(erielack) Railroad Artifacts-Buyer Beware

[tommy meehan <tmeehan0421_@_gmail.com>]

Serious collectors/dealers will tell you that one
major problem with "collectibles" is that many are
fake. Am I suggesting the Fairlawn station sign is
fake? No I'm not, but it's always a possibility.

I learned about this from a serious dealer, Seth
Bramson, who some of you know and whom I met
via the R&LHS group. Mr. Bramson says there are
huge amounts of phony artifacts out there. One
item he was warning against were frosted glass
panes with RR initials on them. One dealer was
selling these items and claiming they came from
restroom doors at a demolished station. How many
times have you ever seen a railroad initial the glass
in restroom doors? These glass panes were totally
fake but many were sold and at a price in the
hundreds of dollars.

Recently another group, a fallen flag historical group,
got an inquiry about a set of tools someone had
purchased engraved with the railroad's initials. Former
employees who'd worked in the shops said they did
not recall the company engraving the tools with initials.
One gentleman said he kept his tools when he retired,
still had them (still used them, in fact) and they were not
initialed.

The buyer was bummed out but the shop guys said, Hey
you got a nice set of tools and they're engraved with the
road's initials. So if they're not authentic, so what? :>)

But people need to at least have some awareness a
given item "might not" be authentic.Sometimes people
want to believe so they fail to consider,"Is this item the
real deal?"

Baseball fans get taken too. A gentleman I once worked
with had a huge collection of autographed bats, balls,
all kinds of items. Most purchased at shows or via the
Internet. He'd spent many thousnds of dollars acquiring
them. When he finally decided to get them appraised
he discovered most were phony. :>(

tommy meehan

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