Stogieman

NO HINTS! His words shall be stricken from the record and the Jury is instructed to ignore those remarks!

So, they put him up for a Red Banner and he ends up with a Military Merit Medal!!

Well. I like Greg's better but that's mostly because I can actually see the darn thing. The eBay one is not distinct enough for me to judge it...

Ok, in looking at the "big picture" a couple of things... if it is a WFO, gilt swords would be appropriate. Probably a civil 25 on the end, that will be harder to find... option 2: second ribbon has been replaced... doesn't look quite right with respects to the other ribbons.

Who can guess the last ribbon on this simply fabulous ribbon bar that the (Truly) Evil Twin? has already claimed for his own..... I came home and started looking through the scans he made for me...... this one is actually named twice on the disc, identical scans. He referred to these as (and I DO quote) "you sell, you die Chuckie" and "Reeky wants this dont sell or you DIE freak". Do you think he's trying to tell me something???

Well, if that's the case.... he did not give Igor very much time to sell the pieces......

Well, I guess I'm just lucky...... I've never had a gilt one cross my palms. Only gold! Live & learn!

Well, that is what it looks like.... but what else is on the bar? That might help. I have not seen one with a C&S device either, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad bar. I have a set of gold swords that would fix it, depending on what else is on there...

Well, there's been some pretty sweet pieces that have dropped off his site recently. He had a spectacular OGPW1, T1V2 group that had an Honored NKVD Worker Badge, etc., etc. as well, with documents. That's gone now too.

Shell is stamped ET68 Another view.....

here's another view and the link. ~$1,500 opening bid, with one bidder. private auction. Why do I feel like I need to wash my hands after viewing this listing!? http://cgi.ebay.com/M38-Paratrooper-LW-Hel...1QQcmdZViewItem

While I'm sure that despite the fact that there are reels and reels of "old stock" "War Ribbon" available, someone will/would probably make a new one. But it sure as heck will not be in silk and/or cotton. These look like silk in the photos. Anybody else have thoughts? The fun part is finding the old 1813/1870 cotton ribbons. They are very different from WW1 style weave/materials!

Any idea as to the exchange rate Jan?? Thanks!

Interesting Andreas, I have not seen these except in real gold?! Interesting. Do you have a photo of a gilt example? Thanks!

Yeah, like I said... a heavily faked version of the hallmark. Note the differences between Greg's example and the one on eBay?

Gee, they look fine to me...?

I have to agree with Micha... always go for quality first. Then rarity. Rarity can supercede on an exceptional piece that you simply may not ever find a better example. But I try very hard to stick with quality at all times. No point in having a piece you will have to compromise on at some future date.

Another important point..... the oakleaves attachment to this order are always in gold, both RK1 & RK2. Very few awarded and very hard to find!

Well, like I said, the legit dealers usually don't object. Free publicity is free publicity! I agree, that must have been some kind of special check Igor received! Probably had Brinks make the delivery! Can you imagine trusting something like that in the mail system!???

I've only seen this one and a rather spectacular single one last year. The one last year went for well over $400. very, very hard to find pix of these monsters. As an aside, the same seller has a photo of a German Officer standing next to what can only be a small catapault! Can you imagine that for a moment? WW1 and all it's gory details..... and they're still using variations on Medieval weapons!!

I have no clue what the unit is, but the scan doesn't do the stamps justice. They're drop-dead gorgeous. I used to save up all my eBay stamps and mail them to a customer who then gave them to a young lady in his neighborhood who collected them. I lost touch with him about 3 years back and still have an impressive pile of stamps looking for some nice young person who might be interested.

I believe the last one is a variation on the Bulgarian WW1 Commemorative Service Medal... Pete! Thanks for helping out Paul!

.... Of course the flip-side is the B~A~D dealer will get ripped when his images are used, especially when they are showing items being labeled as "inconsistent with reality/authenticity/accepted standards"...... My experience with dealers and being one is that the ones that are screaming & yelling are the ones to avoid. Of course I am not speaking of the written word, the intellectual property and/or images of an individual who has spent hours preparing a treatise/dissertation on any given subject. That's another matter. However, I think once you post it on the net it becomes "public domain" does it not?

Ed, valid points. For me, I retain rights/ownership of all images/text, even once the item is sold. It's pretty easy to spot my pix, despite the lack of a "watermark".... the astro-turf background is pretty recognized... of course that's why I get P/O'd when someone on eBay selling C~R~A~P is using a similar backdrop.... I would think that most dealers would be happy to have their images posted as long as they are attributed. Good (A/K/A "Free") publicity is hard to find!

Gotcha!