SOS 2007 Fake Report

[Marc Garlasco]

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

[Mike TM]

Very good work
Mike

[Lorenzo Brown]

Excellent work! Thanks for the update.

[Gene]

Marc,

Who had the fakes for sale? Were they interspersed with genuine badges or did they seem to be among a lot of other fake badges? Any dealer/seller names to divulge?

Gene

[Marc Garlasco]

Gene,

I have no names, sorry. Not looking to become a militaria cop so I never asked. There were a handful of guys with nothing but fakes, just blew me away! But most were interspersed and I honestly think it was a case of no one can know everything (and some don't care). Here is an anecdote:

I was at one guy's table and asked to see an FLL Flak that was next to a claw fake marked W. He asked me how I knew it was an FLL and I showed him the draft of my book I was carrying around. Then he handed me the claw and asked what the maker was. I told him W is for Wernstein, then went about really confusing the crap out of him with the Vienna mafia story, and then a guy next to him asked if it was good. I showed him the claw in my fake section. He put it away at that point, but I don't know if it resurfaced...

Marc

[Ron P]

The Luft badges were not the only problem. I have never seen so many gold and silver Spanish WB's in one room in my life! I tried to get a silver close combat clasp. I looked at probably 20. 18 of them were mmFLL. Come on! The only one I was comfortable with was a Junker.

[Joe D]

Excellent work! Thanks for the update.

I second that statement. Really interesting information.

[rfleming32]

I was there also and looking at the qualification badges and clasps in particular. I think that the 80:20 assesment is dead on. I might even go 85:15. Fake pilot badges were especially pronounced. I think I may have seen one good glider in zinc but am not sure about that to be honest. The most common fake in clasps were Osang's and the "o" mark - S&L I think. The good stuff was priced as good stuff shound be - often much higher so it was not moving too fast. I was amazed at the number of bad clasps out there. The last show I went to was the MAX in 1998. Everyone was saying how the SOS was the best show around but compared to the MAX but compared to the MAX in that time period things were much better. Everyone was also commenting on the high prices. A visor collector was saying twice what he would pay, etc. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show and especially the company and the bar. I came back with a few good pieces but it took a LOT of looking, much more than I anticipated. Not much there in Spanish Cross either. Saw many fake Junckers in fake cases and one beautiful unmarked bronze but did not need it and it was priced high. Also questionable 1st pattern Junkers Observer were seen.

I will say this, the forum has taught me a lot. What I have learned here is invaluable when you go into a show like this.

Last comment. There were dealers that had 100% junk, 90% junk, those that had a mix, and those that were almost pure. There is a value in who you deal with and if theyy stand behind what they sell.

[George L]

Richard, I did see a few real SC's there - a couple of the one piece (eagles were not separately attached) bronze types without swords, a brz Meybauer that I bought, and a silver Otto Schickle L/15 w/swords that looked good. The bronze grades were over priced from what I remember. There were a bunch of fakes there for sure.

[Huntzman]

Hmmmmmmmm I wonder if WAF can start a "Big Brothers / Big Sisters" program to help us newbies.

Honestly, I'm almost afraid to venture out to a show because of all the fakes. 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.

Andrew

[Marc Garlasco]

Andrew,
Take heart. Specialize, read stuff, and go to a show with a knowledgeable collector.
Marc

[Darrell]

I'm with Gene. We need to start naming culprits and spread the word. We may not expose them all, but any bad publicity can't hurt.

[Jeff V]

Some good advice and input here! best wishes,
jeff

[Larry Lipps]

In my opinion the 25 to 75% fake ratio seemed pretty close, maybe even a little low. From a cross section of things I examined I would have thougt it closer to an 80/20 bad to good ratio across the board.

[Scott C.]

I attended Fri & Sat, and found that prices started to come down a bit by noon Sat as sellers started to get antsy about packing up.

Scott

PS: Oustaning data you reported Marc - thanks!