Dead on Arrival
Has this ever happened to you before?
I just received this figure of Ignis (my second figure ever) that I bought for less than 20€ from a shop on ebay. Sadly, I realized that it was not worth it when I saw the battered box in the hand of the postman... packed in nothing but paper and bubble wrap, the box was severely dented, and even worse, the figure inside is a catastrophe. Paint chipping off, horrible seams, scratched surfaces and even a crack in the crotch area (no pun intended), along with these dark scratches in the face.
All very harsh for a so-called "sealed", thus brand-new figure, in my opinion.
What happened, did Ignis get in a fight the with postman? Or is this a bootleg?
More pictures here.
Cracks and dubious paint jobs.
Paint coming off the sword. Did I mention that it seems impossible to get it into her hand?
"Save" packaging. I even remember paying insurance. Still waiting for a reply from the seller.
sorry but that is definately a bootleg, MaxFac Ignis is heavily bootlegged figure in ebay.
I'm with Eternal_Frenzy, It's looks like a bootleg product or a defective product for me.
Well, May I make a post for my Bootleg information with your post?
I guess it can never hurt to spread more information about these bootlegs... I am still waiting for an explanation from the seller, they had a 100% positive review rating so far, but I think it might come from a curious little piece of paper that came with the box ("If you give us a 5-star rating, you will get a discount on your next figure or a free figure", something along those lines... as if I'd want any more of this)
Yes my friend, I had the same problem with my Nendoroid Konata, a 99,8% Positibe with 8k points sent me a Bootleg.
He paid me back all my money and we solved our problem...
i had the same problem with a figma nagato yuki, and she had 100% postive T.T. She never sent an answer and i still have the bootleg
"If you give us a 5-star rating, you will get a discount on your next figure or a free figure""
Sounds familiar.. Had that with a Rena (Higurashi) bootleg. I send it back, but he never received it (or I just lost 10 euros :| Oh well..)
No need to be sorry, I guess I was not very smart buying it. I'm kind of curious how the seller will reply; I wrote them an email asking for an explanation.
Through my experience in Ebay, the best way to avoid fake "bootleg" figures is to only deal with sellers from Japan or USA (sellers from China usually sell fake figures, but not all of them. there are some honest sellers in china), always check the seller's feedback, and also if the price is too good to be true, it probably is a fake figure.
You should post the seller's name here so we can all avoid that particular seller.
Agreed. I recommend only going to eBay in dire circumstances, such as what you're looking for not being available anymore through feasable means like HLJ or Hobby Search and the like. And if you do have to resort to eBay, then make sure the price they're offering is at least close to the actual price of the item's retail. It also helps to shop using the Buy it Now option.
I've ordered one figma off eBay (Hatsune Miku) and plan to make a purchase of Revoltech's Enki very soon, and AFAICT I have a legitimate product. I'm sorry to hear you were ripped off, and hope you get resolution soon. If you don't hear from the seller after a week, I recommend you contact your CC company to reverse payment, maybe even sooner rather than later.
I've seen plenty of figures I'm sure are bootlegs for 90% of the original price, or even cost more(!).
Just need to be wary.
I once even sent a message to a seller, asking whether their product was legit or bootleg. And to my surprise, I got an honest answer that it's a bootleg, heh.
First off, teh seller isn't stupid. They're not gonna do shit about it. You already paid them, and they already sent out the item. They're only gonna say that it was your fault. Don't even try to argue with them, cause chnces are, you aren't gonna get your money back.
Well, they can complain that the item was not adequately protected and the box and item inside arrived severely damaged. I'm not sure if that is cause for a full refund, but at least it's a start =/
You can file a suit with eBay/PayPal, up to 60 days from the order. You may get your money back, after all, it's "Item is not as described."
Apparently he is, since I paid with PayPal. I already filed a suit like Thunder_God suggested: "Item is not as described." "Damaged" "Imitation". We'll see about the reaction.
eBay and PayPal are owned by the same people, so them telling you to pay with PayPal serves them, but it DOES in fact actually serve your protection as well.
Just need to do it before 60 days elapse, which means if your transportation method takes more than 60 days, begin something before 60 days elapse, so you could close it or go on with it later.
I wish you luck on that. Typically, paypal will work in favor of the buyer if it's been escalated. You may be asked to provide proof, in which you can direct them to the photos you took.
Yup. That's bootleg alright.
Speaking of dead on arrival, DC hijacked post of my rant on a certain other Ignis:
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/4606/Crap+Figures.html
if you are really angry and all
you might as well slipped a firecracker, or something alike, and blow this bootleg to smitherens XD
just like this guy do XD
http://www.figure.fm/post/en/2765/Blowing+up+a+FAKE+Gundam.html
try that if you didn't satisfying reply from your seller :D
and remember, i'm giving my opinion, not forcing it :D
OK. That is a definitely a bootleg.
First off.
Before u buy. Do research on the figure. Just google, whether it has been bootlegged or not.
Ignis MF version has been out of print, so if u want one, you have to be willing to pay a lot. Well. not really alot, but they generally cost from 80+ dollars USD.
Here is a website U can use to for tips:
http://www.nutsforanimefigures.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139&Itemid=39
Honestly, I got bamboozled and bought a bootleg Ignis figure too. That would be my first figure. Though, I wasn't angry or anything, cause for the price I paid, mine didnt actually look bad. :D
OF course, these days I do the research before I buy, and I tend to buy from reputable US sellers or from Japanese stores. ALSO, I do buy figures from ebay, cause quite frankly, even though there are a lot of bootlegs, if u use a bit of intuition, and careful research, you can get legit figures on ebay. That's how I got my KOS-MOS swimsuit version from Alter anyways, thru ebay.
http://myfigurecollection.net/ also has a decent list of bootleg figures, so you might want to check there too. You can also post your figure collection, and it's a great place to keep tabs on what you have ^^
Another note, the only figures that cost relatively cheap, like around $20 USD or something like that, are Banpresto's DX figures.
And yet they still make/sell bootlegs of them.. >.<
As you are probably aware by now, that Ignis is a fake. After viewing the pictures in your link, I point out just a few of the glaring discrepancies below. For comparison, you can see pictures of the authentic Max Factory Ignis here (http://www.happysoda.com/101/ignis-one-killer-butterfly ).
(a) her hair antenna is supposed to point sideways, not backwards (DSC00589.JPG)
(b) the belt-strap near her left thigh is supposed to underneath the left tail end of her dress, not over it (DSC00594.JPG)
(c) shoddy paintwork in general
She's also supposed to come with a pair of nice glasses, which is often missing in the bootleg copies.
obviously its bootleg.
now do post the link of the auction. wonders what kind of pics did the scammer post up.
I'm curious which eBay seller this is, mind sharing this? ^^*
If the seller won't resolve this with you, you may be able to seek recourse through eBay. I don't think seller's can remove the ads once a bid is won and stay in their system for a little while. But I would probably print a hard copy of the ad, so that you have proof of what the seller was advertising.
Leave negative feedback on them too so others can be warned. I am always careful when I get stuff from eBay because there seems to be many crooks lurking there, especially when it comes to anime merchandise.
that really sucks, the first and only figure i bought from ebay was a bootleg. If it makes you feel any better, a friend of mine knocked my ignis over and broke the front of her hair, a piece of it got lost so i can't really fix it. she was perfect for about an hour lol
My condolences on your first figure being a bootleg =/ The only real way to avoid getting a bootleg is purchasing through a reputable JP site that will ship out of Japan like HLJ or Hobby Search. Also, pay the extra money for EMS tracking. It'll cost you a pretty penny (my Alter Yagami Hayate ended up costing me an extra $40 on shipping alone ><) but is totally worth it in the end because you are assured to receive the genuine article =)
Of course, in the case of discontinued or rare merchandise that can't be acquired this way, it's pretty much luck of the draw if you go with eBay =/
haha indeed, learned that lesson the hard way. actually bought the legit version of the same haruhi figure from HLJ upon realizing the other was a bootleg. and got it quicker lol.
If the listing of Ignis advertised something along the lines of "100% Brand New," "Mint," etc. it's a flexible way of saying that -is- new, but not necessarily -authentic-.
Sifting through their feedback is also recommended. Don't just pay attention to the amount of good feedback they have—what did buyers write? Look for feedback that says "this seller sells authentic figures" or pay attention to buyers who might say "was not packaged well." If the feedback only reads "good" or "thanks" then I would remain very, very wary of purchasing from them. Descriptive feedback is what you need to focus on.
Stupid bootlegs...
Sorry =/
Just file a dispute with ebay (if you have not left positive feedback yet) and be done with it.
Reason is "item is not as advertised". No need to even write emails to seller outside of the dispute system, that only wastes time.
By ebay rules seller is responsible that goods arrive to you safely even if you did NOT pay for shipping insurance (no matter how much sellers would like you to believe otherwise).
I had pretty positive experience with ebay disputes in the past including a succesful $1000 dispute for VOLKS Belldandy and Holy Bell statue that never arrived.
Man I remember when I bought my first bootleg. They were Kingdom Hearts Playarts. But I was able to get my money back. I suggest joining Tsuki-board and check out all of the bootleg listings there. Not everything is up to date but you can have a good idea on what's bootleg and not.
http://myfigurecollection.net/
Seems like you bought from candydata, cuz that's where I bought mine (the packaging I received is exactly like yours) and paid for insurance and had my packaging totaled at arrival. And like yours, mine was a bootleg : (
Below is the link to the feedback of the eBay seller that I bought from... total bootleg, now I just go for Hobby Search : )
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=candydata&ftab=AllFeedback&sspagename=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1183
Heh, you are right. I just sent it back a few days ago, I hope that he will actually refund me. What did you do?
I just left a negative review, a lot of the sellers from china & hong kong are a bit dodgy. Hopefully you will get your refund. Now i just stick to Hobby search, fast shipping with EMS and they have a very useful point system if you are going to buy more figures in the future.
Hope everything goes well on your side.
I am curious about something. The photo that shows the paint coming off the sword to me doesn't look like the paint has come off. It looks more like a chip in the sword which makes me wonder if this isn't really a bootleg copy but actually this figure may have been owned by someone else who took it from their collection and re-boxed it making it out as being brand new. If it came from eBay, that explains it. Sellers on eBay sell both NEW and USED items and anything bought there would probably be difficult to tell if it is new or used because you would have to go by what the seller says if it is new or used. The figure above may actually be a new figure, not a bootleg. It just depends on where the figure originally was before a consumer acquires it. The photo above that shows the scruff marks on the face could have happened when the figure was boxed for sale. Whoever boxed up the figure may have gotten in a hurry when they packed up the figure and that may have been where the marks came from. If I were you, the one who bought this figure, you need to find out everything you can about the source of this figure. If it came from eBay, learn all you can about the seller, if it came from a hobby center, find out where their figures ACTUALLY come from and their purchasing history (where their items come from). Depending on how much you pay for the item, I would definately look into what has happened. What a horrible shame, very beautiful piece. It would be nice to remedy the problems with this piece. The marks on the face really makes this figure look bad though, it really does. It would be nice in some sort of way to have something to put over the bottom of her face if it were possible. like some sort of face armor that still shows areas of her face and blocks out the marks. I know that would look wrong but the marks there, I don't know.
I've had good luck with ebay, but I have purchased bootlegs unintentionally. As a novice collector, Ive taken my lumps this year, but I've also dealt with some great honest sellers. Two of the bootlegs are very nice, but are obvious fakes when placed next to the genuine. I learned that I get burnt when looking for too good a deal. There are clues that others mention here, but if you're awake and savvy, the listings have glaring clues. If they hide the brand name or won't reveal it. Fine and thin areas like flying hair or garments of the originals are almost always detectably thicker in pictures of bootlegs. Too thick or too thin features... I now use HobbySearch or HobbyFan product photos for comparison. Their sale prices are very good if you get in early before the items sell-out. I also now pre-order from them on items I must have to avoid problems later. ...and I just got burnt again this week. Ignis in a box labeled as Max Factory in the photo. I bought it and THEN did the research. Totally backwards. Doh ohh $$$! If you can control yourself then you will avoid this.
Ok, can anyone tell me what the kanji character means that is attached to my posts? Something like "dumbnewguy" maybe?
Bootleg for sure! Thats why i never buy things from E-bay. E-bay is a rip-off It consists of bootlegs and people who take your money and never send your stuff. ><_><
Funnily enough, before I really knew what a bootleg was, I also bought this figure off eBay, though it's in much better shape than yours I'm pretty sure mine is a BL too. One thing I definitly keep with me now is-don't buy anything that's just too cheap to be true.
I did get a properly licensed beautiful Mio nendo off ebay once though~
I am so scared to buy figures online. I usually buy them at cons so I can inspect them and make sure they are ok. Even then I am sketchy.