This has been bugging/intriguing me. I'm sure some of you saw this set on ebay, advertised as an original Monster Paint Set box (seller says he's had it 20 yrs.) with newer Humbrol paint cans glued in (arrrrgh!).
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120257896557&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D120257896557%2509%26fvi%3D1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120257896557&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D120257896557%2509%26fvi%3D1)
My spidersense has been tingling ever since I first saw this thing. Straight off, the colors looked off to me-screaming 'color xerox', so I thought I'd write the seller. Alas, no answer. So I thought I'd do a side-by-side with a 'given', the samjo repro pictured in the gallery here.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g107/backlotcharlie/zpaint.jpg)
I think my hunch is correct; this guy's trying to pull a fast one.
Look at the wear marks/creases I've circled on the "auction original" on the right. Then compare to the exact same spots on the known repro on the left. The wear spots appear identical on both, which seems pretty unlikely.
Caveat Emptor, monsters!
Good catch, Bob. Thanks for the post and info.
Certainly does look fake to me.
A real rent buster, for sure.
"The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the listing."
Geez,
I thought it looked fake from the get go. I've seen the repros up close at Chiller shows some years ago and this looks like one. Will be interesting to see how much it ends up going for. NICE CALL!
He also had an ABG pencil sharpener display that he claimed was vintage. It was pretty funny because the top corners were hacked out and squared (instead of smooth round corners.
Here's the link to the auction...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-1960s-Monster-pencil-sharpener-display_W0QQitemZ120257891831QQihZ002QQcategoryZ747QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
So many things wrong... not enough time to list all... lol
I'm not sure if he's trying to pass these off as vintage or he is just naive. (I know, I'm the one that's naive. :) )
Was anybody doing repros of these things "over 20 years" ago?
Quote from: Mike Scott on May 11, 2008, 09:12:39 AM
Was anybody doing repros of these things "over 20 years" ago?
Exactly the point...my take is the auction description was a boldface lie. The sharpener display was pulled, too. And oddly enough, the seller knew enough about the sharpeners in general to say that
'alas, there are no frankensteins', a point that has only become general monster knowledge to your "average collector" in the last year or two. He knows that Frankensteins are harder to find, but doesn't know a color xerox copy of a known copied piece when he sees one? And we've proven it's a samjo production, which started popping up in the last 5 years or so. Big difference between 5 and 20 years. The "20 years" thing was added to give credibility to its supposed authenticity, me thinks.
Things that make you go hmmmm.... :-\
Yeah, I don't buy the innocent mistake routine either, but he did at least rethink things and pull them. You know, I can also say I can't recall having done business with a seller who had feedback below 98% that it didn't turn into a pain in the ass, or I was disappointed in some way, at the very least. Sometimes people have retaliatory negs when they bought something and negged a bad seller, but anyone with a decent amount of feedback that's below 98% you gotta at least be prepared for trouble of some sort.