MERIDEN - A day's worth of bargaining was pretty dull for Frank E. Ferrini - until someone walked in with a Luger from the Second World War.

The pistol, manufactured by Mauser during the war and featuring a Nazi swastika as well as matching clips and rounds, was in extremely fine shape, and Ferrini was extremely interested. A typical Luger from that era would fetch about $400, he said, but Ferrini was willing to offer, at one point, as much as $2,000.

The owner, Wallingford resident Joe Wojtasik, resisted the offers. His father had brought the pistol home from the war in Europe, and Wojtasik said he was primarily interested in learning how much he could get for it. He wasn't ready to part with the Luger just yet.

"It's a clean gun, it's a clean gun, my friend," Ferrini told him. "This piece here is something I would keep," he said.

Ferrini buys and sells military collectibles. During a recent day at the Hampton Inn, he was offering cash for a variety of items, ranging from swords and daggers to patches and insignias.

The 48-year-old Massachusetts resident has been in the military collectibles business for 27 years. For the past decade it's been the main business for Ferrini, who at one time worked in real estate. His father had served in the infantry in France and Germany during World War II, and Ferrini said he'd been interested in military stuff since he was a kid.

It's harder these days to make it work. Until he saw the Luger, there wasn't much for Ferrini to get excited about.

The economic downturn has not ignored those who deal in collectibles.

"It's not suffering, it's feeling the economic pinch," said Ferrini. "The question is: How much worse does it get?"

That's the question that's keeping everyone more cautious.

Ferrini attends the large military and gun trade shows, and said it will be interesting to see how much activity there is at an upcoming show in Kentucky, where he does not anticipate much participation by Europeans, "with the Euro down."

He also remains committed to extending his appraisals into the community. Based in Northboro, Mass., Ferrini each year does about 40 one-day stops, like the recent one in Meriden, at locations from Pennsylvania to Maine.

"I prefer to buy things right from the source," he said. "To me, it means a lot more if it comes out of the woodwork."

But the woodwork is also where the economic pinch is being felt very hard.

"Yeah, prices are down," said Ferrini.

High-end trade remains strong, but that accounts for only about 10 percent of Ferrini's business. The pinch is in the $50 to $100 people would pay for a bayonet or a uniform, or what Ferrini calls "the run-of-the-mill crap."

"They just don't have the disposable income anymore," he said.

Dealing in antiques and collectibles in general is more than ever a balancing act, said Rick Termini, who for more than 30 years has run Rick's Antiques in Wallingford.

The lower end of the collectibles market - think baseball cards and Hummel figurines - had already been softened by saturation on the Internet before the sour economy hit, he said.

But it remains a solid market for liquidating gold and silver, and serious collectors - those who have been dealing for many years - tend to do so through the ups and downs in the market, though they may at the moment be more cautious, Termini said.

"It's not a great economy for anybody," said Termini. "Some people are really worried about paying bills."

Rick's Antiques now conducts auctions with Maison Auction Gallery, a Wallingford business for more than 40 years.

"We're working harder than ever, and probably making less, but we're very diversified," said Termini.

The buying and selling also remains active at Nest Egg Auctions, in Meriden.

"The people who would come in and spend $80 to $100 on a Saturday night are a little more wary," said Nest Egg's Ryan Brechlin.

"Professionals are always buying and always paying full price, so our experience is that quality merchandise is still selling very well," he said.

The economy may be prompting more people to take a closer look around the home for items that could be of value. And for some, places like Nest Egg have become an alternative to buying new when it comes to shopping for furniture.

"The economy makes people explore other options," said Brechlin.

Most of what Ferrini deals with, "without question," is from the Second World War, and the most coveted items tend to be related to the Germans, including Lugers, dress daggers, swords and other guns. Japanese swords are also valued. Ferrini said the oldest item he ever dealt with was a powder horn from the French and Indian War.

Not everything Ferrini buys goes up for sale again. The Luger he was so taken with would have stayed in his possession.

About two years ago, he donated a Purple Heart that he'd bought at an auction to the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of African American pilots of World War II. He'd paid $400 for the Purple Heart, which a collector had bought at a family auction.

"It's hard to put a value on something like that, because it had more historical value," Ferrini said.

jkurz@record-journal.com

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