Bootleg Discs On eBay? (3 Viewers)

[jbirdp]

I’ve been eyeing a few complete series boxes on eBay but have heard that a lot of them are bootlegs. I don’t want the hassle of having to report and return. Has anyone else received bootleg discs? Does eBay protect buyers? Thanks much.

 

[Mysto]

I bought a set of Harry Potter on ebay and they were beautifully packaged bootlegs. I reported to the seller and he took them back at no charge. I reported to ebay and they did nothing. YMMV

 

[AlohaTiger]

I’ve been eyeing a few complete series boxes on eBay but have heard that a lot of them are bootlegs. I don’t want the hassle of having to report and return. Has anyone else received bootleg discs? Does eBay protect buyers? Thanks much.

Yes, and yes. I’m very knowledgeable about bootlegs as I’ve been a buyer and seller of physical media for about 20 yrs. Let me know if you have a particular issue and I can give you my best take on it

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

My biggest complaint on bootlegs is the poor video and audio quality of the shows. They are definitely not the best on high definition or low resolution. They look horrible. They are also usually taped off of cable channels with cable channel logos in the lower right hand corner and the episodes have been edited for time standards on broadcast TV. You are a lot better off, just waiting for the real deal to come out from a studio.

 

[jbirdp]

Yes, and yes. I’m very knowledgeable about bootlegs as I’ve been a buyer and seller of physical media for about 20 yrs. Let me know if you have a particular issue and I can give you my best take on it

Thanks. I don’t have any specific issues as I haven’t unknowingly purchased any bootlegs yet but my concern is that if I do, what recourse fo I have? Thanks again.

 

[AlohaTiger]

Thanks. I don’t have any specific issues as I haven’t unknowingly purchased any bootlegs yet but my concern is that if I do, what recourse fo I have? Thanks again.

The first thing to do is get in contact with the seller and state your case with evidence. They will most likely just refund you and may or may not ask you to return the item. Make sure they pay for a return postage label , not you . If they hardball , file a return with eBay with your evidence and they will try to contact the seller on your behalf. If they get no answer, there is a waiting period and eBay will determine who is in the wrong and usually just refund you without having to return the item. Make sure you have good proof that it is a bootleg bc eBay requires pics. Hope this helps.
Also , you can PM me with the item your looking at or post a pic here on the boards and get opinions from other members too

 

[AlohaTiger]

I just had this problem with a set I recently bought . I found out it was a BD-R and let the seller know. He was just as surprised as me bc the set was in a a genuine case and was sealed like it came from the factory and not resealed. There’s a difference and I can show you if you want to PM about it.

 

[AlohaTiger]

If you have a question about a specific set , just PM me and I’ll give you my honest opinion.
Try to look out for sellers who have multiples of that set as those tend to be bootlegs if the price is amazingly lower than what it normally sells for on Amazon or other legit sellers sites. Also , check what a real set normally sells for on Amazon or other legit sites and past sold sales on eBay to compare against. Usually bootlegs are always sealed as new and not pre-owned , unless someone unknowingly bought a bootleg as is & is reselling it. Used sets tend to be the real deal but always check first and a great way to do that is ask here on the boards for opinions.

 

[AlohaTiger]

There’s also another way which is very hard to do by physically which looking at the code numbers on the inner ring of the discs. You’ll have to look at the disc at an angle under strong light to see the codes. IFP numbers and such. Most real DVD discs will have codes on them except for Blu ray and 4K .
The other way to know for sure is to put the disc in your computer if has a dvd drive and see the GB size .
If it is less than 4-5 Gb for a TV Show, it’s probably a bootleg . TV Shows are usually put on 7-8 GB of space for a standard show ( not -HD)

 

[jbirdp]

Thanks, Aloha. I read that the box and disc artwork can sometimes be photocopy quality rather than legitimate high quality, another thing to look out for.

I guess it’s a gamble but I wish eBay cracked down on bootlegs…

 

[AlohaTiger]

Thanks, Aloha. I read that the box and disc artwork can sometimes be photocopy quality rather than legitimate high quality, another thing to look out for.

I guess it’s a gamble but I wish eBay cracked down on bootlegs…

That too can give it a way but sometimes there are legit boxes / cases, sleeves , but with the bootlegs in them

 

[ScottRE]

Having been screwed a few times and fooled by excellent packaging, the best way to check is to pop the disc in your drive and see the size of the file. The bootleggers/cloners don't invest in dual layer discs. I had a dupe of Boris Karloff's Thriller TV series and the packaging was 100% accurate, right down to the sticker blub on the wrapping. The discs were printed perfectly, the case art was identical. But the episodes were compressed onto single layer DVD-Rs so they looked terrible. Except for those discs with only 2 episodes - they looked good.

I did finally find a beat to hell set at Goodwill for like $40 if I remember correctly. It was legit and so I just swapped out the packaging.

Same thing happened with Mannix.

Another clue, if a private seller has a lot of copies sold, that's a red flag. Especially for harder to find OOP sets or highly discounted sets. Say Star Trek Voyager for $40 and the profile says "200 sold" then this person has duped, unofficial copies.

I got so gun shy that I was really sure the Gunsmoke complete series I ordered was a dupe because it was $150 ish on Amazon for all 20 seasons when the MSRP was about twice that. But it turned out to be legit and afterwards I saw it at Walmart for $170. CBS/Paramount is just selling it for that little ($8.50 a season). Which is great...

I don't know where these sellers are getting these huge inventories of illegitimate merch but the effort going into the packaging is impressive, even if they cheap out on discs.

I got The Wild Wild West complete series on Facebook marketplace and it turned out to be a fake. I was given a full refund and told to keep it. I liked the packaging so much, I tossed the phony discs and transferred later legit discs from the Epic Pack into this.

 

[AlohaTiger]

Having been screwed a few times and fooled by excellent packaging, the best way to check is to pop the disc in your drive and see the size of the file. The bootleggers/cloners don't invest in dual layer discs. I had a dupe of Boris Karloff's Thriller TV series and the packaging was 100% accurate, right down to the sticker blub on the wrapping. The discs were printed perfectly, the case art was identical. But the episodes were compressed onto single layer DVD-Rs so they looked terrible. Except for those discs with only 2 episodes - they looked good.

I did finally find a beat to hell set at Goodwill for like $40 if I remember correctly. It was legit and so I just swapped out the packaging.

Same thing happened with Mannix.

Another clue, if a private seller has a lot of copies sold, that's a red flag. Especially for harder to find OOP sets or highly discounted sets. Say Star Trek Voyager for $40 and the profile says "200 sold" then this person has duped, unofficial copies.

I got so gun shy that I was really sure the Gunsmoke complete series I ordered was a dupe because it was $150 ish on Amazon for all 20 seasons when the MSRP was about twice that. But it turned out to be legit and afterwards I saw it at Walmart for $170. CBS/Paramount is just selling it for that little ($8.50 a season). Which is great...

I don't know where these sellers are getting these huge inventories of illegitimate merch but the effort going into the packaging is impressive, even if they cheap out on discs.

I got The Wild Wild West complete series on Facebook marketplace and it turned out to be a fake. I was given a full refund and told to keep it. I liked the packaging so much, I tossed the phony discs and transferred later legit discs from the Epic Pack into this.

View attachment 255499

Yea, sometimes the bootlegs have better packaging than the official realeased set. Especially if you prefer the split cases over the big all in ones

 

[ScottRE]

The outer box for my WWW set is actually embossed, not simply printed. If I saw this in a store, I would have bought it.

 

[Bill McCamy]

I had a similar experience, but in reverse. The 2011 re-release of the six volume Looney Tunes collection is available from many Amazon and eBay sellers. Most of the sets are counterfeit. I ordered from an Amazon seller and received a counterfeit. The slipcase was nearly perfect, but had a "tell" that the counterfeits share, stating there were 375 shorts, rather than 356. The individual cases looked good, as did the disc artwork. The files were all under 4.7 GB, where they should have been in the 6 to 8 GB range. The seller refunded my money, but Amazon did not accept my review. I was able to find on eBay a seller with only one copy. His photos showed the box described the 356 shorts. And the file size was proper.

In short both eBay and Amazon are awash in sellers dealing in counterfeits, very often in volume.