Wilson Center on line headwear extravaganza

[BenVK]

I have many hobbies but the constant factor in each one is that I levitate towards the people who are knowledgeable and generous. People like FB and Tony etc.
These Wilson website people mean nothing to me, they don't participate in our discussions and haven't enriched my life so I feel no gratitude for their overpriced publications or fancy looking websites.

I thought it would take a few more years actualy but after only about 10, I'm already pretty done with this hobby. I'm currently reading "Slaughter at Halbe" and war is truly sickening which makes me wonder why I ever started collecting these things...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I have many hobbies but the constant factor in each one is that I levitate towards the people who are knowledgeable and generous. People like FB and Tony etc.
These Wilson website people mean nothing to me, they don't participate in our discussions and haven't enriched my life so I feel no gratitude for their overpriced publications or fancy looking websites.

I thought it would take a few more years actualy but after only about 10, I'm already pretty done with this hobby. I'm currently reading "Slaughter at Halbe" and war is truly sickening which makes me wonder why I ever started collecting these things...

Thank you for the compliment and sorry to read of your disillusionment.
I can well understand the latter.
Our goal here has been enlightenment, but it is a goal not shared as widely as I had ever hoped.
As concerns the nature of war, there can be little doubt that the reality of war diverges from most of the glory and tinsel.
The present contains enough of the reality of combat and its misery to cure anyone of a false longing for the storm of steel.
I spend a great deal of time with men and women marked by the reality of war, and I admire them very much since almost none of them romanticizes the things in war that are repugnant.
The company of soldiers has generally been a source of great satisfaction and happiness in my life.

[BenVK]

I feel a lot better about all this after I stopped reading that book. It's a very good book but my god is it brutal. Slaughter at Halbe isn't a strong enough title!

I have a moral dilema question for you guys.

The franky SS crusher I bought. Would it me wrong of me to put it on ebay or similar with a declaration that IMO, it's not the real deal but is made of 100% originals materials? I'm not going back to the seller because too much time has passed and it was my fault not to spot it earlier anyway. We all have to take such losses on the chin but it would be nice to get a few hundred quid back on it to lessen the pain.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Sell it as a Sammleranfertigung, i.e. a museum quality copy or something. There are enough people loony about such caps who would be happy to own a nice copy.

[BenVK]

That is very true FB and it would make an amazing museum piece or re-enacting cap for someone.. I shouldn't complain though, I've been incredibly lucky in my collecting for the most part.

[davejb]

Ben in my opinion, I see nothing wrong in a truthful declaration in order to sell an item, the fact that the cap consists of mainly original materials but has been constructed by other than the wartime manufacturers will have an appeal to some people who would like to own a cap of this nature other than a complete erroneously constructed fake, the fact that this item consists of original parts should fetch a higher premium, obviously not to the extent of your purchase, but still better than a complete fake or a new replica, go for it. !!!!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

That is very true FB and it would make an amazing museum piece or re-enacting cap for someone.. I shouldn't complain though, I've been incredibly lucky in my collecting for the most part.

I am sure you can sell it thus and make someone happy who is content with a well crafted copy. Nor would I let this kind of disappointment deter you. Nor should you pillory yourself about it. All of this is pretty dicey, especially these caps.

We all make mistakes, and there is no such thing as the perfect machine collector who is beyond human frailty. especially when the effort to deceive with these caps is so enormous. The recent SS mess dress badge idiocy is proof of same, as well as the creation of an entire wardrobe of a leading SS officer's property that was dumped on someone with special criminal energy.

Rather the opposite is true, that our human frailties and truths trip us up.

What we do not allow on this site is the lords of the flies habitus in the face of such a thing in which people are mocked, cut to shreds, and boiled in oil by morons who cannot spell or write a clear English sentence.

[BenVK]

Thanks for the words of support. I should have trusted my gut feeling on this hat from day one but the price was just too tempting to let it pass.
In other words, not too much money lost, just the cost of a decent second hand car..gulp!!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Sorry. I know the feeling. Onwards to greater collecting moments.

[spandau]

Hi Ben

Glad your feeling back on he case !

Slaughter at Halbe is a bleak read and a window into the horrors to which our generation have never been exposed, thank goodness. Read the Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time by mark Haddon next it's probably just up your street.

FB is on the money, don't beat yourself up on a buying what turned out to be a well crafted post war cap. It looks very nice in those pics and there is a big market for this stuff. I'm sure it will sell well.

I made myself giggle the other day by looking at some pics of the first caps I bought convinced that they were the real deal. They were not by a long way ! Couple of nice BGS caps in them which I now wished I'd kept.

cheers

tony