Ebay

[jayquam]

Has anyone here ever bought any anime of ebay? I saw a lot of last exile complete sets, but I'm not sure if most of them were legit.

[everdred12a]

Half of anime on ebay is bootlegged. It's a safe bet that any complete anime series for less than 100 bucks is fake.

[Yahshua]

Eh when buying anime or anything on Ebay be very careful some if not most of them are mostly bootlegged.

[lj1958]

I've bought some legit anime on EBay...and bought some bootleg before I knew what it was.

If it's a region one DVD, and you can recognize the branding on the photo as being a US distributor, and the cover matches the one you see on places like Amazon, it's likely not bootleg. Individual owners are selling anime all the time, and there are places online where overstock anime is sold wholesale to folks who want to sell on EBay.

On the other hand, if it's region-free, an entire set, VERY cheap, and doesn't have the same cover/packaging as what you see on sites like Amazon, it's likely a bootleg.

Sure, there are legit sets being sold on EBay as well ...just look at the rest of the specs to make sure its not a bootleg..

More information is available at: The Pirate Anime FAQ

[mitsuki lover]

This is why it is always best to buy anime and manga and other anime related products from a well known legitimate source such as Borders,Barnes & Nobles,Amazon.com,Robert's Anime Corner Store or Animenation for example.

[jayquam]

Thank you all.I think i did find a legit muta range versoin there though. But i geuess i will look somewhere else.

[RedMage]

Has anyone here ever bought any anime of ebay? I saw a lot of last exile complete sets, but I'm not sure if most of them were legit.

Sure. I did get one bootleg by mistake (ironically, a Last Exile complete set), but I got more wary after that and since then I've aquired the Nadesico complete chronicles, all seven volumes of Cowboy Bebop and the movie, season two of The Big O, and volume 2 of Area 88 off eBay.

It's not hard to sort through the bootlegs once you know what to look for. lj1958's advice is good. Dismiss anything that claims to be "region-free" with no code, compare box art if a picture is included to the way you know the real thing looks, etc.

[jayquam]

[quote="RedMage"]Sure. I did get one bootleg by mistake (ironically, a Last Exile complete set)QUOTE]
Uh, not say saying im going to buy thr bootleg but i got to ask, how was it ?

[RedMage]

Uh, not say saying im going to buy thr bootleg but i got to ask, how was it ?

Awful. I watched the first five minutes of one episode and gave up. The video quality was bad from having too many episodes packed on each disc, and the Engrish subtitles were really clunky.

I still have the blasted thing sitting on my shelf. I ran into a guy on a con message board who was going to buy it from me (he said he didn't care about the flaws, he just wanted a copy of LE), but he couldn't scrape the cash together.

[lj1958]

The bootlegs I got, weren't so bad as far as the quality. It's mainly the frustration of being dupped. I would have never bought bootlegs on purpose, I simply thought at the time they were "imports" and that there was nothing wrong with that. I made three purchases before I wised up...LOL! It was in finding the Pirate Anime FAQ on the net that I realized what was going on. Here I was, possibly supporting orgznized crime in Asia as well as buying illigetimate copies.

It's frustrating knowing that unlike other anime when we've gotten tired of, we can't ever sell these. Not ethically, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

I've brought three anime DVD's from ebay--"Metropolis", "Barefoot Gen" (A great movie about the bombing of Hiroshima), and "End of Evangelion". I've been satisfied with all three of my purchases! The disks were legit, NO scratches (Which is great, considering "Metropolis" and "End of Evangelion" were used--"Barefoot Gen" was factory sealed)

I only use ebay as a last resort because I like the feeling of having the disk in my hands when I buy it, instead of waiting days on end by the mailbox to buy it. Seriously! I go and check the mailbox every hour on the hour until whatever I order gets here! My policy when I DO use ebay is to read and reread the description of the item and ask the seller any and all questions that come to mind, especially when it comes down to the condition of the disk.

[PigtailsJazz]

I bought the collection of the last episodes of Kodomo no Omocha on ebay, and it was great condition and definitely not a bootleg....they are out there! Just make sure you get a seller with 100% positive ratings and really check it out?......

[BrandonHeat]

It's a safe bet that any complete anime series for less than 100 bucks is fake.

Not true. Bandai's Anime Legends collections and ADV's Thinpak box sets are pretty cheap. I got my Escaflowne (series) box set from Amazon for only $35. Also, shorter series (the Lodoss OVA or Gundam 0083, for example), tend to be closer to $50 than to $100.

[mitsuki lover]

Oh just a quick note,there's someone pretending to be eBay sending e-mails to people trying to get their financial information.We've been getting these spam off and on all year long and when I asked the eBay security people they said to delete
and not to answer them.

[eva-boy7985]

eBay is one of the first places I check out to buy anime from. I've scored on some auctions and gotten entire series for dirt cheap :-p (All of FMP with the artbox for $46, Kiddy Grade complete all 8 discs for like $50, etc.) But, yes eBay is perhaps the #1 place you'll run into bootleg crap! Some good tactics for searching for anime are 1. If you know the specific name of a disc you're searching for use that in your search (ex. Chrono Crusade Devil and the Deep Blue Sea) 2. Check any listing you're curious about to see if the seller clarifies that the disc is Region 1 or whether or not it says that in the item specifications 3. Another searching tip is this: type in the anime's title followed by "vol" (note there's NO period after the l) followed by the volume number you're looking for; by not typing the period after the "l" in vol, you're allowing the search engine to search for both the word "vol." and "volume" :-) 4. One of the most convenient and obvious helps is if the seller includes a picture of what they're selling. Maybe have another site like Righstuf open in another window to show you what the DVD should look like that you're searching for. If the picture the seller is displaying is quite obviously different, then it's most likely a bootleg (except in some cases such as with the old-school Evangelion DVD releases vs. the new platinum ediitons).
Above all else though, it's most beneficial to the industry if you buy anime from online retailers such as rightstuf.com or amazon.com because then the anime companies get a larger cut of the profits to make more of the stuff that we love! I know this to be especially true because I attended Geneon's panel at Sakura Con in Seattle this spring, and this is one of the really big points they made when the speaker was asked about questions regarding profit and the industry. Anyways, hope some of what I've said helps you :-)

[RedMage]

It's a safe bet that any complete anime series for less than 100 bucks is fake.

If I'd noticed this before I'd have chimed in sooner...(serves me right for jumping to reply before I read through what's already been posted)

Completely untrue. That's a statement based on either (no offense) ignorance or really limited/unlucky experience.