Sunday, July 10, 2011

BUYER BEWARE: Ideamine at prosportsfigures.com

*I hate having to put up a post like this but I want everyone to beware of a customizer that goes by the name Ideamine at http://www.prosportsfigures.com and on eBay at http://myworld.ebay.ca/ideamine

Ideamine is stealing images of other customizers work and passing it off as his own on eBay.

Below is the image that Ideamine is using in an auction. He is claiming that he is the artist who made these. I personally like how he tried to photoshop his fingers into the photo.

















Here are the original photos below. Look familar? Ideamine stole these images from www.bluechipcustoms.com from the artist Matt aka Jamf79. Matt is a long-time customizer and I consider him a friend. Matt has always gone out of his way to help me become the customizer that I am today. He is a true artist and does not deserve this. The sports customizing community is a very close group and we watch out for each other.















This is not the first time Ideamine has stolen another artists photos. Ideamine did the same thing a few months ago with a similar Cowboys custom. Ideamine stole the photos from another great customizer AND veteran Erick aka ect22. Stealing from another artist and passing off the work as your own is the lowest you can go if you claim to be an artist.

My guess is that he has multiple eBay accounts or possibly friends who then bid on it, "win it" and then leave him glowing reviews in an effort to try to make him look more reputable. He has been reported multiple times to eBay but still continues to do this.

Ideamine has been selling "customs" on eBay for years now. They usually consist of just taking one or two existing figures and slapping brown & green paint on them for mud and grass stains.

He has also been known to purchase other customs from REAL artists and then pass them off as his own in later auctions. When he tries to actually attempt a real custom and change numbers/names on figures they are done poorly with paint (rather than decals) and then photographed in a way as to hide the poor execution.

Ideamine has a unique style all his own. This post is not to bash the work that is truly his own. But when you look at the stuff he produces, you can clearly see it's the work in the auction.

A year or two ago he took the head from a Tomlinson Series 16 figure and put it on the body of a Tomlinson series 12 figure. He then tried passing this off as a "rare factory error" and a "one of a kind" figure on eBay. It took a cease and desist letter from McFarlane to get the auction pulled.

The deception does not stop there. His website is full of very questionable testimonials. Does this sound legit...

“In this day and age, it’s hard to find a company you can trust. PROSPORTSFIGURES.COM was recommended to me by a friend, and now I know why – the quality of sports figures and custom design sports figures I received was outstanding. Keep up the good work!”
Mike Taylor

My personal favorite is the guestbook entry by none other than Todd McFarlane (creator of McFarlane NFL sportspick figures) himself, yeah right.

Todd McFarlane: Owner of spawn.com & mcfarlane.com & everything Mcfarlane makes in the sports industry. said on May 10, 2011 6:38 PM
I notice that people on my spawn.com forums talk about the way you do custom figures & I just want you to know to just keep on doing what you do, & you will continue to get better at what you do with practice. I want you to know also as a designer that the things people say negative will make you better. I like the ideas you have with the figures & to me your work is cool dude. People use to think my work was crazy but you see I prove them wrong. Keep up the good creations!

I had NO PROBLEM with this person when he was just making poor customs for eBay. We all have different skill levels. But I will not let him steal the work of customizers whom I respect and admire and let him try to pass them off as his own.


****** NOTE *********


At the request of IDEAMINE, I've removed the photos of his "customs" from this blog. I believe he received his "cease and desist" notice from his hosting company for using my logo/banner on his website.

What this man fails to understand is what misrepresentation is. I put his photos on here and gave him FULL CREDIT FOR THEM. I did not say they were mine. Ideamine on the other hand, posts OTHER peoples work and takes credit for them. Ideamine takes pictures of other peoples work and tries to make money off them on eBay! That's the difference, he's a fraud.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a lying about ideamine. I bought from him before & I like that he hand paints his items. You are just a HATER!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dude you are talking a lot of mess about ideamine so make sure you tell the whole truth & let people know that the photo's you have posted of his work that everyone was sold & he got positive feed back by the customers. Dude your are a fuckn hater & you are wrong. I think you should mind your own business & worry about your customs. I am a supporter of ideamine & I know for a fact he gives back to society & his company supports Breast Cancer Awareness. Some of the funds he gave help my Mother get therapy & treatment. I don't see anything about you donating to any cause. I will pray for you to be a better person & not to be so judgemental of those who do customs different from what you do or use to seeing. Dude grow up!!!!

Jeremy said...

Ahhh! Ideamine comes out of the woodwork to make a comment and post. I'm so glad you always use the same poor grammar and the phrase HATER, it really makes it easy to tell it's you.

A picture is worth 1000 words Max. My pictures above tell the truth.

You stole those images of the Cowboy figures.

I had no problem with you when you just did your own thing. It wasn't my taste or style but at least it was your own. Now you've resorted to thievery and fraudulent eBay listings.

So, who's actually going to "win" those Cowboy customs on eBay? Which of your multiple accounts will you use? Since you don't own or have those figures (we all know you didn't make them either) is there really going to be a sale?

It's pathetic man. PULL THE AUCTION and make your apology to the artists you stole from. When that is done, I will remove this post on my blog. Until then, I believe it's important for everyone to see you for the fraud you are.

Anonymous said...

Ideamine saids to kISS HIS ASS. You have no one visting you site. Keep up the good work & I like the free advertisment of my company. Hate on you will never stop me. My work is so popular now. Thanks jweb26!!!!!

Anonymous said...

It's so sad the you are so much a negative person Jeremy because others are different. You should have mind your own business. Now you & the so call God Members will have to sufer!!!! Now you know!!!!!

Jeremy said...

I see your true colors coming through. I simply brought the truth and you come back with hate speech.

I am simply providing simple photographic evidence where you stole an artists work.

That's not my opinion, that is fact.

Are you honestly saying that YOU (IDEAMINE) made those custom Cowboy figures?

How is it that Matt from www.bluechipcustoms.com has all the original photographs AND all the photos documenting how he made those figures on his website? Why do those Cowboy figures have the sculpting AND painting style of Matt? They don't seem to match your "unique" style at all.

Please tell me how the photos lie.

Anonymous said...

He is not lying about ideamine - he is a complete fraud that can not make any customs of his own without crayons and sticker paper from his 3rd grade art class so he resorts to stealing photos of others work and trying to pass it off as his own.

Paddy C said...

Ideamine truly has sunk to a new low. Part of me is tempted to bid on his auction to see what actually arrives in the mail. It certainly won't be the figures posted.

coggsnyrnyg

Gavatari said...

I find it ironic that his name is "ideamine" when clearly he hasn't a mined a good idea ever. The only way this would be his actual custom is if it were DeSean Jackson flying over some Cowboys defender in a pose physically impossible to do. I'm sure there is a market for his customs somewhere, unfortunately, most blind people don't have much success using the internet.

Anonymous said...

IDEAMINE is not only a horrible customizer, but now, he has become a thief. Why did he end the auction early? It's because he "won" his own auction because he knows he has nothing to send a winning bidder.
All he was trying to do is build up his feedback for his horrible custom auctions.

IDEAMINE, you are a Douchebag!!!

Sincerely,
Robert R.

Jeremy said...

Guys, I'm going to erase any comments that I deem too inflammatory. The guy stole Matt's work and we all have the pictures to prove it.

Since this Max guy is now sending me death threats, I want to file a police report and I don't want this guy and getting any angrier than he is.

I want to keep taking the high road on this. Let IDEAMINE prove with pictures that he has this custom or let him continue to make threats that will land him in serious legal trouble.

Anonymous said...

Death Threats? Go to the Police Jeremy,plain and simple. Ideamine, you should be ashamed. People like you are twisted and sad, and will ultimately meet a bad fate. Have fun in jail! It's easy to be a tough guy over a keyboard....Jeremy, please tell me you are not afraid of this moron!?

Wolverine296 said...

Ideamine you are pathetic, I know a guy you might like to hang out with http://www.jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com/
You two can regale each other with stories of how your figures "sold" for $1000 a piece, yet the truly gifted customizers who sell their pieces only get $2-500 max. Jealousy and attention issues are only the bare minimum of your problems. How is it that you can't own up to your theft when you have clearly been discredited?! Nice work Jeremy, but a tool will always be a tool.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you know this but Ideamine has copied your avatar atop this fourm page (your helmet, etc.) and put "5 star customs" around the helmet along with his website name. If you go to his information tab, it's about a quarter of the way down.

Jeremy said...

Thanks for all your support guys. I have NO idea what this guys endgame is and at this point have to take the threats seriously.

I have filed a police report and this something that gets resolved on the federal level.

Thanks for the heads up on him stealing my banner. I actually chuckled at that.

It's a good thing that I'm recognized for my actual work and not the little banner on top of my blog. He can keep it.

An artist is only as good as the work he does and what he can actually deliver to his client. If he wants to pretend to be someone else, that's fine. He still has to deliver on what he pretends to be.

Customers will always be the final judge.

I can always rest easy knowing that everything on my blog was made by my me.

If somebody steals my artwork, I guess it's because they think it's better than anything they could ever create.

I guess it is flattering.

John B. said...

Hi Jeremy,

I just sent you an email.

JB

Anonymous said...

This guy has no original ideas of his own at all - he steals other customizers pictures because his customs are horrible and now he has to steal graphics from this blog because he has no graphic skills. He's a joke.

Anonymous said...

prosportsfigures.com is the best

Anonymous said...

prosportsfigures.com is the best at taking other peoples photos and artwork and passing it off as their own. I can take ANY IMAGE and ANY PHOTO and claim it as my own!

Anonymous said...

ideamine aka prosportsfigures.com is a poser and dishonest. There are never good pictures of his crappy work unless he has stolen pictures from others. Why? Good pictures would show his crappy work and nobody would buy it. He is an imitator that has some strong glue. ideamine has become quite the running joke as he struggles to build himself up in the eyes of others.

Anonymous said...

See you stole photo's from ideamine. I think your a loser. Oh I know you are going to delete supporters of ideamine and just post what you like. I perfer 5 stars over four stars. LMAO!!!!

Jeremy said...

Oh Ideamine, you crack me up. I posted photos of yours and gave your credit for them. That's what artists do. If they use someone elses photo, they let everyone know who's it is.

You steal people's work and never give them credit for it. You lie and claim it's your own. That is the lowest anyone who calls them self an artist can go!

As far as deleting posts from Ideamine supporters, there aren't any. They are all you posting as anonymous. Maybe it would be more convincing if all the comments weren't coming from the same IP address.

As soon as you want admit stealing Jamf79's artwork to sell on eBay, I'll take down this post. Until then, everyone should be aware you are a thief.

The fact that you even stole my logo and put in on your website shows you don't have a single original idea.

JB said...

Hey Ideamine, How about putting your skills where your mouth is? Perhaps a contest between you and Jeremy? That way everyone can truly see who has the better skill set. My money is on Jeremy.

Jeremy said...

I love that idea JB!

Ideamine, I'm closing commenting on this thread. I'm too busy with making actual customs to take the time to monitor this.

If you need to get in touch with me, I'm sure you know my email.

The proof is in this post for all to see. Photos don't lie.

To everyone else, thank you for your support and your emails. I'm just trying to do the true artists a service. Customizers all stick together. We all get better when we all work together.