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USMC Machine Gun Co. Tunic: What a Shame......


Eric Queen
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I agree Eric. I asked this guy (Jay) three times for a better picture of the patch and he went silent. So I took a closer look and realized that someone (cannot write a better description) destroyed it by cutting out the center portion of the Indianhead. I don't see anything written in his description either. Even with the bug damage this would have been a rare find.

 

Chuck

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Don't know if it has been addressed before on the forum but will throw this out anyway. A lot of WW1 tunics have moth damage to the bottom portion of the pockets. When I first started collecting WW1 I noticed this trend. Fortunately that was a long time ago and a number of WW1 vets were still alive so I brought that up in conversation with a couple. Seems the soldiers carried their tobacco in their pockets, often some of it would spill out and lay along the bottom of the pocket. Moths appear to love tobacco and were drawn to it, thus chewing up not only the tobacco but the wool as well. Any other thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

Terry

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Too Much WW1 Militaria

Terry,

 

Heard and was told exactly the same thing. Loose tobacco from the roll your owns and loose pre-rolled smokes. Why in the world would someone do that to the silk center? People....... jeez!

 

John

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By member C.Roelens:

I asked this guy (Jay) three times for a better picture of the patch and he went silent.

 

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I believe you. Take a look at this guys negative feedback from the past 12-months. He obviously has a real problem communicating with others, a distinctive habitual bad pattern.

 

I can't imagine someone cutting out the beautifully hand painted Indian head from this patch.

 

Best Regards,

 

Alan

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The damage to the patch does not look insect related to me. if I had to throw a guess out there, I would say kids. The uniform was probably hanging up in a back room closet or barn (obviously not cared for, taken care of) and kids found it and tried to cut the Indian head out, to put in a scrap book, or something like that. Just a hunch but that is what it looks like to me.

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The patch is 100% legit, and I think Eric nailed it. The Indianhead was cut out of the star. Below is a picture I received from the seller. It's not a good one, but you can clearly see it was cut out.

 

Duke, are you still banging your head against the wall...

 

Chuck

post-1673-0-09312100-1442764973.jpg

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I don't know about Duke but I am still banging my head against the wall..............

 

The identified photo would be worth having but not for $600

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A tear almost escaped my eye....

 

I have also long wondered about the tobacco in the bellows pockets and corresponding moth damage. I have encountered a few tunics with tobacco in the pockets and some moth damage in the same areas so I find Terrys comment very interesting.

 

I've been in contact with the seller as well, I'm sure he's been getting inundated with questions and calls as he listed his phone number in the ad. Perhaps he's been overwhelmed.

 

I agree that the patch would have been worth 600 but the current state of the uniform and patch (even with the photo) I"m surprised it's at 600 now and doubt it will go much higher. It's a mess.

 

S/F
Duke

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I too have found tobacco remnants in the waist pockets of several of my WWI USMC tunics. Some as well have moth damage and often where the pocket folds at the edge to expand you'll commonly find mothing there. I have a great WWI 55th Company group that has some mothing along the bottom pocket as well as a very nice Navy Corpsman's id'd tunic who was with the 84th Co. that has mothing along the pocket but fortunately the mothing on those mentioned tunics is isolated to these locals and the patches are completely in tact and untouched. It's interesting as I have never made the correlation. I know that sweat attracts insects and in fact moth fabric damage is caused by carpet beetles. What we often relegate to moths more times than not is the work of carpet beetles. Too bad about the tunic.

Kevin

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Too Much WW1 Militaria

Another sad but true story....... a friend of mine's grandfather received a DSC in WW1. He had the medal alone, no ribbon. I asked him if he knew what happened, and he said "Yeah, my sister cut the ribbons up to use in her Barbies hair!" I agree with the guess of either kids cutting it out or someone putting together a scrapbook. A shame too, because it looked like the silk center wasn't coming apart like a lot of them do!

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EVERYONE.... WATCH OUT FOR THIS SELLER... eBay handle: "Sierratacklermaster"

 

He's dishonest and shady. The first day the auction was listed, I inquired about any other items that might have been found with this group and he was slow, but responded two days later, with photos of other items (some EGAs, a moth eaten Bell Crown, and other photos and paperwork). He told me "I'm all about the money" and so I offered a ridiculous price for the items not in the auction.

 

Today I texted and called him to finalize the deal AS AGREED.. he obviously thinks I'm someone else and starts talking about shipping everything together in a footlocker etc etc and taking about the same items he was selling me.. I quickly realized he thinks I'm someone else...and must have been promising the same items to someone else, probably multiple people. Despite the fact that, unprompted, he assured multiple times that he was "only' going to sell this other stuff to me.

 

When I call him out, he agrees to sell me the items as agreed. Ok. I think the real problem came in when he wanted me to send the money via paypal as a "gift". Because of his dubious eBay feedback (gee wonder why), I told him I'd pay using the "goods and services" options but would pay his part of the fees so I would be protected if anything went wrong. He insists on the gift option...

 

I call him back several times, no answer. Finally text him and let him know I'm sending the payment.

 

While he won't answer the phone, he texts me back and does a complete 180...he switches his tune and says it's not about the "money" but now it's about "the history" and because I didn't bid high enough on the tunic, he was backing out of the deal. Again, this despite he said he would sell the paper and photo items to me REGARDLESS of who the tunic went to.

 

Bottom line, this guy's eBay feedback says it all... I'm disappointed to have missed out on the items, but obviously dodged a bullet in dealing with this guy. I felt obliged to post this in the event that a forum member might be dealing with this guy.

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I think you are lucky you still have your money in your pocket Duke. This guys sounds like bad news. Run, don't walk.

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What Eric said above. I wonder who ended up with this stuff. I hate seeing collectors stepping on each others throats like this, but I guess it is what it is.

 

Happy hunting folks!

 

Chuck

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What Eric said above. I wonder who ended up with this stuff. I hate seeing collectors stepping on each others throats like this, but I guess it is what it is.

 

Happy hunting folks!

 

Chuck

 

Hey Chuck

I don't think it was as much as collectors stepping on each other as a dishonest seller trying to incite bidding. I think I figured it out; he was promising people the same stuff if they bid on the tunic. I think that's why the bidding went so high for such a poorly conditioned tunic.

 

S/F

Duke

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Bay State has a wallet that is supposed to be from the same Marine for sale.

 

 

Was for sale from same ebay seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WWI-USMC-wallet-nice-/141773173922?hash=item210256f4a2&nma=true&si=WaDPN87DYXm6U5szU1eNfhaPfRw%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

Now for sale from Bay State

http://www.baystatemilitaria.com/WWI/WWIequipment.htm

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