British Legion 100 Passchendaele Pin
 

To my utter amazement and disbelief when browsing our ‘favourite’ auction site this morning I found that a 100 Year Commemorative Passchendaele Pin sold by the RBL in 2017 has sold for £165! I cannot understand how anyone can bear to part with such a special thing and further, the thought that they have done so for sheer profit dismays me.

Quite a few of them get sold , normally £150-£200 for 'standard' brass one.

There was also a copper one sold recently for £335.00

"And a limited edition (of 1000) "crafted using donor metal from original 1917 shell copper drive bands recovered from the battlefields of Ypres Passchendaele". Each pin is individually engraved with their limited edition number"

Surprisingly , I have managed to get hold of a spare 'Flanders Fields' one for less than the original price.

It is just business, sadly, the norm these days, when these poppies were released by the RBL, at least on branch had people coming in and buying half a dozen at once, needless to say, they were destined for the ebay account of the buyers.

Damaged or Missing ?
 

A Passchendale 100 poppy pin has just sold for £103.99 on eBay , a reasonable price until you see that the box and certificate are both damaged.

Not a crushed corner or a simple rip , it looks like a dog has taken a bite out of them (they were actually damaged in transit).

At the other end of the scale a Somme 100 box and certificate , but no poppy pin , has a bid of £16.90 which may be useful if anyone had a damaged/missing box.

In the past I have bought a Flanders Field poppy with a water damaged box (which I was able to replace) and a D-Day 75 poppy pin without the box or certificate (both for about 50% of original cost) but I don't think I'd even consider paying the price asked for one where the main selling point (box and certificate) are so badly damaged.

Crazy pricing !
 

Been watching a Passchendaele 100 pin , no box or commemorative certificate (wonder if it is the one above ?).

Bidding has just closed and final bid was £245.000 :eek:.....

..... but it has just been relisted as the reserve price was not met !!!


Bidding starts (again) at £20.00.


PS. This is the 'standard' pin made from shell fuses , not the rarer one made from copper drive bands which was a limited edition of 1000 (numbered).


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They are certainly lovely things, but, I think they were best bought from the RBL when they were originally released, it was nice to simply walk into their branch and just buy one, which I did in the case of the Somme poppy in 2017 just after the Passchendaele poppy became available, I wish I'd bought both now.

The four centenary edition ones that I have : Flanders Fields , Somme , Passchendaele and 'Thank You' were all bought from Poppy Shop website.


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There were 5 of them sold on there last week supposedly found in a lock up with profits going to the RBL. I think the cheapest went for £135.

There was lots of photos of the boxes and certificates but each auction only had one photo of the pin itself, in the box and from a distance. Were they the real thing or were they the £2.99 knock offs you can get put in a box to hide it?

Someone has made a lot of money, hopefully for the RBL and hopefully a genuine story with genuine pins but the cynical me does wonder. My branch couldn't afford to leave 5 of them sitting in a lock up all this time.

Michael

Michael

I spotted the 4 Somme 100 ones , the bottom of the boxes has 'slight' water damage as if left on a floor.

Each one had a commemorative certificate dedicated to a different member of the military and also the smaller cerificate of authenticity from the maker (TMB).

From the images shown I believe they were genuine RBL pins and I think the seller had the "charity" symbol on the listings which indicates that profits automatically go to their named charity.

PS. There is a seller offering a "gold" poppy pin(box not included) that is definitely a cheap knock off (see photo) , but as they don't mention 'genuine' or RBL it is not worth reporting them.

Relisted again , this time "Buy it Now" for £300.00 ! :eek:


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Bargain !!!
 

Someone just got a great bargain , four of the "provenance metal" commemorative poppy pins :

1. Flanders Fields
2. Somme 100
3. Passchendale 100
4. Battle of Britian

All look genuine and are complete with the appropriate boxes/authentication cards/dedication certificates.

The lot went for £128.00 :eek: , that is less than the prices paid for individual pins recently on eBay.


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Just checked back on a post I made last year , someone was offering a similar set of four pins .............. for £799.00 !!!


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