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i've posted about this character before, but that was when he was peddling his goofy homemade helmets for a couple of hundred bucks a pop, helmets that he described as authentic gamers. however flipsyr has since ratcheted things a notch by picking up authentic vintage helmets on ebay and turning them into nfl look-alikes - look-alikes that have been fetching over $1,000 each.
his m.o. used to be pretty simple: he would cobble together crude, homemade suspension units and glue them into modern helmets shells, complete with faux rivets. the result was a goofy mess but apparently good enough to fool inexperienced collectors. well now he has a new m.o. which is proving much more lucrative: purchasing authentic vintage gamers and dressing them up as nfl helmets from yesteryear - for good measure he adds artificial wear, often takes a stab at engraving the manufacturer's logo into the striping on the rear of the helmet to make folks think the striping was factory installed and, last but not least, he also cuts holes into the striping to expose the rivets to further fool folks into believing the striping was factory installed, hence authentic.
here are three of his recent ebay fakes - the redskins helmet sold for $1,425, the saints helmet sold for $1,452 and the patriots helmet is currently listed with a bin/bo price of $1,500..
here's a look at the back of the saints helmet that sold for $1,400 - note the amateurish stab at trying to reproduce the manufacturer's heat-stamped logo on top of the stripes. as i mentioned, this is done to fool folks into believing that this was done at the factory, i.e. that the helmet is authentic. also included are other examples of flpsyr's "heat-stamp" work.
here's a look at what he's shooting for:
here's a before-and-after look at a few of the better fakes flpsyr has sold on ebay - to the left is how the helmet looked when he purchased it on ebay months earlier, to the right is what it looked like after he was done with it. all are actual examples of his handiwork except for the last one, the redskins helmet. in this case flpsyr purchased a vintage washington state helmet from an ebayer who has sold a dozen+ during the last few years - in fact the photo to the left of the redskins helmet is one of washington state helmets the ebayer sold, very similar to the one flpsyr used.
last but not least, a host of other fakes described as authentic that flpsyr has sold on ebay through the years:
his m.o. used to be pretty simple: he would cobble together crude, homemade suspension units and glue them into modern helmets shells, complete with faux rivets. the result was a goofy mess but apparently good enough to fool inexperienced collectors. well now he has a new m.o. which is proving much more lucrative: purchasing authentic vintage gamers and dressing them up as nfl helmets from yesteryear - for good measure he adds artificial wear, often takes a stab at engraving the manufacturer's logo into the striping on the rear of the helmet to make folks think the striping was factory installed and, last but not least, he also cuts holes into the striping to expose the rivets to further fool folks into believing the striping was factory installed, hence authentic.
here are three of his recent ebay fakes - the redskins helmet sold for $1,425, the saints helmet sold for $1,452 and the patriots helmet is currently listed with a bin/bo price of $1,500..
here's a look at the back of the saints helmet that sold for $1,400 - note the amateurish stab at trying to reproduce the manufacturer's heat-stamped logo on top of the stripes. as i mentioned, this is done to fool folks into believing that this was done at the factory, i.e. that the helmet is authentic. also included are other examples of flpsyr's "heat-stamp" work.
here's a look at what he's shooting for:
here's a before-and-after look at a few of the better fakes flpsyr has sold on ebay - to the left is how the helmet looked when he purchased it on ebay months earlier, to the right is what it looked like after he was done with it. all are actual examples of his handiwork except for the last one, the redskins helmet. in this case flpsyr purchased a vintage washington state helmet from an ebayer who has sold a dozen+ during the last few years - in fact the photo to the left of the redskins helmet is one of washington state helmets the ebayer sold, very similar to the one flpsyr used.
last but not least, a host of other fakes described as authentic that flpsyr has sold on ebay through the years:
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