2013 SOS Report

[Scott]

The Spanish forum has been a bit slow, so I thought I'd give a brief overview of the 2013 OVMS Show of Shows (SOS) held in Louisville, KY this weekend, and cover Spanish & Legion Condor items.

This SOS was about 300 tables larger than previous shows (~2,000 tables this time). I arrived at 9am, and completed my first walk-though by 1pm, and I was moving at a good pace, only stopping at tables that I thought looked promising. Of course some of the notable dealers had good spots right up front (Wolfe-Harden, Jason Burmeister, etc.). They had their usual impressive show set-ups, so I didn't linger too long to gawk. They had several cased Spanish Crosses of every class, although I don't recall seeing a gold with brilliants this time.

The rest of the show was typical: lots of repros, but some good things too. A beautiful Spanish Cross in Gold caught my eye early in the show: it was marked CEJ, but no silver content mark, and it had a price that was a little too reasonable. Pieter Verbruggen was nice enough to look the badge over for me, and gave it a thumbs-down, saving me a pocket full of cash. Thanks Pieter!

There were a good number of bronze Spanish Crosses, and somewhat fewer Silver crosses at the show, but since I wasn't looking for those, I didn't look at them in detail. Gold crosses were fairly scarce (at least the ones I thought looked ok), and priced in the $4,000-$5,000 range.

I saw 3 Legion Condor medal bars at different tables - 2 with the same medals: LW 4-year long service, Spanish White Military Cross, and Spanish Civil War Campaign medal. Both showed age and wear, and both were selling for $650 - more than I wanted to spend for the rough condition they were in. The third bar was also a 3-place, but twith the Spanish Red Military Cross in the center. This bar also was in rough shape, and the Red Military Cross was the type with the separate, hinged crown. The owner had stepped away from the table so I didn't get the price on that one.

There were a few Legion Condor ribon bars, but I only found one I thought was authentic, so I grabbed it. It's a 4-place with the Spanish Wound medal for foreigners. The bar has some age and wear, but the wound medal ribbon is fairly scarce, so I couldn't pass it up.

One seller had a Spanish Military Medal, but the ribbon and pin device were in rough shape; I don't believe it was an Egana-made piece. Another seller had a Spanish Military medal for Naval personnel - something I'd not seen before. The outer rim design had anchors in it, and the ribbon ring was rectangular. It was a nice piece. The owners of both MMIs were not at their tables when I was there (nor when I returned) so I gouldn't get the prices. There were a handful of Spanish War cross badges for sale (one in the original Egana box) ranging in price from $250 to $450. Spanish Civil War Campaign medals were plentiful (some with boxes), but the prices were silly: $100 to $225 (!). There were a couple of dealers with some post WWII Spanish medals, and pilot wings. However I found no Spanish Civil War-era pilot/aircrew wings.

There were a couple of LC Tank badges at the show -- I think one was at the Wolfe-Harden or Burmeister table. That's a badge I'm not familiar with, so I didn't dwell on them. One dealer had a nice German Army waffenrock of a panzer enlisted troop with the red/gold "1936 Spanien 1939" cuff title. Again, not my area of expertise, so I didn't investigate further.

That's about it from what I saw of the show. The show was huge, and exhausting - almost more than one person can see in a day. But it's the only military collectables show I attend, and I look forward to it next year!

My ribbon bar is posted below.

[Chris Liontas]

very nice addition Scott!!

[azyeoman]

Thanks for the overview; it's greatly appreciated. I like your ribbon bar very much; congrats!