Buck USMC on e-bay

[Carlo]

Well, I don't know if the new book will impact on this auction, but I have never seen the price rising from 24 dollars to more than 1600 in just one day.
I cannot comment on the book, as I didn' receive it yet, but I trust the negative impressions I read here.
Despite this, I think that more collectors will approach the M9 bayonets because of the new book, and that we could see the prices rising in the near future.

[porterkids]

$1725 with 175 hits on the counter and 5-1/2 days to go. It will be interesting to see where it ends.

[Mister Moon]

...........................

[Mister Moon]

.......... And the Winner is ............not me !




2 8 5 1 $

[Carlo]

Did I miss something "special" about this bayonet?
Between the two full tang variations, I would say that the threaded tang should be valued a little bit more than the riveted pommell.
As stated before by Bill, there are probably less examples of the former, due to the fragile system of the tang.
Also (but this is my very personal opinion) when you buy a full tang M9, the first thing you want to do is actually .... to take a look at the tang and show it to your friends/collectors, something that can't be done with the riveted pommell version.
You know that there is a full tang under the pommell, but you will never see it.
Of course, the example shown by Chris on this forum, with the tang not riveted, is a real prize!

[pwcosol]

I think there is more going on here regarding the BUCK 1993 USMC trials bayonets. I suspect the desirability of these bayonets reaches beyond them being M9s. USMC-related militaria has always been a very active area of collecting, and weapons in particular. There never seem to be a lack of buyers of the 1991 BUCK trials contract of 5,000 bayonets, even though more have begun to surface in recent years.
It may be the many variants of the Marine M9 trials bayonets have remained relatively unknown to dedicated collectors whom do not necessarily collect the M9 bayonet in general. As news of these variations and their relative scarcity has spread, more intense interest is being shown. In addition, every succeeding example (1991 trials excluded) to appear on auction sites like Ebay has not only generated more bidding, but closed higher than the previous example listed. I believe the Marine M9s are a classic example of a "cross-over" collectable, that has appeal to several related, but different groups of collectors, and hence the strong demand. I wonder how much interest one of the LanCay USMC solid-tang M9 trials bayonets might generate, if listed on a auction site like Ebay...

[ColinG]

Does any one know if this is the highest paid for any M9 to date? I thought that because the riveted form was slightly more numerous than the threaded kind that it might go for less than $2K. My plan was to bid $1850 within the last few seconds of the auction and obtain it; however, after it reached $1725 after the 3rd day or so I began to feel that my plan wasn't very realistic. Oh well, maybe one of these days.

[porterkids]

Hard to say if this is the highest paid as there are many transactions that take place privately and the details are never made public. I will say that I was surprised at the ending price. I thought it would top out around $2000. I guess it's time to make some adjustments to the values in my files.

[pwcosol]

Does anyone know if the bidder whom got this most recent 1993 USMC trials piece was the same guy who got the previous one on Ebay? I recall someone posted he was one of the initial bidders. If so, maybe the guy needed this particular variation. I begin to wonder if BUCK collectors are the ones primarily responsible for the increased demand/higher prices reflected for these M9s.
As for M9 prices, I think they peak @ about 3K for the scarcest variants. Some of these were of very limited production or survivability, and may rarely come on the market. They are also likely sitting in private collections, and only become available when a long-time collector decides to sell off. This was the case with several M9s I got over the past two years, when two such individuals opted to sell out.

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by pwcosol

Does anyone know if the bidder whom got this most recent 1993 USMC trials piece was the same guy who got the previous one on Ebay? I recall someone posted he was one of the initial bidders. If so, maybe the guy needed this particular variation.

I first wrote about it, but then I edited my message as with the new ebay system that conceals the bidder usernames, it is more difficult to tell.
I still believe the bidder who won the other ebay auction is the one who placed a 1.700 bid on this one (take a look at the bids history), but not the higher bidder.
Not 100% sure, though.