One thing is fact. There is a large "cottage" industry in Latvia (among other places like Pakistan for example) that makes reproduced TR period items. I haven't commented on the authenticity of this badge, it's not an area that I study very much so I don't know about that. I have heard more than one horror story of parcels from Latvia, among other Eastern nations, being lost, stolen, missing etc. No intent to make a broad statement about Latvians other any other nationality, only stating the rumors and stories I read about regarding unreliable postage from the region.
Guys, my country is known for having a terrible postal service and many crooks too.Some people is wary to deal with italians because horror stories, but I regularly buy and sell from/to US without major problems.
The same could be said for England.I've lost many parcels coming from there recently, more than from overseas. Many fakes started circulating from there from the 70's.Recently the biggest fraud I've heard in years was committed by someone from there. Should we say that England is a red flag? I don't think so. Earlier this year I've been burnt by a HJ badge I bought from Hungary, eastern Europe. The seller turned out to be british, again.
It's indeed difficult to generalize and in my humble opinion 99% of the times wrong.
Today China and other asian countries produce most of the fake brand name clothes on the market. Do you know why it's so difficult to stop that? Because they are purchased and re-sold by other countries. Look at the ebay for brand names: you would feel safe to buy american or british brand names from US or UK sellers ...very wrong, 99% is cheap junk stuff made in China.
Back to the badge, you might be surprised that this badge has been actually bought in the US years before, so it's not actually coming from Latvia. I got it for a very good price dealt privately and including registered shipping and with 7 days inspection . I don't have the badge in my hands yet but it appears to be a honest deal to me, very seldom met.