Hello,

I was recently caught out and unwittingly bought a fake figure on ebay.

I was looking for a figure to go with my model of a Hotchkiss H39. My favourite figure manufacturer is Hornet and Wolf, owned by Roger Saunders. I have been buying Rogers figures and head sets for many years, (I have no other connection to Roger other than this). I found the ideal figure from the Wolf range WAW39 WW2 French Tankman:
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As I like a bargain I looked on ebay and found one, with free postage from Hong Kong. The photograph on the listing showed the genuine box, the condition was listed as new and it was listed by an ebay Power Seller with over 3000 sales and 99.4% positive feedback which was very reassuring. I assumed it was old stock and he just wanted to get it off his hands and immediately bought it.

After I had paid for it with Paypal I reread the advert and noticed that it didnt have a box, yet a photo of the genuine box was in the listing. I was alarmed and checked his other resin listings and none of the ones I looked at had boxes. I emailed the seller asking if he was selling copies, to date there has been no reply.

I sent an email to Roger Saunders asking if he would look at the suspect figure for me when it arrived, Roger kindly agreed. In the mean time I bought the same figure from an authorised source in the UK so that I could compare it to the one from Hong Kong.

The figure purchased on ebay arrived after about eighteen days after I had paid for it. Upon opening the package I found a stout plain brown cardboard box containing the figure. At first glance it appeared genuine, but on closer inspection there appeared to be two mould lines on the right trouser leg and the fillets on the feet were incomplete. When I put it next to the genuine article the difference became apparent. The real one has sharper detail, is a different colour and is bigger which is a giveaway for spotting fake resin, also fillets were added to the feet in addition to the original ones.
Heres a couple of pics of the two figures, the genuine figure is on the left of each picture:
[IMG][/IMG]
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I posted it to Roger and he confirmed it was a fake. I immediately lodged complaints with both ebay and Paypal.

In his emails to me Roger said:
There's no way of knowing how much damage copying is doing to genuine manufacturers -
but in my case I have already found that it is not worth while producing new figurines....

I feel saddened that Roger will not be producing new figures and angry that I have, albeit unwittingly, contributed to this situation by lining the pockets of an unscrupulous counterfeiter who I will not name, as it would give him publicity.

I am sadder and wiser from this experience and I hope that by posting this, others will not make the same mistake.


Regards
Mike

Please remove xxx from my email address.

Mike
There is a way to get all these eBay fakes off eBay.
It's called VeRo system. One can simply fill out their
digital form and email it to VeRo. It takes only a day
or two for them to take an action. BUT it can only be
done by the copyrights holder. So Mr. Saunders would
have to do it himself.

You said the fake seller had 3000 "positive" feedbacks?
You know what that means... there are 3000 modelers
who are happy buying fakes. As Mr. Saunders stated,
this is a part of the reasons why he is not making any
new figures. So who's losing out on this? The good
modelers.

Leave the seller a negative feedback and ask for a refund.
And report this to eBay. If you had paid through PayPal, you
can get your money back with not much problem.
Negative feedback is what these eBay sellers are afraid of the most.

"Let There be Rock!!!"
AC/DC