Frank's Book = Fakers Nightmare

[Philippe DB]

Hi Guys,

By now most of you guys are aware of the birth of Frank's amazing reference work on the GAB and quite a few already have it in there library.

I think you all agree whit me that never before in this crazy hobby of ours such an indepth research in to one single award was ever published.

Taken in to account that the book now exists here is a thought I want to share with all of you:

"This is the copy/fake business worsed nightmare and in time might well be there downfall".

Anybody cares to comment on this?

KR
Philippe

[Robin Lumsden]

Unfortunately, there are far more collectors prepared to spend $80 on a fake badge, than $80 on a great book which will pay for itself over and over again.

So the fakers will always have a market for their junk.

Sad, but true.

[David C]

Philippe,

I had hoped for this since I first heard that Frank was working on the book. I was overjoyed when I finally got my grubby paws on it and concluded much the same as you.

IMO Franks efforts here have/will do a great service to the wider collecting community. That is why I am supporting him with my £££ $$$ Euros. I believe I may have mentioned it before but it would truly be a tragedy if the venture were not enough of a success to allow Frank to continue.

I'll let you into a little secret guys: I do not own a GAB of any description

Go on, if you can stretch to it buy Franks book and one day he might be releasing the 'Bible' for your particular interests

Cheers,
David.

[Hans N]

Sadly enough as long as collectors sees a chance buy cheap items, thinking they are doing a great catch for a fair price then the fakes will survive. Fakes are often the beginners entrance in to the collecting business. Most young collectors rather buys militaria then reference books i am afraid ...

[Philippe DB]

Robin and Hans, I can only partially agree with your conclusion because there simply never was anything available that could prevent you from buying fakes.

The best you could hope for was a book with with a couple of badges that were photographed good enough to serve as a reference.

This book is different. When you're interested in buying a GAB and you have it with you how will you ever manage to come home with a fake.

KR
Philippe

[Waldmurmeltier]

I hope that Frank will come out with a book onPABs, that is one I would really look forward to having!

[trotlin13]

Philippe:
I wholeheartedly agree. Never before has such an exhaustive study of a WWII German award been available to the collecting community. Armed with Frank's book, one is imbued with a previously unknown sense of confidence when puchasing a GAB from a dealer's stock (not to mention how fun it is to examine every manufacturer's respective GAB in fabulous color photographs). I'm sure the fakers will imitate some of the rare and desirable GABs catalogued in Frank's book. But, I'm ever confident that newly identified fakes will be discussed on the forum and Frank's later editions alleviating some of the paranoia.

[Nick_since_1985]

Where and how do you buy this book?

[robert60446]

Where and how do you buy this book?

Link to the web page where you can buy this book is here.

[robert60446]

"This is the copy/fake business worsed nightmare and in time might well be there downfall".

Dear Philippe,
Unfortunately, there is always a risk that bad guys will learn from this book as well...hopefully they are too dumb to this...

[Philippe DB]

Dear Philippe,
Unfortunately, there is always a risk that bad guys will learn from this book as well...hopefully they are too dumb to this...

Dear Robert,

What could they possibly learn from this book that they didn't already know from handling the originals before copying them? In that sense the book won't change anything.

What it will change is that the collector now has all the info he needs on the originals too. Armed with that he should be aible to recognize even the smallest differences on the fakes.

KR
Philippe

[Frank Heukemes]

Hi guys,

At the Gunzenhausen/Germany show last week, my book was sold by a dealer friend of mine, Uwe Bretzendorfer. He already received the first reactions from a handful of other dealers, which are known fakepeddlers: "what a silly and useless book, who would be interested to buy that?"

I take it this means that the shot hit home and is quite painful.

[johannes post]

hello robert


but what are you saying as i say "this is the ultimate book for the fakers
maybe has frank do his job too great
fakers learn we learn it is always a battle.



regards johan

Hi Guys,

By now most of you guys are aware of the birth of Frank's amazing reference work on the GAB and quite a few already have it in there library.

I think you all agree whit me that never before in this crazy hobby of ours such an indepth research in to one single award was ever published.

Taken in to account that the book now exists here is a thought I want to share with all of you:

"This is the copy/fake business worsed nightmare and in time might well be there downfall".

Anybody cares to comment on this?

KR
Philippe

[robert60446]

At the Gunzenhausen/Germany show last week, my book was sold by a dealer friend of mine, Uwe Bretzendorfer.

Good morning Guys,
When i was a kid my nickname was Uwe (i'm not kidding you Guys). Anyhow, going back to the book, of course it is a great reference material for collectors and some sort of the bible for the GAB collectors. However if would be a bad guy, i would love to have this book in my possession as well. I would like to learn how my fakes are exposed, what is wrong with my badges and what i have to do to correct my mistakes. More importantly, i can learn how to look at the badge through the eyes of the real collector and expert.
But I guess I’m trying to give too much credit to the fakers…

[Philippe DB]

[QUOTE=johannes post]hello robert


but what are you saying as i say "this is the ultimate book for the fakers
maybe has frank do his job too great
fakers learn we learn it is always a battle.

Johan, do you really believe that fakers make their copies based upon pictures in books

No they base them on the originals/fakes in there possession. If they don't mangage to get it correct with the original in hand they for sure won't succeed with pictures however detailed.

Untill now they didn't really care and were specializing in inventing all kind of weird variants. Since there simply didn't exist a reference work on originals they simply got away with it and confused collectors.

Now this isn't an option anymore because Frank managed to bring the known originals together so they have to stick to the real thing in every aspect and that is where they will always fail simply because we're not living in 1940 anymore.

I started this thread because it is my firm believe that (not tomorrow) in time serious collectors will invest in this kind of reference material once it gets available. Just like this forum, these books will hurt the fakers.

@Frank, For the moment they might have a point because GAB's are probaly 1% of their turnover, so enough other badges left to screw collectors but lets hope that as time goes by more and more doors will get closed.

KR
Philippe





regards johan