Warning about a new ebay seller with some dishonest listings.

[earl]

There's a new ebay seller, animator818 (selling Muppet Babies cels at the moment), who is listing things in a dishonest way. Most of their listings say that they come with matching production backgrounds, but I make a habit of checking the scene (if possible) before purchasing cel setups with matching BGs (especially from new/unfamiliar sellers) and found that they were not matching in many cases. For example:

Listing title: "Rare Original Jim Henson's Muppet Babies Production Cel and Matching Background"
Some of the description: "This original hand painted cel of baby Kermit (in fantasy costume) is matched to the original painted background that was used in the making of Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies."

Image:



Screenshot:



I messaged the seller, simply asking if the cel numbers matched and that it looked like they might be a bit off. This was the response I got:

"I'm sorry that you don't feel the character positions match exactly the original scene, but in these cel setups, the cels almost never match the exact exposure order. The best cels are usually picked to make the setups, rather than cels that match the exact exposure order. The production people doing this work would never use a damaged or lesser cel in these setups just because of matching exposure. Also, some of the cels are reuse in another scene and are unavailable."