[Jeff Higgins]

Japanese WWII stuff used to be the lowest of the low as far as collector value, so it was pretty easy to amass quite a collection of it. I hear all of that is changing as the more desireable European, British, and American stuff continues to rise in price and drop in availability. Japanese stuff has always been seen as "junk", having about the worst fit and finish of any. That does not, however, detract from its historical value.

A lot of the value assigned to the other countries' arms was due to the fact that you could actually shoot it and enjoy quite good results, common ammo, a lot of industry/enthusiast support. Not that the Japanese stuff is unsafe or not functional, but the ammo is harder to find, and they tend to be rather innaccurate. "Minute of G.I." was about all they seemed to care about from soldiers who had never held a rifle before, where other countries saw the benefit it trained riflemen and supplied them accordingly. All of that kind of detracted from their value.

While they probably won't ever catch up to the more traditional collector arms of WWII, they are certainly worth a lot more now than most of us would have guessed even a few years ago. Be careful; there are a disproportionate number of snakes in the grass of the gun collecting world; the kind that will try to convince you it's "worthless Jap crap". Do your research.