Has anyone bought an original A2 recently?

[Anonymous]

Havoc paul wrote!
You are jumping to conclusions again my friend and as you don't live here in the UK I guess you won't necessarily understand what some (and increasing number) of us are experiencing with our currency being worse than the Dollar or Euro. The reason ELC and Aero have long waiting times is that suddenly the price to overseas buyers is very attractive. A year and more ago an original A-2 on eBay could be affordable to a UK buyer as it was near $2 to a £1. I take no notice of media hysteria, never buy a daily paper and have enough decades of experience in buying, selling, collecting and commerce to know what I am talking about, if you don't agree then that's your opinion and thanks for sharing it. I stand by my beliefs and form my own opinions based on personal experience and those of many fellow collectors here in the UK.[/quote]

So when did I jump to conclusions before !,as my posts are based on experience but your post replies drift off the subject .And to say I dont live in England so I would not understand what sort of retort is that .The waiting times are due to unfavourable exchange rates for the English and good for everyone else and this has suddenly happened :roll: You say that you have decades of experience but have never seen fluctuations within currencies re purchasing power. I dont know about your posts .

All the best Jeff

 

[Anonymous]

Who the hell in this world goes out buying original jackets with credit

Me. Pretty much all my jackets were bought with a credit card-a practice I have now discontinued, but I bet that's not the case for a hell of a lot of people. I also don't buy this idea that nobody's buying A-2's because they're all too small. Look at the amount of original jackets Andrew here has bought and sold-nearly all 42's and 44's (which is agony 'cos they're my size and I can't afford them). Admittedly the really big sizes (46+) are hard to come by, and there are a lot of 38's and 36's out there, but the bigger sizes aren't that rare.
I'm sure this is just another phase. Currently it's all GW's and repros, but it'll come round to originals again.

My statement re the orig A-2 not being bought because they are to small to wear /it cuts out a whole group who would buy them to wear and so they would have no interest in them if they cannot wear them.

Rgds jeff

 

[havocpaul]

I don't think you can ever paid much attention to my posts over the past few years then; I can't see any point in trying to justify my comments, those that know me got what I was saying here and before, I have previously said this is similar to several times when the exchange rates fluctuated in the past ( for example when the Japanese collectors bought up many originals in the early '80's..ask Ken Calder who was selling them back then from here in UK); clearly you and I will not agree on this and probably many other issues and I don't want to enter into any personal bickering at the detriment to the original topic; there are far more serious and important issues I have to deal with on a daily basis than argue my point repeatedly, obviously our experiences are from very different angles so we'll leave it there.

 

[jacketimp]

non consensus ad idem..........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_of_the_minds

and never shall the twain join........

 

[asiamiles]

My statement re the orig A-2 not being bought because they are to small to wear /it cuts out a whole group who would buy them to wear and so they would have no interest in them if they cannot wear them.

This is certainly true. We should also remember that we're 25 years on from the mid-eighties when there was a boom in interest in flight jackets (TOP GUN etc.) and those jackets are 25 years older. While knits and linings can be replaced there's going to be less ready to wear original A-'7s out there in any size. On the other hand, the internet has given a window for almost everyone to shop for whatever jackets are around rather than having to track them down in militaria markets, fairs and magazines, and in vintage clothing shops, as they had to in the past.