As a new collector, I totally agree with Drgaspump that new collectors will be scared off. I refuse to try to buy anything valuable enough to fake. I'm limiting myself to large common pieces until I can learn how to spot a fake. After hearing stories about people successfully passing fakes at the big Iowa show where there are tons of experts, I'm not sure if I ever will learn well enough to buy something valuable.

Is there a good web reference on how to spot fakes? It seems to me that there should also be a public database of fakes somewhere. I know there is a ton of information on this site, but it isn't organized in a way that folks can easily use it as a reference.

Tom