Greetings from Omaha, fellow collectors!
My name is Gil and I typically post on the Indochina thread.
One thing that Vietnam era and WWII collectors have in common is a plague of reproduction artists. Sometimes the same vendors are busy cranking out things for both audiences.
Case in point, about 9 years ago we had an operator on eBay known as "grossritter". I am sure folks on this thread can translate that better than I can.
For about two years he had constant listings for some very high dollar SS, Wehrmacht and US Special Forces memorabilia. His Vietnam fakes fooled people for awhile because they were much heavier and a better quality than what was coming out of Saigon at the time. However he had a tendency to embelish normal badges with added skulls, wings, engravings etc. He also had a steady supply of Special Forces berets that had all been aged identically. Eventually he was shot down in Vietnam collecting circles, and I believe the same happened with German collectors as well.
About three or four years ago similar items showed up for awhile from a source in the midwest. However I did not keep notes on that set of events.
Over this weekend I was advised to look on eBay at the offerings of one "rougepanzer". Based on the material and the Phoenix address, I believe our same vendor is back. (By the way, I imagine he meant to use "rogue panzer" as his ID, but that is another story.)
My name is Gil and I typically post on the Indochina thread.
One thing that Vietnam era and WWII collectors have in common is a plague of reproduction artists. Sometimes the same vendors are busy cranking out things for both audiences.
Case in point, about 9 years ago we had an operator on eBay known as "grossritter". I am sure folks on this thread can translate that better than I can.
For about two years he had constant listings for some very high dollar SS, Wehrmacht and US Special Forces memorabilia. His Vietnam fakes fooled people for awhile because they were much heavier and a better quality than what was coming out of Saigon at the time. However he had a tendency to embelish normal badges with added skulls, wings, engravings etc. He also had a steady supply of Special Forces berets that had all been aged identically. Eventually he was shot down in Vietnam collecting circles, and I believe the same happened with German collectors as well.
About three or four years ago similar items showed up for awhile from a source in the midwest. However I did not keep notes on that set of events.
Over this weekend I was advised to look on eBay at the offerings of one "rougepanzer". Based on the material and the Phoenix address, I believe our same vendor is back. (By the way, I imagine he meant to use "rogue panzer" as his ID, but that is another story.)
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