http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...p;rd=1&rd=1

 

Well, since Alyosha and I were instructed by the mods to stop advertising his reproduction parts (qite rightly I might add, we didn't consider the paying advertisers. Our bad.) we started putting them on ebay. The Ratbat ears we have been selling have been selling on auction for between $14 and $20 each time, yet there is a link in the auction where you can buy them for $6. Nuts, huh? I always read through and if an auction interests me, I'll go through the sellers other stuff to see what I can find.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...p;rd=1&rd=1

 

Well, since Alyosha and I were instructed by the mods to stop advertising his reproduction parts (qite rightly I might add, we didn't consider the paying advertisers. Our bad.) we started putting them on ebay. The Ratbat ears we have been selling have been selling on auction for between $14 and $20 each time, yet there is a link in the auction where you can buy them for $6. Nuts, huh? I always read through and if an auction interests me, I'll go through the sellers other stuff to see what I can find.

 

Yeah, I seen that a lot. Don't know why. Whatever, if people are willing to pay, then let them. As long as their still $6 when I go to the website. :tfgrin

Ya thats why I put a bid of about $6.50. I could handle paying an extra $.50 for them but not triple or more of the cost on their site.

I have to wonder how many of them read so little that they think they are real:)

I wonder how many are fixing their Ratbats and reselling them as complete originals. Not letting the new buyers/bidders know that the Ratbat they're buying has reproduction ears.

 

I wish people that make reproductions would put some mark in the mold to keep people from trying to pass them as originals. I know that the colors don't always match, but people on Ebay seem to take the worst pictures known to mankind, and parts that are black like the Scamper gun Alyosha makes are practically impossible to tell the difference without seeing them first hand (if it's even possible then).

 

There is unfortunately to many scammers out there, why make it easier for them to fraud people.

I wonder how many are fixing their Ratbats and reselling them as complete originals. Not letting the new buyers/bidders know that the Ratbat they're buying has reproduction ears.

 

I wish people that make reproductions would put some mark in the mold to keep people from trying to pass them as originals. I know that the colors don't always match, but people on Ebay seem to take the worst pictures known to mankind, and parts that are black like the Scamper gun Alyosha makes are practically impossible to tell the difference without seeing them first hand (if it's even possible then).

 

There is unfortunately to many scammers out there, why make it easier for them to fraud people.

 

iirc they where discussing some sort of method of marking in their thread before it was removed. doing that to such a small part would be tough jmo

Yeah unless they purposely made it a different color, in which case most people wouldn't want them. Thats the problem with Repro parts, people want them to look like the originals, but then you can't tell if your getting originals or repros later on. One of the reasons I won't by repros unless I've run out of all other options. Now if I'm doing a kitbash or something, I'll grab them, but otherwise I'd prefer original parts so that I don't end up screwing someone else down the line if I forget a part isn't original.

iirc they where discussing some sort of method of marking in their thread before it was removed. doing that to such a small part would be tough jmo

 

How hard is it to scratch a "R" (or some other letter) into the mold so when the part is cast it has a raised "R" in the finished piece. Sure someone could sand it off but then they would have to explain the scratches from sanding. jmo

 

Hell I'm afraid of buy repro part just incase in 10 years I sell my TF I don't forget what's real and what's not. Which is also why I keep the few KO's I have away from offical TF's.

 

As a collector I would be superpissed to pay top dollar for what I think is an original part and find out it is a repro. Give us a way to tell the two apart easily, is all I'm asking.

This is far from the worst case of someone not reading the whole thing before bidding/buying. Think of all the people who bought XBox 360 empty boxes or PS3 receipts (no console).

The parts are just different enough of a colour to be noticed but still look good on a shelf. For things like Ratbat ears, where the parts can affect the price as much as $40, we make sure they are a little different. Even though Scamper's gun by itself is kind of expensive, it's absence doesn't bring down the price of a Metroplex that much, so frankly, its not that big of an issue.

 

Also, the parts are a little too expensive for a dealer to buy them for the sole purpose of completing a toy just to sell it with fake parts. Not that they are that expensive, but they do violate the rule of three. (most proffessional toy dealers need to be able to sell something for three times what they paid to ba able to profit, due to the costs they paid for the item, and all other overheads, and, yes, taxes.)