1937 Undyed B-3 size 44

[Roughwear]

There seem to be a couple of people desperate to own this very rare B-3.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

 

[dmar836]

Are you being facetious?
Dave

 

[Roughwear]

Are you being facetious?
Dave

Certainly not. As you know a 1937 B-3 rarely comes up for sale and two guys in particular have bid it up from $77 earlier today to $685. I am always surprised when this happens as sniping in the last few seconds can help to keep the price down.

 

[arclight]

So Andrew;
Were some B-3s left undyed? Does this make it worth more or is it the '37 contract date?
We always relish your comments and knowledge with A-2s, B-3s and of course Irvins.

Thank you, arclight

 

[Roughwear]

The Pre-1938 (ie from 1935-7) contract B-3s were made from undyed shearling. The USAC was very small in the 30s and contracts for B-3s were small compared with the large wartime ones. Therefore there are proportionally far fewer early B-3s like this one around. They usually command high prices on Ebay.

 

[TankBuster]

I've only seen maybe 5 in the last 8 years or so. They are normally not in the best condition, but the rarity of them seems to usually drive the price up.

 

[Jason]

That's only the second one I've ever seen offered on ebay... not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate how rare they are.

 

[Falcon_52]

It's interesting that this one doesn't have the vertical buckle on the left chest panel by the zipper. The last original one that I saw up for auction did have it. Maybe this extra buckle was an Army experiment and only wound up on a certain order or from a certain manufacturer. Either way, like TankBuster pointed out you don't see too many of these up for sale - I wonder how high the price will go.

Noel

 

[asiamiles]

It's interesting that this one doesn't have the vertical buckle on the left chest panel by the zipper. The last original one that I saw up for auction did have it. Maybe this extra buckle was an Army experiment and only wound up on a certain order or from a certain manufacturer.

Or it may have simply fallen off or been removed?

 

[deeb7]

... Maybe this extra buckle was an Army experiment and only wound up on a certain order or from a certain manufacturer.

The buckle did only appear on the one contract, but it's this one, 37-2063 P, so the jacket should have been born with it.