Third Party Press

Sodcasts: Exposing Fakery Videos

The series is fantastic. The WAF royalty are hanging themselves. Whatever they delete he shows. Lol
 
Well then in that case, have some more :thumbsup:
And thanks for the interest, it has been and still is, very much a one-man-show.
I contemplated just giving up after the last book, and letting them all get on with fleecing each other, and because I had not so much as uploaded a video to the net before, I was struggling with getting my "idea" acros..
But, after a year or so of tinkering around and self-help, I have come to find more pleasure in exposing this mess that I ever did in collecting. More fun making videos than collecting (and more fun that writing books and articles). So the hobby changed for me. From small badge and medal author to "Movie maker" :laugh: OK, not quite there yet, but the improvements from the first video two or so years ago until now are massive.


 
My wife follows podcasts, but I follow The Sodcast. And thanks for the K98k forum :thumbsup:

Edit: Jo, would love to see Sodcasts on the common IABs and PABs. I know fakery on those has been significant in the last 30 years.
Cheers.
About a year ago I did one on a hollow ISA or IAB in Anglaise :moon: but that video has a silly auto voice overlay and was made using some free video program.
That was before I became Chief Sodmaster. The older videos pxxs me off even with that voice.
 
I still want too know more about the barn full of Nazi toilet paper Jo! I think a nice more convincing story would be better.

Here goes you had too travel up many mountain high roads for many weeks too find the location on the very special barn in Bavaria. Turns out this barn and the land it was sitting on had been forgotten and abandon for many years. Lucky for you this place was untouched for 72 years! And guess what this barn still had skids full of this very special toilet paper. All the stalls and even the loft was completely full of this stuff. It was supposed too be sent somewhere on the western front but the order was halted and all the paper was stored in a nearby barn. Sadly one of the full skids was completely empty. Turns out the old man that once owned this place many years ago had been using some of this toilet paper over the years. If only he knew this stuff was worth more too collectors then wiping his butt with. Makes it that much more rarer now.
 
I still want too know more about the barn full of Nazi toilet paper Jo!
:laugh: I think your best bet would be to get in contact with old Walter. If he didn`t know the full story then I am sure he could get back to you in a few days with, a full story :thumbsup:
Prices will probably go up then, as they usualy do when a good story is attached.
 
Now that is funny, as the Administrator in question - mentioned throughout the above video - said exactly the same.
problemswillemV.JPG
"..he for sure seems to have a problem."

Both of you are correct, indeed I do have a problem.

I laid out this problem over 500 pages in a 2013 published book. For the avoidance of confusion, though, and for collectors who have not read (and understadably have no need to read it as it does not encroach on their collecting niche) my "problem" lies not with any one individual or even a group of individuals, but rather with the mentality in general.
The Salop manner in which collectables are discussed and debated, and the way in which untruths are force-fed down younger collector’s throats. The mobbing, blackmailing, silencing and bullying that is rife in "our hobby" as well as many other smaller but relevant issues.

As far as my presentations being annoying goes, well, we are all entitled to our thoughts and feelings, and we are all allowed by law to express them.
If, however, you have any constructive criticism on how I can go about improving the videos, please let me know, as I have just started out. And, seeing as this is still all a one-man-show, I would welcome a bit of help with open arms.
Cheers
 
:laugh: I think your best bet would be to get in contact with old Walter. If he didn`t know the full story then I am sure he could get back to you in a few days with, a full story :thumbsup:
Prices will probably go up then, as they usualy do when a good story is attached.

I'll have to ask old Walter then at the 2018 SOS show! As in his words "I know most collectors don't have it in their collections." This is just hilarious. In all my years of collecting I've seen some pretty bad fantasy SS items. But I never would have dreamed they would fake toilet paper. But you're selling a roll of this crap for a hundred bucks a piece and you have hundreds of them probably sold over the years. That's a pretty good chunk of change on fantasy items.
 
Glad to have you here

I have been spreading the word about the Sodcastst and creating new disciples.......great work, keep it up!!
 
But I never would have dreamed they would fake toilet paper. ...
There are more banal examples. The Desktop printed modern double-sided SA- paper badges, where on WAF they are praised. Or were, as the following rather interesting thread shows:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=902146&highlight=Brieg

It starts off with the item being shown and declared genuine. (I believe the original poster is a dealer)
Then it gets tagged as "Very nice, was admiring this on your table.."
Then I pop my head onto the thread, and make them aware that it has been exposed in videos, and in a free article on my site, as well as in a popular collector’s magazine a while ago.

You will note, the original poster and second "admirer" did not bother to come back to that thread to comment on their errors... but rather that one guy who spoke up on the thread about collectors "not bothering to do any of their own research or heed the advice of those who already have." now also has EXPELLED next to his name.

One would have thought, that a minimum amount of respect, or at least a "Thanks" were in order to another collector who went out of his way to purchase the fake, examine it, expose it, write a free article about it, write an article about it in a WAF-popular collectors magazine, and come onto a thread and provide clarification. One would have thought, but one would almost always be wrong where the dealer controlled Wehrmacht Awards Forum is concerned.

So yes, it gets worse than bog paper, run two blank labels through a printer, stick them together, and you have a, quote: "Very nice early item." As long as a few WAF dealers are selling them, all is well.

The problem with forums too is that the true identity and motivations of commenters is not always known. This is why censorship is so harmful and is the friend of fraud.
Yes, I can tell you off the bat which dealers have multiple accounts there, but it would not change a thing, as the WAF has morphed into a ghastly fake-shilling, fake promoting even and fake sellers’ platform. It was OK until a few years ago, now some sub-sections have gone to pot. To be expected when you have dealers and dealer-helpers as Moderators of those sections.
When I call the WAF a human centipede platform, believe me, I am being far too kind!
 
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I just noticed you and another member on that thread got expelled for questioning the origins of this rare item! I know exactly what those moderators are thinking if this stuff gets out and were exposed as hacks. Thats going to really cut bad into our profit margin.

Maybe the moderators will be merciful and only give you Double secret probation!
 
I just noticed you and another member on that thread got expelled for questioning the origins of this rare item! I know exactly what those moderators are thinking if this stuff gets out and were exposed as hacks. Thats going to really cut bad into our profit margin.

Maybe the moderators will be merciful and only give you Double secret probation!
Hi Warrior1354
No, I was expelled a while after that. The reason I was expelled - or so it seems to many who scratch the surface - is because of the Tooth Willi, Moderator of the Fallschirmjäger section. His was promoting fake badges as original. When i stepped in and proved him wrong, he would have nothing of it, and I was immediately expelled by him, Moderator Willi.Z.
But, I don`t believe for one minute that this was the real reason.
An honest person exposing fakes using forensics, on a dealer run, dealer sponsored forum, where most of those dealers have the same fakes listed for sale, or are promoting them as genuine? 2 and 2 is 4. In Europe and in the US, and always will be.
 
Why would a forum moderator "expell" someone for pointing out so factually and scientifically that a badge they were such a fan of was a humpjob?

It's funny that it would seem that the same fanboys of XRFacts voodoo are opponents to magnification as a tool for analysis. As if looking closely at an artifact is a bad thing :googlie
 
Why would a forum moderator "expell" someone for pointing out so factually and scientifically that a badge they were such a fan of was a humpjob?

It's funny that it would seem that the same fanboys of XRFacts voodoo are opponents to magnification as a tool for analysis. As if looking closely at an artifact is a bad thing :googlie

You're not supposed to look at an item before you buy it. Your only supposed to believe what you're told and just throw your money at it. I mean its from a reliable source it has to be true!
 
It was already 2005 when I took my first steps on the internet and soon I discovered the Waf forum, in that period this forum had a monopoly on spreading information about militaria.
In that period some very knowledegable collectors, some of them I also knew offline, were regular posters there and I too started to post there but soon I also saw that there was an enormous amount of fake blessing going on, there was no voice of reason and pretty soon I saw the knowledgeable collectors I respect disappear either because they got expelled or they had bannished themselves.
Waf was nothing more then an online version of a militaria show where dishonest dealers were helping eachother by educating the new collectors with their information, in other words blessing eachothers fakes, telling bs provenance stories so that they got sold.
The big difference between the militaria show and the online forum was that noone on the militaria show could silence me, I could publicly laugh with fake militaria; on waf a moderator had the power to silence me, to control the information and just see where it got us.
But isn't all bad news, I see improvement, waf doesn't hold the monopoly anymore and this resulted in the destruction of "XRF facts" of Maui, but the work isn't done and sodcasts like that of Mirco Jo are needed.

Jo keep up the good work!


PS: Jo, perhaps you could look at a couple of YouTube clips of Don Shipley, he exposed fake Navy Seals and did it with humor, often black and sarcastic humor and the people loved his videos.
 
Great to have you here Jo! Want to start a conversation about DJ/BDM, Olympic or Reichspartieitag knives .....?
 
perhaps you could look at a couple of YouTube clips of Don Shipley, he exposed fake Navy Seals and did it with humor, often black and sarcastic humor and the people loved his videos.
Hi Peter, oh I am subscribed to his channel and site and have seen everything he has done. I like it, but I have a very different way of looking at these "treacherous acts" and although watching the videos is fun, my way of dealing with them would not be to (only) name and shame, but to beat them to death on camera. I get that we can`t actually act like this in today`s society, but still. :facepalm: I know, always taking things to the extreme, but there really are lines that one should not cross, and when one does, I believe one should not be allowed back over.

Great to have you here Jo! Want to start a conversation about DJ/BDM, Olympic or Reichspartieitag knives .....?
Hi Slash
Thanks for the welcome, appreciated, and my answer will probably disappoint, no.
I have to say no because of the Hitler Youth Research forum, and the amount of time (many) users and historians have put in to it, researching the DJ and BDM and other fake knives to the fullest. Of course, there are crystal clear answers to any questions pertaining to the wide variety of fantasy knives, but if I were to start sharing that info here, it would be nothing more than me spooning the cream off the top of the end-researched subject, which was only possible with the help and dedication of many people. It will seem like "Jo Rivett" is clearing up the controversy on these items, which would be far from the truth. I have of course contributed a bit over the years, but in comparison to what others have contributed as well as the final HJ Wiki with all the facts laid out, very little. So it would just not be right.
What I can suggest, is that someone who is interested, register at the HJ Forum for free, and then I believe they would have full access to the HJ Wiki, which is the most wonderful tool anyone who wanted all the answers and historically correct info at once could ever want.
Maybe this sounds funny? But I would feel like I was stealing the research of others.
It has always been a community project, and although I consider myself part of that community, I am certainly not their spokesperson, or feel it my place to take credit for large community projects. (Some of which i have never even participated in, like cloth items etc..)
The most insidious thing about this censorship is that no one sees what has been manipulated and deleted.
What about screenshots of the deleted posts :thumbsup:
Sure that only helps one cause, and on the whole you are right. But non-participation, letting a thread slide to page 500 is just as bad. That is why some folk won’t reply when a thread goes south.
 
Hi Slash
Thanks for the welcome, appreciated, and my answer will probably disappoint, no.
I have to say no because of the Hitler Youth Research forum, and the amount of time (many) users and historians have put in to it, researching the DJ and BDM and other fake knives to the fullest. Of course, there are crystal clear answers to any questions pertaining to the wide variety of fantasy knives, but if I were to start sharing that info here, it would be nothing more than me spooning the cream off the top of the end-researched subject, which was only possible with the help and dedication of many people. It will seem like "Jo Rivett" is clearing up the controversy on these items, which would be far from the truth. I have of course contributed a bit over the years, but in comparison to what others have contributed as well as the final HJ Wiki with all the facts laid out, very little. So it would just not be right.
What I can suggest, is that someone who is interested, register at the HJ Forum for free, and then I believe they would have full access to the HJ Wiki, which is the most wonderful tool anyone who wanted all the answers and historically correct info at once could ever want.
Maybe this sounds funny? But I would feel like I was stealing the research of others.
It has always been a community project, and although I consider myself part of that community, I am certainly not their spokesperson, or feel it my place to take credit for large community projects. (Some of which i have never even participated in, like cloth items etc..)

Purely tongue in cheek Jo however your contributions to the discussion of these fantasy items should not be underestimated. Particularly in the area of period source material. And agree with your statements regarding the depth of research regarding this subject within the HJ Research Forum. Although my submissions there have been minimal it is without doubt one of the finest resources available for the HJ/BDM collecting community.
 

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