landsknechte

If the L-shaped bit of ribbon was a pale gold color, but otherwise identical, what would this represent and how much should I expect to spend on it:

Okay, maybe not grumbling per se. Commenting on my unhealthy fixation with the ID of this ribbon, perhaps.

"somethinortheother" - I think that's the St. Alexander The blue and yellow ribbon in front of it looks like the Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, although I don't know enough about it to know if it's plausable.

AHA! I knew being stuck home after having wisdom teeth pulled would have some small benefit. Answered my own question. Apparently a SA-Sturmf?hrer from Gruppe Niederrhein.

....and, I just found this pic. One of the local surplus shops has an identical example:

Come to think of it, there is one that has had me scratching my head. I'll try my best to describe it in a halfway coherent fashion: Imagine the U shaped pattern of the Russian braid on your typical Leutnant shoulderboard. Instead of the Russian braid, there is a braid that looks more like the way that rope is twisted. Each strand is maybe 3mm wide, and made of some sort of silky looking white material. I couldn't see any evidence of pips or devices having been present. The backing is a pale gray, more sidewalk gray than feldgrau. Remnants of a RZM tag are present, with the printing on the tag in gray instead of the more typical black. I've had trouble finding anything even vaguely similar to this to reference it to. Something DRK perhaps? --Chris

Haven't actually got anything in hand, and I like to have some clue what I'm purchasing in advance of the purchase. Whatever that purchase might be.

Does anyone who specializes in Polizei and similar such organizations have any good links that they might be able to share that would help a casual "outsider" have some sort of clue what they might have stumbled across, when they find shoulderboards and the like that are outside of the standard Heer / Kriegsmarine / Luftwaffe? Thanks, --Chris

This particular photograph is a Third Reich era Schutzpolizei shoulder board: Were there any shouldboards put out later by East Germany that would have looked the same (at least superficially)? Thanks, --Chris

I don't think I even had that one long enough to have taken my own photograph of it.

This last one is unofficial, but I haven't been able to figure out if it's period unofficial, or modern unofficial.

...

...and now that we've gone TR:

...and another, now being tugged into the zincy world by its neighbor:

More Bavarian crown & swords devices:

Here's a different style of crown and swords device for the Bavarian MVK1XmKr:

Personally, I've only got one ribbon that I haven't a clue what it might be. The two Ricks will, I'm sure, grumble about my obsession for IDing this one. Anyhow, there are some that are ambiguious (i.e. those Friedrichsorden vs. peacetime PCO, etc.), but I'm thinking more along the lines of those utterly unknown ribbons that those of you might have lurking about in the drawer. Post whatever you've got, and perhaps there'll be someone in here that'll have the answer.

This is the only other thing that I've found attached to that particular ribbon:

This is the only thing from Waldeck that was ever in my collection, one of the very few items that I have ever sold. (To reunite it with a matching medal bar.)

If I were a hardcore medal collector, instead of just a ribbon bar junkie, I'd have a heck of an inferiority complex right about now.

It looks like the exact same cockade, on the exact same card that mine (and the others that were up for offer) was cut from.

Just stumbled across this listing on eBay.de:

Couldn't have said it better myself. That's one of those bars that rather fun to read the implied "life story" out on. So, you're saying he was a...

Another Saxon mini-EK device:

A different style of swords (note the s-hilt):