Set to arrive into my skinny hands in about 2 hours is.....

Thanks to a kind Gentleman that i've done some trading with, will be recieving my first Knights Cross within the next couple of hours ;-D -D = my Babboon grin.)

 

Congratz

 

Danke ;-))

PS, I found two more for sale that im awaiting a reply for.

 

Congratulations!



Greets Thompson.

 

so Carl you have one RK coming soon but are also going to purchase 2 more ? my the monies god has been good to you this summer

E ~

 

2 more allready? Well if you get addicted to collecting Knight Crosses you get addicted.

 

well done Carl



......is that Santa's sleigh i hear on the roof????? ........oh no wait, it's Jerry dropping incendiary bombs again !

 

Hi E, the RK is now here as of about 2:30 this afternoon. The mailman called me and it was in my hands within a minute or so of the call ;-)) I shreadded the envelope (just kidding) in trying to get it out of there. One thing besides of the niceness that is this cross, is that it's a heavy cross which means its early production and better made then the later ones you might find. My cross's frame however, does not appear to have been made out of any "left over" WWII materials but-still is VERY nice and well constructed.

As for the line on those two other KCs--I sent an email inquiring about their availability but have yet to recieve word on them yet. Both of these are nice but i'll not know if they are early or later production untill I can get them into my hands to check them out.

This cross in particular, almost feels like it's double the weight of two EKIIs. I also have one 1957 EKII-still need a 57 EKI and a 57 EKII Wiederholungsspange. Im going to be concentrating on getting a few more 57 RKs as they are legit KCs. The price for an uncased 57 KC seems to have quite a price range of from between 125 Euro to about 200 Euro. I don't know what that is in USD? but I saw one on am American site sometime ago at $195.00. That one sold almost instantly after it was posted for sale. I called the dealer up and he said less than 5 minutes of him posting it, he started getting calls inquiring about it. He said I called right after the buyer called-who happened to be the fifth person who called that was interested in it.

My luck still holds though-since I missed getting that cross by-as Maxwell Smart says: "Missed it by that ____ much."

 

Those two aren't mine yet. But if I have any say-so in the matter? they both will soon be mine ;-D I've been wanting one for a long time now.

Iron Crosses of any type and status, are addicting as hell to collect. I lost count on how many I had. I know I have only four EKIs. Three 1939s and one 1914, and I guess I have around 25 EKIIs ranging from 1870, 1914, 1939 and one 1957.

I know several collectors who still way out class me on numbers of EKs owned. A good friend in Ireland has around 100 EKIIs and I think around 12 EKIs. He is the Gent I got my 57 EKII from. You just don't "see" many 57 EKs out there for sale which leads me to believe that dealers are starting to hoard them.

 

Hi Andy, Lou, thanks and, I haven't worn it yet ;-D

When I get around to taking newer pics of my Arty Majors tunic, im going to dig out all the proper decorations for it including this KC. I have a metal DKiG to go on the right side-as well as his EKI-Artillery Badge, Gold Wound Badge and a General Assault Badge to go on his left side ;-)) As the Major was a two War vet-I could also use a Pour le'Me rite to go with the KC ;-))

 

I need to get myself an iron cross, i have soon over 200 items from ww2 and i havent gotten one yetanic:. I know that you have been talking about it alot in other militaria threads. Im going to a ww2 Militaria and Arms fair on 31 Oktober so ill have a look then...

 

Hi Collector, get an EK while you can. Even the average run-of-the-mill-EK are starting to average about $130 USD these days. One can only wonder why? as there are several millions of them in existance. The only thing I can come up with on that is collector ignorance.

Anyway, EK collecting is addictive to say the least. I almost doubled my collection of them over the period of about 18 months. I would have even more if I were not so interested in Silver Infantry Assault Badges, Krim and Kuban Shields, Award Docs, Photos and now 1957 RKs ;-)) Oh and lets not forget Cloth rank insignia ;-))

My ultimate goal for 57 RK collecting, is to have at least 10 RKs, 2 more with Oaks, 2 more with Oaks and swords and at least 1 that is cased. This will be a hard thing to do since 57 RKs seem to be being hoarded by dealers.

 

you got a good collection by the sounds of it carl,any chance of pics,ray...

 

Hi Ray, thank you and, im not sure when pics of my stuff will be shwon here? I had taken pics of them using a disposable camera but the pics didn't come out like they should have and i was pretty dissappointed with the results. Im going to try to scan stuff to photo CD at some point-just not sure when I can do that though?

Some Gems in my collection include a fairly large collection of ribbon bars, shoulderboards, collartabs, and of course Badge and Medals. When I took pic sof my stuff with that disposable camera-I also took a few of my Walther-which i had loaded and also had several loose rounds sitting around it. For some odd reason? those photolab people at wal-mart refused to develop the pics of my Walther-which angered me quite abit. Apparently the reason those negatives were not developed-was because the person doing the development-was offended at the sight of a Pistol I briefly considered a law-suit against W-M and talked with a Lawyer who said it would be an easy win-but I dropped the idea becase I didn't want to cause trouble over a smalll affair-none the less, they had no reason not to develop pics of my Walther-other than personal problems with guns. I talked with the store manager who did confirm I had a great case for a lawsuit-but since he said he would make sure that I had no problems in the future in getting things developed (within reason of course ;-)) and said he was going to discipline that photo-lab Tech-which was good enough for me.

 

having principles is one thing carl, doing your job is another,each to his own though...

 

Hi Ray, that's exactly how I feel. The only exceptions that I believe should be made in not developing pictures, is that if they show mutilation, death, child porn etc.

 

Fascinating stuff Carl, and RKs aren't exactly cheap are they... But one never regrets an extravagance .
Don't wear it out by fondling it too much.

Can I take it we'll be getting the history of your first RK's recipient? (and maybe a photo or two? )

Or have I missed a thread somewhere...?

~A

 

Hi Adam, I wish I could get info on who the original recipient was-but the dealer had no such info on where it came from except that he got it from another dealer at some militaria show.

I do have to be clear though that the KC-though a real and legit KC, is not the 1939 version as those are way out of my price range at this time-and go from about $4,000 on upt o about $10.000. Mine is a 57 issue KC, was wornsome, but I don't have a clue who it had belonged to? I can't remember the exact numbers of how many RKTs joined the new Bundeswehr but, im assuming that at least 100 or so did. I know mine didn't belong to anyone like Johannes Steinhoff, Erich Topp, or anyone of their level of decoration ;-)) Is I can find a list somewhere of the RKTs who did serve in the new military? I can filter some names out that would have been recipients of the Oaks, Swords and Diamonds. My KC didn't have any indication that the man had Oaks and Sword and such. ;-))

Also, as of this morning, a nice dealer in Europe sent me a nice email saying that he might have a line on a few 57 RKs and that if so? he would try to get them all for me ;-)) He said he possibly knew of three more for sale and would get them if not priced too badly ;-)) I told him if he did get them? to name his price-because I do have plenty of things I can purge from my collection if need be? in order to get a few more of these.

The reason why I want so many of these-even though one can't retire on the sale of these-----yet,) is because 20 years from now-who knows what these will be valued at? and, if these like they appear to be doing) if these rise in price as quickly as he WWII stuff has-then im getting what I can while I can-and for decent prices at that ;-)) I want to get as many as I can, so that I can make sure I do have somehting I might be able to retire with ;-))

Heh heh, though it's tempting to wear it-I shant because it's too hot here and I don't want to sweat on it ;-))

PS, when I was a Correctional Officer working for the STate of Texas, I had two EKIIs-one from 1914 and one from 1939-each came without a ribbon. Anyway, I got so used to wearing a windbreaker while at work-because I didn't want to be badly sunburned, and as this was a button-up jacket-I buttoned each EK into it and wore them as some sort of a trinket. Nobody knew what these crosses were and oen of my supervisors even said he liked my Catholic Crosses. Needless to say, im not a Catholic but a Methodist-and I don't wear rosery beads and such.

Well, Captain Smith-one of my supervisors-did know what they were and asked me if I wanted to sell them also said he had no problem with me wearing them on my uniform ;-)) I told him I didn't want to sell them but, that I would gladly give him my 1914 EK. As Captain Smith and I were friends as well as I was good friends with his Wife, I knew when his Birthday was which was coming up soon, and I wrapped the 1939 EK and gave it to him for his Birthday. Needless to say, he was very pleased with it and also said that it was his favorite most B-Day gift-outside of the ""gift"' his wife gave him later that evening ;-D

 

I wouldn't want you to get to the cross now would I I may have gone a bit OTT with the old tape... but it kept customs at bay.

Just thought I'd let you know, that I think it's an S&L example - not sure what you thought?