[help] comparing variable values?

I hope someone can help me.

I’m busy with a php script and I’m reading variables from my database and comparing it with another variable.

$get_item = "select * from item_pics WHERE user = ‘something’ ";
$get_item_res = mysql_query($get_item) or die (mysql_error());

$item_name1 = stripslashes(mysql_result($get_item_res,0,’$item_name1’));

$item_1 = stripslashes(mysql_result($get_item_res,0,‘item_1’));
$item_2 = stripslashes(mysql_result($get_item_res,0,‘item_2’));

if ( ($item_name == ‘$item_1’) || ($item_name == ‘$item_2’) ) {
echo “ITS THE SAME”;
}

If I do a echo on the value of the variables it shows that $item_name and $item_2 have the same value. But using this script above it doesn’t seem to read that they have the same value. But if I change ($item_name == ‘$item_2’) to ($item_name == ‘thevalue’) then it works

What am I doing wrong? I would really appreciate any help. Thanks ! :sigh::sigh: