Hi Everyone,
It was great to see James & Jerry & Dick R. & Greg M, & Ken N., and all the others at the show. Thanks Guys! I also got to introduce my wife of a few weeks to several of the guys as well. She enjoyed meeting everyone, and said there are some really nice guys in the hobby. She liked being able to finally associate some of the names from the forum with the persons.
Congrats James, on purchasing these two great mutze!
I was fortunate to aquire a Hessian private purchase buckle with the removable crown attached by hooks on the backside, + a cased Iron Cross 2nd class + a few other trinkets. (I'll post pics later this week).
Friday nite set up was great for snapping up goodies! I love the S.O.S., and the MAX Shows, but this is my all-time favorite show.
In a round about way, I am fortunately going to be aquiring the late war guard officer helmet. (the eagle & star are superb pre-war mfg'd examples. The rest of the fittings are wartime zinc. I'll post pics of the helmet when I get it paid off). Helmet should clean up fairly well, and I'll post pics of it after doing such. The helmet was aquired by another collector at an estate sale in Minnesota back in January. It was totally untouched, straight out of the woodwork from the WW1 vet's family/estate. It ended up being given to another person (who did not collect spike helmets) as a huge "thank you" for passing on US military medal groupings over the years, by the US medal collector who found it at the estate sale. I wonder if this wonderful US medal collector who is a really great guy knows that his friend didn't end up keeping the helmet? He'd posted pics of it on another forum, and knew the value of the helmet.
The "find of a lifetime" at the show was not Imperial, but a true "walk in" from a family member of the WW2 US vet who brought in and sold an incredibly beautiful condition named double decal SS helmet that had belonged to an SS officer doctor, which walked into the show on Saturday afternoon, and was sold to a dealer for $2,100.00. It wasn't the top level black color one, but the next "tier" type in the green color. Apparently the last cash offer the buyer had on it late Saturday afternoon was $17K, and the buyer kept the helmet, and didn't sell for that offer. Apparently an attributed/named SS helmet from a guard at Auschwitz sold for 40-some-K to a Russian last October at the MAX Show, and some folks are speculating that this named helmet could be worth as much as 100K, depending on how the research attributes the doctor (?possible camp doctor?). I only include this info on the forum here because I find this to be Absolutely mind numbing & staggering that there are such things like that out in the "woodwork" still, and that they would bring that sum of money!
Bob Johnson does a good job promoting this show to the public in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, and I'm always amazed at the stuff that walks in to the show to be sold on Saturdays and Sundays.
All the Best,
Alan
