Found This SS Uniform in an ATTIC!!

[BenVK]

You have a problem with me criticizing collectors that base everything on value and/or price and not historical value??

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I know you hear about attic finds but I really did find this set in an attic! I work as an HVAC tech and the other day I was putting a furnace in for a guy when I looked over and saw an old box/trunk that looked like it was falling apart. Well the Military Collector in me couldn't help myself so I took a closer look and pulled out an original SS uniform! I asked the guy I was working for about it and he said his father brought it home from Germany after the war. He said I could have it or he was going to throw it away because it had been up in the attic and was so dirty. I told him I was a WWII collector and I would love to have it. Then I asked about his father....he said he was in the 2nd Infantry Division and was part of the first wave on Omaha Beach!! Anyway it is a neat story and I came home with this uniform. I really don't know a lot about SS items but have come to find out that this one is pretty rare! Any help with the uniform advice etc. would be great...thanks Devin

this enclosure is an example of cynicism and the abuse of our good nature....

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You have a problem with me criticizing collectors that base everything on value and/or price and not historical value??

Ben, my comment was directed not at you, but at the same people you and I dislike. Your criticism of the generalized fixation on money is one I share. I am normally fairly silent about this kind of thing, but since I helped him, and because you asked my aid, and you and I both helped him, for which you and me both got nothing, I am irritated. But surely not at you. Your unstinting aid is as much the butt of abuse as is what I endure here.

[BenVK]

Yes, we both helped and equally were both used and discarded. Oh well..
Yesterday, I went back on WAF and counted all the posts that I had tried to help someone, it was a lot!
But the problem with studying History is that no one remembers trying to find their own History, they just do it.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Attachment 442803Attachment 442804Attachment 442805Attachment 442806Attachment 442793Attachment 442795Attachment 442796Attachment 442797Attachment 442798Attachment 442799Another point of data is the early Deschler "scull" which fits with the Tuch versus Trikot cap cover. The tricot cap became the norm at the end of 1935. The caps I enclose from my own collection are of 1934 or 1935 date. The cap found in Nebraska is likely similar. These kind of subtle details are very hard to recreate on command without extraordinary resources.

This kind of thing reveals itself to be a waste of time. Also had Ben not aided me in learning more about this, I could not offer this information for which this low life never thanked me.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Yes, we both helped and equally were both used and discarded. Oh well..

I totally share your disgust and am also sickened and coarsened by the price tag phenomenon, especially for how it discounts your skills and mine.
In reading the cap making books, and watching handicrafts person on German television, I am reminded all the time at how much hard work really goes into something of merit, for instance that our Ben can restore these caps so nicely for us.
Today in this upside down world, our investment in our craft is totally discounted and raped far too often for good measure.
There are, though, some very decent people here who are constructive and grateful, and I do thank them warmly.

[asterperious]

If I might ask: if this stuff was only worth $2500.00 would everybody be manifesting the same degree of ire?

I am not defending the actions and outcomes here but if advice was freely given on an open forum or privately with no conditions or contract for service etc. nobody has been injured so far as I can see. It is the rare human who is decent or honest universally, we'd have no traditon sof a legal service or courts if that were the case.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

If I might ask: if this stuff was only worth $2500.00 would everybody be manifesting the same degree of ire?

I am not defending the actions and outcomes here but if advice was freely given on an open forum or privately with no conditions or contract for service etc. nobody has been injured so far as I can see. It is the rare human who is decent or honest universally, we'd have no traditon sof a legal service or courts if that were the case.

Thank you for yours. You are absolutely right. The ire arises in me from the concentration camp piece, joined with the tall tale of the virginal find, then how some of us knocked ourselves out to add a great deal of historical detail, and then how the dweeb went on a side bar to foment a bidding war. You are of course right that there is no legal obligation, but there are good manners and courtesy which are the foundation of this site. His thanks to us were less than tepid, and they were more proffered on the other site.

The 21st century resembles more and more a freak show, in which my impulse is to resist the downward march into the abyss.

[BenVK]

I looked at this black cap and nearly offered my services for free due the importance of the group.
Needless to say, that offer is not available now.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I looked at this black cap and nearly offered my services for free due the importance of the group.
Needless to say, that offer is not available now.

The cap would well have profited from your able eyes and hands. Ben's craft is extraordinary.

[BenVK]

If I might ask: if this stuff was only worth $2500.00 would everybody be manifesting the same degree of ire?

This is a really good question and IMO the answer would be no.

No one cares about $25 here and there but add that up per year and you've got a good little business selling thousands of fakes a year.