Our recent presentation containing an excellent article appearing in a very respected military journal on the Robert Dold (RODO) SS EM buckles by Dr. Frank Thayer, created a tempest in a tea pot and as this is illustrative of a serious problem in the militaria collecting community, we plan to address it here.<\/p>\n
The main problem here is that there is a large grouping of militaria collectors who are basically very ignorant of their hobby and rely heavily on the so-called collector forums.<\/p>\n
These forums are, unfortunately, tightly controlled by a group of individuals who wish to control collecting opinions to fit their own, often very erroneous, personal opinions of what is authentic and valuable, and what is not.
\nTheir basic methodology is to publish material on their own, and their friends’ collectables and proclaim that the items they depict are absolutely original and that any other such items are fake. In almost all cases, these opinions are so badly flawed, or deliberate falsehoods, as to be completely useless. And if any member of the forum dares to attempt to correct them, the objector is at once thrown out of the forum as a troublemaker and, if he calls an item a fake, a liar.<\/p>\n
Such has been the case of the RODO buckles. This firm made military buckles for all the branches of the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS and these buckles are very distinctive in that the maker’s name is always stamped into the buckle reverse, just ahead of the belt hook. And on all original RODO buckles, the belt hook is not aligned with the edge of the buckle but set at an angle.<\/p>\n
These features appear on all original RODO buckles, without exception.<\/p>\n
The present soi disant experts now claim that these original buckles are fake and that buckles in their very own collections are the only genuine ones.<\/p>\n
This is not only misleading but entirely wrong.<\/p>\n
We have been bombarded with furious postings from members of two forums who claim we are trying to sell fakes, lying about our statements and are generally disobedient to their own, sacred, opinions.
\nWe had an identical problem when we exposed the fake “SS Honor Rings” and pointed out, correctly, that original rings were struck, not cast, that the dates on the fakes were incorrect and that the skulls were always soldered on the face of the ring, never cast into it.<\/p>\n
Individuals who destroy dreams are never popular and are always screamed at. In this particular case, a highly eccentric California-based creature known as ‘Captain Wierdbeard’ joined the chorus of rage, which is entertaining because they are Jewish and a rabid Zionist!<\/p>\n
On the other hand, a significant number of the more prominent dealers in German militaria are Jewish.<\/p>\n
They are certainly not pro-German but they are deeply in love with money.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our recent presentation containing an excellent article appearing in a very respected military journal on the Robert Dold (RODO) SS EM buckles by Dr. Frank Thayer, created a tempest in a tea pot and as this is illustrative of a serious problem in the militaria collecting community, we plan to address it here.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4],"yoast_head":"\n