Heer Rare Type 1 Army Para Badge on eBay

[PKeating]

Click here to see the sale. I'm also uploading the images. This badge was discussed on other forums and the concensus was that it was a fake. In fact, it is an extremely rare "transitional" Fallschirmsch?tzenabzeichen (Heer) with the deformity around the first pattern eagle's talons caused by the makers' attempt to strengthen that area of the die. Only a handful of these are known, one of which is the 800 silver version that belonged to Ludwig Eger and which is currently being offered for sale by Eric Queen.

The other examples are issue aluminium pieces, of which just three are known to date. Sadly, I got there too late. Someone had evidently made the vendor an offer he couldn't refuse and gotten the sale stopped. But it was faintly amusing to watch the forum discussions because some of the participants cited Eric Queen's book Red Shines The Sun, in which at least two of these "transitional" badges are clearly featured. The swastika has clearly been airbrushed out to comply with eBay rules. However, the badge is absolutely intact, with its fragile aluminium hook unbroken.

Sometimes one sees real pearls on eBay...

PK

Edited March 10, 2007 by PKeating

[John]

Nice ! Worth a fortune to one and nothing to another!!!!

What did it go for in the end?

Cheers,

John

[dond]

It didn't. Starting bid was 1.99 euro but nobody bid.

[PKeating]

Someone made the vendor an off-site offer. By that time, the bidding was past $2,200.00, which is less than you would pay for a Type 2.

PK

Edited March 17, 2007 by PKeating

[dond]

Thanks for clearing that up Prosper. So somebody got a great badge and ebay got screwed out of a commission.

[John]

Paddy,

What would you estimate?

Cheers. john

[PKeating]

The last aluminium Type 1 I saw changing hands privately involved more than $3,500.00. This is a 'transitional' variant. Some people are put off by the deformity around the diving eagle's talons but if you're what might be termed 'an advanced collector' of Heer para badges, this would be a bonus rather than a minus, given the rarity of these intermediate badges. It is quite amazing that Juncker even allowed them out the door!

It's hard to put prices on some things. Wolfe-Hardin sold a cased aluminium Type 2 to a punter for more than $7k recently, having bought it for about $4k. A zinc example went for a reported $3,250.00 through the WAF eStand a couple of months ago. But I wonder if these prices are aberrational. W-H obviously had a moneyed client prepared to pay whatever it took to fill a gap and knew they could milk him for twice what the handful of people in the market for these badges would actually pay. Whoever bought the zinc badge clearly had the maxim about paying tomorrow's price today in mind but I think he'll have to wait quite some time for real values to catch up.

If I put, say, a perfect Type 2 aluminium badge up for $3,500.00, I would be surprised if it realised that price. The same applies to a perfect 1943/44 zinc type. A good Type 1 might just see $3,500.00 but the market for these badges is really quite limited. Someone who is quite a serious collector asked me to sell him a nice Type 2 aluminium badge recently and balked when I told him that I couldn't go below ?2,500.00. This is slightly more than the US dollar price of the zinc one I mentioned.

This is the problem when you get some dealers and collectors trying to rachet up prices artificially. It messes up things for everyone by rendering their stuff hard to sell. Oh, sure, you can sell your gear for the price you deem reasonable and in line with reality but how will you feel when you see it changing hands shortly afterwards for 40% more? I tried to sell a beautiful Type 1 E-Boat badge by Schwerin recently for about 30% less than the dealers were asking for examples that weren't as nice. Not even one enquiry! The owner eventually sold it here in France for ?800.00, which isn't much more than half its value.

In short, these things are worth what people are willing to pay for them on a regular basis, not what one or two examples realised in unrepresentative sales. Look at the Haug Heer para group sold through Hermann Historica: the buyer clearly had more money than sense. I would be astonished if he ever saw the ?60k-plus he paid back. Result? A silver badge I could have had, with a case, for $12k a while ago suddenly shot up to $22k, without the case. I can see the vendor's point of view but at the same time, mad millionaire buyers aren't that thick on the ground in our hobby, despite all the rumours about Spielberg, Hanks, Eastwood, Jagger and so on.

PK