Marcus wrote:I think the Chinese seller goes by "Fresh Tea" on Ebay, not sure if he is selling on Gunbroker yet. From some of the commentary I've read on other sites, he seems to be quite willing to work with collectors to get the details of his scopes and mounts as correct as possible.
Of course the problem is always the dirtball criminal fraud fakers out there, like that one in Eagle, Idaho. These swine will take known replica scopes and mounts and artifically age them, add bogus fantasy markings, etc. then mount them on fake sniper rifles to try to fool folks and pass these fakes off as original. Idaho likes to take beater-grade, sometimes borderline junk, original scopes, mate them with replica mounts manipulated to match the scopes, and then put them on his Bubba'ed up rifles. Remember, these guys are trying to fool and rob beginning and less experienced collectors, not advanced ones or experts.
It would be nice if the replica scopes and mounts had some kind of distinctive marking, or a "not real obvious but still easy to find" "replica" or "reproduction" on them somewhere.
Gary Cole had a unique, personal, marking stamped on the barrel of the replica PU snipers he imported a few years back that distinguished them from the real PU rifles he also imported, but then the Ukrainian arsenal that makes these replicas started stamping Gary's mark on all their replica rifles (not just the ones they made for Cole's) and soon the lying pimpers of fakes were all claiming that this was an original WW2 Soviet arsenal mark used only on real snipers to try to fool people and pass their rifles off as real.
Are you talking about Gary Cole who sells on Gunbroker??
I just wanted to say HE is a class act! I have bought several guns from him and he is very accurate, ships fast and is honest as the day is long. He always sends me some extra. I received a smith and wesson knife and two german (soap dish) type cleaning kits with a couple orders. I have talked to him once he is great.
You can't go wrong if you buy from him!