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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

people selling war medals!!!!!

33 replies

mrsshears · 07/08/2011 09:55

AIBU? This really angers me! everything the recipient went through to get them only for one of his/her relatives to sell them for a couple of hundred quid!!!!
I have just watched this happen on dickinsons real deal and have seen it many times before on similair shows,i find it so disrespectful it makes my blood boil!!!!

OP posts:
bananasplitz · 07/08/2011 09:56

agree

ProfessionallyOffendedGoblin · 07/08/2011 10:08

Don't know the specific case, but there have been instances of medal winners selling them because they actually need the cash. You can't eat bravery.

Happylander · 07/08/2011 10:11

No matter how skint I am I will never sell my medals, my DH medals or his uncles medals. It is just wrong. If my son sells ours once we are dead I am going to haunt him!!! Grin

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 07/08/2011 10:12

Agree with you, OP. It angers me too. I think it's ones of those possessions that has been so hard fought for and won by the original recipient that only the most money-grubbing louse would sell them instead of passing them down through the generations.

The exception is if it's the actual recipient selling them, they have the right.

coastgirl · 07/08/2011 10:14

I hate these shows for precisely that reason. Sell a vase, or a chest of drawers, not something like that. I once saw someone flog their grandma's sketch book - she had been a fashion student in the 1950s and the book of hand-drawn designs was incredible. Sold for about £50. Shocking.

Graciescotland · 07/08/2011 10:14

I do think it's a bit awful but some people don't want/ need "stuff" to remember their relatives.

The UN give compressed cardboard medals to some of their peacekeepers I wonder if they'll be worth anything in years to come?

MrsKravitz · 07/08/2011 10:14

Im of the "I dont see the problem" brigade.

MrsKravitz · 07/08/2011 10:16

Sorry, I should clarify Im not one for holding on to generational stuff. I have nothing from my parents or any other generation so it isnt a thing for me.

solidgoldbrass · 07/08/2011 10:17

If the recipient is dead then she or he can't have any interest or say in what happens to the medals, so I see no reason why whoever inherited them shouldn't sell them. Some medal winners sell their own medals because they need the money, others because they want to make some kind of anti-war statement. People might also sell medals they inherited because the original medal winner might have been a shit to them (soldiers sometimes make hideously abusive parents/partners).
Basically, it's none of your business what other people do with their property.

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 07/08/2011 10:21

If you need money and you have nothing else of value, then sell them. They are only things at the end of the day. They do not contain the memories or the pride within them. Those things are in you.

It's no good sitting with an empty belly while you look at your pretty things.

Sirzy · 07/08/2011 10:21

I think it's a shame people sell them as they are such an important part of family history, we have no war medals in the family but we do have a lovely hand painted book my great grandmother made and I would never sell that.

That said some people don't care about objects and aren't as sentimental so to them they see no wrong in selling them.
As long as there is nobody else in the family who would have wanted them then I see no wrong in them selling them

Maryz · 07/08/2011 10:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TidyDancer · 07/08/2011 10:22

I agree entirely with the OP. It makes me very uncomfortable to see people treating war medals with such a lack of respect. I would never see my grandpa's medals. If I was desperate for money, other stuff would go, not the medals.

purplepidjin · 07/08/2011 10:23

My Great-Uncle left his to an organisation - who promptly refused them. As did the further four or five organisations we offered them to.

They were sold and the money included in his estate (some of which benefited the organisation he originally willed the medals to) simply because, by this time, the whole drama had dragged on for months and the only people benefiting were the solicitors who had to send a letter every single time there was a change - all beneficiaries had to be consulted Confused

I have memories of my Uncle. I don't need medals Sad

kiwimumof2boys · 07/08/2011 10:23

I agree its terrible - have seen a few examples on tv lately (the people didn't seem to be needing the money). if you really aren't interested in holding onto them - donate them to a museum or something where at least future generations can appreciate them.
YANBU

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 07/08/2011 10:24

Doesn't mean that people don't have an opinion on it though, SGB. I happen to on this particular issue. Whether you're anti-war or not, to fight for your country and receive a medal for it is a heck of an accolade and no, I don't believe that it's decent to sell them off, I think they should be passed down through the generations, they're personal.

I think there's something rather despicable about benefitting from money from somebody you didn't like/have no respect for either.

GypsyMoth · 07/08/2011 10:24

I used to go to military fairs with my ex. He was heavily into collecting, especially ss stuff.

I have seen the blue/White striped pyjamas for sale, as worn by concentration camp prisoners! But it was the ss uniform and military I hated. It's all out there though, big business and many fakes

MrsKravitz · 07/08/2011 10:26

I just realised I dont have a single thing from past relatives. never thought about that before.

noddyholder · 07/08/2011 10:29

I agree with sgb here! which is weird as I have totally disagreed with her another thread this am Grin MN! Some people have no tie to material things and I am one of those. Memories are in my head and nothing tangible can replace those. They are just stuff to some people

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 07/08/2011 10:30

That's awful of those organisations, purple. We gave my grandad's medals (along with papers, ration books, a genuine nazi flag he had torn down! badges, bullets, photos... You name it, it was there. a huge box of stuff.)
to the royal tank museum in bovingdon. They were very grateful. If they'd turned them down it would have felt like such a snub to my grandad.

They've now got his collection there and it's lovely to think that people can see what is basically his whole life during the war.

But - adding to thread generally not talking to you now - I would never judge anyone for selling medals etc if they really needed money.

GypsyMoth · 07/08/2011 10:34

I have never seen British medals go for massive amounts anyway. It's only if there is a combination of military cross etc and all provenance to go with it. Your average set if medals won't go for much

American dealers always buy the Brit stuff, more of it over there than over here

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 07/08/2011 10:38

bovingTon, not bovingDon, I mean.

flyingspaghettimonster · 07/08/2011 12:33

Can't see any reason to keep them if they are not your own... I don't know any of my family that have ever been proud of their war medals... all the oldies in our family would probably be glad to know that selling them could mean a day out for the grand kids... they are just bits of metal if they have no sentimental value... I wouldn't think twice about selling any if I inherited them. I would be prouder to have a conscientious objector in my family history. I guess it depends on your own views on military, war etc.

applepies · 07/08/2011 12:49

my grandad burnt his own medals

Illegitimate · 07/08/2011 12:55

YABU people remember the wars differently alot of service men don't want the medals so why not sell them. Its not for you to say its disrespectful

My granddad sold his and my dad gave his ones to a collector friend to sell as he wasn't proud of them

they were there, they don't need metal on a ribbon to remember it