While idly browsing the internet a few weeks back, I spotted on the Henry Krank website a couple of interesting vintage packs of darts. The labelling was rather plain and seemed to have no makers name, and they were just listed as ‘rare airgun darts’. The packs took the form of small wooden blocks with drilled holes to accommodate the darts. One block contained two darts and the other, unopened pack, contained its full quota of six darts. The two packs were on offer for £50 the pair.









The packs rang a vague bell, so I contacted a noted American specialist collector of airgun ammunition, and he confirmed that they were in fact Quackenbush darts. A closer look at the minute signature on the packs, which I had ignored as it looked indecipherable, showed that it was indeed that of Quackenbush. This made the darts more than 100 years old, very rare in the wooden block packaging, and even more so in the UK. I would estimate that the opened package would normally have been valued at about £70, and the unopened pack at £150, if the Quackenbush provenance had been realised.

Needless to say I snapped up the bargain.

So the moral is, always look at the small details when buying or selling. I was as guilty of not doing this as anyone, and, not being much of a vintage ammo collector, I would probably have passed these over, if I had not made the snap decision to mention them to an expert.