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8.8 King tiger casing

S

Spaceinvader

Well-Known Member
Hello all!
I recently started looking for some 8.8cm German rounds from WW2. Always wanted one just never seen any for sale, and when I do the shipping costs more than its worth. I know there is the typical flak casings, and then there are the king tiger shells, bigger and have a neck on them.

Now, I live in Canada, I bet shipping would be astronomical to begin with and the casings being rare already. Whats the price of a 88mm casing for the king tiger? I have seen one for sale before, I think for around $200. Hope someone knows a general range, and I know its gonna be atleast $200 by now. Thanks in advance,
Rhys
 
Everything to do with German ammo, and especially the 88mm rounds is high in our part of the world. Sometimes you find individual cases, but quite often they have projectiles in them. The King Tiger 88's are rare and very desirable due to their reputation. Of course the regular Tiger 88's and FLAK rounds, the FLAK 41, and even the shorter Submarine gun rounds. As with anything else, the condition has a lot to do with the price. I've only ever seen copper washed steel cases for the KWK43 (King Tiger) or PAK 43. You have to be really careful when buying them, because a lot of ammo was disposed of by throwing them in Lakes and other bodies of water. They were packaged rather well if in original packaging, so many survived without much rust, but many others have pits in the case, or even holes completely through them. Nefarious individuals will clean the cases and fill the holes with body putty, then repaint them with brass colored paint. So, you need to examine them very carefully.

For the tank ammo, the APHE projectiles are the most desirable, especially with their base fuze and hardest to find. The FLAK 41 prefrag projectiles are still rare, and the FLAK 36 prefrag projectiles used to be rare, until huge quantities were sold for surplus from European countries that had adopted them for their own use. Before the market was flooded with the surplussed ones, the rounds used to sell for $500.00 here in the states. A King Tiger APHE round sold on ebay or gunbroker in the past few years for around $2,500.00. Someone posted an EBAY sale of one of the surplussed rounds recently, and it was above $1,000.00 if I remember correctly.

I've seen the solid brass FLAK 41 cases made for tropical use sell for $350.00 each 10 years ago. The rounds and components are much cheaper in Europe.
 
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Thanks Hazord! I knew they where gonna be expensive but not 1000$+! I will see if I can find one for a decent price and go from there. If possible I would be looking for just a casing, so I guess its a waiting game! If anyone knows where I could find one, please give me a heads up! :D
Rhys
 
I'm not saying a case will cost you $1,000.00, as you might find one on Ebay with a buy it now price, but beware if they won't tell you the condition. A photo of the inside of the case will help to confirm if it was under water. They can't body putty the inside very well.
 
Complete King Tiger/PAK 43 rounds on this side of the pond start at 150 for a really rusty pitted one.
350 to 500 gets a nice one.
I've seen near mint ones sell for 900 plus on a well known web site here in the UK but wouldn't take that as the benchmark.
Rarely see cases on their own though.
Getting someone to ship one to Canada will be your problem, finding KT rounds is reasonably easy over here (I know of 3 that are spare in a friends collection).
Dave.
 
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Alright, all the info about pricing I can get is fantastic, thanks Dave. I found a fellow in the UK, a friend of a friend that has one for sale, steel case, copper washed. No idea what he wants for it yet or anything really. Gonna get in contact with him soon and see whats up. I can deal with paying maybe 200 pounds, about 350 Canadian. Now shipping will be my worry/problem! :(
Rhys
 
Put a couple of umbrellas in it and a flower sticker on it and have him call it an umbrella holder from the '60's:tinysmile_twink_t2:. Cheers, Bruce.
 
I wouldn't trust it to be good scrap. If he put the best side forward for the photo, I would hate to see what the back side looks like! If you look down near the case head, you can see that it looks like it is completely rusted through by the depth of the groove that is rusted out. I think the bottom of the case is full of something to keep you from being able to see right through the wall.

In instances like this ( I almost said cases like this), it is important to consider what he didn't show in photographs, like the case head, the back side not shown, and the inside of the case. They much be worse than the parts that he did show. It's a whiffle ball. Pass on it. To make the situation worse, it's in Poland.
 
Thanks Hazord, thats what I thought. I just wanted to get some more info on price ranges depending on condition. He has another casing and some projectiles, one casing looks brand new but I haven't gotten a reply about it yet. Not to interested in the projectiles he has just because of price and shipping, although he said shipping would be around 30-50$ for ground shipping, would take 2-3 months.
 

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Warning to all about vendor pm75 from Poland on ebay. He has a good ebay rating. However, we made a deal for a KT projectile outside ebay that never arrived. Lots of excuses and now no response at all. He was also the one offering the fake Panther round - there is another thread circulating on this board about that item.
 
Well damn. He hasnt responded in days anyways, so I gave up. I also thought that second casing looked to perfect, has to be "restored". I guess I will keep looking! Thanks for the heads up! :D
 
There were a couple of things that were wrong with that deal, besides the fact that you didn't get your item:

1. The item was sold outside of the eBay protection.
2. It was in Poland, so far away that you can't go there or find anyone else to strong arm the guy.


Sent from my NSA/FBI tapped iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have been very successful meeting folks on ebay and then working deals with them outside that format. My collection has expanded with some nice stuff from France, Netherlands, Poland, and Russia. That was the first deal outside the system. My thought was that a good ebay profile was a sign of a fundamentally honest guy; seems some folks are honest only when ebay is watching. Funny in a way as the only guy to screw me was a fellow Pole - I am second generation born in the US. When I told my dad (WWII marine vet), he said Poland was the one country he would not have that tried that in - seems we have a history of hosing each other in his opinion. I have only been on this site for a year, but I have expanded my ordnance knowledge ten fold. I was not going to tell anyone of my folly, but I could not sit by and let another collector suffer the same fate.
 
I think it is a great thing you said that Steve, we all make mistakes. You just possibly saved me and others from getting scammed out money, possibly hundreds of dollars. I have met many sellers through eBay who I now do deals with off eBay and all goes well. Sometimes its just the odd bad-apple you find!
Rhys
 
I too have dealt with people I met on eBay. It was usually after an item was pulled by the morons in charge. But, I only purchased from U.S. sellers. And yes, you did the right thing by warning us. I myself have been quite vocal about the thievery and deceit of a certain special scumbag that trolls our posts.
 
Sweet! Looks like you managed to find one of this side of the world so I must be able to also. How much did that magic cost?:tinysmile_fatgrin_t
 
M8owner said:
View attachment 105683Look what appeared in Texas by magic. Magic is not cheap.
Click to expand...

Congratulations you did well to get that one shipped over.
Considering how common KT rounds are on this side of the pond it always amazes me the prices they fetch. I guess its the combination of an iconic round plus they look just so good in the collection.
Dave.
 
Some people have more money than sense. Mick (earni74) took care of me. I thought there was a 50 percent chance of it not getting through, but the packages were not molested. I started a company last year that had a 60 percent chance of failure (it is not doing well); the odds were great compared to that gamble. The shipping cost was half again as much as the item. However, we just don't have these things here in the US. The important part is that it makes me happy (and the wife unhappy).
 
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