M40 SD Army

[DougB]

I will answer my own question.

When a dealer has been informed with facts to back it up that an article sold or being sold, is postwar, and continues to sell it, that my friends, is a fraud.

When there are many questionable items on a website, that my friends, is a fraud.

When a dealer removes evidence of fakes sold on his site that my friends, is a fraud.

When a dealer insists others provide the evidence of fakery rather than the dealer provide evidence of originality, that my friends, is a fraud.

When a dealer uses a lifetime guarantee to shill bad items that my friends, is a fraud.

When a dealer has many examples of fake articles for sale and they remain on sale mixed with good items, that my friends is not a "screwup", but a dealer committing outright fraud.

When a dealer is guilty of one or more of these items, they should be avoided at all costs.

As a collector, your collection is bound by provenance. If the provenance of an item routes through a dealer or collector with a bad name, it taints your entire collection as potentially suspect.

As well I feel collectors all have a duty to work together to remove fakery and fraud from our midst. If a dealer was completely avoided they would either be forced out of business or be forced to do a thorough job vetting their items completely.

We vote with our wallets. Ignore this at our own peril. But then collectors are our own worst enemies. We choose to "believe", we "trust", we "look the other way". We spend money loosely based on poor photos and COA's.

If we brought ourselves collectively to the level of zero tolerance, where would we be? If we held ourselves and dealers to a level of the highest standard? Of unimpeachable integrity? Of the hard work required to authenticate items?

Lets not give dealers free passes and protect them from "bashing". Be totally honest with yourself, others and your collection. It's the harder road, the road less travelled, but good things are worth working hard for.


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I will get off the soapbox now. Enjoy your weekend everyone!