Many of you know that I detest fraud and dishonesty in this hobby. As someone with a well read blog (as well as being an attorney by training), I believe I have a duty to help protect you all from the unscrupulous types that prey on good natured collectors like most Star Trek collectors are.
I have to warn you all against doing business with Edward Pugia, who goes under the eBay handle CostumeJunkie. This past week he joined the Star Trek Prop, Costume and Auction Forum. From the beginning I felt uneasy, and I asked him kindly to not try and use the forum to run his business. He returned a rather rude response and when I accepted him on the forum, the first thing he did was to post two Borg costumes for sale!
Well, if that wasn't bad enough, he deceptively listed the costumes by not disclosing their deteriorating condition and then used photos that WERE NOT of the costume and claimed they were. The costume in question had previously been purchased by Dana Hammontree, a long time prop collector and well known in prop collecting circles., Dan had to return the costume to It's a Wrap because the costume was falling apart and pieces were flaking off. It also had a bad latex foam smell. Edward Pugia then bought the costume and failed to disclose any of this and used photos of another costume he bought from IAW to sell it. Finally, when called on this he was rude and unapologetic. Sound like deceiving people must be standard practice for this guy.
Costume Junkie has now been banned from the Star Trek Prop, Costume and Auction Forum and I strongly suggest you all stay away from him. He has lied about his web site traffic and the amount of money he spends with IAW. I have spoken to several long time prop collectors and they have all said that they know of problems that collectors have had with him. The guy is not only untrustworthy, but a liar.
Please don't do business with him!
Alec