so you think earlier???

These two appear to be "Bakelite". What do you think?

Shown below are the Insignia and ribbons from the estate of Sergeant M. J. Andrews.  Sergeant Andrew enlisted in the USMC in late 1939 and served with the Second Marine Division through World War Two.  Note the two solid well made single plastic ribbons. One ribbon represents the Pacific Campaign.  It is not known what the second ribbon depicts. The Sergeant stayed in the marines after the conclusion of WW2.  Perhaps the second ribbon is a ribbon mistake by the craftsman that made the ribbon bar.  Maybe he was trying to construct the China Service ribbon.  The ribbon colors are not painted on but small strips of colored plastic are inserted into channels in the main plastic body of the ribbon to develop the colors of the ribbon.  You can see a channel on the unknown second plastic ribbon which is missing one red plastic insert strip.  Part of a small chain is attached to the unknown second ribbon.  Maybe these ribbons represent sweetheart or homeland patriotic ribbon bars that were worn by civilians.  In any case these plastic constructed ribbons are rarely encountered.  

What is the average value of a Type I, Type,II, and Type III purple heart.

Shame the pin is broken but I believe this pair meets all the criteria for a good one.

The only assignment info I have on Ralph Frederick Epping (382835) is that he was assigned to VF-99, a theatre based advanced training squadron, in April 1945, aboard USS Attu (CVE-102) for transportation, to the squadron's base at Guam.  Probably would have flown the F6F as on 4/14/1945, the date I have him assigned, the squadron reported an inventory of 20 F6F-3, 25 F6F-5, and 10 FM-2.  His date of rank as an Ensign AV(N) was 6/1/1944 and was promoted to lieutenant (jg) (A1) on 12/1/1945.

No, that is my usual look 🤣. 

Yes. In my opinion it’s good    

Here are several lighters on eBay now:     All are clearly fakes, although the seller does not say that. The seller does have in the item titles “No Zippo” and when the bottoms are inspected it is pretty clear that these are not Zippos, since the Zippo logo is engraved rather than stamped:     All of our “regulars” on this thread would not be fooled, but the newbies or the uninformed could be. I don’t think this seller is actually trying to deceive, especially selling these at ~$25 each. But, after one of these “changes hands” a few times who knows what stories will be concocted. Buyer beware.

Thanks Kat!  The scarf did come with the uniform grouping.