Red Army Belt Buckles Made From German Buckles

[Tal Inbar]

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[Esteban_cool]

Interesting! Maybe someone can find and post a Red Star made from an Iron Cross... ^_^U

[vikingraider1]

This was a common practice among partisans who captured lots of German equipment and utilised it for themselves. Boots were paticularly sought after.

[desantnik]

I hate to be neighsayer, but I doubt the providence of such a piece. I've seen real "partisan" reworks, usually just grinding down the center design or cutting a star into the center. I also know partisans added the cap stars, but I think this is a recent rework. German belt buckles sell pretty cheaply in the FSU - add a cheap cap star and people pay a premium for a "partisan" belt buckle.

[Soviet]

There are also those type.

[DougD]

I have to agreee with desantnik; there are far too many of these for sale. They all seem to follow a rather basic pattern. Though i think some are real, I think many are modern make -ups.

DD

[Soviet]

But why would somebody breaks a German WWII belt buckle and sell it the same price or lower than the original one untouched ? :confused:

[desantnik]

Because in Ukraine a real German WWII buckle costs no more than $10. A Soviet cap star costs .50 (by the way that subdued cap star on the pictured piece looks very 1980's Afghanish to me). Your total investment is now $10.50 plus ten minutes of work punching two holes to accommodate the cap star or many 45 grinding out a star.

On ebay, I don't remember the exact price and I'm not prone to exaggeration, but I saw a "partisan" buckle go for about $140. You won't see a regular German Wehrmacht belt buckle go for that anywhere in the US, but by adding the 50 cent cap star you've guaranteed yourself a nice return that you can keep manufacturing. Even if you get $50 for it, you've made a 5x markup.

[Soviet]

Why I was asking this, is only because they are now being sold for 65$ and normally German belt buckles would go sometimes for even more in Western countries. So that's why I was a bit concerned. What do you think of the other ones I have posted ?

[Tal Inbar]

Guys,

I can see the logic of making these buckles today. My first picture was from ebay, and the seller stated that it is from GPW period. As you can read MY title to the thread - I don't think so, although the German buckle seems genuine to me.

I will not be at all surprised, seeing a faked German buckle transformed into a faked "Partisan" one.

Tal