*** Do not purchase any items being sold by a Jim Arnold of Reel Art ***
(He also sells on Ebay under the name Reelart)
5705 West Shore Drive
New Port Richey, Florida
34652
Read the story below for the full details leading to me issuing this warning. I know it is long, but it is well worth your time reading!
The story goes like this. I had seen James Bond replicas made by SD Studios and was interested in the re-breather from Thunderball providing the quality was there and the price was not too steep. He told me that he originally bought all of SD Studios left over stock when he went out of business and that he had a Thunderball breather, but no plaque or Romeo & Julieta cigar tube to go with it and that the quality was excellent.
I asked him if he had any pictures of the Thunderball re-breather he could e-mail to me and how much he was asking for it? I also asked him if it is the one that was manufactured by SD Studios and what its construction consisted of? He told me that it was made out of plated gold metal and the end pieces were resin type material. He said it was a SD Studios model and that they were very rare. He also told me that he was looking around for the plaque and tube and if he found them, they were mine. He also said he had the paper work that came from SD Studios to go with it and was asking $225.00 US for it.
Having said that he had the original paperwork for this item, I asked if he could e-mail a picture of it for me to see. I also asked what condition the breather was in? He responded that, first and most important, that the breather was in mint condition. He also told me again that about 5 years ago he bought all of the left over inventory of SD Studios with the agreement from the owner that he could not sell any more of this or make any more of this stuff without him being involved. He also said the SD Studios items were the only officially licensed replicas of these made and
as for the paperwork, since he made it up, he had many extras.
I was a little confused on this, as he had said that he made up the paperwork for this item and had many extras. I asked him if this was your paperwork or the paperwork from SD Studios on the replica breather? I also asked him if there was more than one variation of the breather that was made by SD Studios and if he could perhaps fax me a copy of the paperwork from SD Studios for the breather?
He replied that there was only one type of Breather made by SD Studios, but did not answer my question regarding whose paperwork it was, so I asked him again if it was his or SD Studios? He finally answered me and said that he took SD Studios and kind of dressed it up a bit to make it look better. He said that the owner of SD Studios, Steve Dymszo, was an engineer not a Graphics Artist and therefore, his stuff was pretty boring.
One last thing I asked him was if he offered any sort of refund if I was not 100% satisfied with the item for whatever reason? I told him the reason I ask is that he said the item was in mint condition, but in the past I have purchased items before that were sold as mint, and yet when I received them, they weren