Gary B Posted February 10, 2006 Posted February 10, 2006 (edited) Hi, I was fortunate enought to obtain my Officer flak and flight tab sets (paired) as a complete or mostly complete set. It was only until recently when I started to look for specific tabs in different waffenfarbes that I began to notice the availability, or I should say dearth of, and widely varying prices on tabs. So yesterday when I had some time I decided to look thru about 20 different sites to see what was available and how much dealers were asking. Dealers ranged from the big ones to small ones, both in the US and abroad. Here is a summary of what I found (very unscientific study...of only PAIRED tabs):Difficulty to locate (from easy to hard): Flak, Signal, Flight, Medical, Engineer (Admin was prevalant but for this "study" I did not actively count them but would probably be around the same as Signal). Waffenfarbes seen once or twice would be HG officers, Eng (black waffenfarbe), Field Divs, Gen staff and any reserve type tabs.Rank availability: As would be expected lower ranks were easier to locate, but I was really suprised to see the actual breakdown (this is for both Flak and Flight): Leutnant (29) Oberleutnant (11) Hauptmann (24) Major (7) Oberstleutnant (1) Oberst (1) Prices were widely varied with the German dealers tending to have the highest prices overall: Leutnant $40 - $102 Oberleutnant $45 - $75 Hauptmann $50 - $117 Major $60 - $125 Oberstleutnant $95 Oberst $500 Reserve Hauptmann $160 Reserve Oberleutnant $80 Reserve Leutnant $200As I said before this was just based on observation and a rough count of what was available. Many sites did not have ant Luft tabs at all. Comments?Gary B Edited February 10, 2006 by Gary B
Laurence Strong Posted February 10, 2006 Posted February 10, 2006 To the best of my knowledge and from what I can find out, Black is not the waffen farbe for pioneers in the Luft. For the "pure" Luftwaffe, Air and not ground forces, Black was for the RLM not pioneers.
Paul R Posted February 10, 2006 Posted February 10, 2006 To the best of my knowledge and from what I can find out, Black is not the waffen farbe for pioneers in the Luft. For the "pure" Luftwaffe, Air and not ground forces, Black was for the RLM not pioneers.The waffenfarbe was used for both construction troops and the RLM. I have NEVER paid that much for any tabs that were listed! WOW! Affordability is the reason I collect these. Except for a couple of exceptions, I have never paid more than 50 dollars for any set. Most I have aquired for 20 dollars or below(except for that lot I have just received).500 dollars for a set of oberst tabs ?!!?! What was the waffenfarbe?
Gary B Posted February 11, 2006 Author Posted February 11, 2006 Hi, Pete, I blame Paul! Paul, the $500 Oberst pair were for flight personnel. It was from one of the big German dealers. It was the only set of Oberst tabs I saw on all of the sites, which is why I was surprised. I know Oberst would be rarer than Leutnant but I did not expect to see such a huge difference in availability. The same site had perhaps 2-3 other Oberst sets for different waffenfarbe, again in the $400 plus range. Again I had assumed that flight Oberst or Flak Oberst would have been not so hard to find....boy was I wrong....In summation of my "findings": its not that hard or expensive to get differnt waffenfarbe pairs up thru Hauptmann. Any ranks above that are really scare if not almost impossible to find. Gary B The waffenfarbe was used for both construction troops and the RLM. I have NEVER paid that much for any tabs that were listed! WOW! Affordability is the reason I collect these. Except for a couple of exceptions, I have never paid more than 50 dollars for any set. Most I have aquired for 20 dollars or below(except for that lot I have just received).500 dollars for a set of oberst tabs ?!!?! What was the waffenfarbe?
Laurence Strong Posted February 11, 2006 Posted February 11, 2006 Ok I stand corrected on the black, been having a hard time finding mention of luft construction units.Guess I will not tell you guys what kind of money I've been spending lately on tabs then you can stay mad at Paul and Gary
Bob Hunter Posted February 11, 2006 Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) Simple truth: It takes money to build a fine collection. Mediocre will always be just that and junk will always be junk. Edited February 11, 2006 by Bob Hunter
Laurence Strong Posted February 11, 2006 Posted February 11, 2006 Simple truth: It takes money to build a fine collection. Mediocre will always just that and junk will always be junk.Well put Bob.....now to make the wife see it that way.....
Bob Hunter Posted February 11, 2006 Posted February 11, 2006 Andreas has said it for me on his site, "Better to own one medal bar for $1000 than 10 bars at $100." There will always be a demand for that type of item.
Paul R Posted February 11, 2006 Posted February 11, 2006 It seems like Larry is finding the best bargains out there... so I blame him! I could not agree more, Bob.
hirevr13 Posted June 9, 2009 Posted June 9, 2009 I could not resist bringing this old thread back to the top. Paul, I'll take every $20 and most $50 sets of(officer) tabs you have. Hard to find many nice matching officer sets under $50 without having eye soars. Would love to hear everyone's updated commentsEric
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