A rare collection of 420 war memorabilia items, including 393 specific to the Great War, will be auctioned at Norwood Town Hall in Adelaide this weekend.

The majority of the items are from the personal collection of Stuart Braga, garnered over the past 60 years.

"The decision to sell the collection was not made easily," auction coordinator and antiquarian bookseller Michael Treloar said.

The 393 items from the Stuart Braga collection comprises several rarities, including 60 books not held by the National Library.

"It is very hard to find a book that is not held by the National Library," Mr Treloar said.

"To find 60 in one catalogue is exceptional and really goes to the heart of what Stuart has done."

Mr Treloar said Mr Braga's collection was established to specifically honour the soldiers' recruitment and experiences in the trenches.

He estimated the wholesale value of the Braga collection would fall between $200,000 and $300,000.

Items include publications on the landing at Gallipoli, diaries of prisoners of war, trench literature, personal narratives and letters, Australian and New Zealand Unit histories, as well as a variety of other literature and manuals from the time.

"It has items that collectors have looked for for decades and not found," Mr Treloar said.

He said it was sad to see the collection split, but hoped it could be kept in the hands of Australian and expatriate purchasers.

Many items came with more than just a tactile example of what Australians experienced during World War I.

"A lot of these books will have an ownership name in them and almost invariably you will be able to go to the National Archives or War Memorial archive and track down who that man was," Mr Treloar said.

"The book as an artefact is still something to seek and to cherish."

A supplementary catalogue of 27 letters, photographs, sketches, publications and posters from the Boer War and World War I will also be offered.

The collections will be available for public viewing at the Norwood Town Hall from: 1:00pm till 5:00pm on Friday, October 31; 10:00am till 5:00pm on Saturday, November 1; and 10:00am till 12:00pm on Sunday, November 2.

The auction of items will begin at midday on Sunday.