Good day,

I thought I would pen a quick guide to buying replica F1 helmets. It is more of a word of warning than anything. I have been a silent critic of the so called "South American fakes" for a number of years. If you do not know what this is, you will by the end of this article. They are ruining the collectors market. I was discussing with a friend these South American fakes,  he collects rare antique pottery and what is happening to the replica F1 helmet market has been happening to the pottery market for years  - namely cheap dressed up reproductions.

These have flooded the market and non knowledgeable buyers are not able to tell the difference between a reproduction from a chinese sweat shop and a 100 year old antique! 

I will start by grading the helmets to put the whole article into context, giving an approximate value. Bear in mind that prices vary massively depending on the driver/team/season/history etc. The following tiers exist.

1- Race used helmet. Issued to the driver and used in a race with authentication from the drivers manager or team. £1,000 - £10,000

2- Test used helmet or issued to driver but unused. £1,000 - £5,000.

3- Now we drop down to the replica market which consists of numerous tiers. The first being an official limited edition replica series. Usually very exclusive and only about 10-100 made for each seasons. These will usually be on a proper race specification (if Arai) or in a display case if BELL. After these are given to sponsors and friends of drivers very few make the market place. They are rare and painted by the same people who paint the drivers original in most cases. £500 - £2500.

4- The next tier of replica is the open edition replicas. These are as above but more mass production official replica and probably not painted by the drivers painter, usually being painted by a mass produced technique. A good example of this is the Bieffe official replica's, such as Eddie Irvine. £500 - £1000.

All of the above are official helmets, produced under license. This adds greatly to their value. The next types of replica are not official. The first type is accepted by most in the collecting community (if done well) the rest are generally badly received and deemed to have little collectors value.

5- A non official replica that has been done to a very high standard (i.e. perfect) on a proper helmet (Snell rated) the same as that used by the driver in question. The painter can be anybody, ranging from people who actually paint for companies like BELL and Arai whom paint there own helmets in there spare time making them perfect replicas without official recognition down to a guy doing them in his garage. Hence the values vary with quality. £500 - £1500.

6- A non official replica on a proper helmet but not the correct helmet. Sometimes you will see painters use the incorrect helmet. This seriously de-values a helmet regardless of how good the paint job is. £400 - £800.

This brings us to the final tier, the bane of helmet collector...

7- A non official replica helmet on a fake helmet. A fake helmet? When an original helmet is casted and fibreglass replicas are made from a mould. They do no act as safety devices and the process does not produce a entirely accurate result. These are the "South American fakes". How to spot one? - Visor screws (always wrong), Visor (thin and incorrect shape), undefined detailing (due to moulding process), Interior, no Snell sticker and straps to name a few. Do a google image search for the helmet it is meant to be and you will notice if it is fake quite easily. £150 - £500.

These helmets have slowly lost value with time because the market is flooded with them and people are getting wiser to them. When I sell an item on ebay and a person collects it I show them some of my helmets. I have lost count of the number of times I have shown them a helmet and they say "oh you have a Kimi 05, I have one too" and I say "Yes, its an UFFE official replica" too which they reply "UFFE!?". But I don't have the heart to tell them they have bought a fake, the majority are under the illusion it is  a proper Arai snell rated helmet. So this is the reason I have written this. I hope it helps. One last thing to give an idea of rarity, I will make a quick table to show how many of each helmet you will see on ebay in a period of a year. Lets use the example of a Kimi 2005 helmet.

Original/test used - You won't find an original Kimi helmet on ebay. (£5,000 - £15,000)
Official replica - 25 Kimi 2005 replicas were made. If you are lucky you will see ONE of these on ebay each year. (£1500 - £3000)
Unofficial replica on proper Arai GP5 - You will probably see 2-3 of these in one year (£1000 - £2000)
South American fake - You will probably see 2 on these sell each week on ebay, at least one. So that is 50-100 per year. Just the 2005 Kimi helmet. (£200 - £350)

So you see why these helmets don't have much collector value? Not only are they counterfeit in every sense they are also flooding the market.

Feedback to this guide is welcomed, please email your comments.