Guido,
 
A very interesting e-mail.  I am writing back on Conch-L because I believe you
probably should send the pictures over the list.  I have had shell people claim
no one could be fooled by a fake and when a professional like yourself gets
fooled it is a real lesson to us all.  The terrible thing is a lot of us would
not mind a repair on an expensive or rare shell as long as we KNEW ABOUT IT.
But then the price would not be exorbitant.   I can not even imagine the
feelings a dealer would have after paying really good money for such a shell.
If he sells it unknowingly, he will be suspect -- from your description, an all
too real scenario; if he discovers the fake his reputation is intact but his
business takes a serious hit.
 
I guess the issue is a fraudulent fake as opposed to a repair or an artistic
reproduction.  It is an interesting gradient from a trimmed lip on a cone or a
reglued attachment on a xenophora, to scar repairs on a C. gloriamaris and a
fake Cypraea aurantuim built out of a C. tigris, to a fake or repaired shell
with the intention to basically commit fraud and make it worth thousands of
dollars.
I have a Pleurotomaria africana I purchased from Brian Hayes in South Africa.
He advertised it as having a man repaired spire and it was priced very, very
low.  I purchased it and was amazed at how great it looked.  Bright colors and
good lip and slit, with just the very tip of the spire worn a bit and colored
over to match the rest of the shell.  Those out there who must have gems will
not understand this but some of us do not mind the occasional ding in a shell.
It shows something of their life.  In this case it allowed me to purchase a
shell I would not have been able to afford otherwise.  Of course if a shell
doctor from the Pacific had gotten hold of it the shell would have been priced
at $200-$300 instead of $45.  So I am thankful the repairs were not so good to
have fooled Brian.  Like a trimmed lip, the intention was to make it saleable
and not to commit fraud.
 
So my vote is for you to put the pictures on the list.  This is something we
all need to be aware of and the list is a perfect means of making this happen.
Also, you used to have several different fakes pictured on your web site but I
noticed the last time I was going through your images (which I do very often,
thanks it is a great web site), the fakes seem to be gone.  Are you no longer
going to show fakes?
 
Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA