some of our old catalogues starting in 1973, which we still have a single copy of each issue, up to when we finished publishing our hard copy catalogue in the year 2000, to look at what some of these items were achieving in those years and increase prices now. The investment made by people at that time was extremely worthwhile.

BUYING TRIP IN GERMANY.
For the whole month of May 2008 I managed to achieve a goal that I have been trying to find the time to do in over 30 years and that is to spend a month in Germany buying items from source. Over the past years my buying trips around Europe have been limited between 5 and 7 days duration, catching up with as many dealers and collectors as is possible in that short time. It has of course been successful, as can be seen by the type and quality of items that are, and have been offered on our web site and in our previous catalogues. However it has always been a desire to locate myself within Germany for a minimum of a month and by virtue of that becoming much closer with my sources of supply and I have just managed to achieve that situation. A month has been spent travelling all over Germany, north, south, east and west and I have been able to track down many items from this source of supply primarily German families and I have to say that it has been incredible, even 63 years after the end of WWII and with all the rules and regulations that the Allied Military Government put in force in Germany at the end of WWII with regard to the destruction of any items relating to the Third Reich regime there is an enormous amount still coming out from family sources. How long this will continue in the future is an unknown quantity, but at the moment the buying trip was extremely successful but more from an historical point than a financial point extremely interesting to see these items still coming from their original source.

The following paragraph is exactly drawn from my last announcement in 2007 and it relates to the Internet. I make no apologies for reprinting this paragraph as I feel that the problems from the Internet remain the same.

As with all new technical innovations in life there are good sides and down sides. Here we refer to the Internet. The Internet has been an amazing tool to reach a new base of customers worldwide. Companies such as ours have their, what was originally a fixed shop premises only open from 9 a.m. until 5.p.m. now open 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Our sort of items, as along with other collectibles, are ideal for individual photography for people to view at their leisure and purchase at their leisure. It seems as if the Internet was made for our business. However one of the down sides has been the problem of Internet forums. The basic concept of a forum where people can get together either physically or electronically and discuss matters that interest them cannot be judged a bad thing, the main problem with the Internet forum is that we have various groups of people from all parts of the globe talking about items that they have never seen in a physical sense. We constantly have items sent to us via Email images for us to pass judgements on. We always reply but we never give a judgement. Our standard reply is “It is impossible even with the technology of today, to make judgements on items that we cannot physically hold in our hands, it would be totally unprofessional. Photographic images are stolen from Companies websites, placed on Internet forums with various groups of people, who in their past have probably never even attended a major arms fair, never visited another good collection, never visited an auction house, making comments and passing judgement on items they have not held in their hand. This is an impossible function to perform. Collecting militaria is not about the technical aspect of an item; it is about the feel, the history, even the smell. Because of these events we warn all our website viewers to make their own judgements on items when they actually receive them or view them and not to be influenced by comments made ostensibly by groups of Internet forum contributors who have very little or no experience.

Thank you for your custom in the past and we look forward to being in touch with you all in the future.

Best wishes
MALCOLM FISHER.