My favorite find!
"Best" is properly vague, and in my case its "favorite". Its been a slow year overall for me in collecting since I've been busy with putting on an addition to my house -- all the zoning, planning, design, and now construction has really taken up my time (and money!). but its been really fun seeing what others have found. So here's my favorite. it was cheap, and really isn't particularly valuable but so evocative of history for me and nicely illustrates part of our hobby that i think is important. its a simple german ammo crate, used by a GI to ship home his goodies. as you can see he did a really nice job painting it up to ship home, with a coat of OD (I believe this is not german paint) and then his address in really nice quality lettering. the box itself seems to be a standard pattern PK 88 mostly seen for 8MM, but in this case it held 13MM for what I assume was the MG131 used on many Luftwaffe aircraft. the interior labels are in great shape, and even the original inspector's signed packing slip is still in there loose. but the best part is the story -- which i truly wish I had for every item in my collection. I found this under a dealers table at Allentown, and asked about the price, and ended up getting the story as well. I mean no poor reflection on the dealer, who was a really nice guy, and I understand he is in it to make a buck. but the story for me was a bit sad and I think a loss to history. he said it came in at a hotel buy he had, and was literally still full of all the goodies that came home inside. he described bayonets, medals, daggers, even a model of a panzer, that the GI had picked up along the way. it had been brought in by the vet's son, who inherited it from his deceased father. the dealer said the son really struggled in letting go of it, and it was not about the price. he said the son kept opening up the box, taking out the items, then placed them back in order, almost in a ritualistic way that he had likely done as a child when he first saw the box. he kept hedging, then finally let go and left clearly upset. that box full mementos for the vet, who was likely no more than a boy at the time, must have represented so much to him. and it clearly did to the son as well. I'm sure every item had a story that is now lost to time. all were sold off individually, and the box essentially discarded as you might an empty wrapper for a candy bar. now they're just items in another collection, placed along side other similar items. that they stayed together for so long, then were essentially cast to the wind, seems like a loss to me. I love pieces that are marked by the vet -- a name in a k98 buttstock, a service number EP'd to say "this is mine!". a story pencilled inside a helmet telling where it was found. for me they don't devalue a collectible, but add to its sense of history.
