Well obviously, not all, but most.
I would like to add that some do actually learn and advance their knowledge and even go on to write books, but, and unfortunately there are no exceptions here, none of the books that I know of written by dealers, are of much use, and portray anything but an advancement of knowledge. In many cases it`s the exact opposite.
"My opinion" is that for the vast majority of dealers, the real historical interest is superficial. It is more about getting together with the "click" a few times a year, comparing coffers of tid bits acquired for 3 cents on the dollar, and chortling about the massive profits that will ensue. Documented historical fact has no place at their table.
And I can`t take your above post seriously either, simply because I`ve seen it too many times. Dealers laying down the wounded dog card, turning the tables to garnish a bit of sympathy and make it look like the poster has in some way personally attacked them. Not that you did, and not that I perceived it that way at all, it`s just that I`ve seen it too many times before. "Nobody`s perfect" "I always do the right thing" "We are all here to learn" until next month, when the same fakes show up on the same site, or the same BS is used by the same squad to automatically authenticate the same "mist".
And you`ll know as well as I, that when an item gets taken down from some dealer`s site because it was outed as a fake, it gets shifted at the next show or passed to someone else - as genuine. Seen it and documented it many times, so even when something gets removed from a site, well for me at least, that doesn`t automatically mean that the right thing was done.
You said it yourself, it is your "job" and so it is for many others. So, it stands to reason that dealers who are counting on sales to butter their biscuits cannot afford to simply write off 500 here, 1000 there - every month. It would be an illusion to think otherwise. Up until very recently I was buying and selling Militaria for over 20 years myself, and know the majority of the ass-puppets that infect the hobby, and their mentality, tricks and blah-blah.
Of course, there are going to be exceptions, and if you are one of those exceptions, then jolly good beans indeed
