Thank you for stopping by. Unfortunately, I have elected to allow this site to become static at this point in time for various reasons, but I still believe that it can be of use, especially to new collectors. I do wish you luck with your collecting and hope that it brings you much joy. Regards.
(But before I get into the 'nitty gritty', are there any powersurfers here just looking for the guts of the site? If so, just click HERE to hit my Sitemap.)First of all, how in the world do you say my name? That is easy. It is pronounced just like it is spelled: N - Ja - Near. Another way to pronounce itt is just like the word 'Engineer' with a slight Southern drawl to it ;) Got to keep it simple, you know, with me being a simple Georgia boy ;)
As for me personally, I am just a novice web surfer with a love of old military firearms. For a little more personal background on Njanear (to include where the name came from), please visit my other intro page here.
On this site, I wish to demonstrate how you can start your own Curios & Relics (C&R) collection with no particular theme in mind and then work to focus your collection on to a more defined path, or better yet, even how to start your collection from the very beginning on your own primary interests. The idea for this site came about after I had to struggle with how to arrange my own little collection in order to keep it under control. The methodology of thought that I collected then and list now are by no means the only ways to start your collection out; this is just how I better defined my goals and how I now justify my newest acquisitions to my significant other :) What is the purpose of my site?
Throughout this site, I will also provide links to some excellent sites out there pertaining to military C&R weapons, so that you may have more information available to help you in your quest for the perfect C&R collection. Please give them a visit; I think you will like them.
NOTE: Images on this site are from both my own personal collection as well as borrowed from others with permission. Credit is given on each image and they cannot be used without the express consent of the party that owns them.
Where do we get started? Now the questions begin: Why and what are you interested in collecting? As a relatively new collector, I began buying everything that I could that had some military history behind it but that didn't break the bank. I did not set a collection goal up front and focus on any particular category at first and only after I started amassing a sizable collection did I ask myself: Where am I going with this collection? All I seemed to be accomplishing was creating a very noticeable stack of odd caliber guns in the closet (I had quickly run out of safe space). Now that I had so many, I had to ask myself: What is the purpose of my collection? Looking around, I found myself surrounded by weapons from everywhere: The USA, Russia, England, Finland, Austria, France, Argentina, India, etc. Where was the common bond? Only after analyzing my collection could I begin to lay out what areas I truly wanted to concentrate on. I then had to decide what I had that I didn't need, what I needed to fill out a present collection, and then what I needed for my future goals. Only after doing that would I be able to gain any semblance of control over my collection and its historical importance (which is what I am most interested in).
Now, how should I analyze such a motley collection? I had to sit down and think of the methodology that my collection could be guided by. In doing so, I came up with several groupings, some which made lots of sense and some that might seem a little strange (but that are used by several collectors that I know ;) By no means was my list comprehensive of every technique out there but it just seemed to fit the bunch of firearms that I had before me and helped me to further define the goals of my collection. I now present these thoughts to you so that you may be able to use them in determining where your collection is heading, so that you can save both time and money in moving towards your own goal (unless you just want a bunch of different guns; nothing wrong with that, is there? ;)
to
go directly to the Methods Page
Oh, yeah; How was I able to build such a collection? Of course, here I am, trying to tell you how to build such a collection but didn't bother to tell you how you could get a lot of these at decent prices. A few of mine were simple 'department store' and pawn shop finds that I discovered over the last few years; I just got lucky and saw what I wanted at a decent price, paid for it, and brought it on home. A few came from the local gun shops and gun shows, with pretty much the same story: saw it, liked it, bought it. That can't be the only way that I built this collection, can it? you ask, and No, it isn't. The biggest boon to the growth of my collection came by way of a $30-for-3-years Class 03 Curio and Relics Firearms license, courtesy the ATF. With such a license, I could purchase C&R weapons directly from the distributors (such as Century Arms, AIM, Allan's Armory and others - see the links section for URLs) and inndividuals throughout the United States. Sounds good, so how do you get one? Well, I am not going to get into the details here and do you know why? Because it is so easy. Go to my "Links" page and from there, you can get all the info that you need to know on this beneficial license.
