Crasher
Established Member
- Jan 31, 2016
- 23
- 5
Need some help finding the current owner of a certain “baby Nambu.”
Went to a sad estate sale yesterday at lunch break. Judging from the books and other small items, the guy was a big gun and coin collector, and also a well-travelled Air Force vet, by the name of Bill Allen, in Montgomery, AL. First sad thing was finding his DD-214, one of the most valuable docs for a veteran, on the floor in the living room in a pile of junk. Mostly all I found were a few odds and ends that most people wouldn’t recognize as being valuable. I took the DD-214 to the register and told them the guy’s family might want to have that, as it helps with survivor benefits and such. The two workers there said they’d pass it on, but doubted the family would have much interest. They said that when the guy died, his kids came in and took anything they thought was valuable, I.e. all the coins and guns, and left everything else - family photos, stuff relating to their family and parents, and just told the estate sale company to dispose of it all. All they cared about was stuff they thought they could get money for. I found a binder with very meticulous documentation for a Japanese “baby Nambu,” documentation linking it as the personal weapon of a famous Japanese general. But the family hadn’t even bothered to look through any of his things, they just took the shiny objects and ran. So somewhere out there is a baby Nambu that has a boatload of history and the owner doesn’t even know it. I bought the binder because it has an original Signal Corps photo of the captured Japanese general in it, but if I can find the current owner of this piece, I’d love to pass it along. I’m hoping I can put the word out to the collector community and find whoever bought it. Not sure when it would have been sold or where, the the estate was in Montgomery, AL. Thanks y’all!
Went to a sad estate sale yesterday at lunch break. Judging from the books and other small items, the guy was a big gun and coin collector, and also a well-travelled Air Force vet, by the name of Bill Allen, in Montgomery, AL. First sad thing was finding his DD-214, one of the most valuable docs for a veteran, on the floor in the living room in a pile of junk. Mostly all I found were a few odds and ends that most people wouldn’t recognize as being valuable. I took the DD-214 to the register and told them the guy’s family might want to have that, as it helps with survivor benefits and such. The two workers there said they’d pass it on, but doubted the family would have much interest. They said that when the guy died, his kids came in and took anything they thought was valuable, I.e. all the coins and guns, and left everything else - family photos, stuff relating to their family and parents, and just told the estate sale company to dispose of it all. All they cared about was stuff they thought they could get money for. I found a binder with very meticulous documentation for a Japanese “baby Nambu,” documentation linking it as the personal weapon of a famous Japanese general. But the family hadn’t even bothered to look through any of his things, they just took the shiny objects and ran. So somewhere out there is a baby Nambu that has a boatload of history and the owner doesn’t even know it. I bought the binder because it has an original Signal Corps photo of the captured Japanese general in it, but if I can find the current owner of this piece, I’d love to pass it along. I’m hoping I can put the word out to the collector community and find whoever bought it. Not sure when it would have been sold or where, the the estate was in Montgomery, AL. Thanks y’all!
