Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hello,

As some of you may know that I not only collect Luftwaffe related items but am also writing a book about the technical and political development of the Me 262. It was my experience so far that I couldnot have started to write a book or find many of my personal collection's treasures without the help of others.

Thousands of collectors, historians and aviation enthusiats search online for collectibles, documents, photos, etc. on a daily basis. Probably more than 90% of what they discover might not be useful for them, but for others. Even though the majority of people can't share their findings with other enthusiats as there is just too little time to do that in ones daily life, I want to make the first step and share some of my findings in a regularly updated blog. The regularity depends of course very much on my available free time which is very limited from time to time. But I'll give my best.

But first I want to receive your feedback. I followed the discussions about Ed West's posts. I do not want to harm andybody but rather help other enthusiats with their research, collections and passion.

The blog's format is very open and I won't focus only on photos or auction items but also other items and even personal experience of my collectors/historian's life. Hence, I don't want to copy/past Ed West's excellent list of links but rather offer an addition to that list and also offer many other things.

Please have a look and feel free to add comments to my posts.

http://lwcollectibles.blogspot.com/

Best regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

PS: I have added a voting poll to the blog so that you can let me know what you think of this idea.

Thanks for your feedback!
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hi Roger,

Excellent idea, nice presentation, and outstanding finds! I'll be checking in regularly to see what you've come up with -- thanks for sharing!

It's unselfish contributions from people like you, Ruy, Ed West, Richard Eger, Michael Holm, Tony Wood, Jim Perry, Larry Hickey, Andrew Arthy, George Hopp, Lynn Ritger, Charles Metz and many others that help a great deal to advance our collective research.

Best regards,
Leon Venter

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hi Roger,

Excellent, you are now on my favourites list!

Kind regards,

David

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hi Roger,

Nice idea, I bookmarked it as well.

See you soon,

Csaba

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Dear Leon, David and Csaba,

Thank you very much for your supporting words. It is very motivating and gives me impetus to continue with the updates of the blog.

I will also try to add some useful information for collectors in the future like e.g. how to distinguish fakes from originals and also Luftwaffe history related articles. Of course they will be relatively brief and offer not an in-depth study of a topic, but should rather be a short and interesting overview about a certain topic. I tried to start this today with a short article about Agfa photo paper. Please feel free to post comments to the articles in case you would like to add something or if you see a mistake. You can simply do this by clicking a symbol at the end of each article.

I hope it will be useful and interesting for most of you. Using blogs for this purpose is new to me as well and it is kind of an exciting experiment. Let's see where the path takes us :-)

Kind regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hi Roger,
Full marks on your blog, very interesting.
I too shall bookmark your site.
Keep up the good work.
Best regs,
Steve,

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Roger,

What a wonderful idea! As a collector myself, I commend your initiative and wish you a successful following. Will you be showcasing aircraft parts such as grips or sights? Perhaps, if there’s an opening, I may offer some insights pertaining to data plates. I look forward to seeing future articles and pictured items.

All the best,
Steve

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hi Steve & Steve!

Thank you very much for your positive feedback! I have just added a new update.

I would like to also add aircraft parts & instruments in the future, but am not sure yet if I should open another blog or use the existing one. My experience is that historians and collectors who are interested in photos are not necessarily interested in aircraft parts. So, to keep both apart it might be useful to have two separate blogs (similar like the flight gear blog I have started: http://luftwaffeflightgear.blogspot.com).

Steve, yes, that would be great if you could write an article about data plates!!

In general, I think it would be a great idea if also other people contribute with short articles about their special field of interest so that the others can benefit from that. Of course full credit would be given. Please contact me if you have anything interesting. I would be very glad to hear from you!

I might post soon an article about the Me 109 K-4 instrument panel (either on the existing blog or in a new blog dedicated to instruments & parts).

Best regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hello,

Today, I have added the first aircraft parts related topic (the instrument panel of the Messerschmitt 109 K-4).

Regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Just great! As it wasn't, with Ed's postings, already enough difficult for authors or publishers without very deep pockets to buy unpublished material for publication use, now one can be sure that not a single interesting pic will escape the big black hole, in which all the valuable material simply disappear!P.S. I won't even try to explain, once again, why the listing of these Ebay pics would be good enough, if it was done after the auctions have ended, if it was really only for knowledge sharing.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Nemo,

I understand your concerns. I therefore offered the voting poll to see if the majority is against or for it. In my opinion the concerns are not really justified, but that is my personal opinion and I am sure other people see it differently.

I think that people who spend hundreds of dollars must be really keen on these photos and will find all these photos even without the help of Ed and now my blog. But with Ed and the blog the photos are also shown to others who are interested in the historical value of the photos.

If the majority thinks it is better to post the links and photos after the auctions have ended, I will do that.

In addition, I won't only post links but would prefer to have more informative articles like the ones about the Agfa photopaper or the Me 109 K-4 instrument panel. So, if anybody has something to contribute I would be very glad to hear from you.

It could also be a very good place to show some items of ones personal collection (like Steve for example suggested with the data plates).

I would like that the blog becomes a resource of informative articles that is interesting to most of you and covers a broader range than merely photos. I don't want to upset anybody and am open to suggestions how to make the blog better.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Because most of the people in this forum aren't interesting
in buying photos but only in gathering informations without
money - greetings to Rob Romero, Larry Hickey and guys like these -
we all know that the mass will agree with you and Ed. Nothing
against you but I don't like this practice in listing running auctions
before they end

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

hi,

I've noted that after the auctions are ended, i'ts impossible to see the photos

piero

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Roger, keep on with your efforts. As well as those of Ed, they're much appreciated by people interested in history who sees in photographs an useful (often irreplaceable) tool to work with. After all, this is why people should be here, shouldn't they?

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

"I've noted that after the auctions are ended, i'ts impossible to see the photos." Usually, the pictures stay there for about 7 weeks (sometimes even more), only a few of them disappear immediately and I don't think it's too much work, for the people interested in doing these listings, to save them on their harddrives."...who sees in photographs an useful (often irreplaceable) tool to work with."This is the real problem. How can you "work with", with something you have no way to get, in a reasonable economical way (aviation publishing has very narrow financial margins). For instance, how can a guy working on a book project on the 109E "work with" these Ebay photographs, as he can't get any of them, except the crap ones, which would be anyway useless in convincing a buyer to get his book? Yes, what percentage of the good Ebay pics sold for the past four years have you seen published in book or magazines? Nah, the current situation is a BIG black hole!

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

..have you tried asking the vendor or the buyer post-auction nicely..?

and take a look at Lynn Ritger's latest manual - he successfully managed to fill his 109 F-G book chock full of great Ebay finds, from the Galland 'series' to JG 300 items... I doubt he bought them all himself...

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

I don't ever take part in any bidding, for principle.

I use the images linked by Ed as a tool to learn. To own isn't always necessary.

And in a couple of cases where I needed higher resolution scans, I asked the bidder, explaining who I was and the reasons for my request, and obtained what I asked for. That's it.

People have worked and researched for years without eBay. I think it can be used as a tool, not that it should become the "only way" or even the purpose of research.

IMHO, of course.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hello,

So far I have kept the links and item-IDs as most of you voted for keeping the links and also because I think that the people who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a photo will also be willing to spend some time to find these photos themselves. So, I don't think that posting the links will have a big impact on prices as it doesn't really change the situation. However, the scans may be valuable information for many historians and other people interested in the Luftwaffe.

To make things a bit more interactive, I have posted today a brainteaser, i.e. a small photo that shows an "unidentified" Luftwaffe aircraft. You can vote what your guess is. As there are only 4 options offered it might not be that difficult :-)

Also, I have added a separate blog for instruments & aircraft related parts. You can easily navigate between them using the links provided on the upper right part of the blog if you are interested in all topics.

Kind regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

[quote=nemo7777777; Yes, what percentage of the good Ebay pics sold for the past four years have you seen published in book or magazines? Nah, the current situation is a BIG black hole![/quote]

Stirring the shit again, Nemo, about e-bay photos. Don't you ever give up? Go buy the right books, and then you'll see quite a few of them. And there'll be more surfacing in books in the next 12 months - well in one book at least, but modesty forbids me to say who the author is. So get off the back of people who pick up photos on e-bay and then use them in published works. I could send you a list of all the photos I've used in my works from your so-called 'BIG black hole', but you would not believe me.

So get off Roger's back also. He's doing a great thing with his blog - a service to those with an interest in the subject. If you don't like the fact that he and Ed post e-bay auction lists, don't feckin' look at them!!! Simple.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

"I could send you a list of all the photos I've used in my works from your so-called 'BIG black hole'" So just indicate in this forum how to contact the "big black hole" and how to deal with it, this would be quite enough for all the "outside" guys like me. Of course, I understand if one can take easily advantage of a monopolistic situation, one is not very much tempted to share openly the available ressources; so no need for you to play Mr. nice guy and show me as Mr. bad guy. By the way, no need also to use vulgar terms, I can understand what you say without them.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

I presume the 'BIG Black Hole' you talk about is all the photos that are won on e-bay and you expect will never see the light of day again. As has been stated before, tough - that's life. Some people gather photos and do nothing at all with them. That's a shame, but we all have to live with it.

Also, it's not a monopolistic situation - sudek (I presume that's who you are referring to) does not win every auction. In fact sudek does not bid on every auction. There are very many photos that are won by other people - christal109 for example. And sudek didn't win the photo of 3U+AA on e-bay recently. That went for big money, but sudek was outbid. But hey, I just have this feeling you'll see it again, if you buy books, that is...

I'm not playing Mr. Nice Guy, I'm just telling it like it is. Just make your own arrangements to contact sudek. That's what many others have done, isn't it?

Don't quite know what you mean with this phrase, perhaps you could clarify for me: "...Of course, I understand if one can take easily advantage of a monopolistic situation..."

And this one as well: "...one is not very much tempted to share openly the available ressources..." I get the impression you do not know the amount of 'networking' that goes on between researchers and authors. But I may be wrong.

I look forward with interest to your further reply.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Uhh....John, don't be shy. Tell us how you really feel! :)

Frankly, I agree with you completely!

John

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

As do I. Writing a book is a tremendous amount of work, and you must equaly share your findings with your sources. Simple enough actually, they send the ore, we send back the gold. And it takes a great deal of time and trust for your sources to send you this information/photos, often at their expense or time. Many have invested an enormous amount in their collections, in both money, time and their own souces, and are obviously not inclined to just dole it out.

In the end, in a mutual relationship, the source benefits from your knowlege/findings of the subject, as to what a photo or document may show, and you gain the extra knowlege you just learned.

As John V. mentioned, a great deal of networking has to happen, and there HAS to be trust earned.

I feel extremely fortunate that I did meet those people, who have become friends. But I couldn't have done it with out them.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Fantastic idea! 100% support you.

Lets see some more picture sales on eBay!!!



BTW Ed please be encouraged: you are one of the best contributors to 12 O'Clock High! , your posts are easily my favourite.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hello,

I have posted another huge update with some very interesting stuff:

- A photo album with an unknown strange airplane --> who can identify it?
- A color movie with very nice aircraft shots, but expensive!
- Some very nice Me 109 G with wing cannon photos.
- etc. etc.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Thank you. I will continue. I am not perfect, God knows, but I'm getting tired of the whining noise here.

In the past, and still, to some degree, now, there was mail and the telephone. And there were people who knew people, who knew other people and so on, and one could almost call it a kind of private club. Plane trips to foreign countries are expensive. So one person has a lot of money, so what? It is the name of the game. Be thankful you have this place and the rest of the internet. I wouldn't know a fraction of what I know now if it were not for the people here, and elsewhere.


Regards,
Ed

So the next time you see a photo on eBay, and download it, be thankful.

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

Hello,

Just a quick note: I have started to post different aircraft types, articles, flight gear items, etc. in different posts and added corresponding labels to each post.

By doing so you can now easily find photos of a certain aircraft type by clicking on the labels on the right hand side of the blog. This will not only show the last post but all posts of a certain aircraft type (e.g. Me 109).

Also, I will start to show items from my collection on regular basis. If you have items in your collection you would like to show others I would be very glad if you contact me. Items could be: photos, aircraft parts & instruments, control sticks, Revi, documents, uniforms, flight gear, awards, etc. etc.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

I also Thank Ed!!!! Due to his efforts and hard work, Which by the way he does not have to do for us...I have the oppertunity to view these photos before they are bought and go away. I can not afford to buy them, however enjoy looking at them via Ed's posts. Several hours over the years have been spent looking and talking about his posted links.

Keep up the good work Ed, No whining from me. Thank you for all your hard work.
Kevin

Re: Luftwaffe photos & items collection
 

PS: I will soon also install a simplified forum (i.e. message box) where people can discuss photos and other items.

http://lwcollectibles.blogspot.com/

Regards
Roger Gaemperle