Your Laugh for the Day

[drmessimer]

fraud.jpg

Here is your laugh for the morning. This photo under the heading WW2 WORLD WAR 2 GERMANY RARE FIND: U BOAT COMMAND WALTER KELL PORTRAIT U8 U204 is on eBay with an opening bid of $2,225. It purports to be Kapitänleutnant Walter Kell who commanded the U-8 and U-204 in WWII. Maybe the Kriegsmarine was short of uniforms on portrait day and Kell had to borrow a Luftwaffe uniform for the picture. That probably happened a lot; don't you think? On the other hand maybe he was a Luftwaffe pilot who had been seconded to the U-boat service to broaden his professional experience. In any event, he and his crew went down with the U-204 off Tangier on 19 October 1941. This link should take you to the auction site which closes tomorrow (22 February 2014) WW2 World War 2 Germany RARE Find U Boat Command Walter Kell Portrait U8 U204 | eBay The seller identifies himself as paquin6. How do those people come up with this stuff? Anyway, if you find an error like this one that is so outrageous that it is funny, please post it here. Dwight

[Jo Rivett]

How do those people come up with this stuff?

He would have googled the name Walter Kell that is on his photo, and seen the first google hit.
Kapitänleutnant Walter Kell - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine - uboat.net
Although he must be blind, because it looks nothing like Kell.

Obviously this guys name was Walter Kell, just not the Kell that Google gave him.

[drmessimer]

Jo Rivett: Thanks for spotting my typo, Krell for Kell. I'm a terrible typist and without some sort of automated spell check in place, I probably couldn't get my own name right twice in a row. Anyway, you're certainly right about the ease with which the seller could have googled Walter Kell. But even easier would have been to just look at the photo. And how did he come up with a $2,225 opening bid for a photo of a guy no one evens knows about? Dwight

[Erno]

This is unrelated, but something I found quite funny.

I put up ads saying that I'm interested in German militaria, and people will occasionally contact me with something to offer. A few days ago, I received a message that read "German badges very rare." I responded (reluctantly), and the person's next message said something along the lines of "I'm taking bids on these from German WWII collectors. Current bid is 520 each." Next, came the photos.

20140218_081659.jpg
20140218_081746.jpg

I salute him for his inventive lies.

[Scout]

I salute him for his inventive lies.

Bengal Lancer.

[drmessimer]

Erno: Ha Ha Ha That's perfect! You had better grab those while they are hot, because they won't be around long at those bargain prices. Dwight

[Feuerbach]

This is unrelated, but something I found quite funny.

I put up ads saying that I'm interested in German militaria, and people will occasionally contact me with something to offer. A few days ago, I received a message that read "German badges very rare." I responded (reluctantly), and the person's next message said something along the lines of "I'm taking bids on these from German WWII collectors. Current bid is 520 each." Next, came the photos.

20140218_081659.jpg
20140218_081746.jpg

I salute him for his inventive lies.

Wow! These are great, and a steal for that price. I you decide not to buy them all, Im very much interested!
Rare to see a grouping of 4 together on the original styrofoam.

[HPL2008]

Totally misidentified it is... But I have to say the auction photo that started this thread is still an extremely nice uniform/badge study of a Luftwaffe official (Beamter) and Nazi "Old Fighter"; so it did brighten my day in a roundabout way.

(For a higher resolution version follow the E-Bay link and click on the linked images there.)

[M18922]

Just saying, but that is a nice portrait. If it were cheaper, by let's say, 2210$ I would be interested.

- - ------- - -

Totally misidentified it is... But I have to say the auction photo that started this thread is still an extremely nice uniform/badge study of a Luftwaffe official (Beamter) and Nazi "Old Fighter"; so it did brighten my day in a roundabout way.

You beat me too it. It is a great photo.

[Chopperman]

I went to an auction that was advertising some "Nazi Items".
It turned out to be these same style of pretty colored badges.