Newsletter 267 September 15, 2017
We get considerable input from readers and from the readers of other sites devoted to exposing fakes and fakers. Here is a sampling:
Author: xxxxxxxx
Email: xxxxxx @outlook.com
To: christian@juersmilitaria.com
Comment:
this was on waf, A H Auctions are now selling fake snipers masks
To: xxxxxx
From: christian@juersmilitaria.com
Today, 10:02 AM
xxxxxx@outlook.com
In a wartime German publication there was a picture of two soldiers wearing such masks.
These were splinter pattern camouflage.
These masks were home-made and not official issue.
Several years ago a dealer in New Jersey cut up old camouflage shelter quarters and made copies of the mask.
The thread his seamstress used was polyester and it will bubble when a flame is put to it instead of burning cleanly.
I do not know what the asking price is for one of these but $10.00 would be reasonable.
CJ
From: christian@juersmilitaria.com <christian@juersmilitaria.com>
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2017 10:02 AM
To: adroyster@hotmail.com
Subject: commentary
Mr. Royster:
One of my readers sent this really funny email to me. I thought you might find it entertaining
CJ
“Picture an ageing R—– J——, ensconced in his vinyl-lined wheelbarrow, on the sagging front porch of his north Georgia home, feebly strumming his one-string banjo, and singing, a la Judy Garland, ‘Somewhere under the tail…” while looking longingly at the fundament of his bored bulldog.
And the neighbors shut their windows in anger because, as one of them said recently, J—— sounds like a death struggle between an old hog and a wildcat.
Never worry, the bulldog is safe.
In J——‘s case the thought never gives rise to the deed.
The last time that happened was during the Truman administration.”
English (United States) 
German
16 thoughts on “Newsletter 267 September 15, 2017”
I follow the auctions that have militaria sections and I must say that many have original items, many more are stuffed with fakes of all kinds. From stained glass windows with medals depicted to fake daggers and medals, the buyer must be very, very careful. And those “sniper’s masks” are well-known fakes!
Horst
I agree. And many auctions break valuable items and refuse to pay insurance claims or take in huge money and then give only a part of it to the vendor. And I saw a box of the fake masks years ago. Even a few SS ones! A joke for genuine collectors but no doubt the sort of fake that the droolers that infest the WAF go wild over, spewing out reams of illiterate nonsense. ADR
When mainstream outlets for selling militaria cannot be used for selling fantasy or fake militaria then these so called dealers who have sold over 50.000 lots and been in the business for over twenty years start to use other means ….as in waf or war relic forums or even Facebook, the amount of rubbish on these sites is astounding
Facebook is an organization set up by the FBI to gather personal information on anyone they wish without having to use up shoe leather talking to neighbors or employers. The WAF is filled with all manner of strange people (‘California Gauleiter’ or ‘Captain Panzerfaust’) trying desperately to prove their ‘SS Paratrooper’s Knife’ is genuine. I have looked at their site many times and generally find them beyond contempt, virtually illiterate and totally ignorant in their field of collecting. They shriek and stamp their feet if anyone dares to disturb their childish dreams. I wonder which is the worst example of all this? The collector with money who treasures Hitler’s left shoe or the collector who thinks his SS EM belt buckle is actually a rare prototype Godet item? Self-deluded ninnies like this can be found everywhere. Ambrose Bierce wrote about these:
“The Idiot-A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything: his decision in unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.”
It’s interesting to trawl through waf and see the level of intelligence there, maerz has made sure any militaria expert has been removed so as to let him dictate what is real and what is not and for him and his cronies to fleece the masses, as the saying goes ….a fool and his money..
The Maerz book on the Knights Cross is filled with errors of omission and commission. It is not a reliable reference. And the WAF is run to assist dealers sell fakes and sooth nervous collectors who are beginning to suspect that the same dealers have poked a banana squash into their sit-down. ADR
I agree that almost all of the auction houses knowingly deal in fakes. Their catalogs are filled with them. This book you are preparing ought to first show who is making what and then who is paying little money for it and selling is as expensive originals. That Grand Cross of the Iron Cross document that a California dealer sold to a Chinese collector for a million dollars was a terrible fake. Now, we learn another dealer had it made in India! This is criminal fraud indeed! Let’s get a few of these crooks locked up and the rest will go away.
Horst
Be of good cheer! I have spent the last week with various officials concerning this, to include the IRS, the USPS, the FBI and two other agencies. And this does not include ongoing contact with German authorities. The subjects under discussion are the manufacture (not illegal) of reproduction and fantasy pieces and the subsequent purchase of these by dealers and sold as rare originals (absolutely illegal) My aim is to get at least one or two of the prominent ones nailed and jailed and to so expose the fakes that they will become worthless and unsaleable.
Hitler’s telephone was a clear case of fraud, all the telephone experts stated it was not period yet Alexander auctions still sold it as original and same with the Munich desk set
The auction people said they sold both items but Gottleib had the desk set later and if someone had bought the “Hitler telephone” the identity of the buyer would be all over the collecting world. Consider that not only my site but widely read professional news media knocked it as being a fake, why would anyone pay a quarter of a million dollars for it? Unlless, of course, they could not read nor had any collector friends about who might have seen the numerous articles and warned him? I postulate that the telephone did not sell.
Probably the buyer wants to remain anonymous lest he becomes ridiculed or face the anger of bill p for questioning such a high end piece
No, most idiots would widely advertise that he was now the proud owner of the Hitler napkin ring, or the Himmler Carved Throne, or the Mengele ear wax pick. Dimwitted collectors like this, especially neuvoriche inventors of the famous douche powder and gargle combination love to strut their stuff and boast of their collection triumphs. We see the same thing where fat, bug-eyed rich men marry beautiful women. They would get more genuine affection from a cantaloupe. But they can never sell their Precious Treasure once the word gets out so it gets hidden in the basement with their late mother’s wheel chair and wooden leg, never to be shown to those who might mock them. ADR
Hahahaha yes you have a point, maybe these will surface again in a few years sold by the same people
We see that some outrageous fake has been reported sold by a crooked dealer for huge money and then it pops up, quietly at the Gorp Valley Gun and Dignity Pants Show a few months later.
Seems to be a well rehearsed senario played out many times and always the same tune
The dealers today are just merchandisers and in spite of the pamphlets they author, boosting their tiny egos and their stock of fakes, they know less about militaria than a canary does of brain surgery. The pleasant part of all this is that when the market was booming, prices were very high but now that the market is in a state of collapse (and I am overjoyed to have assisted this decline) dealers and their sucker customers are stuck with investments they can never recoup. Hence the auction houses wherein the dealer and raped customers hopes they can find bigger suckers to bid the declined prices up. ADR