I do understand the problem you have regarding postage and customs charges which clearly make matters difficult, for me at least it does all come down to money, in particular, how this has been done.
If a flat price was agreed for the whole lot, you simply divide the sum by the number of badges received and you have an average price per badge, but, you are still left with the fakes that will have still cost you more than they are worth, but, yes they could be returned and original replacements added over time in the future.
However, if this seller has given an individual price upon each badge and then added those prices up, you would need to get that amount back, for example, take that really obvious 24th Lancers, if you have been charged £45 for that badge, you get your £45 back and move on, then that's fine.
The issue I would then have would simply be that this seller has very deliberately sold that and the others as original when they are not.
I certainly don't see anything wrong in what you are trying to do though, it is quite humbling that there are people in what was an occupied country who want a display of British Army cap badges.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaiserwilhelm2
Dear Luke,
Thanks for your post. I am not sure why given the circumstances (which are those?) you do not feel like vetting any more. Of course you are completely free to help me out or not. However reading what you wrote I get the feeling like I am somehow doing something wrong which I am pretty sure I have not done. I checked on the forum if the seller had anything bad written about him and I did not see anything of the sort. He was mentioned several times on the forum as a source for badges and participating in various fairs. So I contacted him told him I was looking for original ww1-era and ww2-era badges and selected these which were on his website and asked him again if these were genuine and correct for the period which he said these were. I then discussed with him returns and he agreed to take back any and all badges without any problems within four weeks after I received these for inspection. I told him I would have these checked out. Then I turned to the forum to get help. I am not sure if people would have responded more possitively if I had posted two hunderd or more links on this forum with the question is this badge ok and only then order it. I fear people would have been turned off by that approach.
As for returning the whole batch - how does that help me? I and others, including you, on the forum have put quite a bit of time into this and so far this has turned up 20 or so fakes which is of course not great when looking at what the seller told me but on the other hand the great majority (at the moment about 90% or more still appears to be genuine). I am not helped by returning the good badges and having to start the whole process again with possibly a similar outcome unless of course someone can refer me to a dealer which without exception sells genuine pieces for reasonable prices.
As for naming the seller I am hesitant to do so as I still need his cooperation in getting my money returned for fake badges and as such am not in a possition to name and shame. I hope you understand this and you and others will continue to help me out as I am just trying to build up a fake free collection of these beautiful badges and with it honour the British Army for its part in liberating us in occupied Europe from the Germans. IMO nothing wrong with that. If you see things differently feel free to let me know. I will also send this post in a pm to you. In any case thank you and others for your help so far.
Cheers, Tom
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