military collectibles - why don't people care about World War 1??

Question

It seems that all the attention is on World War 2 and the Civil War - World War 1 military collectibles are often rarer than World War 2 and Civil War collectibles, but nobody seems to care - why is that?

Answer 1

1. The WW1 Generation is about 99.5% dead.
2. John Wayne never made a WW1 flick.
3. Gets skipped a bit in History courses.

Many collectors start as ex vets or family. Some are into Reinactments. As most of the generation WW1 is dead, interest has died with them. While there are many Civil War reinactors, Few do WW1.
Films & TV influence collectors as well. There is a whole industry making new Cowboy gear & Colt .45's based mostly on Western movies & 1950's& 60's tv. While WW2 has countless films about it. WW1 has really only a few based in that period.
Lastly, Teachers have kinda glossed over WW1 in History. They go from the Civil war & the Western expansion of the 1870& 80's, take a pause for ww1 & then go straight to the Depression & WW2 for deep reading and study. Check you avg. text book. They do the same thing. WW1 gets burried between the Civil war & WW2 chapters.

Answer 2

Maybe because America was in it for about a year. Personally I would like to collect WWI stuff. But it is to hard to find and too expensive. Plus some collectors of WWII gear are the ones who wore it. They just want a piece of history back. Plus when the movie Glory came out it sparked interest in the civil war era gear. And since Saving private Ryan came out look at all the WWII movies on the screen and tv. Maybe if a WWI movie made it big people would collect that gear too.

Answer 3

Yes, Adolf Hitler was a corporal in WW1 and was awarded two Iron Crosses, the Bavarian Military Medal 3rd class with bar, and later received, as did all wounded soldiers, the Cross of Military Merit.

Answer 4

Part of the reason could be that WWI did not have much to do with America. We were only involved in it for a short time. Another reason is while some people have "fond" memories of other wars WWI is mainly remembered for its hardships and casualties. Another reason could be stuff was made so fast and shabbily that there is not as much of it left.

Answer 5

I would have to say I dont agree, there are pleanty of WW1 items out there for collecting.

Ebay has a section devoted to it in all the different countries where it is based.

The British, French, and Germans etc..etc.. are avid collectors of WW1 items, and there are many re-enactment groups too, all you have to do is look.

Answer 6

basically ppl have short memories and remember easier things that happened closer to their time then previously. also, how many ppl are still alive from WW1 ?
and finally, we are mostly concerned with WW3 now (the war against the Islamaniac terrorists)

Answer 7

Probably because american collectors are embarressed by the behaviour of their country iver the issue. First they didn't want to get involved, then they decided they would but didn't know which side to join so they chose the side that looked like iy had the best chance of winning so they would look good

Answer 8

i care about WWI: it gave us our first 5-star General: John "Black Jack" Pershing

Answer 9

I do. They're much more fun than WWII.