Nazi badges

[smle-man]

I'm visiting Montenegro and at a semi-rural wide spot on the road an old granny had a table set up selling old stuff. Mixed in with some Yugo and Sovietski military medals was some Nazi stuff. An iron cross, a couple of German medals and some other German looking badges. I was surprised to see it for sale as there is no love for the Germans here except their money. I don't know how to tell fakes and I still have some more countries to pass through so I left everything untouched. Interesting to see the impact of the war 70 years after. There is a lot of nostalgia for Tito and genuine pride in the partizans.

[beerman]

Right, wrong, good or bad...its still history. I would have considered it (for the right price)

[Pofoo]

At a gun show, 10-12 years ago, I saw a identical Nazi medal with ribbon that my dad had brought home. I asked what it was--looked like a iron cross veriation, but was actually some kind of mother's support for the reich badge--and asked what it was worth if I wanted to sell it. He wouldn't buy it because the new fakes were undistinguished from the real ones. So, how do I know your's is a real one??
Got the stink eye and left.

[Ora Serrata]

Hard to tell if authentic there. Could have been. Years ago I picked up some German WW I medals at a hole in the wall antique store in a small rural city really cheap. Definitely authentic.

I was in Bosnia this summer and thought I’d find some Balkin war stuff. There was very little of it and what was there was very overpriced. Did pick up a Serbian Officer’s Beret with unit crest. Only bayonets I could find were rusty and double the price you can get them here for.

[71MUSTY]

There was a huge collectors market, however as always it was flooded with fakes.

[smle-man]

I did get to see some abandoned military tunnels and observation towers and a rusty naval vessel looking lost and abandoned along the channel to Kotor

[Spaffo]

Lots of fake TR stuff made in that part of the world. The end sellers often have no idea.

[pitfighter]

Jealous - It is a beautiful country isn't it.

I was in Zagred just prior to the war - I guess 1988 or so.

It was full of WW2 German fakery, and Soviet Blue Spetsnaz berets, cans of Caviar available from street traders by the road and at the markets then, they will be nicely aged and with a good patina by now, lol.

I did buy a trunk load of Police uniforms, leather cop jackets and holsters, fur hats from one of the police assigned to the movie I was on.

Incredible country with a vivid history.

*Edit: Big thing they did there and Czech Republic is cheap old fob-watches engraved with German inscriptions, SS mottos' etc., clearly recently engraved with modern fonts and clean grooves, etc.,

[Alan Block]

Nazi issued Leica cameras are very collectable. The Russians who copied the old style Leicas have recreated the Nazi ones too they are pretty good fakes until you get to the fine details.

[mike415stone]

Little old lady by the side of the road... End of the day she goes home, gets on the internet and orders more fake badges from China on Alibaba site.

[louie]

I was in Greece in the late seventies and there was all kinds of Nazi stuff, but in those days it was real cheap. Many helmets, but none seemed to have liners. They much of gotten them from a field. They were dirt cheap, maybe ten dollars, but just sat there.

[Mojaveman]

I used to go to the flea markets while I was a young soldier in West Germany 40 years ago. If you looked around you could find that stuff but it wasn't in plain view.

A lot of the Third Reich artifacts that are sold online by Russians are actually dug up by grave robbers.

[smle-man]

The Russians had a thriving business selling German dogtags back to German families until the Russian goverment outlawed the practice.

[HUTCH 7.62]

Lots of Nazi type stuff for sale in the pawn shops in the upper counties of Northern California

[CWL]

All fake.
While real relics are scattered everywhere in E. Europe and still to be found (German panzers still get pulled from bogs), these get sold to militaria collectors for serious money. They all know what these are worth.
Anything found on roadside tables is for tourists and as real as China rolexes.