john gregory Posted 8 June , 2011 Share Posted 8 June , 2011 Just sold on Ebay a MGC postcard for £78.99, item number 150611392760 and I thought I was mad for paying £10 for a card !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rumplestiltskin Posted 8 June , 2011 Share Posted 8 June , 2011 Well done it always amazes me what people will pay. But if someone is a serious collector i guess they will spend what they can afford. TERRY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ph0ebus Posted 8 June , 2011 Share Posted 8 June , 2011 Some folks just do not know the value of a dollar.... I'm one of them. -Daniel (who is kidding, by the way) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 (edited) Most I've paid for a military postcard is three figures NZD A photo/postcard taken at sling camp. 10th Platoon 12th Nelson Company 3rd C.I.R 4th Battalion Thing is I dont know what platoon my GU was in and I'm pretty desperate to find out. I know he was in the 12th, 3rd C.I.R, 4 Bn, so when this postcard reared it's head on TradeMe in New Zealand I was bidding pretty hard to get it so I could have a close look to see if I could find him. Turns out he wasn't in the photo, but those are the breaks, it's a keeper for me. Edited 17 June , 2011 by Wendy Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBattle Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 Wendy, just in respect of the photo, have you been able to establish why the 3 men are marked with "blobs"? Perhaps 3 brothers (although they don't look very similar to me) One is presumably a Serjeant, sitting next to the officer, but I must say they are a strikingly well turned out body of men, the fit of their kit looks remarkable! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 Wendy, just in respect of the photo, have you been able to establish why the 3 men are marked with "blobs"? Perhaps 3 brothers (although they don't look very similar to me) One is presumably a Sergeant, sitting next to the officer, but I must say they are a strikingly well turned out body of men, the fit of their kit looks remarkable! Hi Kevin I asked the same question before I brought the postcard, unfortantly there is no information on the back to identify these three chaps. Wendy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinBattle Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 Thanks for fast reply, Wendy, I realised you'd be on to the marks, but had to ask in case there was another story hidden there!! Obviously there must have been a reason, just a pity it's been lost in the mists of time..... Who/what do you mean by "the platoon my GA was in?? Errr.. what's a GA (surely not Great AUNT!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 Hi Wendy, any chance of a photo enlargement , the badges don't look like Canterbury badges to me, more like Hawkes Bay or maybe Otago Mounted regards khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 Good morning khaki I had a guy that collects WW1 military photos look at it for verification, he said it was definitely 12th Company, Sling Camp. Don't forget that this is the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Brigade, they were only a temporary battalion from the May of 1917 until they disbanded February of 1918. They were brought in as a additional battalion for the 3rd Ypres push. Apparently the A567 on the corner of the photo is a identification code used by the photographer at Sling, Cant quite remember now but I'm sure he said that the 'A' represents Canterbury Battalion. I'm pretty hopeless at scanning photos, they are normanly to big to up-load, hopefully you can see this ok A nice 12th Cap that I'm bidding on, on TradeMe at the moment Back of postcard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 17 June , 2011 Share Posted 17 June , 2011 John Apologies for hijacking your thread Wendy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 18 June , 2011 Share Posted 18 June , 2011 Wendy, Many thanks for the photo enlargement , yes I can now see the badge and I stand corrected, khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 19 June , 2011 Share Posted 19 June , 2011 Just sold on Ebay a MGC postcard for £78.99, item number 150611392760 and I thought I was mad for paying £10 for a card !!!! I paid 200 Euro for this CDV by Otto Hoeffke of Berlin. It shows a flamethrower pioneer wearing an M1895 blue service jacket with the death's-head sleeve badge, contrary to regulations. The seller sent the card by registered mail. It arrived in New York and then disappeared. The U.S. Postal Service told me that the German postal service would have to investigate, since the card was sent from Germany. The Germans said they couldn't investigate, because it was just one card and they couldn't send someone to New York to track it down. The U.S. Postal Service also told me that the card couldn't get lost, because people have to sign for it at every step along the way. But the Germans would have to figure out who signed for it in New York. The Germans reiterated that they couldn't send an inspector to New York just for one card. This was the second utterly irreplaceable card that went missing when sent by registered mail from Germany. The other was an Austrian flamethrower sapper of Sappeur-Spezial-Bataillon Nr. 61. I had been looking for such a photo for a decade. I finally found it and paid 150 Euro for it. This card also arrived in New York and vanished. I won't find another such card unless I fly to Austria and spend a month at the flea markets. A collector told me that there's a theft ring in the U.S. Postal Service that steals registered mail from Germany because the Germans won't investigate. The U.S. Postal Service is about to go under. It's losing billions every year and isn't expected to survive. Good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Macpherson Posted 19 June , 2011 Share Posted 19 June , 2011 Tom If you live in the US why dont you try getting any German mail sent to a friend in another country, say Australia. Then your friends could send onto you and your mail wont be embellished with the German postal service entering the US. Just a thought, real shame to be losing such lovely photos/postcards. Wendy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 19 June , 2011 Share Posted 19 June , 2011 If Deutsche Post is known for not investigating disappearances, the same problem may well occur in other countries too. The excuse that they could not send someone to New York to investigate the loss seems rather preposterous, as Deutsche Post is represented all over the world through its subsidiary DHL. Sorry to hear of your loss, Tom — but at least you have the image, if not the original card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 19 June , 2011 Share Posted 19 June , 2011 Tom If you live in the US why dont you try getting any German mail sent to a friend in another country, say Australia. Then your friends could send onto you and your mail wont be embellished with the German postal service entering the US. Just a thought, real shame to be losing such lovely photos/postcards. Wendy What I've done is ask German dealers to send the items by regular airmail instead of registered. That entails its own risks, but it's the registered mail that basically has a big "Steal me!" sign on it. So far I haven't lost any cards or photos sent by regular airmail. Some German dealers insist on sending items by registered mail. In those cases I've had them send them to a German friend who then sends them to me by regular airmail. In the past I used FedEx, despite the expense. Then FedEx began hiring cheaper local contractors to deliver the packages, and one delivered my package to the wrong address. He then lied about it and claimed he'd delivered it to me. I had to go to nine different houses on several streets, asking perfect strangers if someone had delivered a package of WWI postcards to them. At the ninth house, the guy said, "I was wondering what this was" and handed me my package. No more FedEx. Now it's just regular airmail and crossed fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 19 June , 2011 Share Posted 19 June , 2011 Sorry to hear of your loss, Tom — but at least you have the image, if not the original card. The one that got away. I pine over the image the way some people stare at photos of their ex-wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leigh Mc Posted 20 June , 2011 Share Posted 20 June , 2011 It may have something to do with having the declared value on the customs form for anyone who handles it to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 20 June , 2011 Share Posted 20 June , 2011 It may have something to do with having the declared value on the customs form for anyone who handles it to see. Actually, the theft ring just takes a chance that anything sent by registered mail must be valuable. I find it hard to believe that postal workers in New York would recognize the value of old CDVs, so I'm betting that my cards ended up in a trash bin along with the remnants of cheeseburgers and french fries. A terrible end for such portraits... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 29 June , 2011 Share Posted 29 June , 2011 I thought the photo sold on ebay was very good and if it was a relative of mine I'd have paid more than that. Ebay prices are amazing. I sold a single button for £72 a while back. I have expected it to make a fiver. The most I've ever paid for a postcard was £12 which was for the a group of men from the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry taken whilst they attended a Mills Grenade training course. Every man is holding a grenade and they have full box in front of them. Lovely! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted 29 June , 2011 Share Posted 29 June , 2011 I paid 200 Euro for this CDV by Otto Hoeffke of Berlin. It shows a flamethrower pioneer wearing an M1895 blue service jacket with the death's-head sleeve badge, contrary to regulations. I am wondering if he really had it sewn on, or was home on leave and positioned it for the photo? It seems rather far forward (over the first button) and could be it is placed for an optimal photo. Best Chris It may have something to do with having the declared value on the customs form for anyone who handles it to see. As postage costs by weight as opposed to size, a really big box, sent as a "small parcel" is the way i like to go. Envelopes and small boxes are so easily "dissapered"... but a big box is difficult to "dissapear". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 30 June , 2011 Share Posted 30 June , 2011 I am wondering if he really had it sewn on, or was home on leave and positioned it for the photo? It seems rather far forward (over the first button) and could be it is placed for an optimal photo. Sure, it could be pinned into place, but it was still contrary to regulations to wear the sleeve badge on the blue service jacket. Flamethrower pioneers were supposed to wear the sleeve badge only on the field jacket and peacetime jacket. But I have another Hoeffke photo of a flamethrower pioneer wearing the blue service jacket with a death's-head sleeve badge. It isn't clear enough to see if it's sewn or pinned on. When I was collecting photos for the assault-troops book I just finished for Schiffer, I learned that individual German soldiers did pretty much whatever they wanted when it came to uniforms. It appears that regulations simply weren't strictly enforced in World War I, and there were tons of unofficial badges and insignia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 30 June , 2011 Share Posted 30 June , 2011 I bid a reasonable 12 quid for a postcard of a named West Yorks casualty from a dealer in the states without checking out his postage rates so was stung for another 14 quid on top, is the thieving chancer stll around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWW Posted 30 June , 2011 Share Posted 30 June , 2011 wht a price Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 1 July , 2011 Share Posted 1 July , 2011 I bid a reasonable 12 quid for a postcard of a named West Yorks casualty from a dealer in the states without checking out his postage rates so was stung for another 14 quid on top, is the thieving chancer stll around? Ouch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 1 July , 2011 Share Posted 1 July , 2011 John it might well have been me buying that button from you, was it the elusive Norfolk Regt with garter? I searched for nearly 10 years for a decent one and paid about that, then discovered another I had overlooked in my 'spares' box. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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