Imperial Militaria and the SOS

[DaveG]

Can someone who attended the SOS give some highlights of what was on offer, especially helmet wise. I always think Imperial gets hind teat in any of the reviews of the show.

Thanks,

Dave

[kaiserwilhelm2]

The SOS was also good for Imperial. Lot of nice pickelhaubes at the show. A couple of nice fieldgrey tunics. Some medal bars. A decent amount of Imperial shoulder boards, straps and Epauletten. A selection of buckles.

A friend of mine found an ultra rare pair of shoulder straps and a M15 Pickelhaube for IR92 (so with the skull).

No reason not to attend the SOS if you are an Imperial collector as there is enough good stuff to be found at the show (of course WWII German stuff and US militaria predominate but definitely worthwhile for Imperial collectors).

[Alan Wilson]

I agree. SOS is a great source for Imperial collectors. As Tom, I saw many pickelhaube, a few feldgrau tunics and plenty of shoulder insignia. I might add there were plenty of buyers for Imperial German items too. My table did very well selling shoulder insignia. Certainly a show not to be missed. See you next year! Mike

[DaveG]

Thanks for the report!

[Mr.Jerry D]

There were some great imperial items there.

[Forssmann]

I'll be the devil's advocate here and say the SOS doesn't quite cut the mustard for the Imperial collector...unless you have deep pockets.

You'll find the big ticket items like many many pickelhaubes and to a lesser extent, tunics. However, most picklehaubes will be the expensive senior officer/rare variants, but not all. More dunnkelblau than feldgrau uniform items, Tunics will be mostly dunkelblau, some officer feldgrau, and very few enlisted feldgrau. You might find 3 or 4 clothes racks in the entire venue with a few imperial tunics. I could count on my hand how many feldmutzen I saw this year. Your run of the mill stahlhelms are common. What I call "goody bag items" like medal bars, patriotic jewelry, trench art, etc are common.

One thing I noticed the most is that many Third Reich dealers will have a handful of imperial medals, badges, etc...but are obviously not in the loop with current market prices and will slap an astronomical price tag on it, or worse, it will be fake. I've seen a fake pilot bagde with a $1200 tag, fake tank and airship badges for several hundred dollars.

The SOS is a great experience for any collector, but a buying mecca only for the Third Reich collector. TR collectors attend the SOS to pick up that item they've been searching for all year, the Imperial collector won't have that privilege. Imperial collectors are better off buying from other collectors/auctions.

[Robert Evans]

Forssmann, I'd have to say that I agree with all your commentary on Imperial availability at the SOS. Perhaps my focus is too narrow, but I just don't collect high ranking parade helmets, or private purchased feldgrau uniform items, which tell more tales of tailor shops and garrison towns than of trenches.

I found nothing to buy at my last SOS, (2009). On the other hand, I saw 1,000's of Normandie camos which have now mysteriously appeared all over, after being selectively hidden for over 70 yeats.

However, one should see this spectacular at least once.

[kaiserwilhelm2]

I'll be the devil's advocate here and say the SOS doesn't quite cut the mustard for the Imperial collector...unless you have deep pockets.

You'll find the big ticket items like many many pickelhaubes and to a lesser extent, tunics. However, most picklehaubes will be the expensive senior officer/rare variants, but not all. More dunnkelblau than feldgrau uniform items, Tunics will be mostly dunkelblau, some officer feldgrau, and very few enlisted feldgrau. You might find 3 or 4 clothes racks in the entire venue with a few imperial tunics. I could count on my hand how many feldmutzen I saw this year. Your run of the mill stahlhelms are common. What I call "goody bag items" like medal bars, patriotic jewelry, trench art, etc are common.

One thing I noticed the most is that many Third Reich dealers will have a handful of imperial medals, badges, etc...but are obviously not in the loop with current market prices and will slap an astronomical price tag on it, or worse, it will be fake. I've seen a fake pilot bagde with a $1200 tag, fake tank and airship badges for several hundred dollars.

The SOS is a great experience for any collector, but a buying mecca only for the Third Reich collector. TR collectors attend the SOS to pick up that item they've been searching for all year, the Imperial collector won't have that privilege. Imperial collectors are better off buying from other collectors/auctions.

How you evaluate the show depends to a large extent on your expectations of it. Enlisted fieldgrey tunics are rare everywhere - so the fact you will not encounter many at the show is only natural. As for pickelhaubes there are enough regular ones to go around which reflects the fact that pickelhaubes are much more common than enlisted fieldgrey tunics. IMO the SOS reflects the general market - what is available elsewhere is also available at the SOS and what is rare elsewhere will not be encountered in abundance at the show. And clearly there is much more Third Reich militaria available on the global market than Imperial - so it is at the show. As for fakes these are unfortunately everywhere; both on the internet as well as at the show. This is no reason to prefer the internet over the show. The opposite, its easier to see what is or is not a fake in hand, than on your monitor.

The show however does have its advantages over internet shopping and that is more room for price negotiations due to face to face contact and cash payments, the ease with which to compare items sold by various sellers, the easily obtainable 2nd opinion without have to buy something first, photograph it, post it and then the hassle of returning it if no good. These advantages hold good for Imperial collectors as well.

The shows I have attended so far have always been good for me and four other Imperial collectors I know well and they and I for that reason have been coming back each year for more. But hey, the less Imperial collectors that attend the show, the more there is for those who do.

[SCHUPO]

I found some nice Imperial material at SOS. I bought an excellent, and quite early, Bavarian Infantry Officer sword by Carl Kaiser & Co. as well as some quite scarce Portepee at very reasonable prices. I found some other Imperial pieces that were re-issued during the Weimar Republic Zeit as well so a good show for me. You have to look closely and keep your head on a swivel but I thought there was lots of nice Imperial German stuff at the show even though I might not have bought it myself.