I like to hear the helpful opinions of everyone. I know I will never collect $3000 helmets of any kind--for both the price and the fakery. It is certainly a fact that the more valuable a thing becomes, the more it will be reproduced or faked. Awhile back I read a small book called something like "Nazi Millitaria: Fake or Real". It was entertaining and basically said there were fake Nazi items everywhere. It left me with the impression that every patch, armband, belt buckle, dress dagger, etc. that I may ever see for sale is more than likely a fake. I believe some of the old fakes are now "originals" or "real". The book (as I recall) gave such an example: After the war ended the American occupation troops were hunting for and willing to pay for good souvenirs. One of the German dagger factories was still intact, and seeing the opportunity to make a buck on some type of black market, kept on making daggers just to sell to the GI's. Also, in the post-war years some of the sellers of stuff like daggers and iron crosses would come across "warehouse finds" from WWII. Of course there may be some legitimate "warehouse finds", but I would have my doubts.
With all of this said, that is why I am not a collector of Nazi armbands, flags, medals, patches. (Also, other than lack of knowledge, I just don't want to have to store more stuff that has to be protected against heat, cold, moisture, moths, silverfish, etc.) However, I love the Mausers, P-38's, Walthers, etc. and will buy them when I can, and do my best to keep them well preserved. I know that there is all kind of fakery with this stuff, too, but at least I am fairly well informed as to what to look for, thanks to people like y'all on this website.