Hey guys,
Wanting to know if i just burned…I bought a mask from Bryan Hoffman from Masket Case studios on Sept.26th. However…No mask yet… 
He communicated with me up until about week and a half ago…Now hes not answering my emails or messages about my mask? I just opened a dispute in Paypal today…
Has anyone else had any recent bad dealings with him?
Thanks,
Sorry if i posted this in the wrong place…
Something is wrong with his e-mail, so you have to use a secondary address, I’ll PM it to you. Try e-mailing him a few times over the next week at the new address, a lot of studios don’t usually get out masks in a month’s time, but the Pay Pal 40 day time limit should be held to.
He’s on the scammers list. Good luck.
He’s a shady character. As Juicemaster said, he’s on the scammers list. You should always check the scammers list before ordering a mask from anyone.
I know a lot of people here dislike him for different reasons, but I decided to work with him.
I lost touch with him for several weeks waiting for his masks to be finished, but he eventually got back to me.
The guy is busy, not shady.
He has family and work, and mask work.
I know some people here are upset with him for making masks at cheaper rates or for whatever reason, but communication is probably part of the problem.
I got my tracking number today for the mask I bought from him on Saturday. And I should be getting my mask on the 22nd. 4 day turnaround.
I’d follow up with him. Also, try his Facebook page as he has several people who have gotten their masks and interact with him.
It’s possible he got your order confused, or there was a mix up.
I just got my mask from him today and it didn’t take too long! He’s super busy with orders and stuff but the mask came out SICK! I really don’t know why hes on that scammers list he was swift with my order!
Took me a while 2 get a blank off him on ebay and finally i said '‘we’re not gonna play this game’'i,m filing a claim if I dont hear back and he replied the next day.He does pour a nice solid blank but I dont get how people are hot and cold.Good luck and u will prob get it since he will have an even slimmer chance of selling again this time.good luck.
Because he’s a scammer and ripped a lot of people off…not myself personally but I’ve read enough to know it’s not wise to send him any amount of money. He doesn’t deserve continued business
Where is this fabeled ‘Scammers List’ ?
Take it lightly as you wish but you’d be doing yourself a favor to educate yourself instead of joking about it. Not trying to be rude but people get ripped off all the time.
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I made a post about his work earlier and only one person came forward and said he took their money, but he didn’t explain the situation. Everybody else complained that he made a limited run, then made more at a cheaper price.
Shrug.
If you pay with paypal, and keep on top of it - there should be no reason anybody would get ripped off.
I agree that he should be a bit faster on the communication, but it is what it is.
He makes damn good masks is all I know.
There is more to it than that but I’ll leave that to someone who was actually around at that point if they choose to comment. Regardless, he deserves to be on the list and never sell a mask again in my opinion based on what I’ve read. I’m also pretty sure you can find out more by using the search feature on this forum…I’m sure there is plenty of threads about him and what he did.
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I wasn’t involved, but I’m posting this for informational purposes. I highly suggest reading up
I received a message about 15 minutes after the dispute was filed. He gave me a tracking number and said it would be to me this Wednesday or Thursday. I am not able to get any details from the tracking number yet… so i guess ill wait it out…
Thanks everyone for there input… hopefully i’ll get the mask this week… i just want what i paid for.that’s all 
Same thing happened to me a few years back. Bought a mask off of him on eBay. Tried to contact him 3 times, and nothing. I waited 43 days and after that I filed a claim. He responded quite quickly after that. Don’t close your case until the mask is in your hands.
Funny how he can respond to getting his money taken away lol but nothing else.
Thank you for posting the link to the HMK debacle, as I was just about to do so. All you need to know about Bryan Hoffman is right in that thread. Okay, now hold onto your hat because I have some typing to do.
Why is Bryan Hoffman on the scammers list? Why is it not the best idea to deal with him? Here we go, starting with my earliest experiences with him from back in 2008…
Okay, back when I started posting here in '08, Bryan was considered a good guy. He was one of the guys that genuinely seemed like you could trust, just because of the way he came off as a person. So, soon after, I had done a few deals with him in a short time frame. Two of those deals were on ebay for masks that were made already, one was for a St. Nick repaint and one was for a Closet Crasher Tramer he would make me from scratch. To be fair, it may have been one ebay deal but I do believe it was two. Okay, on the ebay deals, as always I paid immediately. I don’t play games with deals whether it be through ebay, here or anywhere. Because of that, I expect the same courtesy, especially when you give me a time frame or the ebay listing says it will ship within a certain time. So, I pay him immediately and I await a package in the time frame it’s supposed to arrive. It never shows. So, I wait a couple of extra days…no mask. I drop him a friendly message asking him if the mask shipped yet. He doesn’t get back to me. I give him 24 hours and still no answer. I contact him again the next day with the same friendly question and I believe he answered me that time. He tells me he’s been busy(not my fucking problem,actually…a deal is a deal) and that he will get it out within the next day or so. From that point I decide to wait and give him the benefit of the doubt. After around 5 days, no mask. I email him YET AGAIN. He gets back to me and apologizes and says it’s been “sitting by his front door” all boxed up and ready to go and he simply keeps forgetting it. This is insulting at this point but I remain cool about it. Well, I ended up getting the mask around 3 weeks later roughly. That is absolutely ridiculous. When someone sends you money, YOU SHIP!! Every deal I do ships either the same day or the next day. If I think there will be a hold up for some reason, I make the buyer aware of that right up front or if it’s an ebay auction, it specifies it in the listing. However, I never do that because unlike Hoffman, I do what I say. I have gone to the post office straight from work, I have dropped what I am doing and ran right out the door to make the post office the same day, you name it. I put myself in the buyer’s shoes and I know as I collector, I can’t wait to get my stuff. The same kind of crap went down with the Closet Crasher as well as a St. Nick repaint he did for me. He told me it would be a couple of weeks and it took a few months. To be fair, I wasn’t too bothered by that time frame because I typically wait at least that long with most mask makers if not much, much longer. The problem was his communication through the process. Bryan will literally not respond to you until you send him a few messages and he finally feels pressured a bit or if he thinks you will file a claim. Look at the responses above…see, once you mention a claim, Bryan will get right back to you. So, he isn’t any damn busier than anyone else. It’s all BS and he does not deserve a pass.
THE HMK DEAL-
Okay, so back when Bryan got the deal rolling with the Medley’s to do a full clay press of their pristine 75 Kirk, a few of my friends and quite a few veteran members jumped right on board. I was hesitant. The reason I was hesitant is because the price tag was $1500 for the Kirk and an additional $500 if you wanted the Myers version added as a package. After speaking to my friend Matthew Mayhem, who was very enthusiastic about the project, I decided to take the leap and buy into the deal. I sold a one of a kind KH/SLE to come up with the money, so I made a serious sacrifice. Before I decided to get in on the deal, I of course spoke to Bryan first. He told me everything I wanted to hear about how great it was going to be and how exciting it was. He also told me this…are you ready? Seriously, are you ready for this one? He told me that I would have the mask in 30 days!!! Now, if you only knew the grief he caused me and everyone else involved following this, you would laugh heartily to yourself. That time frame was nothing short of absurd and hot air coming from his mouth. I…waited…almost…2 years!!! Through that process he did every despicable thing you can possibly do. He lied to ALL of us CONSTANTLY. He would lie about how far along he was, he would lie about copies being done, he used shoddy materials that caused some blanks to literally crumble or melt in your hands, he switched latex on different copies so some were crap and some were better, etc. How do I know he lied? Read through that monstrous HMK thread and he flat-out admitted he lied to us every step of the way because he was going through a hard time. I even forgave him countless times, including after he admitted that he was lying. He blamed it on depression following the loss of his mom, which was indeed a tragedy. In fact, all of us rallied behind him and supported him deeply when his mother passed. So, we all understood but why not tell everyone you were struggling, drop the project and refund everyone? In fact, I asked him for a refund once we were at about the year mark and you know what he told me? He cannot refund me because the money is gone…all of it is gone. So, he used our money, the money that was his profit, to pay bills and stay afloat in life because he was financially struggling. How do I know that, you may ask? He told me when I asked for the refund. He told me he was two car payments behind and wasn’t making his bills and that there was no money to send me. Nice, huh? Think he’s a scumbag yet? Anyway, eventually the first HMK owner, Chad(Warlock) received his and sold it immediately. He sold it because the thing was tiny. He showed comparison pics next to another actual small mask and the thing was the size of a doll head. So, he thought after all of that time it was fine to send a customer a $1500 doll head. Ludicrous. I had the #12 set, which I kept for a couple of years since I went through so much trouble to get them. I recently sold them and I took a $800 loss on them because the bottom line is the masks were not even close to what they were supposed to be and the finishing was awful. So, I could have never sold them for what I paid. Not even close. If you ever have a full day on your hands, read through that HMK thread and you won’t believe what this guy did to 15-20 of us. That is when he ended up added to the scammer list.
In conclusion, the guy has retooled the HMK so many times it’s insane. There is the DCSM,the DCSM II, his new Frankenstein’d version he is selling(I forget the name) 31 copies of and the H2SM. I am SURE I am forgetting another version or two but even right there, it’s bad enough. So, HMK owners, your mask’s value is in the toilet. He did nothing to stay true to his word and he came out with countless versions of his inferior mask. Now, the H2SM is the BEST version of any. I ended up landing two blanks through Benny and had him finish them up H2 style. They are very impressive, the best thing he’s ever done and they destroy the HMK in every way, in my opinion as well as many others. That was his final insult. Make a mask that is derived from the HMK that is superior in every way and sell them for about $300-$350 finished!! So, $1500 for an HMK or $350 for a superior mask. Unreal. Down the line, he started selling blanks and finished copies of the H2SM for cheaper…and cheaper…and cheaper. At one point recently he was selling H2SM blanks for $60!!! What did that do? You guessed it, it destroyed the value of anyone’s H2SM’s that they paid hundreds for, including mine. So, burned by Hoffman once again.
I will admit, I did buy two H2SM blanks through Benny and now own two beautiful finished copies. I will go even further and admit that I even bought an H2SM Kirk off of him on ebay around a year or so ago. Surprisingly on that Kirk deal, he delivered immediately. The problem was the finishing was a horror show and I sold it months later because he painted it a pinkish, unnatural color. So, yes, I have dealt with him directly and indirectly even after the HMK atrocity. However, I would never make the mistake again. The only reason I repeatedly dealt with him, not to mention other mask makers that have taken me for a ride in different ways, is because I have a forgiving nature and always try to see the good in people.
The bottom line with Bryan Hoffman is that you have a 45 day Paypal protection window and as long as you stay within that time frame you will be fine. DON’T EVER make the mistake of going beyond 45 days with him. I don’t tell anyone not to deal with Bryan but I do want people to know who they are dealing with and what they can expect. He has a very long history of this nonsense at this point. Having family/personal issues? Guess what? WE ALL HAVE THOSE ISSUES!! That is no excuse to not stay in contact and not follow through on your obligations.
Man Randy it sucks to see you go through all this shit again (the memories it brings back) and it says a lot about you as a person to relive the bullshit to take the time to retell the nightmare you all went through. 
I took a couple hours last night and read that old thread unbelievable, I myself would have gotten arrested. I dont play that shit with anybody. I was a Bail Enforcement Agent for 10 years in Las Vegas apprehending over 3000 people, and turned down the states job to teach people the trade. If I send someone $ and dirty deeds go down I WILL find them and get my $ mask back. The patience the group had was a testament to the people on this board who were involved.
Anyways I always loved the H2SM from mcs but didnt want to go through that hassle. Luckily I scored a beautiful blank from a member here and sent it off to Wmp because Benny had my Creep and a NHK blank already and I wanted it finished by Halloween. It was at this time that Chris closed doors. He did tell me he would finish it and he kept his word. Its one of the best H2’s I own. I’m just glad I got my H2SM with no issues, but my advice to people would be to buy whatever MCS product second hand. JMO
Thanks again Lionel for posting that thread, thats something everyone needs to read. Unless you lived it. 
I read that entire giant thread last night. What a nightmare. It reminded me a little of when people ordered the 30th anniversary mask from Terry. I think that when an expensive limited project is offered, the artist should take a reasonable deposit to hold your spot. Then collect the balance upon completion of the project. Paying out several hundreds or thousands of dollars up front is too risky. I liked the old WMP system of a $25 deposit and balance when mask is ready to be made.