If you look at his trader history it is all positive. How can he have all positive feedback,when as a trader he has taken payment for things he has not traded?
Unfortunately, we've reached a point where a good reputation no longer means anything, because even people with good histories can suddenly fail to deliver. Sometimes people are inherently evil, sometimes people become desperate, and sometimes good people simply can't live up to their own expectations. In the last few years, I've been affected by all three types:
- In 2019, I spent $1000 to preorder a replica of HAL-9000 from Master Replicas. The company sold over a million dollars' worth of these. And then the CEO declared bankruptcy, kept every penny without producing a single unit, and then restarted the company a year later. I later learned that the CEO, Stephen Dymszo, is a known con artist who has made millions of dollars repeatedly doing things like this. He's a rotten, vile man.
- A few years ago, I was a member of the R2 Builders Club. At one point, an extremely reputable seller opened a run, took in over $100,000, and then provided updates for six months about how they were coming along. Then he came forward and admitted that he had not produced any parts, but had instead stolen the money. It turned out that for all of his years with the club, he had not been paying taxes. After years of this, the IRS audited him and demanded that he pay tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Not having the money, he created a fake run to pay off the IRS. He seemed apologetic and sad that it happened, but that doesn't change the fact that he hurt a lot of people.
- I lost $1,000 on the Crystal Skull run here on the RPF. I paid extra for a skull that I was told was in stock and ready to ship. Two years later, it still has not arrived. The seller keeps saying that he's out of money, but that he'll eventually get them made. But I don't plan on ever seeing it.
Personally, I think Brandon is in the third category. I really do think he intended to produce these items. In the early days, he spent a lot of money on material, and a lot of time making the parts. He provided photos of all of this, and he clearly wasn't just stealing the money. But then, things got very bad for him.
I'm one of the people who lost hundreds of dollars on this run, so I know the sadness and frustration of watching that money vanish, while also not getting what was looking to be an amazing replica. It's a double loss. We lost our money
and we lost our blasters.
But I'm sure that Brandon himself is suffering from this run more than anyone. For us, it's an annoyance to be out hundreds of dollars. But for Brandon, this is a life-ruining type of thing. On top of any personal problems he's facing, he's spent the last few years with dozens of angry people contacting him regularly. He's invested all of our money in a failed project, and now he's in debt with nothing to show for it. And his reputation has been totally destroyed. Brandon is a skilled craftsman, and these types of projects have the potential to be a lucrative side job. And now, he may never be trusted by the community again. And I don't really blame him for not updating us or responding to messages, because the only possible response is going to be "I don't have the money or the parts."
I definitely think this entire situation could have been handled better. But I also try to remind myself that if I'm able to spend hundreds of dollars on replica blasters, droids, and crystal skulls, then I'm a lucky person. I'm not a wealthy person at all. But so many people out there are suffering. And anyone who has disposable income should be grateful for that, because it's becoming increasingly rare. I work hard for the money I earn, so I don't like seeing it wasted. But if I was spending that money on frivolous movie replicas, then I can't really be too upset. There are far worse things in life than not having a fake blaster on my shelf.
Over the past 5 years, I've invested in more failed runs than I have successful ones. The world is becoming so unstable, and even reliable people aren't able to keep up. It's not fun spending hundreds of dollars just to spend years watching the updates slowly fade away. It's crazy that we've all been talking about this blaster for 5 years now. I should have stopped thinking about it a very long time ago. Life is too short for this.
