Stolen Valor resale of medals

[Riven37]

Does anyone know what are the new Federal Laws on resale of personal decoration like the Silver Star. Now that the Stolen Valor found unconsititutional, I do know you can't resale medals on ebay under Federal Laws.

This week I was at an antique mall where I seen RVN Silver Stars decorations being resold, I felt upset about it. THinking about calling the FBI about it.

[ShannonL]

There are many Marine and Soldiers children that are in possession of war medals ETC and sellm them because they dont understand. There are many collecters that collect items from a certain battle or war and buy those medals and display them. If they get a picture of the warrior who earned them, the better...but wearing them as your own is wrong. You buy honour but you can preserve it.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Absolutely NOT illegal to sell ANY medal (except the MOH). Stolen valor act does NOT apply to the buying, selling, trading of any medal, only the wearing/claiming of unearned ones.

[SwatSniper311]

I personally wouldn't sell any of my medals. But its because they have meaning to me and I protect them in a glass case so someday I can hand them down to my children. Those who sell their medals have issues, either they didn't really earn them, or they just don't care. I know there are some that are hard up for money, but I would dig ditches before I ever sold one of my medals. Every medal I earned has its own story and I hope to tell that story to my grandkids someday. Semper Fi.....

[ShannonL]

I personally wouldn't sell any of my medals. But its because they have meaning to me and I protect them in a glass case so someday I can hand them down to my children. Those who sell their medals have issues, either they didn't really earn them, or they just don't care. I know there are some that are hard up for money, but I would dig ditches before I ever sold one of my medals. Every medal I earned has its own story and I hope to tell that story to my grandkids someday. Semper Fi.....

Medals are earned with blood and gunfire. Hell I'd stand homeless on the street with em in my pocket before selling them. So much family history lost due to ignorance.

[jrod02]

It's up to the person who earned it. And there is a a difference, as someone else said, between collecting medals and wearing medals you don't rate. Big difference. Same with other collections, e.g. police badges. If you have a 100 police badges locked up at home, you are hardly impersonating an officer. But wearing one, crosses the legal line, becomes a crime.
Buying medals, collecting them, you are never holding yourself out as having earned it, so it is no different than another collection...wearing them, crosses the line.
And if a veteran wants to sell his or her medal, for any reason, and someone buys it as a keepsake of some kind, again, it is a medal, the medal itself does not contain honor or courage, it is what it symbolizes that is the key. So since you cannot sell valor, courage etc there is no problem with the symbol of it.
Is a police officer an officer because he or she has a badge on his chest? Is his authority within the metal badge? or is he or she an officer because of being sworn in as one?
There is a major difference between wearing and collecting.
And there is a major difference between the medal and what it symbolizes. It is only a symbol. If you have a Marine Corps good conduct medal, your good conduct is nowhere inside that medal, it is in yourself.

Very Well Said.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Dcb, Damvn Well Said!

[Riven37]

If you are right then why is there an FBI Law on ebay stopping the resale of war mdals ? If you cannot resal them on ebay you should not be able to resale them to the general public, right ! My own son asked me if he could have mine when he was a teenager and I told him go join the Corps and win your own.

Absolutely NOT illegal to sell ANY medal (except the MOH). Stolen valor act does NOT apply to the buying, selling, trading of any medal, only the wearing/claiming of unearned ones.

[yanacek]

Maybe I could jump in here again-----having a law for or against something does not make that law right. It has to be obeyed, but being a law doesn't mean it is not idiotic. And in this Age Of Fear we live in, we are afraid to do a lot of things lest we offend someone.....remember, I never once saw courage, valor or integrity sold. I've seen symbols sold, but not the attributes themselves.....if you but a Bronze Star for yourself on a medals online site, I don't think you just became more courageous under fire. I wouldn't worry about courage and valor being found in medals. They ain't there.

Exactly.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

If you are right then why is there an FBI Law on ebay stopping the resale of war mdals ? If you cannot resal them on ebay you should not be able to resale them to the general public, right ! My own son asked me if he could have mine when he was a teenager and I told him go join the Corps and win your own.

Because Ebay has taken the law and become absolutely RETARDED with it. Ebay doesn't allow the sale of ammunition, 'nazi' items, etc. It's their assinine policies, NOT the law.

Furthermore (because this IS a peeve of mine) it's not illegal for a Canadian, an Australian, a German, or an Englishman to purchase a Medal of Honor. That's right, they can buy/sell/trade them all they want. Yet, it IS illegal for me to do so, as an American citizen. All this law has done (re: the purchasing/owning of the Medal of Honor) is to send them overseas. Absolutely stupid.

Prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, and impose JAIL time, on those who would illegally wear such things. But basically telling collectors in this country that they cannot own, buy, or sell them has only succeeded in driving pieces of American history...overseas.

Again....it is ONLY illegal to sell the MOH. Nothing else. Ebay is retarded.

[yanacek]

Furthermore (because this IS a peeve of mine) it's not illegal for a Canadian, an Australian, a German, or an Englishman to purchase a Medal of Honor. That's right, they can buy/sell/trade them all they want. Yet, it IS illegal for me to do so, as an American citizen. All this law has done (re: the purchasing/owning of the Medal of Honor) is to send them overseas. Absolutely stupid.

Wow! I did not know that.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Yup. "Law of unintended consequences". Good intentions law that has completely backfired.

You can thank "His Lordships Industries", which was the MOH contractor in the 1990's for that one, they were selling MOH's illegally. That wasn't the issue so much, except that the scumbags who bought some of them used them to replace REAL MOH's that had been issued to MOH winners (in several cases), and others basically just ran around wearing them, getting all sorts of benefits out of it. It was ALWAYS illegal to do this, you understand....the law just didn't have much teeth and was rarely, if ever, enforced.

Thus, we get 'Stolen Valor' and all the collateral damage because of that. Another good example is if you own a Medal of Honor that was, say, an ancestors medal. You can legally OWN it...but you can't SELL it. All you can do is 'donate' it to a museum. Nor can you sell anything that came with it.

Again, the weasel-ness of doing that aside, the medal, like it or not, is yours to dispose of as you please. Except now...it isn't. If you try it, the F-Bee-Eye will hook you right up....and it's a 250,000 dollar, multiple year prison sentence.

And yes, they do prosecute this stuff.

Ebay's biggest beyotch is the Purple Heart. As soon as one of the 'medal nazi's' see's one and reports it on there, it gets yanked. Stupid.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Yup. I still collect police patches myself but can't afford the badges LOL.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Cooool. Thanks!
J

[usmc987332]

Absolutely NOT illegal to sell ANY medal (except the MOH). Stolen valor act does NOT apply to the buying, selling, trading of any medal, only the wearing/claiming of unearned ones.

I think this is correct.