A rare Leica that is at once both Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe?

[Larboard]

Included below is a pic, and a link to the listing on feeBay.

What boggles the mind, is not that there are hundreds of the more typical "Gold Luftwaffe Leica" for sale on eBay from good old mother Russia, at the modest price of $179, no, that isn't the mind boggling part... It is that they actually sell a few, and to who? And why? Why would anyone want to buy something like this?

That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of here. Who actually buys these?

The casual non collector wouldn't buy something like this if they were $29.

Re-enactors?

Collectors who don't mind a little piece of fluff in their display to make it look a little bit more interesting?

Young film photographers who think it's cool to parade around with a fake nazi era camera, just because Swastikas are so cool?

I mean they're not usually passed off as being real, although when "found in an antique store", one just hit over $500 on eBay and I wonder what the feedback is going to turn out like...

I suppose there probably are collectors out there green enough to fall for it, and luckily there is this forum to steer away from such garbage.

Anyway, if you're an amateur photographer like myself, Leicas have been a lifelong source of fascination, as well as WWII. So it's sad to see the two come together as the product of some cheap fakery... but as always "give the people what they want", without the demand there isn't much need for supply.



Vintage WWII Leica Copy Camera with Case | eBay

[Walkwolf]

'Luftwaffe Property' with a KM eagle ?
Hmmm........

[Wagriff]

They sell to 3 basic groups....1. Nazi lovers....2. Idiots with too much money that think they might actually Be real...and 3. to thieves that Hope to sell them to idiots as real....

[Larboard]

Lol, I think you might have nailed it.