Those Were the Days
Feb 04, 2022
4 minutes
by Peter Suciu
For collectors of a certain age — you know who you are — there are likely memories of the “Unique Imports” ads that offered refurbished German helmets and other vintage World War II items. Those were not, of course, the original surplus offerings.
In fact, military surplus began in the United States long before people actively collected militaria. Following the American Civil War, an actual surplus market began.
The reasoning was simple. In earlier wars, the number of soldiers was small and beyond the U.S. Army, most soldiers owned their militia uniform. In fact, there had been only 7,000
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