Dealing with Kenneth Caslis.
I’d like to share my tale of woe with everyone in the prop community. This is in the spirit of friendship and in the hope that, by openly reporting the incident, it may save someone going through what I had to. If anyone has had a similar experience with Mr. Caslis, I’d like to hear from them. Also, please feel free to post this on any board you wish. The more people who see this, the less likely anyone else will be affected the same way I was.
I used to collect screen used Trek props. Tricorders in particular.
A few years ago, I contacted Caslis because I’d heard he may have some interesting props for sale. I had heard about him and understood he was an authenticator for Profiles In History. Naturally, I assumed he was above board and could be trusted.
He told me he had a screen used hero science Tricorder from First Contact, and duly emailed pictures of the prop. It looked fine so I agreed to buy the piece from him for two thousand dollars plus shipping to the UK. I sent the money and waited for the prop to arrive. When it did, I was immediately struck by the fresh paint smell of the piece. I was suspicious, so I contacted Mike Moore at HMS and asked him to authenticate the piece for me. He told me it was indeed made at his shop, but was a ‘Vegas’ model, or one from the Viacom store. Not a screen used piece at all.
I emailed Caslis and told him what Mike Moore had said. He said He’d be happy to take the piece back for a full refund. Being a trusting soul, I dutifully shipped the piece back to him…………….and that was the last time I heard from him.
He had taken my money and the returned prop and simply disappeared. I tried to contact him at the numbers I had but he’d moved house. His workplace told me he’d left and they didn’t know where he was. He didn’t respond to emails.
A couple of weeks ago, I managed to find his new email address and discovered he was trading on Ebay under the name ‘mistymfan’. I emailed him at his new email address,
antimatterguy@yahoo.com, and asked for my money. I said that if he didn’t make some sort of gesture toward repaying me I’d post the story about him on the boards and let his potential customers make their own minds up. His response was simple. He said ’I’m sorry that you are not happy with the deal we did years ago. But be careful with the threats you make’.
That’s the last I heard from him. I’m still two grand down. He seems to show no remorse at all.
My message is simple; if you are dealing with Caslis please bear my story in mind.
Karl
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