I learned that the hard way when I got a bootleg set of 'The Golden Girls'!

thanks for the info.

The trick is to do your research before you invest in anyone's DVDs from Ebay. Take into account the # of auctions a person has under their belt and their collective feedback rating. I won't buy from anyone with less than about a 99.4% positive feedback rating and that's pushing it (I prefer 99.8% or better). Not only that but I'll read the negatives that gave that person such a low rating. If they have 25,000 auctions under their belt with a 99.4% positive feedback rating, more than likely you'll find numerous reasons why you might want to reconsider buying from them. On the other hand, a person with only 250 auctions under their belt can get their positive rating hit hard with only one negative, and it may have been made by an idiot (you can usually tell).

Another thing is to find out about the particular DVD or set that's up for auction. I recently started looking for NCIS, the complete series, Seasons 1-6, found MANY sets up for auction from sellers with 0 or 1 auctions under their belt, or even from sellers with several hundred auctions and 100% positive feedback, but found out through research that this set is bootlegged from China (which is why they're selling so cheaply) and numerous sets (even though they're supposedly factory sealed) are either missing discs or some of the discs won't play right. Not only that, I won't buy anything from someone who has 0 feedback.

So, you really need to watch what you're doing on Ebay. I've purchased MANY DVDs from Ebay, and so far have only ever bought one bootlegged DVD and I knew it was bootlegged when I bought it so I have only myself to blame in that regard.

To say "DON'T BUY DVDS FROM E-BAY." is not entirely fair. As long as you do your research beforehand, you should be fine.


Just my .02 cents worth, -kd5-

That's not very much at all. My opinion is worth 100 times that.

But for what it's worth (ha-ha! mixing metaphors!), I agree with everything you said. eBay can be a great place to buy DVDs, but it takes research.

IIRC, the feedback percentage is calculated only with the feedback earned over the last twelve months of the sellers activity on ebay. It use to encompass their entire history. This is sort of ebay's "What have you done for me lately?" way of going about feedback.

I've also seen some with the barcode having a hole in it. It's so the scanned won't read it. Usually in a 2 pack. The 2 packs have a barcode different barcode than either movie so it won't ring up as either one. I've also purchased some movies that have the "replacement" barcode. I think this is for overstock or something so the stores can sell them cheaper than the MSRP.

Could be a promotional for sure. Lot more overstock copies out there than promotional though.

As Hendsersonfan says, a different barcode was probably put on there to mean something in somebodies internal system. Most likely price reduction I would think.

It has definitely become a lot harder to spot bootlegs though. I'm afraid I may have bought one on Ebay. Check this out:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT


I couldn't believe the price I got it at, and the fact that he included actual pictures sold me. However, when I got the set, I was suspicious. It had the official packaging, but each green dvd holder was held together by a piece of tape. Also each dvd was wrapped in plastic which I thought was odd. Maybe Paramount produced really cheap flimsy packaging.

I did a screen comparison with an official season disc and I couldn't really see much difference with potential bootleg and my official disc so I'm faily happy.

Some stores put their own white stickers with their own bar codes so someone doesn't come to their store wanting a refund. Example...BJ's using their own bar codes, so if you buy a dvd from WalMart or Best Buy, BJ's computers doesn't recognize the code. No refund.

I was looking at these several months ago. I emailed some sellers who answered in a way that I knew they were bootlegs. Others said explicitly that they were not. This is tough, because unless Paramount dumped alot of these, they may not be legit.


One way is to look at ended auctions. If there are too many of the same item from the same seller, I would be suspicious. However, again, if you are aware that alot of these sets/DVDs were dumped to resellers, they may be OK. You can check ebay and Amazon marketplace to see if there are other resellers for the same item. I used to buy from a guy who would get a lot of damaged / OOP stuff (like Big Lots). I was never disappointed and I got alot of good stuff cheap. There is so much stuff that is dumped to resellers and so much good stuff to be had. It can even make Big Lots seem too expensive at times.

Bottom line, do your research and don't bid on anything that looks even a bit shady --- unless you don't care.


Wal-Mart does this all the time for their promo stuff, esp. near Black Friday.

I think you got a bootleg. The discs aren't housed like that in my set{I brought a legit copy from Columbia House}.

Thanks for the info. I see the seller now has some feedback complaining about bootlegs. I'm filing for a refund.

One time I got a bootleg (done well enough they could not tell I did right away) and all they did when I returned it was sell it for half of their original cost. oO