Brunswick and Danziger Totenkopfs -Genuine?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Quite simply this FB, skulls and eagles! the facination is as old as time itself.

You are right, of course. My statement was as much an inquiry into my own weaknesses as it is a reproach of others.
However, I would never dupe myself into believing that I understood much about how these things were made, or that such constituted a significant aspect of collective hopes and desires.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The past is filled with things that are confusing, make no sense, are open to mis interpretation, and foolery.
Also, I am very irritated that I cannot get cap badges to repair especially one cap.

[ToxicGas]

Also, I am very irritated that I cannot get cap badges to repair especially one cap.

What is it you mean when you say you can't get one?

Mat

[Friedrich-Berthold]

What is it you mean when you say you can't get one?

Mat

I do not bid on line; I do not purchase from "e-stands" from unknown persons because of pretty bad experiences; I also do not want to pay what was until recently the price of an SS cap for a cap badge, nor do I want to engage the handful of persons who have created said bubble in their own interest. It is especially the latter that gripes me, but I do note that more of the little buggers have come to market because of the world depression. However, I place my chips on different squares, i.e. I invest in other caps and tunics, as they are intrinsically more valuable and a better use of scarce cash. On one of the other dealer sites, someone sold off a large heap of these thingies for staggering prices, but I never know what price is actually paid. It is a shell game, and I refuse to play same.
And, since I own many of these things as per the attachments, they really do not have the attraction for me that they might have for those who do not own them, truth be told. I look at them a couple of times a week and am puzzled. Let us state the truth: part of the lure and magnetism of items is the quest for them. Once in one's hands, the process begins once more to secure yet another sacred relic, especially if same is, as Ben notes, fetched out of the paws or maul of another.

I even let a cap go for a fire sale price two years ago, even though it had perfect badges and I resisted nobly the urge to rip them off and sell the carcass of the cap. In the process, I made someone here a happy man, and that is karma, I guess.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

And, there are "scull" fetishists who have blown up said bubble whose habit it is, in fact, to wrench the badges off a cap, and my most cordial response in this case is that they rot in hell, with the "prongs" piercing their painful places.....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I sold this cap, though I could have robbed it of its badges. It was a cap I had owned for decades. It is now in Belgium, and has made its new owner happy. The Swedish dealer promptly replaced the authentic chin strap with another, claiming that the thing had not originally had said strap, though same had been there for almost four decades, and likely since 1938. Such goes to show, really, the misdeeds of many dealers, but that is not my goal here.

[ToxicGas]

And, there are "scull" fetishists who have blown up said bubble whose habit it is, in fact, to wrench the badges off a cap, and my most cordial response in this case is that they rot in hell, with the "prongs" piercing their painful places.....

I agree- I just hope they're in an unfortunate minority. I don't even see how removing the insignia would benefit a seller, being as it significantly devalues the item.

As for buying online, fortunately I have had only good experiences with those I've dealt with. I can see your point too about not wanting to pay a price for a badge you could have once obtained a cap for. I was extremely lucky to find my SS TK for as low as £70, I think.

Mat

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I agree- I just hope they're in an unfortunate minority. I don't even see how removing the insignia would benefit a seller, being as it significantly devalues the item.

As for buying online, fortunately I have had only good experiences with those I've dealt with. I can see your point too about not wanting to pay a price for a badge you could have once obtained a cap for. I was extremely lucky to find my SS TK for as low as £70, I think.

Mat

All the best to you and good fortune in your collecting.

I am seized of my earlier experiences, when all of this was on a very small, innocent scale, and the money involved was modest, and the amount of affect, distortions and down right bull sh!t was somehow quite bearable.
The world has spun many times since then, and I am too prone to my pet peeves and frailties in the explanation of the evidence of the past to such a seeker as yourself.

Surely, if I wanted to devote the thousands of dollars to this particular object, I could do so, but I never have seen them as anything other than a cap badge along with the cap, which remains my center of gravity.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I would say that the RZM tag had more of a cat nip like effect on me than the Saint Deschler bauble.

[Eddie]

I would say that the RZM tag had more of a cat nip like effect on me than the Saint Deschler bauble.

I can see why, it is a very pleasing layout. I suppose I do not need to tell you about the wonderful printing abilities of the people who invented the printing press. Back home, on your side of the country I have a lovely b/w postcard of Goethe's deathbed from the 20/30's, the handpressed, handmade paper is now safe behind a frame. I bought it for 2 Euros from a Turkish man in a dumpy flohmarkt in Tübingen who didn't care about it anymore than the gaudy full color adverts for Christmas festivals long since passed that he also had for sale. I saved that piece of paper from oblivian because of it's aesthetic beauty, the love and care of craft that went into it's making charmed me so much that I gladly forked over a strange coin that I could have spent on a delicious Döner. I suspect that "saving" things is our primary motivation in these endeavors, SS Schirmmütze or cheap postcard. I once read an interesting interview with the man who played "Pee Wee Herman" on his collection of antiques and he said that he couldn't bear the thought of someone owning a great object that they didn't properly appreciate. Hence, his crowded house with more things than he could probably use. Hence, me staying in on a Friday night and looking at dead objects from blasted and destroyed regimes instead of mindless beer drinking with "normal" people.