I thought I'd write a few impressions of the S.O.S. this year. It was my first time there and I must say I was impressed and almost overwhelmed by the amount of material on offer. The fact that about 50% of the EKs were fakes made sifting through the rest a bit easier, though 
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The big news to me was that we are most definitely in the era of the $125 EK2. That was quite literally the bottom price any dealer was willing to accept for a standard cross. If the cross was marked, it started at $150 or $175. I was also amazed at how savvy most dealers were about variants and less common marks. People who had Schinkels or Ubergrosses knew they had them. I saw a marked 125 for sale -- one of the few marks I was never able to find when I used to collect the EK2 by maker. It was $250. "It's a very hard to find maker," I was told. And so it is.
The base price for a Schinkel was around $350 - $400, with some asking as much as $450 for a nice one. I saw an Ubergrosse in mediocre condition listed for $1000. There were very few real deals to be had (that I saw personally), at least with TR stuff. I did a bit better with Imperial.
That said, there were some very nice items for sale and on display.
My favorite encounter was with a dealer. I stopped to look at an EK2. It was a nice unmarked 1914 one-piece, overpriced at $125. I asked why it was so expensive. "It's an Austrian variant," he explained. "How can you tell?" I asked. He looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said, "Just look at it!! Can't you tell?" (It was not an Austrian variant, by the way.)
Overall it was a very enjoyable trip. The highlight, really, was meeting my fellow collectors: Greg, Tony, Alik, Dietrich, Gentry, Bob, George, all of you that I met.
I didn't find the one specific thing I was looking for, but I did find some other nice items. I'll post a few of my finds here. I would love to see others' cross-related scores, too.
Here is a Full Juncker. The condition is what caught my eye. It's the best one of this type I've ever had personally and it reminds me why Juncker is my favorite maker, and so sought-after.
.The big news to me was that we are most definitely in the era of the $125 EK2. That was quite literally the bottom price any dealer was willing to accept for a standard cross. If the cross was marked, it started at $150 or $175. I was also amazed at how savvy most dealers were about variants and less common marks. People who had Schinkels or Ubergrosses knew they had them. I saw a marked 125 for sale -- one of the few marks I was never able to find when I used to collect the EK2 by maker. It was $250. "It's a very hard to find maker," I was told. And so it is.
The base price for a Schinkel was around $350 - $400, with some asking as much as $450 for a nice one. I saw an Ubergrosse in mediocre condition listed for $1000. There were very few real deals to be had (that I saw personally), at least with TR stuff. I did a bit better with Imperial.
That said, there were some very nice items for sale and on display.
My favorite encounter was with a dealer. I stopped to look at an EK2. It was a nice unmarked 1914 one-piece, overpriced at $125. I asked why it was so expensive. "It's an Austrian variant," he explained. "How can you tell?" I asked. He looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said, "Just look at it!! Can't you tell?" (It was not an Austrian variant, by the way.)
Overall it was a very enjoyable trip. The highlight, really, was meeting my fellow collectors: Greg, Tony, Alik, Dietrich, Gentry, Bob, George, all of you that I met.
I didn't find the one specific thing I was looking for, but I did find some other nice items. I'll post a few of my finds here. I would love to see others' cross-related scores, too.
Here is a Full Juncker. The condition is what caught my eye. It's the best one of this type I've ever had personally and it reminds me why Juncker is my favorite maker, and so sought-after.
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