RPF Credential?

H0llyw00d

H0llyw00d

Sr Member
I've been thinking a lot about this recently and I believe it will become more of an issue that we will have to address at some point, and preferably sooner than later. With the plethora of well-meant knowledge to be gained on the forum we've seen how nefarious people have tried to capitalize on civilian's emotions to sell them purported "screen-used" pieces and some of them have almost or actually squeezed through the cracks.

I was reading this article:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/seedy-underworld-movie-memorabilia-1117268

And we've all seen this in action... Ripley's still chooses to believe rather than not.

What if we had a staff-moderated acknowledgement so that people could bring their examples here for us to review if they are thinking about buying a "screen-used" SW prop? If the fine art world had what amounted to the counterfeiters' guild willing to say "Oh, yeah, that's the real thing" I think it would carry some weight.

Just thought I would throw that out there and see what you guys think.
 
Unfortunately, the more ANY ITEM is worth, the more it's faked. Especially with the info given from this site. Items like light sabers can be made with real found parts, Therfore can easily be passed off as original to an unsuspecting eager buyer. I myself dig deep into researching any details I can find when building my props so they look like they just came off a set. Defects and all. I'm not making these for the purpose of selling, however, someone can , will, and already has. I'm affraid, there's not much that can be done as far as prevention goes.. The only thing I believe we can do as a group would be to keep eyes on auction sites and try to report items we know are fakes. Can't stop people from buying, and definitely can't keep the thieves from steeling.

I wish we could.
 
I have actually sent messages to auction houses and told people they had fakes in a movie prop group on facebook. I even started threads here about those things because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't mistaken. To me it seems obvious to ask the people who spend their free hours studying these props to make as perfect replicas as possible.
 
It just seems so reactive. The fact that members here are generous enough to try to keep some other starry-eyed fanboy from flushing his kid's college fund down the toilet doesn't seem to be getting in front of the problem.

What if we had some formalized process whereby applications could be made, an assessment could be done and the results submitted. I dunno, you could have a 5-star rating system that could estimate what percentage of a prop had the probability of being screen-used... individual scale for provenance, I'm just spitballing here... :/
 
Honestly I think it comes down to people doing their homework before buying a screen used prop. I'm naturally suspicious of any prop with a COA. If you buy from a auction house wouldn't they be responsible if the item was found to be a fake?
 
I have to ask, how often does this issue really come up that the RPF staff has to set up a system? Caveat Emptor isn't applicable for original high dollar purchases??
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the auction house get's paid regardless. I don't believe there is any recourse if you buy a fake at an authentic price. So the impetus falls on the buyer to verify the piece. There is no more knowledgeable group than this one to maintain the integrity of the SW prop world... period.

It's happening often enough that I wish they would come to us instead of us having to play whack-a-mole.
 
The problem with your suggestion is the the RPF then would become a form of guarantor for authenticity. It would potentially be quite a bit of money involved, and the site and the moderators would open themselves up to lawsuits when things go wrong (which they sometimes do, it's not a perfect world). The moderators can answer for themselves, but I don't think they want to go there.
 
But would it really? A simple waiver acknowledging that you are essentially open-sourcing the data about your prospective piece to a loose organization of top experts to render an opinion. It could be an additional revenue source for the forum. And how often would we be wrong really?
 
I'm pretty sure, other than the staff moderated aspect, the RPF already is a loose organization of top experts. Anyone who is looking at a "screen-used" piece can come here for all the free opinions they want.

I'm not really sure I even get your point any more? Are you looking for the mods to "verify" in some manner the supposed experts. And then people would have to pay the RPF for said opinions? The things you are suggesting would leave the RPF legally on the hook to some extent, waiver or no...

ME: "I know I signed a waiver, but I PAID the RPF Guild for It's expert opinion that my $20,000 screenused doohickey was real. Turns out it's a fake!!!"
LAWYER: "Let's sue 'em!!!"

Why on earth would they want this headache?
 
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