Hi me and my Dad are looking into starting a WWII militaria collection(ps I am in america since location seems to matter) I have been looking online but I am not sure I want to risk buying something online and have it turn out to be fake.
I would recommend buying small things not to expensive in the beginning, on forums just as this ones, just begin small and build up as time past by.
Buy reference books before you buy anything else ! What sort of thing do you plan on collecting. Regards Richie
Welcome CrazyGeneral, If you haven't found this thread yet give it a go. Links and advice for collecting. http://www.ww2f.com/collections/28636-advise-starting-collection.html
I'm in agreement WWII Collector, start off small. No point in spending a lot of money until you have a bit of experience. I began by buying fairly small, cheap items on ebay - stuff that people wouldn't bother to fake. Then, after a while on forums and learning what to look out for, I started to make more expensive purchases. Most of my items nowadays come directly from collectors. I've had bad experience with dealers who just sell militaria purely for the business and aren't really interested in the items they sell or the questions you ask!
The best to begin is to buy common medals like die Wound Badge in Black or the Eastern Medal, those is pretty cheap and don't or extremely rarely made in reproduction. At least that's how I begun
There are tons of fake wound badges out there...you really should do a small bit of study on a particular maker if you want to be 100% sure of what you are buying.
