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Padre - yes, research is the key, of course. However the point I'm making is that the 99.99% figure you cite will drop dramatically if this persists, leaving the most experienced collectors unsure. Mike has 60 years in the hobby, I have 40 and I am sure you have very many yourself, but this sort of thing will change the hobby for ever in my opinion as the standard of fakery will leave even most diligent and experienced collectors with doubt in their mind.
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True. I have about 45 years collecting, starting with £1.00 badges at my local shop! Research generally doesn't just help identify fake from real, but also unusual bits in a group. I have picked up many scarce items because I have noticed them quietly nestling amongst others in a box or Lot, as have others I'm sure. I remember maybe 15-20 years ago picking up an original RAF '1942' badge in its box of issue. Bosleys had sold one a year or so before at £1400.00. I offered the seller £100.00 and a fiver for postage and got it. In the last two months one was sold at auction with other mixed badges for about £1200.00, which I missed, and the '1942' badge later appeared on ebay, sold by a certain SF seller no longer on here, and sold for about £550.00 It was a fake, with glaring errors, and an expensive mistake considering similar US produced fakes can be bought on ebay for about £20.00.
One problem area is insignia made, as accurately as possible, but for the re-enactors and collectors, but sold as reproductions. Worn by a reinactor or intentionally aged and there it gets tricky. Like many however, the Indian and Pakistani repros are easy to stop when you know what to look for, and I can spot them even in thumbnails, without seeing a close up.
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I have never tried to get into high end items because I have never had the funds to do so. Give me a £3 patch or badge that fits in my collection, and I am as happy as if it were a £200 patch or badge.
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Too true! To me a collection includes more £3.00 badges than £300.00 ones!
But I consider to still be learning all the time, and will continue to do so.