Sceptile Master
Survivor of the Great Avatar Depression
I do not condone bootleg merchandise, especially Pokemon. It's even worse when people try to disguise a listing online as the real thing only to ship a bootleg, and I hope I never have to go through that. (If this is the wrong section of SPPF please move.)
I've seen various funny pictures online, of those funny, misshapen, oddly-proportioned, discolored bootleg Pokemon figures online before. I laugh at how obviously fake they are, but not all bootleg merchandise is that obvious to the naked eye.
For instance, a semi-local used gameshop I go to has been trying to sell bootleg copies of the generation 3 games (unboxed of course) for a whopping $29.95 for probably a few months now. I'll give them the benefit of a doubt and say that they didn't notice (the cartridges are discolored slightly and the E for everyone logo is skewed), and sadly someone who might buy them might not notice either. They were also trying to sell other bootleg games not too long ago like Pokemon Pearl for the GBA and Frigo Returns, but those disappeared, hopefully not because someone bought them. Even those though, are becoming slightly old bootlegs now.
More recently I've also seen a thread elsewhere about a bootleg copy of Pokemon Black being bought, so it's not like bootlegging of Pokemon is going to end anytime soon, with any iteration of the merchandise.
I suppose my question is to you is: how can one easily discern from bootleg merchandise today? I of course know not to buy from sketchy places, but some merchandise these days is only minimally discernible from the real thing. What bootlegs have you seen recently trying to be passed off as real?
(More specifically, I recently ordered the DXF N/Darumaka figure off of Amazon. It was a semi-limited figure from what I can gather, so I'd like to think that maybe it wasn't bootlegged [it's coming from the USA], but I'm not sure if any bootlegs of it even exist or if there's any differences on boxes between real and bootleg figures. I hope someone can answer this for me as well.)
I've seen various funny pictures online, of those funny, misshapen, oddly-proportioned, discolored bootleg Pokemon figures online before. I laugh at how obviously fake they are, but not all bootleg merchandise is that obvious to the naked eye.
For instance, a semi-local used gameshop I go to has been trying to sell bootleg copies of the generation 3 games (unboxed of course) for a whopping $29.95 for probably a few months now. I'll give them the benefit of a doubt and say that they didn't notice (the cartridges are discolored slightly and the E for everyone logo is skewed), and sadly someone who might buy them might not notice either. They were also trying to sell other bootleg games not too long ago like Pokemon Pearl for the GBA and Frigo Returns, but those disappeared, hopefully not because someone bought them. Even those though, are becoming slightly old bootlegs now.
More recently I've also seen a thread elsewhere about a bootleg copy of Pokemon Black being bought, so it's not like bootlegging of Pokemon is going to end anytime soon, with any iteration of the merchandise.
I suppose my question is to you is: how can one easily discern from bootleg merchandise today? I of course know not to buy from sketchy places, but some merchandise these days is only minimally discernible from the real thing. What bootlegs have you seen recently trying to be passed off as real?
(More specifically, I recently ordered the DXF N/Darumaka figure off of Amazon. It was a semi-limited figure from what I can gather, so I'd like to think that maybe it wasn't bootlegged [it's coming from the USA], but I'm not sure if any bootlegs of it even exist or if there's any differences on boxes between real and bootleg figures. I hope someone can answer this for me as well.)