disclosing photostats

[DNAgent]

hi all!

 

if you win an ebay auction, receive the item, and find that...around 50% of the art

is a photostat...what can you do?

 

i won and received a piece of art. when i opened the package, i found that much of

it was a photostat.

 

this was not mentioned or disclosed in the auction.

 

the photostat was also not apparent or obvious in the auction scan.

 

i realize i am possibly 50% at fault for not asking if there were photostats on the piece.

 

i certainly would have asked if i thought there was any indication of stats, since i didn't see any evidence of this in the scan, i did not think to ask. i have never encountered this before (a seller not disclosing photostats in an auction, and me not knowing enough to ask).

 

i am asking here for advice, suggestions and any comments.

 

thanks!!!

[spider9698]

See if you can either:

1) Get your money back

2) Renegotiate a discounted price

It should have been disclosed. That was poor form for the seller.

Stephen

[westform]

I agree. It's not incumbent upon the buyer to seek out every fact about the piece. That would be ridiculous. It's up to the seller to disclose. It's always a grey area about how much disclosure to put in an auction type situation because you don't want to pile up the issues so high it scares bidders off. For instance a little soiling or glue staining or wear around the edges are all common condition issues on vintage covers but pasteovers and stats are a BIG issue and should be disclosed.

[Thomas]

I too recently won a page off ebay and had no idea until it arrived that 2 panels were statted. They're small panels and I would have been happy to buy the page for what I got it for anyways so it wasn't a big deal to me but I still felt the seller should've disclosed this in the auction.

[mrpunch0]

But you also have to do your homework.

 

Not every seller knows what a photostat is - and therefore wouldn't even think to disclose the fact.

On big ticket items, I always shoot the seller an email asing about stats, white out and general condition. Often you can use the reply to gauge the experience level of the seller and determine if you need to ask any follow up questions (like do you ship art in a paper envelope?).

 

If this was an experienced seller - yeah, they should have disclosed it. If you're really unhappy with the price, I'd ask about a refund.

[glenbru]

This happened to me on Ebay. I got a piece of art that was 50% stat that was described as all original. The seller would not take the item back.

 

I filed a claim with paypal since I had paid with them. After reviewing the case paypal reversed the charge and made the seller take the item back. Paypal had me show the item in question to a dealer for an evaluation before reversing the charge.

 

Best of luck!

 

Glen

[aaron568]

what is stat ? Have any pics of it so i know what it is thanks.

[mrpunch0]

what is stat ? Have any pics of it so i know what it is thanks.

 

You'd know it once you see it.

Think of it as a xerox copy of artwork that is pasted on to the board.

 

Sometimes it is done so an artist doesn't have to redraw an image over and over and over.

Sometimes it is pasted over an image to correct or change a layout.

Sometimes there is no reason you can see for the stat.

 

You don't see them AS much in modern art - they can do a lot of this with computers now.

[pkveronese]

Stats must be disclosed by the seller.

[cbac]

I've bought a few things from dealers, artists and eBay people where photostats haven't been disclosed. It seems to be a fact of life, but you get more careful after a period of time.

 

Recently I was going to bid high to get an almost grail like pice for me, potentially the best part of the V for Vendetta origin sequence. I saw a detailed scan at Vault auctions:

 

http://www.vaultauctions.com/?lotDetail&LOTID=11919

 

At the time it mentioned nothing of stats. I kept looking at it and saw something amiss, so I emailed Vault, I got an immediate (within the hour) response to say they'd look at it, then they came back and confirmed that the bottom 3 panels, the important bit, even though it was a shadow, of V were all stat (this made sense when I flicked through the GN as the image was taken from an earlier page).

 

However this drastically reduced what I would pay for the page and my desire for it. Vault was very good about correcting the listing (though a lot of "demand", bids, had already been submitted with the old description), and this seemed an honest oversight.

 

So it does pay to check carefully. As this is a key page I wonder if this affected it's value for others too?

 

I've also noticed a trend for certain dealers providing black and white scans with very light settings, thus reducing (hiding) the "imperfections" on the page, helps sales, but really a bit disingenuous.

[Ares]

Some stats are simply new art on top of other art to make changes.

 

I have a page of Secret wars art where the One panel of X-men is Stat.

But if you lift it up from underneath you can see the original art directly on the board.

[Thomas]

Some stats are simply new art on top of other art to make changes.

 

I have a page of Secret wars art where the One panel of X-men is Stat.

But if you lift it up from underneath you can see the original art directly on the board.

 

Yeah I've got a page where for some odd reason Robin and Superboy were photstatted, resized and cut and pasted to switch their places in the panel. It makes absolutely no sense to me at all when I look at it. However like Ares said, if I hold it up to a light I can see the original art underneat that the stats were taken from. It's a huge panel with a lot of other characters too and not just these 2. Weird but interesting. I like stuff like that though.

 

I also have a Superman page where one of the word balloons has a statted paste up over it and the same word balloon is in a different place in the panel.