This hobby began as a byproduct of film lovers and for many years consisted only of a select group of old timers who acquired knowledge over the years and passed what they knew to a chosen few. While there are some tremendous stories and information that NEED to be remembered, many specific details have slipped through the cracks over the years.

Preserve

Since the beggining, we had tried to establish and document all information from every direction. We have adopted the stance to try to document all information to the point that it would be provable in court. We use a system of documenting and reverse compiling that we then cross reference and verify to make sure we preserve and document as much as possible

Protect

With no real framework in place, we have tried to use documentation and education to create a foundation of information to help protect the hobby from a wide variety of areas until it can grow and develop a more secure framework. Here are a few:

Fakes

We document fakes and how to tell them from originals. We also put Warnings in the database for that title to make sure anyone looking at that title knows that fakes exist on it. We also issue lists of known fakes to keep young collectors from being taken.

Fraud

We try to alert everyone when fraud has been committed, plus documenting the details and participating with authorities when possible. For example, a few years ago during the Universal scam, we documented everyone involved, gave reports to all interested, showed how to tell the difference to keep others from getting involved, decifered legal movements for the hobby to follow along. We also participated with authorities with many hours of conversation and provided prosecutors with reference material to help understand all details.

Misrepresentation

We teach classes to help unintentional misrepresentation to make auctions and dealer sales more accurate. We also send out bulletins with specific information on how to identify reissues and markings on controversial objects.

Technology

We bring attention to potential problem areas that are unmarked or can be misused to commit fraud. Some examples would include articles on reproductions, such as S2, Portal, etc. to unmarked reproductions that will probably create future problems such as the Hammer British quads produced in 2007.

Legal

Sometimes the hobby also needs protecting from legal attacks. For example, a few years ago, 2 major studios tried to include film accessories as part of the copyright protection with the film. We provided expert testimony on both trials and helped establish the division between the film and accessories and the legal precedent of where that division is.