militaria fair helmet. real or fake? I cant decide...

**trooper** · 03-02-2013, 02:28 PM

Hi guys,

I've just been to a local militaria fair and seen this helmet for sale at the amazing price of £350. The seller described it as an M40 luftwaffe single decal helmet. He said he'd bought it from a family who'd had it in storage since the war.
Now a couple of alarm bells for me were, the price, as the helmet itself was near mint, ive seen helmets in this condition around the £800 - £900 mark. And the liner, which was in amazing clean almost unused condition, the chin strap looked hardly worn.The liner drawstring looked very clean and almost new. And his 'guarantee' which was if its confirmed fake then he'l replace it with another item from his stock, but no refund would given. This 'guarantee' was what mostly put me off.
Here are some pics for your consideration. The helmet had the manufacturers code and helemt size which checked out ok. And there was a production number. But everything else seemed odd, especially the price for such a clean helmet.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 03-02-2013 02:28 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**KradSpam** · 03-02-2013, 02:40 PM

It looks OK to me but to be honest his price isn't that great since it has been denazified, I'd choke on my cornflakes if I saw something in this condition £900, even with a complete decal. I would want it to be totally stone mint and unissued approaching that price. Even then it is a top end dealer price for a SD luft M40.

**Totenhead** · 03-02-2013, 02:43 PM

I agree with Andy, overpriced, haggle him down, I have seen complete decal ones for that price

**trooper** · 03-02-2013, 02:44 PM

Oh right, so do you think it looks genuine? Even the liner and drawstring?

**Totenhead** · 03-02-2013, 02:49 PM

Yeah look ok to me, what are the liner pins like, nice and tight ?? The liner and CS may not be original to the helmet

**KradSpam** · 03-02-2013, 02:49 PM

I think the liner is OK but the drawstring does look like it might be replaced.

**Adrian** · 03-02-2013, 02:52 PM

From these pics I wouldn't say the lid was 'near mint'. Average condition is more apt.

As said, the decal has been de-nazified so in my opinion, you want to be looking at £300 top price.

**trooper** · 03-02-2013, 02:57 PM

Yeah the liner pins were nice and tight. It seemed like it had hardly been used. Im a new collector see so am very wary of buying anything at the moment. I bought a couple of dug up helmets at the fair today for £50. Very rusted and full of dirt and roots :-)
God i thought that £350 was very cheap for a helmet! I've just put a deposit down for a SD luftwaffe M42 helmet from a high end dealer. I posted it on here the other day and the dealer wants £850 for it! I thought id be better paying higher for a genuine piece, rather than buying something from a fair at a low price which seemed too good to be true to me, and it might have been a reproduction or something.
With you saying that you'd expect something MINT for £800 then im unsure as to whether i should go for the other helmet now. Heres the pics of the one at £850 i was going to go for...

**Totenhead** · 03-02-2013, 03:01 PM

Dude

There is a nice Lufty M42 for the sale on the WAF for 500 euro's i think, very similar to this one, the guy is Dutch, I have bought from him before !

here you go...

EDIT, Sorry, this one is in the states for $800, the Dutch guy does have an M40 but i cant see the pictures !

**trooper** · 03-02-2013, 03:04 PM

So £850 is too high then for this helmet? i know it's probably more expensive than you guyus would pay, but as im just starting out i thought id rather, for my own safety, buy from a reputable dealer. What would put more value to a helmet? Is it the complete decal like this one? Its complete and but obviously shows a lot of use and wear...