Photos from SOS 2011

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Quick Show Update

There seems to be a lot of Pickelhauben. Prices seem steady, not unreasonable, with a lot of good deals, better than EBay. However, I have not seen anything compared to last year's teasure trove. Unfortunately, lots of fakes. Even whole tables. I am aware of only one undiscovered find that Randy got, which was a Baden Beamte. Traffic is pretty stiff. Buying continued right up to the end on Fri. We are very picked over.

Lots of Europeans but they were buying in the main with everyone else. It seems as though only the Russians stayed in their own group.

Craig Gottlieb hired three models as Booth Babes, conservatively dressed. But it did remind me of previous years when we had nothing to offer except James shirtless.
 
My error on the Brunswick. 18k I looked at the inventory number.

This still does not convince me. At some point Chas had a photo thread on Furst bandeau. Compare.
 
I see that Chas found a near mint rare example of the elusive M1916 Pickelhaube,
Best
gus
 
From & Joe (his captions) This is the last of them.

Dick Roback Direct from the parole board.

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Jerry Rehr

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I wonder why this has not sold for years? [Tony comment: Because its a joke.]


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What we do not see in the photo of Jerry, is all the empty schnaps bottle on the floor under his table.
Best
Gus
 
Chas- those are extrmely rare, a few of them have been on Ebay lately, so they have to be rare, the sellers say they are, so they are :D
 
Just returned from my first SOS. If you have not been you need to go! The education I received is priceless. The amount of collectibles and reference materials is trully staggering. If you want to collect pickelhauben you must go! I would like to thank all the people who made the experience so memorable ; Janet/Joe/Dave/Dick/Tony/James/Randy/Remy/Alex/Justin/Keith/Mark/Peter and his dad./Chas/Alan And many others. If I left your name out , I apologize. I am looking forward to next year! :laughing3:
 
badener said:
Just returned from my first SOS. If you have not been you need to go! The education I received is priceless. The amount of collectibles and reference materials is trully staggering. If you want to collect pickelhauben you must go! I would like to thank all the people who made the experience so memorable ; Janet/Joe/Dave/Dick/Tony/James/Randy/Remy/Alex/Justin/Keith/Mark/Peter and his dad./Chas/Alan And many others. If I left your name out , I apologize. I am looking forward to next year! :laughing3:

That was not James, it was Daisy, she was just wearing James's tag. Daisy is a lot nicer, as she does not run ahead an buy all the bargins.
Best
Gus
 
I have some more photos of the show. I did a recap of the military firearms at the show:
http://www.firearmstruth.com/2011/guns-of-sos
 
Gus;
You are quite right I brought three bottles and you missed out this year but there is always the next Show. I bought a very nice FR 80 (1908) M95 enlisted at the show from a dealer who lives only miles from me. Duh!!
:D :D
Jerry
 
Hey Jerry,
Three years ago, I traveled to SOS to buy a Colt 1911 from a fellow who had a table next to mine the month before at a show in Utah, go figure.
I am sorry you had to drink the schnaps by your self this year, I plan on helping next year.
Best Gus
 
Finally home from the show. Lots of mail and e-mail to go through. Nice show–a couple of thoughts.

First and most important is that newer collectors do not need to be shy. I met a lot of people who either lurk at the site or have signed up and are afraid to contribute. This is really self-defeating as the way you get good deals is to be known. To be one of the guys. That is incredibly easy to do. We had a great example of this year by the name of Matt. He jumped right in and the next thing you know he got a very nice helmet. So do not be shy–on the forum or in person. Everybody wants to help.

The show opened on Thursday and unlike last year or previous years we were not overrun by the European dealers. It was kind of slow and easy. Talked to a lot of people and for once they actually gave helper badges to the wives! Did that make things easier and it meant that we had a full load of extra badges.

Friday was a very big day and we got completely picked over. Seems like people who check things out Thursday came in and bought early on Friday. That is a lot different than previous years but it really was stiff–book sold well and most other items really went at full price. Considering my tax bill this year I thought about selling a kidney but decided against it.

Saturday was fairly well attended but slow. This has to be very frustrating to those people who cannot come during the week. Things were very picked over and there were all sorts of new lookers. As most of the good stuff was gone there was not a lot of jostling. The gun show was at the same time and reports were that it was so crowded you could not move. There was also a car show that had great food.

At 3 PM on Saturday there was an announcement that you could close your table without impacting next year’s tables. It was like an Oklahoma land grab. I would say 50% of the hall closed up all at once. I do not know what it was like on Sunday as we left but it must have been a ghost town.

There are some weird looking people who dress up in various costumes. They must think they look cool but it just does not come off for all of them.

A real surprise to me was that many people said that pickelhaubes.com is the gold standard for sharing information and being polite. Seriously I must’ve heard that at least a dozen times. We have a lot of lurkers. Perhaps Tony can tell us numbers but I would urge people to come out of the closet and join in. We were compared to other forums and judged very highly. People also liked the diversity of subjects that were covered. The pictures of the cavalry Museum received a huge positive response. I remember that we have our moments but this was overwhelmingly positive.

I always learn something and it is wonderful to meet friends. We have been thanked many times for putting pictures of people up as folks were always wondering about faces and names. Tony was wonderful. You sent a picture by iPhone and the next thing you know Tony had made it happen. Collectively, we have him to thank for many things.
 
Thank you Tony, but I think it would be better if you were not able to do this for us, because you are at the show and not at your computer. And thanks to everyone who contributed to the reposts from the show, it was not even close to being as good as being there, but it made it better.
Best
Gus
 
I agree with Gus, it would be better if Tony could join us again.

And I found the show to be very good this year as well. My father and I sold a lot of stuff. We had a lot of browsers but I moved quite a bit of stuff.

My only problem is that I had one "bank" and thus I need to learn that I need one pocket for my dealing and one pocket for my collection. I ended up spending my dealing money, so I will have to resolve this.

As for the pack up, I agree that it was pretty much a mad rush out of the hall. Actually I think my father and I packed up a bit too soon. My brother-in-law and his father had joined us, and were at the gun show at 3pm. I assumed they would dash through that and be ready to go. That was NOT the case. But once we packed up I actually had time to browse the hall with my father for a few minutes and see the last hold outs.

Those who didn't pack up must have done so on Sunday. I was in the hall until 5:45pm on Saturday and there were some tables that weren't even close to packing up.

This year I came home with more stuff than I brought, but a big part of it was the Mosin Nagent rifle box I bought at the gun show. Some dealers had three cases of rifles (each box holds 20 rifles), and when they sold out of the guns I asked to buy the case. The box is probably 1960s vintage with the original stamps. My brother-in-law didn't appreciate my demand to make him help me carry it from the gun show to our table. That was easier than actually getting it in the "bunker" in my house!
 
Glad to hear that everyone had a good show, wish I could have made it. Very nice to hear also Joe, that the forum is highly regarded amongst the collecting community. All I can say is that we have an excellent membership and any kudos that we get, are based entirely on that. You new collectors or folks out there that Joe described as lurkers (umm.. Joes term, not mine)....come out of the cold, get involved with us, ask questions, and above all show us your helmets!
 
There is nothing wrong with lurkers, but they are not getting the full value of the forum, at least they are here learning, the sad stories are all the collectors out there that are using ebay for their education. Joe does have a good point about joining the party though, when you are part of the group, you have the benefits of the network, and that has more benefits than the rumors of incarceration and parole boards:)
Best
gus
 
Hello all, I am one of those lurkers Joe mentioned earlier! I have observed pickelhaubes.com for some time learning each and every time.

At the show as I was making my last sweep on Friday I ran into Joe's table. After some discussion and allowing that not being able to post pictures was no excuse I decided to get with it.

I have posted (I hope) a picture of two of my goodies from SOS 11. The patched helmet cover, of course, came from Joe. The 14th JG Bn visor came from a French dealer I had not seen before.

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I look forward to contributing, in some small way, to the group. By the way, I also stayed at the La Qunita some of you stayed at.

Best, Mike
 
Hey Mike,
On your photobucket page, you want to copy the IMG code (one up from the bottom, the bottom is the thumbnail code, and it places a very small picture)

That is a very cool Überzug!

Welcome to the forum!
Best
Gus
 
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