Today's Humor

[Matthew S.]

Indeed I believe this to be a fitting compromise fo rthe enemies of the state STURM must be dealt with...thier destruction of state property has been tolerated for too long. I ask Genosse viktor to begin discussions with Moscow Centre immidiately as to a coarse of action...

I'm sure our comrades to the east will inform us there is much room on the great plains of Siberia. I hear the wolves there are lonely!

[jt327gir]

Sad

[Mike G.]

Eventually the photo will be removed from ebay and anyone reading this thread thereafter will be clueless as to what the discussion is about.

So for continuity purposes, I am posting the offending topical subject:

[iannima]

So for continuity purposes, I am posting the offending topical subject:

Even at this distance, I can feel how much you are cringing in doing this !
But I know full well the point you are making

[Ian Richardson]

Genossen, the destruction of the people's property conintues unnoticed;

http://cgi.ebay.com/East-German-unif...item2558ff2b7c
I'm not even sure if this was ever even an original DDR item, but I know STURM is now producing jackets and other items in the older Blumentarn pattern.

unfortunately, the other day I saw yet another Grenzer wool tunic that had been 'converted' to a shorter panzer jacket style with the horrible stretch band on the bottom. It was sold with Bundswehr moleskin pants as a complete 'set' for around 60 USD. Disgusting...

-Ian

[Frank Soon]

I just wonder what the bidders were thinking when they bid on this crap.

[uscob]

I just wonder what the bidders were thinking when they bid on this crap.

Most of them don't see the collectable value of an item, it's just fashion for them. I also often sell Bulk loads of Stuff to fashion companies and they convert it ito fancy stuff.
My Aunt came in one day with an old Bundeswehr Feldhemd from the 60's and told me that she bought it somewhere for 350 euros.
the last ones I sold for 10 Marks 10 Years ago. I just had to add some glitter and Jeans denim to it to value them up.
The other way is, when Sturm converts them, there is a reason for it. One is to find 200.000 Collectors for like greatcoats. Are there so many outside?
I think not, so that he don't have to throw them away, he must go to the fashion line, it's that easy.
It's just because of the loads of stuff around. Think what they did with the Wehrmacht stuff after the War. It was better to have clothing for the Kids as to keep a coat for future Collectors or a cooking pot out of Steel Helmet, coffee Pot our of Gas mask canisters.
I use NVA Helmet Straps to fix Stuff in my Sales trailer. I think I'll never sell 2000 of them to collectors.
Nico

[Kartofelpreußer]

It's just because of the loads of stuff around. Think what they did with the Wehrmacht stuff after the War. It was better to have clothing for the Kids as to keep a coat for future Collectors or a cooking pot out of Steel Helmet, coffee Pot our of Gas mask canisters.
I use NVA Helmet Straps to fix Stuff in my Sales trailer. I think I'll never sell 2000 of them to collectors.
Nico

Good post. I may have brought it up before in a similar thread, but I'm reminded of the thousands and thousands of Confederate uniforms that were supposedly warehoused in Virginia after the civil war and would have, had they been preserved to this day, been incredibly valuable, both monetarily and for their history.

But we'll never see them. They were issued to German POWs during WWI.

It's the same old story: One uniform is a collectible. 10,000 of them is military surplus.

[Ian Richardson]

I believe the old collector's formula goes something like this;

W(uc) x T+d(uc)= Tn(V)

For all you non-collector folks... 'Warehouses(full of useless crap) times Time plus the destruction of (said useless crap) equals Time (to the n amount of years) times Value'

i.e.- The longer people view something as crap, the more it goes unnoticed, and destroyed, and becomes more valuable with time and the destruction of mass numbers of other such items. A vicious circle that repeats itself again and again. Thats why many of us on this forum (akin to another thread recently) have chosen to collect DDR itmes of interest now: not just because we have interest in them, but they are less valuable now than they will eventually be.

My friend who served in Germany from 1966-67 told me stories of german farmers he knew in the area that he'd see out in the fields wearingWehrmacht uniforms and jackets as work clothes. At the time, seens as much more useful as farm clothes than sitting in a closet collecting dust in hope of future value. my friend knew then that at the time he could have gladly paid the farmers for thier uniforms or even gotten them for free because any reminders of the former reich were seen as horrible memories of an era past, but no one would have thought twice as no one would have ever thought them to become of value. This repeats throughout history especially with item of 'offensive' or 'painful' histories such as the former nazi regeme.

THat is why many of us now collect communist era items that are cheap and plentiful for the time being, but as time continues on and the memories of the dark ages of the cold war and the fear and negativities associated with communism fade, curiosity will set in, and these items formerly seen as trash will become treasure. History again repeats itself.

-Ian