More Premiere Props Woes - Immortals Helmet Take Two

So, I picked up one of the hoplites Premiere Props was recently selling on eBay for pretty cheap and it turned out pretty good, although it was missing the sandals.

Upon getting it, I recommended a buddy get in on the action. He picked one up, with the helmet in the auction looking like this.



Now in PP's defense, they said this wasn't the exact helmet, but take a look at what he got instead.

I spent 2 hours with a heat gun, carefully reshaping the helmet and was pretty happy with how it turned out, but the thing is, when they shipped it, it wasn't even wearable and they shipped it KNOWING it wasn't, without even mentioning it...



REALLY disappointed to see the continued utter lack of any care on the part of Premiere Props. It is only their rock-bottom prices on eBay that makes buying from them even a consideration, but I guess you get what you pay for and sometimes, you don't even get that!

That's pretty bad but looks crazy good after a little work. I guess I'll be thinking twice before buying from Premier Props!

Wow!!

Man Art, they made you work for that one!

Good job fixing it though!

Yes, after seeing what great shape the armor set Art acquired was in I figured that I should pick up a set as well. Everything was in fine condition when I opened the box, aside from one of the shin armor pieces being warped which I figured was likely to happen. Heck I even had a pair of sandals sitting on top. But I was quite surprised to see the helmet in the condition that it arrived in.

I cannot thank Art enough for all his work he put into restoring this piece.

im surprised collectors still buy from premiere props...with a history of selling replicas, not doing research on their items, screwing over cosigners, sending damaged or missing piece items etc etc....list goes on and on...

i wouldnt risk losing my money to a company like that....

it makes me appreciate companies like screenused and propstore a lot more

apollo said:

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Wow!!

Man Art, they made you work for that one!

Good job fixing it though!

For sure !

.... and that's another one I'm keeping in mind for the next time he says he has no talent

....the problem is people keep saying they won't buy from them....and they keep on buying.

I am an observant guy and on Icollector when peoples names come up I see many people who frequent the forums buying from them.

Look I do understand that they have made some big errors, and yes there are two sides to every coin story but they run a huge operation and mistakes have obviously happened.

On the reverse of the coin I am a buyer since like 2003 I think and recently sold a few smaller items thru them. I was paid in the two months past the sale as they stated. I received updates. The stuff arrived that I bought in 8-10 weeks of the sale.

In short even though It was longer than Screenused on the shipping, even though it took two months to be paid....EVERYTHING happened as per the contract.

I have also bought many, many items on ebay from them and surprise surprise everything has been great there too....and because ebay forces them to ship quicker guess what...I get the stuff quicker that was too!

So....yes...they have there issues....BUT contacting them when I've had them by phone has too my knowledge every time resulted in a positive outcome or at least something that didn't make me not want to do business with them.

So..in short...im tired of the bashing. Every company that I've ever dealt with long time has either made a mistake or made an error somewhere in my business with them. With the sheer volume PP does with ebay, online/people auctions, running a propstore and working with the studios with the resources they have on top of everything else I think they do a great job.

If you don't want to buy thats fine....cuz believe you me someone is. The amount of crap Im outbid on I see it every three days....lol.

Oh and Art Im completely in agreement with the statement....of course you should see a helmet and reasonably expect it to look like the photo.

I have no propmaking talent whatsoever so If I had recieved a flat helmet I would have asked for a different one too. I would not have had the ability to do what you did.

Im not about to be a PP fanboy but I look around yourprops and peoples collections and PP has been a great force for peoples collections...and especially if you know how to buy they have given some INCREDIBLE deals to people....although...maybe not that they knew they did it. 8-)

Jason De bord is correct though...a few little tweaks and they would really be a force to be reckoned with....and Im going to write about that on thepropstop and the RPF real soon.

better to move them in that direction than keep hammering. I will say though that after the heat gun....the helmet looks superb!

I've had a couple issues with Premiere Props as well, but mainly shipping issues having to wait weeks before they would ship an item. But even though Screenused and Propstore have nice items, you won't catch me paying thousands for some of the stuff they have. Especially when you don't know if they got it out of a studio dumpster, for free from someone or if they bought it off someone at a low price to sell it for a high price.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Premiere Props. I love that they offer pieces, often at much cheaper prices than you will see anywhere else, at least in their auctions (the prices on their site are another matter).

I have had two direct purchases with them and one referred purchase. 2 out of the 3 had major issues and one had a minor issue. Two of the three resulted in an email to their customer service that was not responded to. I look at something like the helmet above and say to myself, even the most careless person couldn't have packed and shipped this without thinking to themselves that this doesn't look like the 40 others they have packed and shipped. It just makes them look like they don't care. Now, I know they are high volume, but if you are so high volume that stuff like this is slipping through the cracks it is time to reevaluate.

With that being said, the reason I have continued to pick up pieces from them is that I have been able to snag a couple of pieces that either weren't available from Prop Store or were much more expensive from other dealers. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I know if I were to have an issue with a piece from Prop Store (haven't yet, but as you said, everyone makes the occasional mistake), I know I can write Brandon or Stephen (not some nameless dayworker in the shipping dept) and they will handle my issue immediately. While I don't necessarily expect that same level of service, based on Premiere Props prices, I don't expect to be misled and I don't expect my customer service emails to be ignored.

Will be interesting to see how my latest buy, a book of eli machete handle, turns out. If it arrives as pictured, it will be my first piece from Premiere Props without issue and will be the first step in turning the tide of my opinion.

Propaholic said:

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But even though Screenused and Propstore have nice items, you won't catch me paying thousands for some of the stuff they have. Especially when you don't know if they got it out of a studio dumpster, for free from someone or if they bought it off someone at a low price to sell it for a high price.

If you think Prop Store or Screenused's prices are too high, that is one thing, but why would it matter how their items were acquired or what they paid for them? What does their profitability have to do with your willingness to buy?

If propstore has something i want, i dont care how they got it. As long as its legit n nice it will be bought n displayed.

PP has seems to have lots of issues. i been in on an auction and still havent gotten anything i bid on. Cant say much about them personaly, but i keep hearing the horror stories..So gotta roll with the Tide n stay away.

This sounds like a shady bunch, especially on the customer service side where it matters the most.

Wes R said:

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This sounds like a shady bunch, especially on the customer service side where it matters the most.

Not sure I would call them "shady" but their photos, descriptions and customer service... at least from my experiences, leaves a LOT to be desired.