Orber Mfg Co, Pawtucket, RI: examples and patterns

[mtnman]

Thanks for the comments all! You make it all worthwhile in sharing these wings we work so hard to find. Yes, Gary, the unique star, uniform to all Orber wings requiring such appurtenances, is separately affixed to the wreath.

[Costa]

picked up this nice 3" orber observer pin back. havent seen one of these in a long time.

[Costa]

front

[Jay V]

Nice Wing!!

[Costa]

saw this and know that orber had a few different markings on their 3 in wings but, never saw this one. any body??? marked sterling silver

[pfrost]

That is a typical Orber hallmark. Sometimes it has ORBER in the circle. Many of them have the Orber name occluded. Never been strictly sure of the timeline for these wings and if/when Orber went out of business or just sold off their dies. Much less when this happened.

 

Nice wing.

[Costa]

any body ever seen one of these?? Orber bombardier a first for me.

[Costa]

front----

[mghcal]

A really rare wing. Nice pickup

[pfrost]

Nice wing. It isn't frequent that you find them without the defaced hallmark.

[Costa]

I didn't have this one and is a first for an Orber bombardier so I jumped on it. I was also kinda surprised to see it wasn't defaced on the hallmark.

[Kadet]

What sort of value does an Orber have in comparison to one of the more common types? Just curious

[pfrost]

It's hard to know. I don't think Orber is going to command a huge premium in price. Of course it is nice to find an Orber-made bombardier wing without the hallmark being defaced (or even one with the defaced hallmark).

 

But it seems to me that the prices for common USAAF wings have plummeted over the last 10 years (and even a hallmarked Orber bombardier wing is far from scarce or unique). It depends on who is looking and how much they want to spend, but I think 75-100$ is probably fair, if you are patient. Maybe less, maybe more, but probably not by much in that price range. Just my impression.

[pfrost]

One can quibble, but of bombardier wings, the British or Australian wings tend to be the most expensive (when/if you can find one you think is not a reproduction) (~250-500$). They can be about equal to the Luxenberg hallmarked wings (there are probably 3 Luxenberg patterns, two made by Blankinton (which are the most valuable ~300-400$) and one by AE Co (which has much less value ~100-200$)). After that, maybe the Juarez/Lampl wings (~100-150$). Then you have the hallmarked versions, like AECo, LGB, AMICO, Orber, etc (75-100$). Then you have some like NORSID that may or may not be hallmarked. The NS Meyers and the unhallmarked bombardier wings (50-75$). There are variations, pin back, clutch back, some rarer hallmarks, etc, that impact on price. But that seems like a pretty good GENERAL analysis of prices now-a-days. Like I said, there are going to be outliers and exceptions.

[Kadet]

Thanks, I recently found an Orber marked gunner wing w/ an intact logo and was just curious. Unfortunately the pin is mangled on it, but fortunately it was very cheap!

[pfrost]

Cool beans. I don't mean to downplay those wings, they are very nice. It just seems to me that the days of dealers getting premium prices for USAAF wings are long gone. Unless it is something really unique or rare, even an uncommon hallmark won't get the big $$$ anymore. Its great if you are a beginner collector though!

[katieony]

Tough to find wings...congratulations!

[Patchcollector]

Cool beans. I don't mean to downplay those wings, they are very nice. It just seems to me that the days of dealers getting premium prices for USAAF wings are long gone. Unless it is something really unique or rare, even an uncommon hallmark won't get the big $$$ anymore. Its great if you are a beginner collector though!

 

 

I've noticed that too.Over the last few years I've been able to add some pretty nice Wings,some theatre made,for what I feel are very reasonable prices.I think that one factor in explaining this trend is eBay,which is basically a gigantic online international yard sale.

Here's my theory.Back in the day,(pre-interweb)when many were building their Wing collections the "old school" way,i.e,hitting all the yard sales,flea markets,Militaria shops,etc..,there was less to choose from,which kept prices higher.Just finding some of the scarcer pieces,at any price,would have been alot more work.

Nowadays,we let our fingers do the walking,and browsing online one can find a selection in minutes that would have been difficult,if not impossible,to find in months of searching some 20 or so years ago.

Of course,the "top tier" rare examples are still going to fetch a premium,but for the other 90%,prices have adjusted downward due to the relative "glut" of Wings that can be found online today.

I can't say that I'm unhappy about this trend,since I'm a newbie as far as collecting Wings is concerned.

[pfrost]

Back in the 1980's Russ Huff had a semi-annual publication that he put out that had all sorts of interesting information and articles about wings and things (In fact, it may have been called Wings and Things!). There was usually a "For Sale" section. The thing is, that even back in the 80's prices of wings were not ALL that different. For example, Dallas wings were getting between $1000-1500 in the 1980's, which is pretty much what they are getting now, some 30-40 years later.

 

Ebay did have a huge effect on the wing prices as Patchcollector says above. Someone once said that the 80's and 90's were the "Golden age" of wing collecting, but I think it actually now that is a great time to be a collector. You have the greatest references available to you (this forum for example), the greatest internet flea-market (in Ebay) and the prices are relatively reasonable. Back in the day, you had to muck around at a Militaria show and deal with some really dodgy guys. And there is STILL a ton of stuff out there, just waiting to be unearthed.