Gents,
Well, the 2007 SOS has come and gone. I made a concerted effort to really assess the state of play for Luftwaffe badges, Flak in particular. I would say that for the sexy qualification badges it was about 75%-25% fake to real. There were an AWFUL lot of stunning crap, with snake-necked pilot and gunner badges the most common. A lot of very good glider fakes were on the floor. These badges must have been common as rats during WW2 for so many to have hit the SOS! I was very surprised to see many fantasy badges get scooped-up. The "rare" sea-battle badge was the biggest offender. One dealer had 5 of these rare and totally mint badges on his table and I saw someone about to buy one. I was able to intervene in that instance, but unless the dealer took them off the table he was down to 3 by the end of the show.
The war badges was a much better story, with Flak and Ground Combat Badge fakes much less common than I would have thought. I guess they are not sexy. I tried to handle EVERY SINGLE Luft flak at the show. Here is the breakdown from my exhaustive search, with the addition of some new fakes for me. It is not scientific, and is just one show, but I find it interesting
Total Luftwaffe Flak Badges at the 2007 SOS: 80
Real: 60 Fake: 20
Breakdown by maker:
REAL:
Assmann: 4
B&NL: 0 (again, I state these are the rarest of all Flak badges)
Brehmer: 9
GWL: 1
Hobacher: 4
Juncker: 12 (one zinc, one SW68)
FLL: 4
S&L: 3
Wernstein: 3
Ball-Hinge: 15
Unknown Maker: 5
FAKE:
Claw: 5 (marked Assmann, GWL, B&NL, Juncker, and Wernstein)
Brehmer Fake: 6
S&L Casting: 1 (this one was very good)
Assmann Fake: 3
Cast Juncker SW68: 1 (this one was very good)
GWL: 2 (these are the exquisite Afrika fakes)
Thin Wreath Fake: 2
Note - some idiot is marking some fakes "800" so you think it is silver. No real Flaks were marked 800. But it helps identify fakes!
All in all I was very happy with the show's Flaks. The pricing ranged wildly. I saw two first pattern Juncker, one for $500 (reasonable for a 1st pattern) and one for $900. Cased Flaks were running from 6-900. The cases all looked good to me. Zincs were anywhere from $125 to $500 depending on condition - some really were outrageous. Chris Garbis got the deal of the show, buying a near mint Brenlack finished FLL for close to the bottom price for a zinc.
Hope this is of interest. I got a blast out of testing myself. Figure if I am writing the book I better know what the hell I am talking about!
Marc
Well, the 2007 SOS has come and gone. I made a concerted effort to really assess the state of play for Luftwaffe badges, Flak in particular. I would say that for the sexy qualification badges it was about 75%-25% fake to real. There were an AWFUL lot of stunning crap, with snake-necked pilot and gunner badges the most common. A lot of very good glider fakes were on the floor. These badges must have been common as rats during WW2 for so many to have hit the SOS! I was very surprised to see many fantasy badges get scooped-up. The "rare" sea-battle badge was the biggest offender. One dealer had 5 of these rare and totally mint badges on his table and I saw someone about to buy one. I was able to intervene in that instance, but unless the dealer took them off the table he was down to 3 by the end of the show.
The war badges was a much better story, with Flak and Ground Combat Badge fakes much less common than I would have thought. I guess they are not sexy. I tried to handle EVERY SINGLE Luft flak at the show. Here is the breakdown from my exhaustive search, with the addition of some new fakes for me. It is not scientific, and is just one show, but I find it interesting
Total Luftwaffe Flak Badges at the 2007 SOS: 80
Real: 60 Fake: 20
Breakdown by maker:
REAL:
Assmann: 4
B&NL: 0 (again, I state these are the rarest of all Flak badges)
Brehmer: 9
GWL: 1
Hobacher: 4
Juncker: 12 (one zinc, one SW68)
FLL: 4
S&L: 3
Wernstein: 3
Ball-Hinge: 15
Unknown Maker: 5
FAKE:
Claw: 5 (marked Assmann, GWL, B&NL, Juncker, and Wernstein)
Brehmer Fake: 6
S&L Casting: 1 (this one was very good)
Assmann Fake: 3
Cast Juncker SW68: 1 (this one was very good)
GWL: 2 (these are the exquisite Afrika fakes)
Thin Wreath Fake: 2
Note - some idiot is marking some fakes "800" so you think it is silver. No real Flaks were marked 800. But it helps identify fakes!
All in all I was very happy with the show's Flaks. The pricing ranged wildly. I saw two first pattern Juncker, one for $500 (reasonable for a 1st pattern) and one for $900. Cased Flaks were running from 6-900. The cases all looked good to me. Zincs were anywhere from $125 to $500 depending on condition - some really were outrageous. Chris Garbis got the deal of the show, buying a near mint Brenlack finished FLL for close to the bottom price for a zinc.
Hope this is of interest. I got a blast out of testing myself. Figure if I am writing the book I better know what the hell I am talking about!
Marc
How the heck do you get a handle on it ? I read some of the threads and they point out the issues and I look at them and scratch my head cause it sure looks good to me.
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