I concur with Gaspare's statement.
The reality is if your just amount making the most money you can in the militaria business, it's in the very high-end fakes. Diamond awards, bird-head daggers, Damascus anything, Hitler this and a Himmler that.
Let's face it Craig has had a credibility issue with many veteran collectors for years. His questionable finds became more rarer than the last one, and he was getting chewed up on almost everyone one. Be it a Mengele's passport or a Damascus SS degen, etc. etc.
The heat got so much that it was Craig who bailed out of the forums because they were becoming
'bad for 'business'. WAF management, just to make sure he wouldn't be back...slammed the door hard behind him with a 'expulsion'. However it's true, The History Hunter didn't need any of this anymore, and it just couldn't get explained away a umpteenth time.
According to Craig; the '20 bullies' made him leave. Really? HA !
Here is Craig's last post on WAF. In his own words.
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>>"
When I started Germandaggers.com in 1999 (and shortly thereafter, became one of the earlier members of WAF), I had a vision to create (and in the case of WAF) participate in a community of dealers and collectors who could co-exist to mutual benefit … sharing knowledge and experience for the good of the hobby, while bringing to light sellers (collectors and dealers) who knowingly and consistently sold fakes outside the boundaries of honest mistakes. Along the way, I have owned some great pieces, made a lot of money, made many friends, but many enemies. Bruce Petrin, Brant Murphy ... people that newbies here won't ever know or remember.
Looking back more than 13 years, I can tell you having been on all sides, I believe a few apples have finally begun to spoil it for me. In my view forums started small (and manageable) but grew so large that effective FREE moderation became challenging. God bless the moderators who give their free time and do their best, but there is only so much one can do, and I understand that.
When a dealer like myself who has a solid record of selling THOUSANDS of authentic artifacts over more than a decade of full-time business, who has a rock-solid guarantee, (mixed in with a few items that were questioned by some, but NEVER ever sold to or retained by a collector) can be pushed around by a room filled with a small but loud contingent of bullies, and then be called out for being absent from the discussion for a few days (in this case, due to sickness and having just sold over 200 artifacts in one days) … the forum begins to resemble an elementary school playground. Nobody will ever remember the collector I tracked down about a "rounder" Knight's Cross years after they were proven questionable, in order to give a refund plus interest. They'll only remember the fiasco surrounding a Oakleaf that was deemed authentic by every expert, but called out by a few "forum Jockeys" as questionable.
I have asked myself this afternoon whether it’s worthwhile to continue to take the abuse, innuendo, anonymous bravado, “computer courage,” rudeness, and childish, misdirected wit (admittedly, amidst a bunch of good guys, most of whom are too busy to involve themselves with threads like this), or just bow out like just about EVERY full-time dealer (and many, but certainly not all, serious collectors) has. Well, I can honestly say, that when it’s a choice between a) spending extra quality time with my family, picking my son up from school without lingering feelings of anger and resentment, and enjoying life … while at the same time providing reliable service to the collector, or b) running back to the forum every 10 seconds to answer one of 20 bullies in the room, the choice is abundantly clear … I choose the former." <<
