Ontario Museum buys fake German vehicles

[Alex van de Wetering]

Who in their right mind would spend 250K on vehicles sight-unseen?

Well said!

By the way.....how did the bids go that high anyway......I mean, there had to be at least one other bidder that was willing to pay top money for these vehicles, right?......otherwise the price would have been much lower???

Alex

[jdmcm]

I started this thread, probably with a little too much guilty joy at others expense, that I regret and I apologize for. All in all it's a shame, I certainly would not go casting aspersions on the ONTARS president. Alan is a smart, successful businessman who has been a real benefit to the museum and the Canadian military vehicle community.

I will admit in my earlier collecting days I made some major mistakes, mostly born from a lack of knowledge, unbridled enthusiasm and misplaced trust. Who of us hasn't at one time or another got little excited and bought a bag of magic beans?

No matter what we are all on the outside looking in and in the end it is a very interesting and sad event, but the reality is I am sure we don't know all the circumstances surrounding the case.

What I am glad to see is this has not seemed to effect the momentum the Ontario Regiment Museum has gained in the last few years. Lessons learned, onward and upward!

John

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

....

I will admit in my earlier collecting days I made some major mistakes, mostly born from a lack of knowledge, unbridled enthusiasm and misplaced trust. Who of us hasn't at one time or another got little excited and bought a bag of magic beans?

...

Bean? I got some of those right here! Come on over and let me tell you about them.

And I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. The museum got a punch in the nose for its excitement. Time to lick their wounds, make a few new plans, and get on with the season. As for the boss named in the decision, I wouldn't be too harsh. A famous hockey player said, you miss 100% of the shots you never take.

[James P]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

I started this thread, probably with a little too much guilty joy at others expense, that I regret and I apologize for. All in all it's a shame, I certainly would not go casting aspersions on the ONTARS president. Alan is a smart, successful businessman who has been a real benefit to the museum and the Canadian military vehicle community.

I will admit in my earlier collecting days I made some major mistakes, mostly born from a lack of knowledge, unbridled enthusiasm and misplaced trust. Who of us hasn't at one time or another got little excited and bought a bag of magic beans?

No matter what we are all on the outside looking in and in the end it is a very interesting and sad event, but the reality is I am sure we don't know all the circumstances surrounding the case.

What I am glad to see is this has not seemed to effect the momentum the Ontario Regiment Museum has gained in the last few years. Lessons learned, onward and upward!

John

I tend to agree with what you say John and while the guy may be brilliant, successful and competent in what he does for a living he did make an ill thought out purchase on this one sight unseen. Sadly the plaintiffs should have done the due diligence and had some knowledge of what they where throwing money at. The Victory Memorial Museums collection of vehicles (later Kruse Foundation) had a reputation of being made up and often incomplete so when the guy bought these as is/where is and sight unseen it just shows a breathing taking lack of study, or knowledge, regarding the vehicles purchased. That all said I have to salute the guy for moving the OntR museum so very far forward and giving it a bright future and potential. A costly mistake made for sure and no doubt many lessons learned along the way that will not be repeated .