(24 HOURS ONLY) Holsters, LBEs/Vests, Knives From Syria. Want Stuff From Israel?

[DedEye]

Howdy boys and girls.
I'm in Damascus right now and saw some things I thought you'd be interested in purchasing. In one of the souqs I was walking through there were a couple shops selling holsters of all shapes and sizes as well as various LBEs and equipment vests, bandoliers for varying calibers (mostly rifle calibers I think), and knives of multiple shapes and sizes.

I bought a switchblade yesterday for $4. It broke 2 hours later . Piece of crap. Oh well, it was still neat to buy a switchblade. Is it still illegal to possess (I know possession isn't illegal, you know what I mean about getting it to your home) in CA even if its broken?

Anyhow, I'm not going to accept requests for switchblade purchases. There were some nice fixed blades that I've found, including a fixed blade I bought at a Hezbollah shop in Lebanon a couple days ago (not for sale, I'm keeping that one ).

Here's the deal:
The holsters varied in price from about $10-15, the vests and other stuff was anywhere from $10-50. I'm not interested in turning a profit, HOWEVER, I am interested in being able to ship not only your items, but mine back to the states since I can't carry everything with me when I go to Jordan and Israel. I'm trying to stay high speed low drag, you understand. The price for shipping is going to be about $15 per pound, and it gets cheaper the more I ship. I have a few items I need to send home to free up space in my bag, and any holsters or vests or knives any of you want would be shipped with that, then once I got back to CA in August I'd mail the items to you via either USPS or UPS, your choice (price unknown until I get home, but it would probably be shipped from 94558). Local pick up would also be possible in Napa (for a few days) or Santa Barbara after that.

I really want an excuse to go buy a ton of **** at the holster stall and at the other military item stall, but am only going to be in Damascus for another day and night. If you want something, post a message here and PM ME! telling me what you want. I don't know what things are going to cost to buy and ship, so I'm going to say something like $45 for a holster and $125 for a vest. In addition to knives there are ASPs and other batons, nunchucks, gasmasks and military uniforms in various patterns (desert pattern chocolate chip, flecktarn, woodland BDU, desert BDU, etc). Expect the knives to be about $50, same for the batons, the machetes would probably be $100.

If the prices seem high, I apologize, they may well be. However, you'd be helping out a fellow Cal gunner afford his trip (I'm on the parental loan program and they expect me to pay them back when I get home, this would surely help with that), plus you'd be able to say that your fancy new vest/holster/knife is from Syria. These aren't government shops either, so no worries about supporting a regime you aren't a fan of.

To sum up, if you want something, PM ME, send payment via paypal to NOdedeyeSPAM at hot mail dot com. This offer is only good until tomorrow night (morning for you folks on the west coast), so get on it fast! Help me afford this trip!

PS: Pictures of the shops are going to be posted below, so you can see what you're ordering. It would probably work best when telling me what you want if you take the photo I post, use paint or photoshop to draw a circle around the item you want, then send it back to me. Should prevent any mixups.

[DedEye]

Also, I could get you more "normal" souvenirs like I did for bonjing and Kar98k. If you want something like a chess set, a carpet, a keffiyeh, whatever, send a pm and money.

Pictures will be added in this post when they finish uploading.

[DedEye]

Ok, I'm not even sure if the pictures are uploading that website is moving so slowly, so I'm just going to leave a bunch of descriptions of what's available.

Vests:
Olive Drab,
Woodland BDU,
Black,
Another woodland color scheme with a different, smaller color pattern,
Another camo pattern with light green and brown, tan and black,
Black with the word police written on it and the word for police in Arabic below that (I think that one's the coolest)
Lastly there's one that's sort of olive drab with a darker green around the edges of some of the pouches and the vest

There's a couple different types of vest:
One available in black and one of the woodland patterns has a universal crossdraw holster and 4 mag pouches, plus 2-3 other pouches on it. It zips up in the front and the pouches are velcro

Another is just a black LBE (I think it's in another color also) that looks to have AK mag pouches on it.

Another is black or OD mesh with 6 mag pouches and 2-3 other pouches above them with velcro closures

A few vests have loops for either shotgun or rifle shells in addition to their pouches. Varying colors for these.

The police vest is more of an LBE with 6 mag pouches and a 2 other pouches on the shoulder straps. The non-woodland camo pattern comes this way also.

Knives/Batons/Weapons
6" Collapsible baton that flicks out to about 18". It closes by pushing it against something with moderate pressure; I don't think there's a way to lock it open.

There's a bunch of other batons that are 2-3 feet and look to be made of leather.

There's a machete with either a black or OD sheath and a paracord handle and a steel blade with a fairly menacing cut to its design. Made by "Elephant" (?).

Several knives with either black, woodland, or OD sheathes. One has a wood handle (black sheath), another with a jungle camo handle looks like a bayonet (seems to have mounting points on the hilt), but probably isn't. One is an OD sheath with a paracord handle. Lengths for all these are about 4-6", I also saw a couple folders that I didn't take a picture of so I can't really describe now.

Bandoliers/ammo belts:
Varying calibers in black, green of several shades, leather, plastic (think that ones for shotshells), woodland, and brown. Your guess is as good as mine as to what calibers each holds.

Holsters:
Black, brown, white, different camo patterns. Leather of different colors, fabric of different colors. Ankle holsters, paddle holsters, shoulder holsters, you name it. All shapes and sizes, some with pouches for spare mags, some designed for revolvers with extra loops for more ammo. Most look to have button retention mechanisms. There's also a couple mag pouches (look like leather AK pouches) in the picture/shop.

Another stall that I didn't photograph had some fairly nicely decorated holsters. Some had lots of buttons on them to create a pattern, looked a bit gaudy to me but some might like the style, while quite a few of these had different engraved patterns.

Other:
Helmets (probably steel but possibly kevlar) in a ton of different colors, canteens plus pouches, rifle soft carrying cases in black, woodland or urban camo, berets, flags, BDUs in urban, desert (both DCU and chocolate chip), woodland and I think black. A lot of shops sell woodland Syrian uniforms in kids sizes with rank, ribbons, etc. Great Halloween costume! Two different kinds of gas masks, both look Soviet.

I put a lot of time into writing this, so hopefully some of you will bite and I can bring some treats back for us all . PM me if you have any questions, I'm open to some negotiation on price, but I need to hear from you ASAP!

[ivanimal]

Ill take a 1911 holster and a knife fixed blade 9 inches or below. The holster should be leather with a good retention system and the sheath knive must have sheath, the handle can be whatever cool material you dont normally see around here. PM me what you need paypal wise and figure I will see you in Napa.

[loneeagle308]

==There's a machete with either a black or OD sheath and a paracord handle and a steel blade with a fairly menacing cut to its design. Made by "Elephant" (?).
==One is an OD sheath with a paracord handle. Lengths for all these are about 4-6"

=== Which ever knife looks more cool get for me please.
I can try to set up my paypal if you need cash fwd before trading the rifle in Aug.
Also, I'll take some mag pouches if they hold 30 rd AK mags. Maybe a vest if it is good quality and around $80.

==Chris

[mur]

I'd be interested in a Fixed Knife, pm sent

[Gunaria]

Bayo's

If you come across any mauser bayonets in good condition and for a good price, pick some up. Kind of a no brainer thing. I will take a half dozen or so. Good luck and stay safe.

[mur]

If you come across any mauser bayonets in good condition and for a good price, pick some up. Kind of a no brainer thing. I will take a half dozen or so. Good luck and stay safe.

haha, I pm'd him the same thing

[bonjing]

hope everything is well over there DedEye.

[DedEye]

Everything is great Bonjing. I sent your coke bottle stateside with a friend to spare me from carrying it (and my other Egypt souvenirs) the whole time. I'm gonna have to do the same thing with these souvenirs instead of carrying them with me once I leave Syria.

I will, of course, be bringing stuff back from Israel too. Instead of shipping that though I can just buy another bag, since it's the last leg of my journey I won't have to worry about lugging it with me everywhere. Expect me to update this thread once I get there.

[DedEye]

Prices for things are fairly cheap; they expensive part is shipping. If/when I buy these things, I'm really going to need to get payment on the sooner side rather than later, and I won't be able to get these out to you until I return to the US most likely (mid August).

What I'm buying for others as of now:

(If I can find them) Mauser bayonets. I wouldn't hold my breathe though guys. I'll try though.
For Ivan: Fixed blade knife 9" or less and a 1911 holster.
For LoneEagle: Knife, (you want a machete as well or instead?), AK mag pouches and a vest.

I'm going from the cafe here to the souq, so unless I here something FAST I'm going to assume that LoneEagle wants both a knife and a machete, and trusts my judgment on what kind of vest to get.


SAS: If I buy Galil mags I'd probably have to ship them before I left for the US (so as not to bring them with me into CA); do you have an out of state address where you keep your toys that CA won't let you have? PM me.

[DedEye]

Ok folks, here's a real treat: Anyone want a 200 year old blackpowder Ottoman pistol?

I'm going online right now to see if I can find the laws regarding shipping this, but if it's legal and someone wants it, expect to pay around $1000.

The receiver and hammer are original, 200 years old. Not sure about the barrel but the engraving on the outside is new engraved in silver. Very nice looking.

[DedEye]

Here's the situation as it now stands:

I have purchased all the items and PMed all parties. However, I have now learned that I can't ship knives/sharp objects back to the US, because apparently international shipping is more restrictive. You can't even ship military equipment/uniforms to Europe, but apparently it'll be ok to send those stateside.

Since I can't ship those things, I'll just have to carry them with me in my backpack. No big deal, until I get to the Israeli border.

I'm going to have a hard enough time getting across the border with a Lebanese and Syrian stamp in my visa, I can imagine the soldiers ****ting bricks when I show up with 5-6 knives and an ASP. I don't know if it'll be alright, if they'll try and confiscate them, or if I'll just be rejected outright. The latter two possibilities worry me, and make my ability to give everyone an accurate price very difficult.

To add to this, I went a little overboard with my own souvenir shopping and tapped out my supply of Syrian pounds. I should be able to make it to Jordan before I have to hit the ATM tomorrow, and should have enough in the bank to survive, but my depleted funds makes me a bit more desperate to get payment from everyone. There's the rub, since I don't know how much everything is going to be, and more importantly, I don't know if I can even get some of the goods back to you all.

I'll keep you all appraised of the situation as it unfolds.

[DedEye]

Here's where it stands now.

I can't ship the knives so I'm just going to try and get them across the border. Wish me luck.

Everything else is packed up and at DHL waiting for me to return with the money, but the ATM I just used refused to let me withdraw funds, so I'm freaking out a bit now. I'll pm you guys when I have the time about the prices, and whether that includes the knives or not.

[DedEye]

Update for the buyers:

I shipped the package from Damascus, it's now sitting at customs in New York because apparently US CPB wants to ask me questions about the clothing and other items I shipped. I'm going to call them via Skype tomorrow and see what's going on and explain everything I sent.

I'll keep you updated on that.