Help! please ID another funny pair of Binos...real?

[HJ-Marseille]

These pair of "rln" "Zeiss" 7x50 are listed and relisted and relisted and relisted and relisted since approx a years:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BINOCULARS...item3a877a2fbe

Real or another big BS or big joke?

Thanks to all for your imput.

[Sgt Bilko]

I think they've merely been engraved (for the owner) in the immediate post war years. He served in Europe and possibly the factory re-vamped them for him. I think the original eyecups would have been hinged like bmk ones.

Note the seller's feedback - they'd already been sold for $511 and he pulled out.....

[HJ-Marseille]

thx,
means the binos and the seller are a joke!
Cheers

[Sgt Bilko]

Do you think the binoculars are a joke?

If you were around, just after the war, in Germany and had a damaged pair of genuine rln Zeiss made binoculars - and the Zeiss people were desperate to feed themselves, would it not perhaps be an idea to have them "tidied up" and, for an extra few bucks have your name on?

Just because it's non standard doesn't mean it was done to fool or be a fake. In times gone by, before people had too much money to spend (myself included!) a binocular was just a binocular - so why not have new eyecups / eyelenses and your name on?

I'd buy them myself - rln KM binos are pretty rare. And the guy's history (look it up) is impressive. No joke - but a little expensive....

[Sgt Bilko]

Claude L. Shepard, Jr., was born May 11, 1917, in Murray, Iowa and was a 1939 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He received a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts. He was also a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. Col. Shepard was a survivor of Pearl Harbor. He became one of the early group of Army aviators, "Grasshoppers," and served in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany. He was among the leaders in the development of the Army Aviation Program, and was later elected to the Army Aviation Hall of Fame.

He also served as an artillery officer in Korea in 1954-55 and in Germany in 1961-62. His numerous military decorations included the Croix de Guerre.



See what I mean.....

[HJ-Marseille]

All due respect to the military men and women...regardless from which side as long as they respect(ed) the "code de guerre" and Geneva convention...most did.
Respect to Col. Sheppard and men and women like him.
Its a shame and pitty people try to make money out of names like him.
To me its (the binos) still a fake and the faker is a conman.
In 1945 until the 1960ies there were so many WW2 binos all over the place you could handpick yours without any scratch and still untouched.
Most allied militaries took them for themselves and you could even buy them in surplus stores (incl in occupied Germany)...
So on these the Zeiss and the rln on the same pair.... to me unlikely original when still a lot or real blc real rln real Zeiss were available when Col was serving in Germany...without any cosmetic needs nor demand...
Unlike today...buy two make one...engraving something is easy...plenty on super engravings Ebay or others like that...
With all due respect...no good binos...including the seller...no good.

[Sgt Bilko]

So you think some faker had the name engraved? Maybe - but seems a lot of work when an rln bino would probably sell higher without the guy's name and "Carl Zeiss " on.

As to making money out of people's names - it's fairly obvious that a binocular with a provenance is going to sell higher. Hans Langsdorff's binocular sold for a premium purely because of it's history (Graf Spee). Without the history behind it it was just another Kriegsmarine binocular.

Maybe I make too much of the history as it's the part of military optics collecting that really excites me. But it seems to excite a lot of others too....

[HJ-Marseille]

Yup! I am 1000% positive that this engraving is a joke...to make money.
Why should Col. Shepard´s familly sell it to someone? and now if so it ends up like this...No way! all " famous persones" donate to museums and others but not like this. Never! You should know the US pride!
If I would be Col. Shepard´s relatives I would sue the seller ...
Hope someone is doing it for faking/forging/counterfeiting at least.
Thanks for your inputs...realy appreciate what you write here and in other bino
forums
Rgds

[Sgt Bilko]

Maybe you're right - but it's not unknown for people to sell family artifacts that you and I wouldn't part with. I bought a named Royal Navy telescope from a seller who bought if from the original owner's neice - she sold it at a "car boot" sale just to get rid of it.

I suppose some people just see the things that excite us collectors as useless junk. Sad really - although some of the dubious and dodgy items we discuss here are useless junk when the fakers are finished!

[garys39]

If you look at his "other items", he has a total of 9 items listed and strangely these binoculars are listed twice, buy it now 1x at 401.56 and 1x 375.16, both have the same serial number and the same engraving ?
Regards Gary

[HJ-Marseille]

Thx Gary,
did not see that, but it confirms the seller is a crook.
Besides the good original binos with dessicant drying cartridges at the lower plates should have smooth occulars...These dont! again dumb fake!
Not only he is a crook but a very stupid one who does not even know how his fakes should look like.

[Sgt Bilko]

it confirms the seller is a crook


Having your item listed twice hardly makes you a crook - one is post free and the other (at a lesser buy it now) is charging for postage....


the good original binos with dessicant drying cartridges at the lower plates should have smooth occulars


By my reading of Seeger's grey book they should be flip up oculars - as already stated.....

[HJ-Marseille]

Yup so...double big BS!
Thanks to all.
Rgds from Zeiss blc rln region...

[Sgt Bilko]

Well - you originally asked if they were real. And no one's doubted that they are real ie Zeiss rln made binoculars.

[Mikedenmark]

Not wanting to dispute the quality of the seller, this is exactly what I would give to a US soldier, if I were givng him a gift in Germany in the sixties.
An original WWII Zeiss binocular, reworked, and the Zeiss logo and his name engraved.

Of course, it is no longer an original untouched german WWII bino, but it may well be seen as an artefact of the sixties.

As for the family selling it. f there was no family, it can be sold from the estate.
If there WAS a family, they may have all the bino´s they need, and this is just something grandpa once had.

I think they may be okay, if seen as what they present themself to be.