When too much of a good thing...more bad Purple Heart engraving on eBay

[Dave]

All:

 

Kurt alerted me to this seller's auctions. At first glance, the Purple Hearts, by themselves, look good. Really nice, unofficial engraving. The engraving on the Silver Star looks like nice unofficial engraving as well (I think the seller is mixed up with the Navy and Attu attribution though...) But when you look at all three together, wouldn't you know it...they all appear to have been engraved by the same hand!

 

Had the seller sold each of these on their own, I would have bid on them. They look nice to me. But all together...hmmm...too much of nice unofficial hand engraving done by the same jeweler makes me instantly think they were done to fool collectors, rather than commemorate the memories of the men who earned them.

 

I'll be staying away from these, for sure, but the scary thing is this: what if I saw them at a show, one at a time? Or on eBay? Caveat emptor!

 

Lots of screen shots to follow for posterity. I personally don't think the seller is intentionally selling bad medals - I don't think they know what they have.

Dave

 

 

[Dave]

And here are some pics of the Silver Star...

 

For google's search engines...George B. Granberry, Dan S. Arnold, and John F. Cooper Jr.

[scottplen]

Scary !

[dave peifer]

the only thing i see that would be a red flag are the burrs visible at the edge of the engraving.i don't remember ever seeing that on original engraved medals.................dave

[Der Finn]

Thought you couldn't sell Purple Hearts on eBay?

[Dave]

Thought you couldn't sell Purple Hearts on eBay?

Rather than going down the endless discussion of "ebay lets some people sell them and others they don't" and focus on the bad engraving...eBay technically doesn't allow Purple Hearts to be sold, but they sell routinely.

[Doodlebewi]

Thought you couldn't sell Purple Hearts on eBay?

Exactly what I thought

[Der Finn]

Thanks, Dave! All I can say is typical "good old eBay" - was great when it started and now it continues to go downhill...

[268th C.A.]

Its just a shame, as Dave said. Profiting off these Hero's memories. God bless him he needs the help.....

[joeclown]

Right now there is a mountain of Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and even some MOHS for sale on ebay, their grinch must be on vacation or ebay needs the money from the sale.

[Doodlebewi]

Right now there is a mountain of Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and even some MOHS for sale on ebay, their grinch must be on vacation or ebay needs the money from the sale.

Yikes, MOH's.

[bobgee]

Don't know if the seller is the 'Dupor' or the ' Dupee' in the acquisition of these fakes but for sure these medals were produced with malice/profit aforethought! Bob

[TheMariner]

ironically it is always this time of year things start slipping through same thing happened October and November of last year, I have seen everything from PHs, Silver Stars, DSC, Ordnance, and Nazi Medals and patches all running full length in auction! I had three hits this year for ordnance(all inert and less dangerous then a paper weight) so I am trying to stay away from listing anything even though stuff has been getting through! I did get a PH through without issue! Scary stuff though those medals look pretty good thats why I dont buy unofficial engraving unless its dirt cheap!

[Dave]

Well, he's at it again...good ol' warbirdparts1945...if he was smart, he'd list these one at a time, but he's not, and therefore, we know they're bad. In that way, he's done us all a favor...

 

Here's the Martin P. Scott Purple Heart...

[Dave]

And the Capt. S. F. Bassett Silver Star...

[KASTAUFFER]

Whats scary is the guy has some skill.

[Pete-o MSU]

Whats scary is the guy has some skill.

If he knew the proper format then look out.

[ajbUSWM]

If he knew the proper format then look out.

 

How do we know he doesn't? If he copies one non-government formats perfectly ... it is a baby step to copy government formats perfectly. Maybe he has been making copies of government engraved PHs for 10 years ... we have no way to know.

[Nic]

Whats scary is the guy has some skill.

 

Agreed. Format aside, these aren't BobVN specials! If I stumbled across one of these, I'd be hard pressed not to pull the trigger on one that fit my interests. Thanks for the heads up.

[manayunkman]

A master engraver for sure.

 

Very few of them around.

[KASTAUFFER]

There is a possibility these are old fakes too that recently surfaced. We will have to see how many more come out,

 

Kurt

[Taylor Stevenson]

All,

This thread was just brought to my attention. I am warbirdparts1945. I purchased these medals in a large lot off of Proxibid. I would like to dispel any thought that I counterfeited these. If theyre not period engravings then I was unaware. Caveat emptor for sure. Theyll just sit on a shelf at my hangar from now on. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[USMCR79]

These remind me of the named medals that came out of the 49er Flea Market in St. Petersburg FL a few years back - I had not seen any of these in awhile

 

Bill

[TheMariner]

All,

This thread was just brought to my attention. I am warbirdparts1945. I purchased these medals in a large lot off of Proxibid. I would like to dispel any thought that I counterfeited these. If theyre not period engravings then I was unaware. Caveat emptor for sure. Theyll just sit on a shelf at my hangar from now on. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Better yet I would just destroy them or have them marked as reproductions! In the future if you are unsure of what you are selling it is best to first ask for advice before selling them as people will be quick to get their pitchforks otherwise! Sorry you got burned best of luck in the future buying medals! Always post here to make sure things are good!

[Dave]

All,

This thread was just brought to my attention. I am warbirdparts1945. I purchased these medals in a large lot off of Proxibid. I would like to dispel any thought that I counterfeited these. If theyre not period engravings then I was unaware. Caveat emptor for sure. Theyll just sit on a shelf at my hangar from now on. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

 

Thanks for posting, and I appreciate the background. For the purposes of pulling the thread a little, do you remember what all was in the lot and any details about it? It just might help in trying to keep track of these medals. If you have any others, it would be awesome to see photos of them. I'd be happy to help you with the images if you have any issues posting.

 

I also appreciate that you did list them up at the same or near the same time...otherwise, a lot of us would have been tempted to bid as the engraving looks like period, private engraving. Someone did a really super job on engraving these at some point.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Dave