is anyone sick of the bootleggers on ebay?
 

i used to care. but having reported multiple items and sellers it gets nowhere. one of my faves here in england is beautymulan88. he sells 1000's of good disney fakes. which are then posted from china, has a lovely amount of threatening feedback removal. i contact all the right people and nothing is done. the studios are always moaning at us not to buy fakes as its piracy but these bootlegs are staring them in the face! if they cared in the slightest they would buy a dvd from this guy and go round his house and arrest him. if i worked for disney i would be on ebay all day hunting people down.

how can big studios expect us to take piracy seriously when they dont take any action?

Why let it bother you?

Don't buy dvds from ebay. Problem solved.

Exactly. I used eBay for buying once, and then realized how big of a rip-off it is. Amazon is really the best place to buy used, from what I've seen.

Or half.com. I just got burned with a boot of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on half. But alos, some of these sellers also sell on Amazon, so beware!

Still I'm not stopping buying form eBay, half or Amazon marketpalces. I say check feedback, ask questions from sellers if you are in doubt. Also, look for detailed descriptions (I did not do this in the last case where I got duped but usually do).

I also hate the bootleggers because my legit auctions and sales get buried in their listings for their accursed knock-offs!

i'm not moaning about buying them off these crooks. anyone with half a brain can do a good feedback check. but not everyone does. and this guy in particular sells so much that his negs get lost pretty quick. and he's a smart fellow who threatens to leave a neg if they dont remove theirs. hence 200+ mutual withdraws. i'm moaning because i dont like to see these buggers get away with it. it would make my day to single handedly bring one of these big time bootleggers down.

what cracks me up is we see these tv ads saying piracy funds this and that. well if thats the case ebay has taken 1000's of blood money for fees alone.

if ebay stopped fake dvds it would go bust.

There is a group on Ebay called the ABA the Anti Bootleg Association, join their group in the group boards and let them know who the seller is and some of his items. Bootleg dealers have been getting removed daily on Ebay, believe it or not it is starting to get better there...

Yeah .... I also hate those "Rolex" watches sold on street corners, and those "get rich stuffing envelopes at home" ads, and those "make $10,000 a week with our trading secrets" ads ... etc. etc. etc.

Most reasonably intelligent shoppers can avoid most scams. Since bootlegs on ebay have been discussed for years now, an extra cautionary approach would seem to be in order, but some people <i>still</i> can't resist that "great deal".

Bottom line: if there were no suckers, there would be no suckees.

Sounds like you STILL care.... otherwise you wouldn't have started a thread about it.

How do the studios "always moan at you" to not buy fakes? :scratch2:

You are just steamed because you want to play "righteous avenger" and no one wants to play with you.

I don't know whether to think it is funny or sad that you feel that these corporations (who have teams of well paid legal departments that are as tenacious as pitbulls) need your "help".

Piracy (unauthorized copies of legitimate releases) is flat-out wrong and if the owners of the pirated intellectual properties want to turn a blind eye to it, then that is their choice. If Ebay is allowing those auctions, then it is because they have been given permission to allow it. Why do I say that? Because there are numerous cases where they yank pirated professional-looking CDs (originating from Eastern European countries), unofficial merchandise of copyrighted material, and auctions that violate their rules.

The numerous lawsuits against P2P networks and developers of p2p software are yet more proof that if a copyright owner wants to stop piracy and bootlegs on ebay, they can haul ebay into court. That hasn't happened.

One would have to be Li'l Abner who just crawled out from Dogpatch Hollow to not see what is going on.

Always check for the seller's feedback to get a general idea how smoothly were their past transactions. That's what I do on ebay, half.com, etc... although sometimes I still get some problems.

Someone mentioned in previous post that Amazon 3rd party sellers are better than ebay sellers. I think it depends a lot on which Amazon sellers. I bought from sellers with a lot of transactions and high feedback without any problem. But when I bought some items from someone with only a few good feedback, I encountered some problems. I contacted Amazon about it but Amazon seem to side with the sellers instead of buyers.

"YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR..."

I still sell on Ebay, but I always give detailed feedback and provide an authentic photo of the item. Nowadays, one must be skeptical at first understandably and approach every auction item with caution.

If I'm buying a rare or htf DVD on eBay I always write the seller an ask the UPC, copy/fake questions. If the seller doesn't answer I don't bid, if they do and claim it's real I have proof incase I have to file a claim with Paypal to get my money back. So far I've only had one seller tell me it was the real deal and it turned out to be fake, I filed a claim and provided proof and got my money back and kept the fake. Which I pitched as I found a real one.
But eBay doesn't care they are making to much of these sellers to care, they'd rather pick on the little guy that doesn't make them much money. I've have a few auctions removed for little or no reason on fully legal items. But then again I'm not a power seller pumping tons of money into their account.

I don't buy dvds from Ebay for just this reason. I do buy HD DVDs and LD's since no one has figured out how to bootleg those.

sounds like Larry David posts here at dvd talk ;)

Feedback is not always reliable. It appears a lot of people don't mind getting bootleg material or don't know what they're getting.

I love these threads, as it always brings out the "that's why I won't buy on eBay" crowd. Christ, all it takes is a little common sense and you can avoid buying bootlegs on eBay. Does the item ship from Asia, the Phillipines, Guam, or some other 3rd world hellhole? It's a bootleg. Is the item described as region free, despite not being a public domain release? It's a bootleg. Is the seller offering multiple copies of an out-of-print title for a fraction of what it should sell for? They're bootlegs.

As for eBay's tolerance of bootleggers, it's simple - eBay sides with whomever brings in the money. That's why powersellers can basically get away with screwing customers time and time again and have nothing done to them. The few times a bootlegger is shut down by eBay, they simply start up a new account and go right back to selling boots - and without that pesky negative feedback from their previous account.

Okay i admit, i checked out that first guy's store, and he looks legit. but one thing in his auctions i noticed:

Returns & Refunds

* I operate a money back guarantee.
* If you are unhappy with the DVD for whatever reason, please contact me to arrange a return and refund.


just ship it back. If he didn't accept a return from me i'd post a negative feedback & make a thread like this.

problem solved


why don't we start up a thread listing the negative ebay bootlegers/sellers similar to the gold traders list?

I love these kind of generalizing comments. I am pretty sure everything that comes from Asia, Phillipines, Guam, or the so-called <b>3rd world hellhole</b> are all bootlegs. Everything that's from <b>wherever you are</b> is legit...

-rolleyes-

I never trust Ebay to buy legit rare DVD's. I only use it and Half for raelly cheap used discs of popular, available titles that I wouldn't want to spend full price on.

Stop whining. What I said is true, and you crying about it doesn't change that. If you're looking for a major release (not a public domain or native to the country it's being sold from film) and you find it on eBay and it matches the criteria I listed, 99% of the time it's a bootleg. Your snarky little comments don't change that. Of course acting like a child is easier than actually proving me wrong, isn't it?

Amazon sellers carry boots also. If you plug in Tom Yum Goong a.k.a. The Protector the bootleg version is there. Funny thing is that they have a pic of the official Korean DVD but the specs scream bootleg since the KR version is R3.

There are many previous threads relating to this subject matter. Try doing a search.

It all depends upon the studio, and what their philosophy about it is, and how it fits into their business model. The thing is, there are so many sellers out there that it is cost prohibitive to go after all of them. And, you can't just cherry pick the ones you can afford to get, because others will just take their place the next day. The cost of going after all of the sellers is more than they supposedly lose from letting those sellers be. There are of course exceptions, like at cons when they go to make examples of dealers. That's like shooting fish in a barrel, though. Low cost investigation and a high profile bust.

Instead, most action is aimed at the people who produce the bootlegs. Think of it as being the same way as police go after drug dealers. They don't get much by arresting a guy on the corner, but if they can take it up the chain and find the supplier, they've accomplished something. So, no studio really cares about the flea market, ebay, street corner, etc. They want the people who are making and distributing the bootlegs.

So, when your cries of justice go unanswered, this is why. Smaller studios will go after an individual on Ebay, as long as they have (or are presented with) proof. It still doesn't do a lot of good, though. I worked with a studio after buying a bootleg, and in the end, the seller is still there. They just don't sell bootlegs from that same studio anymore.

Or, they buy it purposely. Lots of sellers on Ebay sell DVDs of things that have never been officially released on DVD.

Do you know anything about Guam? Guam is part of the US. All Guamians are US citizens. They have elected officials in the US House of Representatives. If you had called New Jersey a third world hellhole, I would understand that. But not Guam.

Hey Kev, I sympathize. It doesn't matter whether you're trying to find a legitimate DVD of the same title or not even interested in the films they offer, bootleggers are just plain annoying. I'm sure I'll be called out for making any kind of distinction, but the ones I really hate are the guys selling fake Disney DVDs, because most often the kids and parents buying these things don't know and/or don't care that these are fakes, and the titles they sell (mostly PIXAR stuff) are readily available at reasonable prices.

Of course it's also annoying to see fifteen different sellers all offering the same five movies (RAD, Electric Dreams, Song of the South, Savannah Smiles, and Bugsy Malone), because you know they're just selling DVD-R transfers from VHS. Of course some would argue that they're providing a service, but since the last two on the list have been announced as upcoming releases, it's especially annoying to see people continually selling them on DVD-R. The fact that they keep claiming they're "Asian imports" burns me up even more, considering that even Asian bootlegs are pressed DVDs, not cheap DVD-R copies.

I'm actually curious to know how to tell a genuine Asian import from a bootleg, because I've always been into imported media, but don't really want to drop a lot of cash on a bootleg. I'd expect that a lot of films are legitimately released in areas like Taiwan and Malaysia (or am I wrong about that?) so there have to be some differences between a legitimate Malaysian DVD and a Malaysian bootleg. I personally have a STAR WARS Episode I DVD that looks to be an official Malaysian release, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was actually just a very good bootleg. It gets really confusing when trying to describe these discs in my database, so if anyone knows what to look for, I'd be very grateful.

Regarding whether studios should prosecute eBay or not, I feel that as facilitators of bootleg activity, a real good way for studios to knock out a LOT of small-time sellers is to litigate eBay into actually enforcing their policies. I've personally caused at least one seller to be kicked off eBay, but it seems that's the exception rather than the rule, and I'm sure he just came right back under another name. The fact that eBay makes tons of cash off these guys gives them little motivation to remove any except the ones who get a LOT of complaints. You also realize that this "money back guarantee" is just a means by which bootleggers can silence whistle-blowers by offering them their money back in exchange for a promise that they won't post negative feedback, right? It's a seedy little scam to be sure.

I do have a funny story to tell regarding the piracy warnings, and I think someone else had a similar experience. I traded in a bunch of DVDs at a flea market recently, and with part of my store credit I picked up a bootleg of "Robots" just because it had one of those sparkly holographic covers. I got it home and the first thing that played was that infamous anti-piracy trailer! I got a big laugh out of that, but of course it was just a rip of the official DVD squeezed to fit onto a single-layer DVD, so of course it would have everything the original did. One thing that does piss me off is that this particular bootlegger puts a big "9" in a circle on their releases as if it's a double-layer disc, when in truth it's single-layer.

I think that even though we're smart enough to avoid these jerks, we still have a right to be pissed off that they seem to be thriving, at least on eBay. You kind of expect this at flea markets and on street corners, but come on, this is supposed to be a reputable business. They advertise nationally (and internationally, no doubt), and they'll be REAL quick to close your account if you don't pay them, but as long as you keep giving them their piece of the pie, you can apparently sell bootlegs all you want. What a bunch of crap. :grumble:

Why is it a bunch of crap?
You are assuming that the owners of those intellectual properties that are being pirated actually want to prevent those unauthorized sales. And those that do, are able to get those auctions closed down. They ultimately have the say-so of what happens. So who are YOU to say that the pirates can't do that?