Bapes and Fapes

[macspite]

I have been roaming around eBay UK over the past week or so since getting G Shock fever and am amazed that most of the Bapes on there are obviously fake yet not declared as such, with a few honourable exceptions.

How do the advertisers get away with offering "BAPE BATHING APE G-SHOCK CASIO WATCH NEW DW6900 WHITE" when at the bottom of the listing is "Water Resistant: Not for bath, shower or swimming."? Not quite up to G-Shock standards The old phrase "caveat emptor" applies, anyone expecting to get a genuine limited edition watch for £19.99 should be wary, also suspicious is that on eBay UK alone there are normally around fifty of these watches on offer

The pictures used to illustrate the listings are normally slightly out of focus and/or badly lit or show the watch and packaging in long shot so no details are easily visible:





This one starts at £9.99




The day indicator is directly under the middle "eye" - apparently an easy way to spot a fake




Day indicator between first and second eyes - a genuine Bape? £152 plus delivery from Japan

I found a useful guide to spotting fakes (fapes) on eBay itself: http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Spot-a-Fake-Bape-G-Shock_W0QQugidZ10000000004394901

Ironically the right hand sidebar contains a selection of current Bathing Ape listings - mainly fakes!

[rutteger]

The widespread fake Bape x G-Shock sales have pretty much killed that collaboration for me which is a shame. I do also wonder on occasion how these fakes are so prevalent on various market places...

[macspite]

Searching watch wholesalers I came across a perfectly legitimate operation but it is easy to see how simple it would be to subvert production from "homage" watches to fake




"Riceman" ?


Taking orders now and we can cut down on the postage costs if we ship in bulk!

[rutteger]

There we go. Some of those homages are pretty shocking!

[macspite]

Someone has done well in this auction:



No questions were posted on the listing and the only picture enlarges to this:



Not a great deal of detail. I would be wary of bidding on any watch that blurred unless it was excessively cheap. I apologise to the seller if I am wrong in sensing a scam here but it has the hallmarks of a fake bape operation. The bidding looks somewhat intriguing too:



Is someone using this as a fake auction to try and push the prices up?

[rutteger]

Bad news, that is certainly a fake pictured. Bidding look curious too....

[macspite]

These are excellent value!

Less than six quid each


I like the hypercomplex and this one isn't out of my price range at less than £4.50


But the best value is this "Riceman" at a fraction under three quid!


You can see the attraction for the less moral amongst us to sell these via blurred pictures on the internet. Must stress that the site I found these on is upfront about them being replicas.

[rutteger]

Obviously pretty easy to find this sort of thing. Upfront about being fakes or not I'm sure Casio are still not super pleased about it

[macspite]

Some of the fakes are more expensive than the real thing!



But even though it is $215 against the £50 I paid for mine (about $80) shipped from Hong Kong it certainly looks the part. Could almost be a Casio product shot couldn't it ... ?
There is a really good 30% discount too for using Western Union which is a great way to pay - the buyer pays the charges, the seller gets the money and there is no dispute resolution or comeback when the product you get (if it really exists) differs markedly from the illustration.

I have a genuine (I hope) Mudman for only $150 plus shipping Paypal or bank transfer accepted!



Or you could try watchesdeals on eBay.co.uk to see get one for the $80 I paid

[rutteger]

That is curious indeed! Seems to be an entire world of fakes, homages and forgeries most are unaware of. Stumbled upon a 'homage' site for high end mechanical watches a while ago, some pretty detailed stuff going on there...