12-26-2010, 12:20 PM
Guys,
As was mentioned before, first hand research should be OK, especially if dealing with known and established researchers. The problem arises in the "secondary market", when a researched group is further sold with its purporting documentation.
The example I referred to was a rather large group in which one ORB was missing; the reseller found a close-by number and aleterd a couple of digits on the UK to make the numbers match. Unbeknownst to him, this group had already been shown with its research on Russian forums; when it was offered for sale with the "missing" ORB present (as per the retouched UK), alarm bells went off and the cat was out of the bag.
So, in short, beware of second-hand researched awards/groups; in some cases, it may be worth ordering the UK (nope, I don't own shares in any research related venture ;)).
Marc
As was mentioned before, first hand research should be OK, especially if dealing with known and established researchers. The problem arises in the "secondary market", when a researched group is further sold with its purporting documentation.
The example I referred to was a rather large group in which one ORB was missing; the reseller found a close-by number and aleterd a couple of digits on the UK to make the numbers match. Unbeknownst to him, this group had already been shown with its research on Russian forums; when it was offered for sale with the "missing" ORB present (as per the retouched UK), alarm bells went off and the cat was out of the bag.
So, in short, beware of second-hand researched awards/groups; in some cases, it may be worth ordering the UK (nope, I don't own shares in any research related venture ;)).
Marc
