Early WW2 SAS Wing

[johanwiegman]

Originally Posted by 3battalion

Bloody hell Johan, now I know why I can't find any early SAS wings it's because they're all in your collection!

Envy is a terrible thing to suffer.

Paul

hi Paul,

A bit of light hearted comment.

We all have exactly the same resources: the Internet, Ebay, Bosleys, Buywyze, UK dealers, collector friends, British Military Badge Forum, veterans, etc) to find early wings, so what is stopping you?

Seriously, scoring the old SAS stuff takes some effort, patience, time and spending a bit of money when opportunity knocks. Old SAS items are a good investment, though.

I stopped collecting 25 years ago and started from scratch about 10 years ago or so everything in my collection has been put together in that period of time. In the past I had to travel to the UK to search the badge shops in London and now I can do that from my computer at home, which is amazing.

Also, my collecting scope is SAS/LRDG and modern UKSF only, which gives a bit of focus.

Where did these 4 wings come from?

1) Bosleys
2) Buywyze
3) Collector friend on the Forum
4) Ebay

And there are many more, so go and get them!

Cheers,

Johan

[Jack8]

Originally Posted by johanwiegman

hi Paul,

A bit of light hearted comment.

We all have exactly the same resources: the Internet, Ebay, Bosleys, Buywyze, UK dealers, collector friends, British Military Badge Forum, veterans, etc) to find early wings, so what is stopping you?

Seriously, scoring the old SAS stuff takes some effort, patience, time and spending a bit of money when opportunity knocks. Old SAS items are a good investment, though.

I stopped collecting 25 years ago and started from scratch about 10 years ago or so everything in my collection has been put together in that period of time. In the past I had to travel to the UK to search the badge shops in London and now I can do that from my computer at home, which is amazing.

Also, my collecting scope is SAS/LRDG and modern UKSF only, which gives a bit of focus.

Where did these 4 wings come from?

1) Bosleys
2) Buywyze
3) Collector friend on the Forum
4) Ebay

And there are many more, so go and get them!

Cheers,

Johan

Hi Johan,

You are of course correct. It is a rat race though, I missed a 1944 pattern SAS beret badge a couple of days ago from WD Militaria (anyone know what it sold for?).

You have to be quick and lucky when buying from dealers sites, as you don't always end up with it when you click to buy as someone else is doing the same.

With ebay you have to be more careful, two identical items described as early WW2 beret badges from the same seller were recently sold, the first one for £107 and the other for £47. I didn't buy either of them but must admit when the first one appeared I was interested and went through photographs of known originals. I decided it was not for me and this was re enforced when the second one appeared. I am still not 100% certain on this one, was it wrong or did someone have a bargain?

I would probably never had the confidence to buy anything had it not been for this forum. Looking through old posts, studying the albums and seeking answers to questions from more experienced collectors such as yourself has been of great help in trying to gain the necessary knowledge which inspires the confidence to buy.

Thanks,
Jack

[3battalion]

Of course you are right Johan and it was certainly a tongue in cheek comment just to show my appreciation of your outstanding selection of early SAS wings.

Putting a collection together, such as yours, takes research, time, money and luck. Research, because of the increasing quality of the fakes these days and 'time' because of the hours spent trying to track down an available piece and then do the research to make sure you're happy with it. Money is self explanatory when dealing with SAS insignia. I mentioned 'luck' because in my experience I've found some very nice insignia just by trawling through coin auctions and finding insignia listed under 'miscellaneous' or putting in an unusual search in ebay and up pops some nice insignia that's poorly described hence no one else see it.

Lastly, I would also add timing as a key factor. There have been a number of occasions when I've been offered a very nice piece of insignia but didn't have the money available, or more precisely, if I bought the insignia and my missus found out she'd kill me!

All makes for a bit of excitement and adds to the joy of collecting.

Keep them coming Johan as I'm enjoying this thread and learning something with every post.

Paul

[johanwiegman]

Friends,

Collecting military badges is a bit of an addiction, with all the characteristics of a serious habit, not unlike being addicted to substance of a highly illegal nature...

We all spend a fair amount of time and sometimes silly money to find rare pieces of cloth and metal...

The moment we have our 'fix' we are already longing for the next, isn't that true?

Of course, we are all competing for the same stuff, so it is definitely a matter of timing. Sometimes you won't even notice there was a nice item on Buywyze as it was snapped up immediately by an early bird who happens to be one timezone ahead of you poor Britons...

I think much of the fun of collecting is searching, finding and researching, plus sharing of information, rather than keep it all to yourself.

Also, I believe we have to keep sharing information to keep the sharks at bay who want to make money out of selling fantasy items or even clever forgeries.

I sometimes learned the hard way by falling foul of people who deceive collectors on purpose and rob them of their hard earned money knowingly selling forgeries.

PM me for a discrete opinion on SAS items.

Cheers,

Johan

[airtrooper]

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

[Hussar100]

Originally Posted by airtrooper

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

I can see you getting a visit from 3Batallion.

[johanwiegman]

Originally Posted by airtrooper

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

Feedback from another diligent collector friend, being a couple timezones ahead of all of us in Oz! There is a lesson there!

Cheers,

Johan

[airtrooper]

I'VE SUSSED IT.

I have given up work, stay awake 24 hours a day and run 6 monitors, switching on a non stop reel between sites !!!!!!

No wait, that's just a horrible nightmare.

I have always said this collecting lark is a disease !

[3battalion]

'Bloody hell Johan, now I know why I can't find any early SAS wings it's because they're all in your collection! Envy is a terrible thing to suffer'

Airtrooper, thanks for showing those amazing pictures of your collection. Could you please insert 'Airtrooper' into the quote above in lieu of Johan!

Obviously tongue in cheek.

Paul

[Jack8]

Originally Posted by airtrooper

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

It is a privilege to see this lot together, what about an album of these, it would be a great help to see each one closer and also the backs?

Thanks,
Jack

[SAS1]

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

Nice lot of wings and beret/cap badges. I spy that copy on the side cap though! ;-)

Here is an original early wing at the IWM, plus a couple of other early examples...

[HamandJam]

Blimey , nice stuff mate, love some of the pre 1944 ww2 sas beret badges. Sometimes i think these are harder to get than ww2 wings , lovely collection. Cheers, JB

Originally Posted by airtrooper

Come on fellas, there's loads out there. I can't move for the bloody things !

[SAS1]

These are original 1st issue L Detachment wings from September-ish 1941. Of note is the white stitching that ran under the wings, aswell as along the top. The white stitching along the top came a while later, although its not known how many were made in the first batch, which continued to be issued after the second and third round of recruits joined.

[rhodesianmilitaria]

Originally Posted by SAS1

These are original 1st issue L Detachment wings from September-ish 1941. Of note is the white stitching that ran under the wings, not along the top. The white stitching along the top came a while later, although its not known how many were made in the first batch, which continued to be issued after the second and third round of recruits joined.

Interesting, 9 feathers on one wing and 8 on the other.

[JON188]

i had an sbs wing like that. JKP made i think