a resolution came out of this. after some back and forth with court, the decision was made to take down the ebay listing, which was the right thing to do and would have been the proper initial response.
court has asked me to post the below. i will refrain from making initial comments since at the end of the day i was able to get what i asked for...
"Hi Carlos,
I am sorry that you are so unhappy about this. However, I think your definition of "original art" might be flawed. You asked if your piece was original, or "if you were tricked". Of course the art is original, it is all drawn by hand. You received a two-page 20-character piece of original artwork for $86. You received exactly what you paid for, and exactly what was listed in the auction. Nowhere in the auction does it explicitly state that the artist is no longer free to recreate the image, or to draw a similar image. And the piece on eBay is NOT identical to the one you purchased. The image is based on the same layout, but the art on eBay is half the size of the piece you purchased months ago. So, if you want to be technical about it, you have purchased Ed Nardo's "Princess Peach (17 x 22)", and the one on eBay is "Princess Peach (11 x 17)".
Artists often take another pass at an image that they are proud of, or often do different versions of classic images that they are famous for. Artists are sometimes even commissioned to recreate an image in their gallery that has already been sold. This is nothing new. There are multiple versions of the Mona Lisa, and yet no one accuses the Mona Lisa of not being "original art" simply because the artist chose to create this image more than once. Robert Rauschenberg intentionally created the same image twice concurrently, as an exercise to see how closely he could recreate the same work. Now both of those pieces hang side-by-side in MoMA.
I do not dictate what my artists choose to draw, and while I have suggested to them that it would be preferable to create new images rather than to revisit an older image, I am not about to tell them that they cannot take a second pass at an image that they are proud of. So, while this is certainly the exception rather than the rule, it is fair to say that there is always a possibility that an artist might choose to draw something more than once if they think that they might improve upon it, or if another customer specifically commissions such a recreation.
That being said, customer satisfaction is very important to me. So...I have ended the offending listing, and will encourage Ed Nardo not to recreate his own work in the future.
On another note, a little constructive criticism: You attract more bees with honey than vinegar. Your initial email on this matter was the following:
“hi, i was under the impression that i had purchased an original piece of art when i bought this exact same piece from you a few months ago. was i tricked??”
To which I responded with the following:
“Looks like Ed Nardo recreated the piece you bought months ago (this new one is only 11 x 17, while yours is 17 x 22). Both of them are original (100% drawn by hand).”
You wrote back again, but you did not like my initial response, so rather than waiting even 36 hours to hear back from me over a holiday weekend, you took your grievances to a public message board with a post entitled, “A Comiconart! Farce”. I would have been happy to continue discussing this matter privately, but you chose instead to make this matter public. You have been combative and abrasive since your very first post, and I think you have a rather inflated sense of entitlement regarding exactly what rights you receive when purchasing a 20-character 17x22 piece of original artwork on eBay for less than $90. You might want to take a less confrontational approach in the future.
Since you have felt the need to post the rest of our conversation online, I would appreciate it if you could do me the courtesy of posting this response in its entirety on the “A Comiconart! Farce” thread.
Sincerely,
Court Gebeau
www.comiconart.com"
hope something gets worked out. good luck man.
