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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 345012, member: 25&quot;]<i>&#039;We had 16 items on the Treasure Detective series and half were fake, which is a good indication of what&#039;s going on in the market.&#039;</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Daft on the face of it. 16 items selected for a TV programme that is looking for fakes?</p><p><br /></p><p><i>In the TV show, Mr Dowling and a team of experts investigate the potential counterfeit items on behalf of real collectors who may have been scammed.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>The sample is of people who already doubt their purchases. If indeed any sample as such was taken at all, by anyone but the programme&#039;s editors looking for good TV, not statistical research.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>A poll of 2,000 people for TV Channel Yesterday found that one in four people spend £141 on antiques each year, but that hardly any get them authenticated, meaning they stand a good chance of being fakes.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Who polled them? And how was the sample selected? I can believe that hardly any get their items authenticated. I have spent a million quid on antiques over the years and have only consulted anyone else a handful of times. I am pretty sure I have only bought a handful of fakes in that time. The lack of authentication does not mean many are fake, it means people generally know what they are doing and see no need to consult an expensive &#039;expert&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>The UK Fakes and Forgeries report found that 68 per cent of people buying antiques are &#039;worried&#039; it may be a fake, but that only 57 per cent get the items authenticated by an expert before buying them.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>This sounds like pure bullshit. What &#039;Antiques Fakes and Forgeries Report? I have sold antiques to many thousands of people, few have shown any misgivings, no-one has ever had an item authenticated before buying it. </p><p><br /></p><p>The Daily Mail is not held in high esteem among British journalists or by a good chunk of the British public. If you are a PR person you cook up a pseudo-story and send it to the Daily Mail, who will usually print it as news. It helps fill the pages. That is all that matters. More responsible news sources ask the sort of questions I have asked, and look for second and third opinions such as I have given. No evidence, no sources, no story.</p><p>This is just a puff piece for the TV channel and its programmes.</p><p>I have seen Mr Dowling in a couple of TV shows and not been impressed. The type of programme is very much popular daytime TV shows with a rather undemanding and credulous audience. He is a performer, not a pundit.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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