A new member but a very old militaria collector.
 

Hi everyone, my name is John Lockton, if you attend any medal and militaria fairs you may have seen me, especially at those run by Mark Carter or Andrew Jukes over the last 5 years. I first collected medals when I found my grandfathers 50 years ago, since then I built up a good collection to the 17th Foot/Leicesters and continue to buy/sell in a hobby sort of way to this day.
During those 50 years I must have handled/owned hundreds, if not thousands of cap badges. I always passed them on to a dealer friend, and more recently gave them away with the mans medals when I sold them. I think I missed a trick as cap badge dealers often bought a set of medals off me stating the badge was worth more than the medals! I've started buying a few cap badges as I have always been interested in all aspects of militaria and need a affordable interest in these strange lockdown times . I can tell the obvious fakes and the obvious genuine ones but struggle with the large grey area in between. Medals are so much easier to spot the duds! I have posted a few times recently, and been grateful for your knowledge on one or two badges I have bought. I can't help you much on cap badges but I can help if you have a medal query, especially to the Leicesters as I have 50 years of medal rolls, pow rolls and various literature etc. I sold some of my collection a few years back and some is now in the regimental museum as there were some unique groups to the regiment .

Cheers

John

Welcome John.
Andy

new member
 

Hi John and welcome to the forum. Are you also a member of the medal forum ? Have seen that user name before..Do you attend the Bowburn fair ? If so, will probably have seen you there.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Yes I am a member of the medal forum, but rarely post. I had a stall at Wakefield, Yate, Stratford, Bromley and others but have found medal dealing such hard work as it ties up large amounts of cash and most collectors have such narrow collecting fields. I know several dealers who attend medal fairs, have vast stocks but often fail to sell a single item at a fair. I once had a customer who wanted medals to his family name. He said it was a rare uncommon Yorkshire surname. It was indeed a strange name, so strange I remembered I had a medal in my stock with the very name. I called him over and said you won't believe it but I have a medal to that surname. It was a GSM 1918 to the Dukes (West Riding) Regt. I thought he would snap my hand off, I bet he goes years without finding one, instead he said his family was from East Yorkshire and the medal was named to a West Yorks regiment so he would pass on it. At that point I thought I should give up!!!
Regards

John
ps I have not traded at Bowburn

new member
 

Hi John,

used to go to Wakefield,but haven't been for a few years.I don't buy many medals these days unless something unusual with a good story turns up. Lots of problems with made up groups and re-named medals made me decide to turn to badges and, as the saying goes, the grass isn't always greener, as badge collecting has its problems too.I knew badges were faked, but thought it would be reasonably easy to spot them - how wrong I was !
I only attend Bowburn fair now and often feel sorry for the medal dealers.As you say, they carry a lot of stock and must have a fair bit of money tied up in them.rarely see money changing hands.And, if they are not selling, then they rarely buy new stock and their stock then gets stagnant attracting fewer buyers.Difficult times.Online sellers seem to be fairing a bit better.
Anyway, good look with your new direction of collecting.Don't be frightened of asking questions on here, a great bunch of people.

Mark

Welcome
 

Hi John
Welcome to the forum. Ironically I am also a new member despite having joined in 2014 - I am not quite sure how this works but perhaps I have to earn the equivalent of a LSGC medal before the moderators will promote me! It is a great forum and everybody seems very polite and helpful. I would recommend specialising in a particular area of collecting rather than the blunderbuss approach to collecting badges, the latter is the surest way to amass a large number of fake badges, especially if you frequent a well known internet auction site. Anyway, welcome to BMBF and glad to have a fellow newbie!
Cheers
Mike
(The Quartermaster)
www.qmsmilitaria.com

It’s to do with number of posts not just time you’ve been a member. I think over 100 and you become a ‘member’ rather than ‘new member’.

By the way the BW NCOs (Code: 61878) just listed is fake. Note the ‘MEMO’ misspelling as found on the Martin Marsh catalogue BM fakes.

Thanks Luke, mystery solved. Thanks re the Memo, had not spotted that, now deleted and I will return to the owner as it is a commission sale. Very well made bar the typo!
Cheers
Mike