I wanted to post this here, just to make sure everyone saw it.

Fake Hardcopies Discovered

I know most of you don't collect prototypes, but I think this needs to be posted here non-the-less.

If you ever have ANY questions at all about any purchase (prototype or otherwise), please, please, PLEASE ask for some help/advice from your fellow collectors. You don't necessarily have to put up a post about it, but at least fire off some PM's. There are some very knowledgeable people in this hobby that are more than willing to help. And usually if they can't find the answer for you, they will point you in the right direction.

I know it's kind of cliche to say, but we are all learning here and no question is too stupid.

EDIT: I see AJ posted this already in the watch out section, so I'm going to move this thread there.

I'm moving this back so it gets more eyeballs!

This is a sickening thing. A lot of people are out a lot of money from a guy they trusted.

Im just reading the thread this is devasting news it sounds like this is gonna make the billyboy scam look like small fry

Is anybody here afftected?

This really tears apart the pre-production market its sounds like hundreds of fakes have been sold to hundreds of unsupecting collectors im in shock tbh

Jay

I'm personally not affected as all of my hardcopies are from the modern era and are made of different material but I personally know of two people that are possibly out of thousands of dollars. This is purely horseshit and just goes to show how someone can take advantage of profiting from an exclusive collecting market. Even though Star Wars collectibles is hardly exclusive to this problem it goes to show how one individual can take advantage of people by being creative and sinister.

It's frustrating to hear people loose out on dodgy deals for a few hundred dollars, when we're talking $1000s maybe even $100000+ in total it is mind boggling

Unfortunately, I've heard the number might be much greater than that. There are possibly around 100 figures involved over the last five years. The known buyers are currently being contacted. I'm really afraid of the impact this is going to have on the vintage prototype market and collecting. A lot of fakes are pretty noticable but from I've heard these are pretty damn good replicas if you don't specifically look for descrepencies. There have been stories like this before but not to this extent.

Steven you seem to be in the know on what's going on, is anyone contacting police or are people starting to put a master list together to see what the numbers are on this?

I also know a couple of people affected by this. And from everything I'm hearing the numbers (both dollar amount and prototype piece) are going to be staggering. And it seems to only be getting worse as more of the story unfolds.

This is going to have terrible repercussions throughout the hobby for years to come. Not just in the prototype collecting field.

Don't really have much words for it all, just sitting open mouthed watching it unfold

Terrible.

rebojazz wrote:

I'm personally not affected as all of my hardcopies are from the modern era and are made of different material but I personally know of two people that are possibly out of thousands of dollars. This is purely horseshit and just goes to show how someone can take advantage of profiting from an exclusive collecting market. Even though Star Wars collectibles is hardly exclusive to this problem it goes to show how one individual can take advantage of people by being creative and sinister.

It might be a good idea to check the provenance of your modern hardcopies again, just to be sure. I'm not saying that these came from Scott, but I have a list he sent me and it contains a few modern pieces as well. Most notably a series of 12" Leia wax heads and clay sculpts, Luke Bespin Applause sample, Luke X-Wing Applause HC, Destroyer Droid painted HC and Stap Droid painted HC.

RebelChris wrote:

rebojazz wrote:

I'm personally not affected as all of my hardcopies are from the modern era and are made of different material but I personally know of two people that are possibly out of thousands of dollars. This is purely horseshit and just goes to show how someone can take advantage of profiting from an exclusive collecting market. Even though Star Wars collectibles is hardly exclusive to this problem it goes to show how one individual can take advantage of people by being creative and sinister.

It might be a good idea to check the provenance of your modern hardcopies again, just to be sure. I'm not saying that these came from Scott, but I have a list he sent me and it contains a few modern pieces as well. Most notably a series of 12" Leia wax heads and clay sculpts, Luke Bespin Applause sample, Luke X-Wing Applause HC, Destroyer Droid painted HC and Stap Droid painted HC.

Thanks for the heads up Chris. I believe all of my modern protos check out ok. There's only a couple Ep.I hardcopies I haven't looked at yet as they are on display. Just by remembering looking at them they show no signs of the imperfections of these fake vintage carbalon figures, besides they come from very reputable people from long ago.

I've had several conversations with Joe over the past few days and I think all of us can agree that this will drag on for quite some time. Scott is pretty much stuck now with no way out and I'm sure with no means to refund everyone. So this brings the question... what now? As far as legal actions I haven't heard anything definate, but I'm sure it's being looked into. Lord knows there is plenty of evidence just with posts and emails.

Darthberizing wrote:

Steven you seem to be in the know on what's going on, is anyone contacting police or are people starting to put a master list together to see what the numbers are on this?

Police... to some extent, I think. I'm just not sure how this is being handled at the moment. As far as a master list... past deals and buyers are currently being put together for better understanding of how big this really is. Since he sold these over a period of a few years this will probably take some time.

Althought this is a terrible event and i have posted my feelings on RS the flip side is the thread is now building into a great information resource i for one have learnt a lot more about prototypes HC etc just be following it.

I hope all the lads invloved team up and unite to take action.

Jay

I have been reading the thread over at RS, but haven't chimed in, because I don't collect vintage prototypes and don't know, or have ever dealt with Scott, and just kinda felt weird to comment on the subject out of the blue. But I will say the massive scam this guy pulled off for so long blows me away. I have been collecting vintage toys since 1986 and have rarely had any problems and love this hobby more than just about anything else. Things like this really bum me out.