I paid EUR 450,- for the cap badge. I have done business with Thomas for many years and he knows that if he sell me any fakes then I will stop doing business with him. Hopefully he will honor his reputation more than money. As you say it is really difficult or even impossible to tell originals from fakes when it comes to the handmade cap badges and I only buy from what IMO is reliable sources. I only have one enamel cap badge in my collection which is the 9th unterseebootsflottille and I have 4 handmade cap badges from U-178, U-404, U-802 and U-968. I have collected kriegsmarine for many years, but I just started collecting cap badges like a year ago.