I had a good call with Scott, the seller of the fake Phaser. He canceled the auction after reading my blog and wrote me an email. We talked on the phone and it appears he was taken in by the previous buyer. Scott is an experienced seller of memorabilia, but just not experienced with Star Trek props. He was even surprised when I told him how rare TOS props really were. He joked about how every auction always seemed to have a TOS Phaser or communicator in it!
Scott is going to try and get his money back from the guy he bought it off of. This is the problem with fakes, people try and pass them off on someone else, rather than either trying to get their money back, or accepting that you got taken. At least Scott is honorable and trying to do the right thing.
Alec