ebay advise a deal or hood-winked

[Jon]

greetings, i hope eveybodies christmas shopping is almost done . well tonite i have a strange one , i been poking around ebay and from germany there are items i am interested in and the seller wants cash and only cash. has anyone had any luck sending cash to germany and actually reseving the mercantise or am i beening over cautious. please advise jon

I haven't bought anything from Germany, I received cash a couple of times from overseas and didn't have a problem. Anytime someone asks for cash it makes my hackles rise. But, the reason is probably that money orders (international only, not US) and any type of check costs them money to change it. Cash does to, but a smaller amount.


So, I don't know? If it is small amounts, I'd risk it, larger amounts... I hate to do that myself, so, I wouldn't.


Ed

Jon: I have personally done no less than six transactions to Germany, Norway, Sweden and England - Cash via registered mail and I can tell you that I have had no problems whatsoever. Everyone I have dealt with has been completely up front and honest. The most I have sent was $225.00 and the least was $75.00 and in any future deals I have on ebay with foreign sellers I would not hesitate to send cash again. I usually check to see if they have any negative feedback and if not I am cautious enough to deal with sellers with no less than a couple dozen positive responses before I get involved. I hope this helps. PS - I do make it a point only to deal with sellers in western style countries, former Soviet Union or communist countries (present or past) I do stay away from - for personal reasons only.

[tom]

Like Sam, I have done many, many transactions internationally for cash, including some in former "bad Guy" countries. Never a hitch.


FWIW


Tom

A most knowledgeable Militaria Dealer tells me that almost all the stuff coming out of Germany from the Ebay type venues these days are fakes. He said the volume of phony stuff is just unbelievable!


The Shadow

[lugerholsterrepair]

As usual, an unknown "source" is hardly believable if one simply takes a look at some of the things on E bay. I am a student and I do not know as much as I like but I am fairly familiar with the German P08 holster. With the ability to observe many close up photos of these holsters coming from european countries it is fairly obvious that this item in particular is somewhat hard to fake. Fakes stand out like a wort on your Aunts nose. I will admit to buying an Imperial Navy 6" holster from a gentleman from the Netherlands and it turned out to be as phony as a Clinton three dollar bill. It was actually sent to me without any kind of payment on my part for my inspection and approval or rejection. This involved an E bay bid of over one thousand dollars. It was very difficult in this instance to determine aunthenticity by photos but with the help of noted German Navy expert Tom Armstrong and another Police and Navy expert Derek Seltzer,I was able to sort out the various spurious markings and reject this horrible travesty of the holster makers art. This was several years ago and before I was as knowlegable as I am today. Experience is a great teacher.But it is difficult to say about fakes as I am not knowledgeble in fields other than holsters. I know it is hard to fake wear and age on holsters as I have tried it. Anyone else have evidence of a flood of fakes coming out of Europe? Actually there are plenty of fakes flooding us here in the U.S. from our own homegrown fakemeisters. Jerry

This guy is really sharp...he deals mainly in medals and the like and not in weapons/holsters.


He said medals are being made by the same folks who made the originals and some are better than the originals..and have the same stamps/marks/etc. He has gotten to the point that he does not buy over there unless he deals with someone he knows.


I have little reason to doubt his word

[Johnny Peppers]

In the 1950's there were catalogs advertising German Nazi medals which were struck from the original dies. The medals were cheap at that time, and no effort was made to try and represent them as original. Now some fifty years later it is very hard to tell a 10 or 15 year time span when the metal was actually struck. Some of the early fakes were rather crude, but recently I was shown a German Cross in gold that looked absolutely authentic to my untrained eye, but the dealer pointed out several things that were apparent after his explaination, and he had it priced as a reproduction.

[Lonnie Zimmerman]

As a collector of German medals; I agree that there are many fakes-EVERYWHERE!!

\ Lonnie

When I was in Europe, I passed over one medal that I should have bought, it was $30 and I was afraid it was fake. This guy from e-bay, who I have lost track of, collected and sold Militaria, including Nazi items such as medals and he sent me a book (for free!) to help me out. Was a very nice guy. He said that most (in quotations and bolded) that most fakes were easy to tell apart, the quality was not there. However he was an expert and I was afraid that to the average joe blow (ME!!), I would get taken, so I didn't buy anything, but probably should have. You didn't see that many items in Rommel Markts (like a flea market). I did buy a Police ID card, a Luger holster that had been found buried, so it is all hard and in pieces and a few other items. My plan is to bring these oddities to the convention and share them (FOR LOOKING, ) with all that are there. Just as an off shoot, not to compete with those with REAL collections, heh, heh.


Ed