AUTHENTICATION & APPRAISAL SERVICES |
Dr. Ronald A. Distelhorst offers a wide range of authentication and appraisal services, ranging from a single item to complete collections, or estates, containing vintage militaria. He relies on his forty years of experience for most WWII German, Japanese, or American militaria authentication and/or appraisal. However, often times, further consultation is sought from his numerous and varied colleagues, whose expertise in a given area may exceed his own. Due to the wide variety of fakes and reproductions being offered today, only someone with such "contacts" can even hope to keep up with the evermore precise and sophisticated copies, especially in the areas of SS cloth, Luftwaffe qualification badges, and Knights' Crosses, to name but a few examples. For obvious reasons, a reasonable fee must be charged for the vetting of one or more items. Such fee is normally arrived at, based upon the appraisal "value" of an authentic item(s) of that same exact type. SOME items MAYBE "vetted" by inspection of detailed 35mm. photographs, high quality digital images, precise weights and measurements, etc., etc. However, it is usually necessary for Dr. Distelhorst to physically examine an item "in person" to determine authenticity. This is most often accomplished by mailing the item(s) to the Chicago area. The MINIMUM fee for authentication is $35.00 for any item, regardless of value. Other fees, based upon relative values, are listed below: Item(s) valued from $50.00 to $1000.00.
The $35.00 fee applies. |