Spotting bootleg; how to avoid fake figures?
Bootleg is a cheaper (fake) versions of Japanese anime figures. Buying bootleg can save a pretty penny, however, the quality of those products tend to be much lower than the official product. Bootlegs are not only fake versions of the product bootlegs harm the production of real figures. If you buy your figure from a bootleg seller there will go 0 money to production of the original product. If you don't have a problem with buying a fake product, that's fine. I'm not here to convince you that you shouldn't buy fake figures. The reason I made this blog is that I think you should be able to decide whether you want to buy a fake figure or not. To make that decision it's nice to have some tools to see whether something is real. Spotting a fake or bootleg figure can be quite hard, especially when you are looking at blurry/unclear pictures. However, there are always some clues that can tell whether it's the real deal or not. The pictures provided will always have the legit product on the left, while the bootleg product is on the right. And like always; click the images if you want bigger ones!
The first big clue is the pricing of the article and place where it is sold.
Don't expect an expensive Nendoroid to be listed cheap. If it is listed cheap it's probably a bootleg (99 percent of the cases), damaged or somebody just want to get rid of it. Also when shopping on eBay you should be on the lookout for sellers located in China. In my experience, all anime figures sold from China are bootlegs/fakes. When buying secondhand, always make sure you see pictures of the actual product and not just the stock photos. If an add is listed with only stock photos there is a huge chance people are selling a bootleg. If you want to buy legit figures it is better to stay away from sites like Etsy and eBay China. Your best chance buying a legit figure is buying directly from Japan, through pre-order or secondhand. Like my grandmother says; ''If it is too good to be true, it probably is''.
