This hobby is really like not other and full of all kinds of people and critters that navigating it, is in itself an act of self preservation and a skill. Its just that bad.

Often I think its time to quit, usually when things get quiet or I see something that just really tweaks me. One guy screwing another, a dealer knowingly selling fakes, or novice collector tossing good money at dealer names with no knowledge or any type of experience. They just want to collect and think for some odd reason that they can just walk in and buy. I really do not know where this hobby is going, the challenges with fakes, the old guard dwindling and being replaced by this new forum poster with 6 months experience dictating what is real or not real. I have never really seen it this bad. 

Everyone has their network, the group of guys they cling to or hang out with and I have my own and I watch the others to see who is doing what. I only trust mine as I get to choose who is in it and it really takes years to get to know people and what they are about to even build one. These are the no bullshit knowledge people who are more apt to have the correct answer, wisdom, knowledge, and personal experience to call a spade a spade, whether it be a person or an item. They are essentially honest and good people and there are so few of them to speak of. This is of course true in life in general but in a small hobby its not as hard to recognize who is who. 

I ventured in 2002 to the MAX show in Pittsburgh as a firearms collector, the market was a disaster at that time and the paperwork and the hoops you had to jump through to buy guns only to send them back as bad or humped up was getting tedious and a lot of them were in fact bad. Counting on the knowledge I did have of 3rd Reich material and people I attended the show to see what one of these large military shows was actually like. Their really big!, much bigger than the gun shows I attended with many more people and dealers. 

I was not there to buy anything however, I was there to scope out the people and watch looking for signs and talking to people about various subjects.

On the window aisle as I made my way down from the entrance and just off the elevators at that time I spotted a man sitting at a table with an upside down SS transitional visor and a 2nd item that eludes me now, I do not know what he spent on those two items but he literally had his head down in his hands as if saying to himself what did I do?, in complete anguish. This was John Pepera, a man I did not know then but I surely know now. 

When I was a kid my father had a term for people that did things that were calculated yet in a manner that was not standard, he called them "funny ducks". These are people that will go out of their way to do something nice or help you, yet they do it in a manner as if they don't want you to know they are doing something nice for you. It is very hard to explain or set an example for this and over the years I learned more than a few times that this man was indeed a funny duck, and had a heart of gold. 

Over the years we became friends and spoke many times via e-mail and phones, in recent years even more. He was an older man and not exactly computer savvy and I would often get S.O.S mails that he had issue and would call him and correct it over the phone for him so he could surf unhindered. Somewhere along the line I nicknamed him Peppers, I don't know why but when he called my talking phone would say "Call from Peppers".

Doing transactions with John was a always treat, he knew exactly what he had and was no pushover in a deal at all. In our last transaction several months ago it was no different, he had a Gahr stickpin that was used in Cones book in its original box. I chased that piece for 3 years and tried to buy it to no avail and I finally buckled under and fired him an offer that was completely over the top to get it for my collection. The next day he mailed me and accepted the offer and I wrote a check and mailed it out to him that day. Later in the afternoon I get another e-mail from John saying by the way I have this as well and it was a boxed Honor needle and that I could have it for an additional $ amount. That number was low, he had to know that. I get both pins and placed them in my case prominently and I finally had my pin. A week go's by and I get an e-mail from John saying " I forgot, that Gahr pin is attributed " and attached the mans file. I still cant figure that one out, as there is no way your going to forget your pin is attributed and that is a big deal.

John was very well liked in the community, he was unselfish, honest, friendly, and a wealth of knowledge. I am not sure how many really knew him though and that was something hidden from most I think.

A U.S veteran who spent his time with his family, a spiritual man, and in recent months he took to task driving little kids to school which he enjoyed in his spare time.

When I got the call several weeks ago that he had passed I was disheartened to say the least, but he was having some health issues that seemed to be wearing him down. Today would be a day where I could easily quit with head in hands over this loss and there will never be another Pepper's and no greater loss that I can think of, a one of a kind man who will be greatly missed here.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family.

(R.I.P Pepper's ( John Pepera ) )