Jens, Indo-Persian weaponry, and many other types of collectables are lower priced now than they were 15 and 20 years ago, and in adjusted terms very much lower priced than they were 30 and 40 years ago.
When ebay rationalised the collectables market, the prices of Indo-Persian weaponry in particular, simply fell through the floor. If you want to see "expensive", go back and have a look at the catalogues of UK dealers in exotic weaponry from the 1960's, '70's, '80's.Then factor in what wages were at that time.
Another comparison:- get a quote from a current custom knifemaker who is capable of reproducing these Indo-Persian daggers and see what he might think he can make you one for.
Measured in real terms, I was paying more in the 1950's for keris from antique dealers in Australia and the UK than keris have sold for during the last 15 years or so.
Even though world population has increased , the population of collectors of things such as daggers and swords has decreased. This is a flow on effect of education policies, museum policies, and government policies in general, as well as community attitudes. A further factor is disposable income:- if you consider the percentage of the average annual wage required to service a mortgage, and the real cost of many other factors required to maintain an acceptable standard of living, people simply do not have as much spare money as they had not all that long ago.
There are very much fewer new collectors developing than there were a few years ago. Even as recently as the mid 1980's you could go to a gun show, or an exhibition of weaponry, and there would be many children and families present.There was an active interest by the general public in the exotic. No longer is this the case. Go to a gunshow in this country (Australia) now and 99% of the people through the door are geriatics---like myself.
Yes, the prices of some collectable items may be creeping upwards a little, but they are creeping upwards from a base that was created by ebay.The current prices are nowhere near what they were before ebay and e-commerce came on the scene.
Back around 1980-90 many financial advisors were recommending to their clients that part of a well constructed portfolio of investment should contain not only real estate and blue-chip shares, but that it should also contain collectables, and one of the most highly recommended collectables was premium quality weaponry. From memory, I think they were quoting an average increase in value of something like 7% PA over a 25 year period.I do not think you will find many financial advisors telling their clients to get out there and buy Indo-Persian weaponry at the moment. But they were 20 years ago.
At the moment I can see prices of collectable edged weaponry at a lower level in real terms than at any time since I started to collect, more than 50 years ago.
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