ALWAYS check the pockets

[iannima]

Experienced collectors know this already but it is worth repeating... One NEVER knows what is left in the pockets of old items. It might just be an old tram ticket but it is always worth a look...
I have recently won an auction for a dark collar officer tunic. The photograph on Ebay showed it plain with insignia removed but obvious evidence of its having been there. I think the seller knew very little about it as it was bundled together with a pair of Bundeswehr ordinary "pseudo-moleskin" trousers. Well I received it today and what do I find in the breast pocket?

[iannima]

The full set of insignia, i.e. Kragenspiegel and cuff bars, for a Stasi officer :

[iannima]

I think these are the bullion-wire parade variety that I have not come across yet as I mainly deal with later stuff and they would normally have the prongs at the back:

[iannima]

It would greatly help me if someone with the Uniformeffekten book can tell me the time of usage of these, as I have never dealt with insignia this old.
Having handled various bits of NVA insignia, I am pretty certain that these are Stasi and not Artillery as the shade is too dark. It might not come out well on the hasty photographs I took.
Whether the insignia was originally on the tunic or not is hard to tell now. There is obvious evidence of the Kragenspiegel having left a mark on the collar but little if any marks on the cuffs, and no loose threads. This is a fully piped tunic that could also have been used as a service uniform, and therefore need not have had any cuff bars ever. It is marked B=1972.
Given this uncertainty, I do not plan to stitch these back to the tunic, and Stasi is not my thing any way . I am just amazed that the seller made NO mention of this, despite the obvious bulge in the breast pocket...
Oh well... I am sure I have not struck gold but given that I was not expecting anything more than a tram ticket... I have not done badly ... have I?

[uscob]

Collars and Cuffs from 1957 to 1965. Walther says 95 and 88 marks but without feeling bad you can say the same in Euro.
I sell them for 120 ea Set, so it's a real mnice find in a Pocket.
Years ago in an old wrecked House I found a Vol's fire Dept. female Uniform in the old style with handkerchief and ID Booklet in the Breast Pockets.
I still kept it even if I don't collect it, but the ID was issued on Nov. 13 1965.
That's my birthday.
Nico

[iannima]

Collars and Cuffs from 1957 to 1965. Walther says 95 and 88 marks but without feeling bad you can say the same in Euro.
I sell them for 120 ea Set, so it's a real mnice find in a Pocket.

Are you joking? I cannot believe it...

[Mike G.]

Nice score Matteo

[grenzflieger]

Congratulations!!! Super cool! These surpises make collecting an interesting hobby.

I've bought a box with standard grey officers shirts once, and all the way to the bottom was a general's raincoat in the original plastic wrapping. I can imagine how you feel

[SteelhelmJim]

I just had a similar experience with a photo album. I got the album off eBay for a low amount. It is a nice album. The cover with initials and the photos inside are nice, but the names of the soldier and his wife were not available. At least not until I received the album and discovered a small slip of paper that had been cut out of a newspaper and then tucked into the binding of the album.
The slip of paper had the full names of the couple, and included his rank, as well as there address, in Oct. 1944. It was a notice of there marriage.
I now know what the initials on the cover of the album stand for, and I know where the couple were as of the end of 1944.
Oh, and on top of this, I found a photo of the apartment building they lived in on the Internet, because it is now a preserved historical site.
If the slip of paper and been found before me, I'm sure that I would have had to pay much more than I did for this album. And if this small slip of newsprint had been lost, so would the history of this couple and their album.
You never know what you'll find. These little discoveries are part of the fun and excitement of collecting these artifacts. Even after all these years.

[uscob]

Are you joking? I cannot believe it...

Not Joking, the last sale was 3 weeks ago.

[Ypres Creepers]

Very nice, best I found is some polish algebra homework tucked into my luftstreitkrafte cap

[Mike G.]

In a pocket in my 1956 Dark Collar Red color-piped Artillery Tunic I found two small 1949 dated East German coins. They were of real metal, and not the cheap feather-lite coinage of the 70s.

[iannima]

On a side note... I feel something odd is happening to the price of dark collar officer tunics
The one that contained this incredible find I managed to snatch for €47 which is pretty good going, given that it was an M52-1. Admittedly it had been stripped of the insignia... but... still very cheap
But today this auction ended for €121
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Surely EVERY collector will know that this tunic is a put together one, as the Engels cuff title only came much much later than the dark collar tunics had disappeared, and the Wachregiment always wore the most up to date uniforms. Very odd. I mean: it is still worth having, but the size is M48 and no guarantee that the cuff title is the only manumission. I did not bid on this one but still watched it to see what price it would end at. Is there something I am missing?

[Mike G.]

Absolutely not.

This is, as you quite correctly stated, a "put-together" Tunic. Bidders failed to think about what was being offered, and the presence of the arm band when all was said and done, won out over common sense and rationale reasoning. I'm sure when the winner recovers from their initial unguarded over enthusiastic and zealous response to the auction that enabled them to prevail, they will realize with solemn clarity they were duped, and purchased a fake.

[iannima]

When I saw it first, I could already hear David_H hissing..."I would not want it in my collection..." a bit like a Roman Emperor disdainfully letting the fallen gladiator meet his sad fate...