Thought I'd seen it all...

[Falcon]

...Until today I saw someone with a box of dug up cartridge cases with a sign that said "From Normandy, 1 each". When I told him that they were fired .303 blank cartridges made in the 1950s, 60s and 80s, he said "They must have got put in there by mistake". Does anyone else have any similar stories?

 

[Fuzeman]

Yes
The well known dealer on ebay who keeps saying in the ads a rare fuze !this being a type (25) of which 2.2 million were made , and the same trader trying And selling a broken Bomb fuze locking ring as a Rare adjustable type not often found , yes not many get broken ,they usually snap in half!

 

[Tmine35]

A seller at SpecialistAuctions is continually offering at high price small metal tags telling they are "fly-out permits from Stalingrad pocket". I have found plenty of them from former Luftwaffe air bases in northern Finland and they simply are tags for air mail sacks, different color most likely is for sorting the bags according to different importance of contents.:tinysmile_hmm_t:

 

[2pounder]

best mis description

my favorite was at an antiques fair where a dealer was selling a pair of Georgian candle snuffers that looked exactly like No. 199 fuze covers! my mistake was to discuss them with him, he got the a**e.

 

[waffenamt]

my favorite was at an antiques fair where a dealer was selling a pair of Georgian candle snuffers that looked exactly like No. 199 fuze covers! my mistake was to discuss them with him, he got the a**e.

Was that at Swinderby by any chance??:bigsmile:
I think i saw the same ones?
best
waff

 

[SG500]

I think with some auction sites you have to give the sellers the benefit of not knowing. I've seen Aden cases advertised as WW1 trench art on several occasions. To all of us the date on the side is a slight clue (and the fact that the Aden was a post WW2 development) but to many sellers its just another shell case that looks old. It works both ways - I recently got a "cut down 120mm tank round" that wasn't cut down at all, it was base stub for an experimental British combustible tank "shell case" - happy days for me for a fiver!!
Dave.

 

[Tmine35]

That's right Dave,
As long as buyers know what they are buying it does not matter what sellers describe, but unfortunately many yet less experienced buyers rely on what sellers tell,
In my own sales I always try to describe the item as honestly as I can, but as we all may do mistakes I take the item back if incorrectly described - however from near 1000 sales during years I have so far no returns or claims :tinysmile_grin_t:

 

[TonyE]

Fakes

A year or so back I purchased what looked like a nice .45 Gatling round from a certain Maltese cartridge dealer who inhabits SA (this was on the "other" site before they got touchy about these things). I paid 50 for it, which was a good price had it been real.

When it arrived and I cleaned out the headstamp it was so obviously fake. It had been made from an unheadstamped US case (not particularly scarce) and a fake R^L headstamp had been engraved using a jeweller's tool.

I got my money back, but only after threatening to set my company's lawyers in Malta on to the case.

Here is the fake headstamp.

Regards
TonyE

 

[waffenamt]

Thats an interesting story as i never did receive my German sectioned Mauser round from a Maltese dealer on the `other` site....


waff

 

[spotter]

mmmmm i had problems a couple of years ago from someone in malta too
back on topic ,,ive often seen 2inch mortar rounds described as been german ,think theres one now on a certain auction site

 

[Fuzeman]

The same Maltese dealer was advertising German Butterfly bombs , but all they were was the drouges , how he thought they would function is anyones guess, but i have had some good bits from Malta

 

[2pounder]

buying cases

Waffenamt;; think the covers I saw were at Harrow but many many years ago, got my covers at a car boot 50p for 3 complete with orig. stencilling, seller didnt know what they were so I told him and still 50p.
SG500: antique dealers are quite good, you can pay a lot for common stuff if its big but small and rare can be a bargin, my best was a 15pr Erhardt case in very good condition price was too good to remember to haggle.