Helmet collecting is a big fun, unfortunately it involves more and more funds. A decent German WW2 army helmet nowadays commands double price, compared to only a few years ago. Three, even four figures on the price tag. And - as always - where big money are involved, the fakers do appear. especially about the German helmets. Buying a 50 $ shell and converting it to a 950 $ "original" helmet is highly attractive for those "artists". Unless you are an experienced collector with lots of good originals passed through your hands, you better look for experienced opinions before buying! Lets leave aside the poor fakes - strange paint, extraordinary or brand new liner, funny water transfer decal representing a silver turkey with a sad look in the eyes... A couple of hours loking on photos of oriignal helmets, shown in many helmet-related sites, will show you what the originals look like and will help you avoid the Ugly Fakes. But here come the Good Fakes! Big money involved, so those talented people do a really good job! Good paint color, aged outlook, used lather on the liner /no matter that it was tailored 2 weeks ago - they do not seem to have troubles making theageing/, a decal that has been there for 60 years... And yes, everything that made weeks before the sale appears! You wil be badly surprised how good the fakes are. Correct paint, well done leather, stamped chinstraps, accurate and aed decals. And the other bad surprise is how common the fakesare - a great deal of the offers on the market! Not to mention the good and trustworthy story about the old collector, the vet's widow or the old dusty barn, from where the helmet originates. Rubbish! So, do you want a genuine piece of WW2 headgear? Do you not want to pay 900 or 1200 for something that is hardly worth 100? I bet you do. With this review I can not teach you to detect fake helmets. This needs years of experience, piles of books, hours and hours of study. So, until you reach a good level of knowledge - ASK FOR OPINIONS! This is the main idea of my review, I hope I did prove to you the need to do this. How to do it? Well, there are plenty of web forums, "inhabited" by people with great knowledge, experienced collectors, who will help you avoid bad /and expensive/ mistakes. Just search in the internet for German Helmet Forum or some similar key word. Such a forum is the Wehrmacht Awards Helmet Forum, you will find it easier by searching for those words. I hope mentioning it in the review is not a problem - it is NOT a commercial site, it is just a forum of helmet collectors. That's all, folks! I hope your collections grow big and rich, but also hope you will find my words useful and will think twice before purchasing anything. Remmeber, asking for experienced opinions costs nothing, takes 5 minutes and saves hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars and disappointments. Happy Collecting