Thanks to a friend

Ive bought most of my ribbon bars from ebay--with none being fake. It is a chance you have to take but--for the most part---I would say 98% of all ribbon bars under 6 places in length--that you see on ebay--are good ones--unless they are to do with the SS as those are heavily faked in any length.

The longest ribbon bar I got from ebay was I think a 10 place bar--or a 9 place bar--but it definately was real--and was made by a very rare ribbon bar maker--Scharffenbung.

You do have to be very careful when bidding on ribbon bars that are 5 pace or more in length--as many are faked but--many arent faked. Always be weary of a large ribbon bar--and especially a large ribbon bar with many devices--like ek2 spange, crowns--crossed swords, and other stuff.

One very important thing to know about ribbon bars is---no matter how many devices they have--make sure they all line up in a straight line. You can do this by just looking at where the devices are put at. If they seem to be not lined up--thats a great indication that it is a fake ribbon bar. Also--some that look "stained" to make them look aged--be careful on those as most of those are fakes and the fakers are learning on how to improve faking ribbon bars by making their devices all line up in a neat row.

Another "aged: thing to look for is if it looks aged--fakers sometimes rub in grease onto the ribbons for "aging" them and sometimes they rub in dirt or ashes to "dirty and age" them up.

As of yet--I havent seen any fake ribbon bars 5 place and under in length. At sometime in the future--those will also be faked as well. For the most part--your pretty safe in 5 and 6 place ribbon bars.

If you find some your looking at--just let me know and ill give an opinion--or also let Rick Lundstrom know and he will tell you.

One other thing, the more ornate-looking a ribbon bar is---be careful as they are heavily faked--but not all you see on ebay are fakes either. Thats where Stogiman Rick got the vast majority of his ribbon bars from.

In the scans--Ill enclude my fake 8 place Imperial/ww2 ribbon bar for an example of what to look for. I paid $80.00 for it a few years ago---the people I bought it from I know did not sell it to me knowing it was fake--they are too good for that. But--that was my first fake ribbon bar--the other was from a gunshow--and everyone was stumped by it upon much closer examination. I paid $125.00 for it.

[ 12. April 2003, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

 

Carl thanks for the info! When I want to buy I will definitely post the pics here to have your opinion.

Today I ordered a special membership pin at Weitze. It's from the WA, a kind of Dutch SA. I hope it was not sold. Here it is.

 

Quite welcome my friend--and you can thank Mssr Rick Lundstrom for teaching me more about ribbon bars. I forgot to mention that ribbon bar you were looking at from Jorg Kalies site 3 place for $9.00 is a good price.

I lost the url to his site--can you post it here--id like to visit his site and see whats new.

Also--I like that Dutch membership pin--the one with the Wolfsangle. Im looking for the shoulder patch that is made of Boullion and is hand embroidered.

 

Nice to hear that you are also interested in some dutch stuff. The wolfsangle was used for the WA, dutch SS and dutch waffen-ss. I know some patches for sale at the internet for prices between $75-$120 I think.

The link of Jörgen Kalies is: https://www.sammler-cabinett.de/

 

Thank you again my friend. I cant remember where but, I saw a Dutch Waffen SS Peaked visor for sale. Im not sure if it was Officer class or not but, it had a larger Wolfsangle patch and something else on the front of the visor. At that time, I was VERY tempted in buying that hat.

Ill be trying his link as soon as I post this for you. Now that my taxes are sent off--I can start dreaming of a nice piece of militaria.

 

Just cruised through jorg's site--and he has lots of very interesting things im looking at. Im trying to choose between 10 items im definately interested in.

 

A dutch peaked visor for sale I MUST see that. There goes the money for the baby room

I know someone who has a very nice black visor with a wolfsangle. He got it from a theater company. It was always used in plays.

Jörg Kalies is not overpriced I think and has a nice offering. I never bought anything from him. Sometimes he is very cheap on mint things (I saw a Krim shield once ), then I always start to hesitate. Do you have any idea on his knowledge of detecting III Reich fakes.

 

I think Peter Lukacs had the peaked visor if it wasnt Jorg.

Oh and ill rank Jorg up there with Detlev. I have bought from him before and always got great service.

Also--I rank Peter just under Detlev, Carsten Baldes, and Jorg.

Im on outs with Weitze--Kay ticked me off.

 

Out on Weitze? Kai has great things but is too expensive.

Can't find the dutch cap on both sites. It would be sold already.

 

Yep--Kay Bruggemann from (Weitze)pissed me off--ill not be dealing with him again--besides--there are too many other militaria sites I can go to to get better deals. Kai W. is a bit high--but he has good stuff too. I had seen that Nederland Visor some months ago--im sure it sold quickly.

 

Greetings -

Carl, I would not be too inclusive in the statement that normally all ribbon bars under 5 awards are usually safe on e-bay.

I needed to pick up a Luftwaffe four year longevity service ribbon with eagle device, and saw one on e-bay with the "buy it now" feature for $20 U.S. Well, as with e-bay, the swastika was blotted out, and needing one for just this award with none other attatched to it, I jumped on it. Figured for $20 it was not too bad of an investment.

When it arrived, I could have cried. The "swastika" appeared to be exactly as if a lump of hot solder had dropped on to the piece. I attempted to get back in touch with the seller, but he refused to do anything about it. Don't get me wrong, I know not all sellers of ribbon bars on ebay or any where else are attempting to dupe prospective buyers, but I just would like to take this opportunity to inform others out there to just be careful.

For those that are interested in what I did with the piece of flash, I threw out with the morning trash. Another piece out of circulation.

Respectfully,

Bill

 

Carl,

I Sent an Email to Weitze about a week ago asking for more pictures of a Wehrpass he has - still no reply. (But to be fair we have had Easter)

 

Hi Bill, thanks for the correction and help keeping it in perspective. I should have said that mainly pertained to Imperial ribbon bars of that size. Sadly--ive seen fake 2 place Luftwaffe ribbon bars. Luckily, ive only been taken once on ebay for a ribbon bar. When Volkbert gets my scans in the mail, hes going to post the pics of my collection for me the three fakes included and identified.

I hatd admitting to it but--one of my 8 place bars is fake--this one will be easily spotted as the most ornate ribbon bar I have. Get this--I got this one from Weitze a few years ago. I dont think they purposedly sold me a repo as real--I just figured they didnt know better at that time. Bad thing is it cost me $80.00 I still have it as a teaching tool and it will not be for sale.

Last year I got burned by a guy at the Houston show--and I believe he was the Cave Creek guy. Ill be looking for him at the next Houston show I go to--and will see if he will honor his sale and get my $125.00 back. I really doubt he will but...

Hi David--ive sent him a few emails as well--none answered--and this is long before Easter. Ive never had any problems with them before and have bought a few thousand dollars worth of stuff from them--so I dont know whats going on there except that Kay B, has been dropping the ball.

 

Bill - Thanks for the info. I will be carefull even if I only look for a ribbon bar with eastern front medal , EK II and KVK/Wehrmacht long service award.

Carl and David - Last week I got a reply from Kay about the return of a bad piece. Their e-mail seems to work. I await the WA membership pin right now.

 

Thanks for the info on Weitze. Ill probably not do any more dealing with them again unless Kay lets me know whats going on and why my mails arent being answered.

The last item I bought from him was a $30.00 item--UNLESS thats the problem--if so--Jorg, Carsten and Detlev all the way--no more Weitze.

 

Gentlemen -

Concerning "the Cave Creek guy", unless it has changed ownership, that would be one "Pieces Of History". I was taken by him myself, but only once, at a local militaria show held in Portland, Oregon back in the late 1990's. The item? One Luftwaffe Bomber Clasp In Silver. How could I tell? I doubt the Germans used super glue in the attatchment of their pin hinge assemblies to the clasp!

Being new here, I am unsure as to whether it is allowable to give lists of those less than honorable dealers, but I can sure tell you about a few to be wary of. Why? Because if one can save another collector some mental grief as well as the financial loss, I say, why not. As we all know, there are a lot of scheisters in this "hobby".

Respectfully,

Bill

 

Bill :

would this cave creek bum, oh I mean guy, have residence in Arizona by chance ?

shows in Portland eh ? please list some of the more unsociables for us. as you mentioned it could save us all alot of headache and expense....

~E

 

Greetings Erich -

Being still unsure about policy on this, and not wishing to "upset the apple cart", I sent you a pm concerning your wishes.

Respectfully,

Bill

 

Viktor, viktor Bill !

have received and sent reply.....thank you.

since you are collecting Luftwaffe militaria, may I ask what you have in your collection ?

thumbs up

~E

 

Hello Bill--no problem in posting names to not-so-cool-dealers here. I just had a very good frined who got "burned" for the third time by "Weitze," and he and I both discussed it and we'll never buy from him again.

I too think its an excellent idea to post warnings about dealers going bad here. We finally have a small and growing group of militaria collectors here and with you here now--adds even more to our small collectors community.

Mil collectors I know of here are: GregS, Fraulein, Kampfgruppe-Root, David, Ryan, Volkbert, William, Doc, Paul, Juerg, Otto, Stevin and soon to be Ben B from Belgium and now your esteemed self. Forgive me if I left anyone out from this small list.

Erich--believe me--he has some VERY nice stuff but--ill let him explain in public if he wishes. Both of you have some very common ground and im greatful Bill joined these forums. Oh and he also has some common ground with PzJgr as well

[ 23. April 2003, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]