Best place to buy swords?

Matt Easton · 11th April 2007, 03:00 PM

I live in London, so it's maybe hard for me to be objective. But I was surprised that London came up so favourably. And then I thought about it - yes there is a LOT of stuff here. But not nearly as much as there was 15 years ago. People seem to keep more and sell less now, I guess more people here have more money now. Our arms fairs seem to get less and less exciting each year. And I frequently get things cheaper on Ebay UK than in actual shops here. I go to shops to look. I go to Ebay to buy. At least on lower value stuff. And a lot of my favourite UK dealers are actually not in London (not to mention Wallace and Wallace auctions).

Of places outside the UK I have found good stuff - Nice in southern France has quite a few antique dealers with interesting things, and surprisingly not too expensive. France has quite a lot of good African and Asian antique arms for the same reason as Britain - the Empire factor. If I'm buying online then America and Canada are good now, because the currency is so weak compared to the British Pound and Euro. Postage isn;t even so bad as it used to be. And I take a certain pride in importing weapons from the colonies and back to the heart of the Empire.

11th April 2007, 03:00 PM	#9
Matt Easton Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Surrey, Great Britain. Posts: 53	I live in London, so it's maybe hard for me to be objective. But I was surprised that London came up so favourably. And then I thought about it - yes there is a LOT of stuff here. But not nearly as much as there was 15 years ago. People seem to keep more and sell less now, I guess more people here have more money now. Our arms fairs seem to get less and less exciting each year. And I frequently get things cheaper on Ebay UK than in actual shops here. I go to shops to look. I go to Ebay to buy. At least on lower value stuff. And a lot of my favourite UK dealers are actually not in London (not to mention Wallace and Wallace auctions). Of places outside the UK I have found good stuff - Nice in southern France has quite a few antique dealers with interesting things, and surprisingly not too expensive. France has quite a lot of good African and Asian antique arms for the same reason as Britain - the Empire factor. If I'm buying online then America and Canada are good now, because the currency is so weak compared to the British Pound and Euro. Postage isn;t even so bad as it used to be. And I take a certain pride in importing weapons from the colonies and back to the heart of the Empire.