hey how can i help you i've got this japanese tiki danto
a taki danto i've actually ate at that place it's pretty good
i came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my japanese world war ii techy danto also known
as a knee mortar it has just been a part of my collection but maybe i could find something cooler
i'd really like to get 2 000 for it i don't think that's unreasonable
where in the world did you get this my dad served her in world war ii
and he brought some stuff back that i always had an eye on and when i got old enough they
became mine this would launch fragmentation grenades like the ones the soldiers threw and also
a little more high explosive bombs up to several hundred yards okay the pacific we saw some of
the worst casualties in all these islands i mean they had really really thick jungles i imagine it
saw a lot of use too i would guess that this was responsible for quite a bit of carnage
mortars have been around for hundreds of years they are originally used to lob large rocks over
castle walls during a siege the modern ones can throw a grenade hundreds and hundreds of yards
it's got a lot of history behind it and that's what world war ii collectors want
has it been deactivated yes it's been demilitarized after the war the
cut here in the barrel and then if you look in the front end you can see that there's a bar
that's been welded across there as well okay so what did you want to do with it
i'd like to sell it okay and how much did you want for it i'd like to get two thousand dollars for it
okay i know absolutely nothing about the value of this thing at all do you mind if i have someone
come in and take a look at it i got a buddy who knows about all the stuff okay thank you very much
i'm very confident and i think the expert will give me a very good price and valuation on it
craig how's it going good rick how are you oh living the dream as always the guys usually call
me down here when they need help placing a value on an antique gun firearm or piece of militaria
it's a tucky tikidanto tucky taco i prefer to use the word type 89 knee mortar it was built in 1929
this was a very very uh deadly weapon it was highly mobile if you look at a mortar usually
what's the main thing you'll find with a mortar you'll find a mortar and a big heavy base plate
okay so you'll have one guy in a mortar team carrying the mortar
okay and one guy humping this big fat base plate well the japanese made it a lot more
simple and a lot lighter guys would run up on the field they'd get down they would
hit it into the dirt scoop it back would adjust an inner rod here that goes up and down which would
affect range okay they drop a grenade in and then they would pull this trigger and off it would go
the knee mortar was quick to set up and quick to break down and that was really important for the
operator because they could run out they could shoot at you with it and then when you started
shooting back they could get up and leave okay so rick what are your concerns are they legal to own
yes the answer is yes this is 100 legal to own so what's it worth let me evaluate the piece uh see
first we look at the serial number which is well it's four digits so it's an early production piece
uh which makes it more valuable i think they made about 50 70 000 100 000 of these
you'll see these on the internet people will ask crazy money for it uh i mean i've seen him oh five
thousand dollars it's the japanese knee mortar even it's the only one like it but in reality
when these things do trade 2000 if i was selling it i'd ask 19.95 okay probably get it all right
you're the best man rick it's a pleasure now that i know it's legal to own i would love to buy this
there's a lot of world war ii collectors out there and this is one of those rare items that doesn't
come up too often huh i thought they sold for a little more than that um i mean that's my guy
and he's got no skin on the game so i understand completely um i'd give you like 1100 bucks for it
that's a little low i think could you go 1500 no because i'm thinking that's probably
that's close to what i'm gonna get out of it you know um i'll tell you what i'll go 1200 and
i won't go no more i mean 1200 bucks i think is more than a fair price i have to retail this thing
i understand you know i mean you can put them on the internet auctions but anymore it's just
so much of a pain to put it on there um yeah i understand you have a business to run yeah um
1300. i'll meet you in the middle at 12 50. i mean there's just not a lot of money here
sold okay uh i'll meet you right over there and i'll write you up
sounds good i'm comfortable with the 1250 dollars i would like to have gotten a little more
but i can use that money well in my collection and i think that they got a very good piece