To Sudek13

[Jan vd Heuvel]

Sorry guys to bring an off-topic posting in this thread, but I know there was some thread in this forum where Stefan stated he is a member of Sudek13's team. But I can't find that thread at the moment, so I post this in the first topic on the board.

What I want to say concerns also all of you, interested in Medals and uniforms.

If I correctly remember the member of this board who claimed to be a member of Sudek13's team is Stefan de Meijer.

Here is what I want to bring to the attention of Sudek13 in behalf of very many researchers.


Hi Stefan,

as you claim to be one of Sudek's team members, I want you to read this message carefully and forward it to Sudek13 himself.

I want to believe that Sudek13's intentions are really sincere and as he thinks for the benefit of (fututre) aircraft-researchers (or researchers on other subjects such as tanks).

But I don't think he is realising what he he is doing at the moment.


Some thirty to forty years ago researchers were able to contact veterans of WW2 and meet them or correspondent with them and by that means could get new information and new photo-material for their research.

But that source of information and source for new unpublished photo's has dried out by now because most of these veterans have died by now.

So for the current researchers who want to publish a book with new information and off course new unpublished photo's the prime source for new unpublished photo's is Ebay.

Mind that very few people buy a book just because it contains new information, while the photo's in the book all have been published before.

So the crucial thing for publishing a new book about a certain subject is that is contains new unpublished photo's.

And that's where Sudek13 at the moment is blocking the research-works of many researchers.

I don't want to believe that you or Sudek13 want to stop new releases of books in the near fututre at the expense of books published in the (very) distanbt future.

If Sudek13 goes on this way he is just doing that.


As you have stated Sudek13 has a limited team to assist him in building up this huge archive.


It takes a lot of skilled manpower to classify photo's (type, date, place and so on) and make a good retrieval system for the photo's in the archive.


You state that there is some kind of filter to get access to the archive of Sudek13. A personnal visit to the archive or a fee system.

Well, not everybody is in the financial position to make such travels and the fee-system is totally unrealistic.


When I want just one publishable scan of a photo out of the archive of Sudek13 and I can give him in return dozens of publishable scans out of my photo-archive this fee-system in not a good deal.


Only if Sudek13 gives access to his archive of photo's for the present researchers at the moment and not asking high publishing fees, he is doing a good job with building up his archive.

If not he is blocking all present releases of new books with new photo-matirial only for the benefit of (distant) future releases of books.


I very much doubt if we will see thse new books with unpublished photo's in our lifetime.


I am sorry to say it, but what is legally totally justified, can become morally totally unjustified.


Sudek3 has all the right to spend his money as he wishes, but by killing all the hopes for present researchers to publish a book with unpublished data and photo's only at the expense of distant future publications of books sounds to me as something immoraal.


I really don't want to believe that Sudeks's intentions were to build up an archive of photo's for future publications realising that by doing that he totally blocks the present publications.

Let's put it in another way. Imagine you are living in a small isolated town, far from other residents. And the richest man in the town get's the idea to build up a storage of food for the beneit of future generations and he starts buying up all the food in the town.
It is a noble thing to make a storage of food so the townpeople in the future will have all the food they need, but when it means he let's the present inhabitants of the town starve to deatth from hunger, do you still believe he is doing a noble thing ?!!



So I really want to hear the counter-arguments for my statements and not from you or any other member of his team, but from Sudek13 himself.


If he really believes he is doing a good job he can react to this message by personnal mail or if he wants to be anonimous (although I know who he is), through you (Stefan).

And if Sudek13 doesn't response at all (either through personnal email or via you) I have lost all my hopes that he is a man with the best intentions and must believe he is misusing all his wealth at the expense of the present researchers.


Kind Regards,
Jan van den Heuvel

[tinmantis]

?

[Marc Garlasco]

I have also been burned by Sudek13 while researching for a book!

[Simon O.]

This should be moved to the photo forum

[George Stimson]

"This should be moved to the photo forum"

Okay.

[PZIV]

As "cruel" as this seems, we can't say he's doing anything illegal unfortunately. As long as people here on WAF sell through e-stand to other WAF members then I guess we keep him from having some rare photos...

[peter u]

Hello,

I have said it several times on this and other forums, Sudek13 killed this part of the hobby for me also.
But there is nothing we can do about it.
So I moved on, found new intrests and Sudek13 can stick his photoarchive where the sun doesn't shine.
There is more in the hobby of militaria collecting then WW2 German equipment related photos.

WW2 photocollecting got crazy several years ago, Sudek13 is just the icing on the cake to ruin it all.
Because of the crazy behaivor on ebay, almost all photoalbums get split up by the dealers.
And who can blaim them?
They are in it for the money.
I can say I have known the time that dealers actually glued in extra photos in an album to make more profit.
Times, they are changing; Bob Dylan was corrrect.

And we all can be sure that the Sudek13 archive w'll never be a public accessable archive, it w'll be the archive for the friends of Sudek13.
So if you want new pictures for your books, you better become friends with the friends of Sudek13.
I don't write or publish militaria related books so, I don't need to be the friend of the friends of Sudek13.

Cheers,
Peter

[W Petz]

I believe Sudek13 will not reply to anyone...he is far to important to talk or correspond with us lowly photo collectors. Instead he has his team of Evil Elves to do his dirty work. I agree with Peter U....we will never see those images that he has paid large amounts of cash for on Ebay. His crew live on ebay so chances of picking up photos we use to get are pretty slim these days unless you obtain them elsewheres. Fortunately I have other avenues to obtain such photos. Here is a recent purchase his minions made for him.....3 GI taken photos of destroyed/abandoned ME262 Jets

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=011

I have quite a few of these types of images of ME262 Jets and Sudek13 and his Elven will never get their little hands on any of my photos!

By the way I was the one who started a discussion on Sudek13 with the following thread - Bill

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=209296

[Guillem Marti]

Worst, sudek13 has started buying duplicates.

The recently expired eBay auction 220188747529, photo of a sIG33 auf PzI, won by sudek13, has the same subject than other, 120049720964, also won by sudek13 in november 2006. Not a big trouble, because it has been publied in Nuts & Bolts 19 (W14), but strange, isn't one pic enough for his archive?

[Don D.]

You can always nickle and dime him to death by finding out what he is bidding on and bumping it up.

[Jos L C]

Think many pic dealers are very happy with this man.., shows how ridiculous a hobby can get...and the funny thing is that many will copy his behavior, something we're rather good at..
In the whole branch there're many Sudeks at work, like a badge jumping from 1000 to 3000 in the blink of a eye 'cause someone wants it very badly, ...I see no difference.
It's a money thing.
Money rules and is much more important than the actual hobby, not only this man, but many others ruined a lot already.


Jos.

[CollectRussia]

You really think these photo dealers aren't saving high resolution scans of their money-makers? That they aren't preparing for the day the "oil runs out" and the "well runs dry"?

Some eBay photo collectors are in for a surprise when they discover their prized $200+ photos re-circulating on the web as cheap CD ROMs of dealers "greatest hits." Just a matter of time.

Dave

[PzV]

no problem with Sudek 13

I personally have no problem with Sudek 13 who has every right to collect as he sees fit. Naturally a potential buyer can be angered when a photo goes for a very high price, but rest assured the seller is not. I feel that there is enough on the market for all of us and I personally never have to go to Ebay (which is often used to dispose of less than desirable items in any event!) to satisfy my collecting wants. Why be jealous of Sudek13- he has made our hobby more interesting! If you look around you can find good photos, but it is not always possible while sitting in front of a computer.

PzV

[Karl B]

I personally have no problem with Sudek 13 who has every right to collect as he sees fit. Naturally a potential buyer can be angered when a photo goes for a very high price, but rest assured the seller is not. I feel that there is enough on the market for all of us and I personally never have to go to Ebay (which is often used to dispose of less than desirable items in any event!) to satisfy my collecting wants. Why be jealous of Sudek13- he has made our hobby more interesting! If you look around you can find good photos, but it is not always possible while sitting in front of a computer.

PzV

Desirable is in the eye of the beholder.

Unfortunately for some this is the only way for collectors to add to their collection, especially if they are new or young or have limited funds.

A large proportion of non European based TR collectors do not have the luxury, money or time to wander the markets or talk the vets and establish lines of communication with families or meet with relatives on a regular basis to build up networks to get the good stuff as you say.

I am sure there are non European based collectors that have networks with people on the ground and can buy outside of eBay or other web based outlets.

I myself would love to be able to spend some time at ground level for a year or two, but this is out of the question for me as I am not rich, yet.

Sudek 13 can spend what he wants on whatever he wants as this is the free market and he can afford it. True the sellers are happy, but I do not think he had made our hobby more interesting. For me this would mean he would post a few of his large collection, sit around chew the fat, talk, explain why he liked the photo, whatever etc.

I think he has helped inflate the prices of desirable photos well before there time and this has had a roll on effect for the standard photos.

Cheers

Karl

[grovb]

Well, were I question Sudek13 is the fact that I do not think that they care about preserving history. While i will give an example, 2 or 3 weeks ago there was some 11 panzer division related fotos, about 50 total pictures and the person made it clear they coming from albums. Well, I bought all but seven (4 auctions, 3 of those auctions went to Sudek 13) and I beleive that if they had been offered to buy it all together they would not do it. I did by all the albums and am working on a few remaining fotos.

I just do not beleive that history is important and there is not anything that we can do to stop them because it is legal. I guess thats why I collect more than German pictures! Sudek will continue to pay very high prices and there is nothing we can really do other than make them pay alot more than the foto should be worth.

Brandyn