Fake merchandise from China

[Tokyo15]

We are starting this post to tell people about the problem with buying Japanese anime and manga toys especially on eBay from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, etc.

To start 90% of these toys from these countries are fake, made in China by people who work for and who steal the moulds from Bandai, Yujin, Kotobukiya, etc. The remaining 10% of these toys, and we know this from experience and by acquaintances who buy or sell in China, are stolen.

You can tell the genuine from the fakes by comparing prices. Gashapon figures are between £1 and £3 in Japan, so for a set of 5 figures in Japan you can pay between £5 and £15. In the UK and US they range from £10 to £20 due to import customs costs, exporting tax costs and shipping. From China you pay £5 no matter what they cost in Japan. Boxed Candy Toys range from £2 to £4 per figure in Japan and for a set of 5 figures you expect to pay between £10 and £20. In the UK and US they range from £20 to £30 due to the costs mentioned above. From China you pay £5 to £10 no matter what the originals cost in Japan.

So what are the other differences? Fake toys are by and large poorer in quality and even in rare cases poisonous materials are used in paints or plastics. There are different levels of fakes, the higher the price the better the quality of the fake. They don’t just fake the figures; they fake the box, the instructions and the tags. Some are done really well because they are copied from the originals, some are poor and are written by non-Japanese with only a basic understanding of Hiragana and Katakana. Only Japanese natives and people who can read the Japanese language can notice inconsistencies. Official products are higher in quality and are put through rigorous health and safety checks.

Pricing and poor quality aside, we would now like to talk about the bigger picture in the manufacture of fakes. The factories that make these fakes often use slave or low paid labour. Economically this is destroying the Japanese market and their businesses in the fact that even though their products are made in China the fakes are bought more widely by the larger Chinese and Malaysian markets. This in turn effects Japanese production of newer and wider ranges of figures by the official companies. Bandai and Yujin have been to court countless times in attempts to stop fake production companies; this shows their dedication and displeasure of the art of faking.

This part probably doesn’t affect the conscience of buyers from the UK and US as much as buyers from Japan. Fakes are worth nothing, they have no value. Official products in Japan can double; triple and even quadruple in value within 6 months of their release.

So before you next buy on eBay from Asian countries other than Japan then there is a 90% probability that you are buying fake products if they are low in price and you are therefore putting money into the pockets of fakers and their low paid work force, and there is a 10% chance you are putting money in the pockets of thieves. If you see a higher priced product from these countries on eBay then it is probably genuine, but who is to say that this is 100% proof? After all there are fake sellers in the UK and US also. Travel to any China Town and you will see these fakes, so even buying on eBay from the UK could be a problem unless you consider the real prices of these figures. To add to this, very few companies in Japan will ship their products outside of Japan due to their laws on this and people who do sell official products in the UK generally have people who pay taxes in Japan on their behalf, middlemen.

Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean better, be aware that if you pay these lower more acceptable prices and save yourself some money in the process you affect the bigger picture, you give money to criminals and cause more problems for the official licensed producers.

Thank you for reading this long post, make you own decisions and minds about what is said here.

Andrew & Tomoka

[Tokyo Otaku]

I agree, but the price is not always a way to tell, some of the online and street retail shops also have fakes that are very expensive. Plus a lot of fans will go for the fakes as at the moment some shops up the prices for figures so much that your average Otaku can't afford them, I have seen figures that I sell in my shop, taking into account that I have added Tax, shipping and a small percentage on top of what it cost me, going for 6 to 10 times more then the price they should be, some retailers just wish to screw as much money out of the customers as possible.

[Manning]

Agreed, prices especially on eBay arn't always a tell tale sign of a bootleg/fake.

Dodgy sellers like to use the actual promotional pics of a figure in order to trick the buyer, and usually stick a reasonable price on it, what you would expect to pay for the legit item. Much to peoples dismay when they turn up in plain white boxes and notice the actual figure doesn't quite look like the picture.

Alot of dodgy online retailers in particular like to take advantage of fake merchandise from popular franchises, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Fullmetal Alchemist etc, unsuspecting buyers won't really have a clue what they are buying.

[Tokyo15]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Otaku

I agree, but the price is not always a way to tell, some of the online and street retail shops also have fakes that are very expensive. Plus a lot of fans will go for the fakes as at the moment some shops up the prices for figures so much that your average Otaku can't afford them, I have seen figures that I sell in my shop, taking into account that I have added Tax, shipping and a small percentage on top of what it cost me, going for 6 to 10 times more then the price they should be, some retailers just wish to screw as much money out of the customers as possible.

There used to be a shop in China Town near us that did exactly that, but they were so obviously fake by the bad paint work that you could tell. And some of the boxed figures had the Hiragana and Katakana wrong on the back of the box. Though we still think pricing is a good indication to start with, especially on eBay.

We didn't realise some retailers sold official goods for 6-10 times more than what they should be, that's disgusting. In some cases even 1 times we feel can be too much, especially for the smaller figures.

[Tokyo15]

Originally Posted by Manning

Dodgy sellers like to use the actual promotional pics of a figure in order to trick the buyer, and usually stick a reasonable price on it, what you would expect to pay for the legit item. Much to peoples dismay when they turn up in plain white boxes and notice the actual figure doesn't quite look like the picture.

Unfortunately using official pictures when selling goods is the norm for most official goods web sites as well because the either don't have the time to take hundreds of pictures or they would have to open sealed boxes. Even bigger on line shops use official pictures 90% of the time. Though I have noticed on eBay some gashapon sellers use tags to display the figures. It's a pity not everyone can read Japanese because we've found written mistakes on these tags pictured.

[Manning]

No probs with legit sellers using promotional pics, as they should, I prefer them, they are buying from the official distributers and I imagine they get supplied with such pictures.

The moral of the story is to research where your considering to buy from.

It's good that a few are trying to spread the word lately though, people think that it's only dvd's and cd's that can be copied, but bootlegging pretty much effects all merchandise these days, and unlike the latter form, figures and such cost a lot more.

[DTR]

We could do with a thread listing trustworthy websites...

When I started buying figures I bought some from ebay, because they were a lot cheaper. Having not seen figures before, I was just appuled at the quality of them. Figures would not stand straight and the paintworl was awful. Obviously I've since learnt that figures bought from trustworthy people such as Play-asia are 100% better.

Personally I would say never buy figures off ebay, at all.

[Roadkill Demon]

Generally I stay away from a seller if it says Honk Kong or somewhere like that, but I've bought a couple of figures off ebay (usually reputable looking places). I recently bought an old Alpha GITS figure of Motoko, a red variant of the "Whiteout" figure. Although I can't find any info on the Alpha company, I've seen them sold in plenty places (admittedly a while back).

[Teddy Boy]

As Manning may remember, we at Eye on Asia started off selling items on eBay and it is very difficult to try and compete with the 90% bootleg figures on there. Since those days we have moved off eBay and now operate privately. One of the biggest factors that cause people in the UK to buy bootleg, even if they suspect it, is that some of the oldest, most trusted retailers are selling their goods at extortionate prices. We use most of the same suppliers as these places and sell our top of the line stock for £15-£20 less and offer free postage, and still make enough to keep expanding. I strongly believe some of the older anime figure retailers and their pricing are the base cause for people to buy bootleg.

[Tokyo15]

I didn't think there were that many retailers out there that are so expensive, Teddy Boy. I know some US sites are quite expensive. We started on eBay as well but it was a waste of time when a Gashapon set for £14 was up against the same from Hong Kong for £3.99. Pity people didn't see that postage was £14 from there though. Why do they charge so much? We ship to asian countries and it certainly doesn't cost that much.