Morning Andy!
Firstly, I should have stressed clear plastic wallets with different sized pockets in them and not just clear plastic wallets. Sorry.
What do you collect first? That's entirely up to you and depends a great deal upon what you can find! And don't expect it to be a quick project. I've been collecting RN and RM badges and 'stuff' for well over thirty years and I'm nowhere near having found everything I want!
And yes, many tallies are copied and have been for years. Many tallies of famous WWII ships were reproduced in the 1960s to mark 25 years since the Second World War. Many veterans wanted to have a tally of their old ship but there often weren't enough remaining original tallies left to go round. So manufacturers produced new tallies for them. These were made and sold in all good faith. But now, 50 years later, these are sometimes sold as original tallies. And reproduction tallies are still made and sold today. What you have to look out for are the condition of the tally, the materials they are made of, and the weave used. It's all a bit too complex to explain here but if you PM me your email I'll send you some useful notes I've put together over the years. They may help.
And it's the same with some badges. RNAS and RND badges have been faked for years. If you collected RND badges previously then you will be aware of what a minefield collecting their badges is! It is one of the few areas of naval badges that my collection is weak on. There are so many fakes out there that I won't touch them unless I know where they came from and can vouch for their authenticity. You will have noticed that there are dozens of threads on the subject of RND badges on this forum!
Many cloth badges are faked. Generally they are for more elite units such as Royal Navy Commandoes and Combined Operations badges. Few people bother to fake a stokers badge! But you can get any 'old' naval badge made for you in Pakistan. Basically, the older and scarcer a badge is, the more chance there is of it being faked.
Are you really sure you want to collect naval badges?!
Cheers
Pete