SAS TROOPER

[Luc]

I have bought a 1945 maroon beret from him that was totally original and unmessed with.
The problem is that he mixes good items with tampered with items and replicated insignia.
Personally I avoid endless amounts of insignia that are all identically made and show identical wear from a single seller.
This seller will not be stopped by inviting him here. What would help perhaps if we'd all buy from him, then return it for a refund and leave a negative.

[tynesideirish]

But is your beret untampered with? This was discussed on another forum with regards to a certain tailor mass purchasing modern and post war Airborne / SF/ Commando berets and a large number of cheapish normal corps, infantry berets with wartime dated liners. It was concluded that this individual was aging the modern berets, rubbing, stonewashing etc and replacing the liner with an old one. Lots of his berets have double stitching not seen on WW2 berets and not so easily disguised evidence of modern insignia removal and thinner but taller seemingly 'wartime' badges applied.

[Luc]

Originally Posted by tynesideirish

But is your beret untampered with?

Yes it is. I have scrutinised the beret as well as the current owner, we both felt confident that it was not messed with in any way.

This seller may "enhance" good berets or even worse but it doesn't mean that he must be avoided entirely. Caveat emptor and if you know your stuff well, then I suggest you folks place a bid with confidence.

[platypus44]

agree with Luc there are somethings that are questionable from George,

if its too good to be true it sometimes is but i have picked up a few great bits from him, some photos etc,

big question mark over the G Sqn Beret and flashes, they look really nice and vintage BUT.

[ see the theads]

These WW2 Berets are questionable

nothing like good/ direct provenance if only our collections could talk.

[rockape560]

hi guys,

i started this thread and thanks for all the input.

what started me was the issue of the seller nameing that the orginal owner was in 4 british regts and my understanding was that a sas trooper returned to his parent regt after doing duty with the sas unless he saw his service out in the sas and that the same trooper was named on both the badges and and beret

i have learned a lot from this thread and thanks to all.the main thing if learnt is if im not sure,do research,or ask questions here for help

many thanks guys,this is what the forum is for to help and inform

philip

p.s.i was not a buyer,out of my price range thank goodness

[rhodesianmilitaria]

Originally Posted by Luc

I have bought a 1945 maroon beret from him that was totally original and unmessed with.
The problem is that he mixes good items with tampered with items and replicated insignia.

The sign of someone who knows what he is doing. Smart sellers of fake items have a tendency to mix fakes with genuine items, that is the way they put it over so many people, particularly the more inexperienced collectors.

Originally Posted by Luc

Personally I avoid endless amounts of insignia that are all identically made and show identical wear from a single seller.
This seller will not be stopped by inviting him here. What would help perhaps if we'd all buy from him, then return it for a refund and leave a negative.

As someone who has been highlighting fakes on my website for over four years, I don't believe that buying the fake items and then leaving negative feedback will make a difference, and this is why. Sellers that are given too many negative feedback just start selling under another user-name and they just let the user-name with the negative feedback die a natural death. Another stunt they pull is that when the user-name has been given a few negative feedbacks, the seller can then turn the feedback to Private. What this means is that the seller can still buy with that user-name and no-one can see the feedback. The seller just can't sell with the feedback on Private. So he opens another ebay account with a different user-name and he will use this account to sell with. All of this is totally legal under ebay's policies.
This is advantageous if the seller is for example buying cheap berets and then putting genuine badges on them and listing the made-up item as a scarce or rare genuine beret and badge. You can't see what the seller is buying and all you can see is what he sells. He then has his listings as Private and you can see who has won an item after it is sold but you can't see what the item is because it only says private instead of an item number. This does happen as I have proved it and it is only one example of why this system under ebay is fraught for exploitation by unscrupulous sellers.

While ebay knowingly or unknowingly protects sellers by allowing them to:

1) have multiple accounts at the same time
2) allowing them to hide feedback
3) allowing them to buy using accounts where the feedback is hidden
4) allowing private auctions
5) not allowing the real user-names of bidders to be seen on auctions

then you will continue to have sellers abusing the system.