I have been contacted by both Mr. Armando Alvarez (“Super Hollywood”, “super38“) as well as Mr. Edward Pugia (“Costume Junkie”, “costumejunkie“) in regards to my articles about Superman costumes in the marketplace (see “Questions About Superman Costumes in the Marketplace: Authenticity, Sources, Quantity“, “Update“, “Update 2“, “Update 3“).
I spoke with Mr. Alvarez on the phone at length on 1/27 and 1/28, and invited him to share on this blog as much information as he is able to, in the form of a Reader Comment, and I would quote such statements in an update article to provide him an opportunity to address outstanding questions about the Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, and Greatest American Hero costumes with “Super Hollywood” provenance/Certificates of Authenticity/Letters of Authenticity.
I have exchanged several e-mails with Mr. Pugia in the past two days, and have extended the same offer to him. He has since posted a “Reader Comment” in the “Update 3” article, which can be seen HERE.
I do not warrant nor affirm the truthfulness or accuracy of any of the information shared, but feel it is appropriate to provide a platform to respond for those to whom I have specifically addressed questions, as raised in my articles. Please note, however, the website Terms of Service (Registration, Reader Comments), as posted at the “About the OPB” link at the top of every page of this website.
costumejunkie Response to “Questions About Superman Costumes in the Marketplace”
costumejunkie Says:
February 7th, 2008 at 9:58 pm eWe decided to contact Jason to tell him EXACTLY what happened to us here at Costumejunkie.
Jason, this is Edward at Costumejunkie. I received several emails about the Superman costume we had for sale on Ebay being a fake.
We purchased the costume through Super38 (Ebay id) Super Hollywood, ie Armando Alvarez. Since I’ve never owned a Superman or Supergirl costume we went on the COA and great Ebay reputation of Super Hollywood/Armando Alvarez.
We did relist the costume after assurances from Armando Alvarez, response from him:
HI Edward, those rumors started with Gerard
Christopher who played Superboy on the t.v. series.
He was doing that to get back at Ms. Mungia. Ms.
Mungia had 20 Superboy costumes that were being held
for him, but he was not able to pay her. They were
worn once on his show, and held by her. This has
nothing to do with Superman, but never the less it’s
affected both the Superboy and Superman pieces.
Since that time, what he spread regarding fakes has
taken on a life of it’s own. Now you have people
sharing their two cents worth without any facts, just
repeating what they’ve heard, and usually not
correctly.
This response is to your private email, please do not
post on the messages boards. Thank you. (Also we
sold one for about $27,900 with Profiles, complete)
Super HollywoodTherefore, we relisted the costume for what we had into the suit, replica belt, replica boots, and mannequin. ALso, I noticed that I made a mistake listing the suit and put Superman III. Therefore I removed the III from the listing as it would have been incorrect to keep it in the auction title and description.
Then we received a question from an Ebay member saying:
Edward, that is NOT an original Superman costume in
any way. The fabric is wrong and too new looking. I
don’t know what you are trying to pull but you are
committing fraud. That is an Armando Alvarez replica
complete with fraudulent B and N tags placed in it.
That Ana Mungia COA has been reproduced more times
than FX stormtrooper armor. Everyone knows it’s
fake. Don’t make your reputation worse than it
already is. Real Superman costumes sell for $ 45,000
or more.So AGAIN, I emailed Armando Alvarez and included the above statement and he responded:
HI Edward, those rumors started with Gerard
Christopher who played Superboy on the t.v. series.
He was doing that to get back at Ms. Mungia. Ms.
Mungia had 20 Superboy costumes that were being held
for him, but he was not able to pay her. They were
worn once on his show, and held by her. This has
nothing to do with Superman, but never the less it’s
affected both the Superboy and Superman pieces.
Since that time, what he spread regarding fakes has
taken on a life of it’s own. Now you have people
sharing their two cents worth without any facts, just
repeating what they’ve heard, and usually not
correctly.
This response is to your private email, please do not
post on the messages boards. Thank you. (Also we
sold one for about $27,900 with Profiles, complete)
Super HollywoodSTILL we received emails that the Superman we had was fake.
This time I emailed Armando Alvarez to ask if he could purchase them back from me, SINCE he said he had people looking all the time and I purchased his last suits.
I sent him 3 emails over 10 days just cutting and pasting the same message about purchasing them back and NOTHING.
Then I contacted Paypal and they’re no help but I did find his phone number and called. I got his answering machine and left him a message saying I suspected the suits to be fake and wanted my money back or I’d have to sue him.
NOW, he says he can back up the authenticity and that he doesn’t have money to give me a refund.
OK, all that said, I just want to say, we had NO idea they were fake. They were purchased in June and July of 2007 with the intentions they’d be in my personal collection forever. Then my wife was diagnosed with cancer and our medical bills started to climb. Only when I tried to sell the suit did I suspect it, and the supergirl were fakes.
Here’s what I need, I need to PROVE they’re fake. I need to know who I can send them both to so they can be authenticated as real or fake. If fake, then we can go ahead and persue legal action to recoup our losses and brand these 2 suits REPLICAS.
I’d appreciate any help you could give as I’m only one person running a small business trying to stay honest and give our customers REAL merchandise.
ANY help we can get getting these 2 suits authenticated so we can proceed with legal action to recoup our initial investment would be great.
Jason De Bord
Additional Related Articles: Market Watch | Superman