Thursday 31 January 2013

Michael Kors Handbags - Spotting Chinese Replicas

Michael Kors Handbags - Spotting Chinese Replicas
 



Hi Guys,

I seen on a few forums there are a lot of people complaining (as usual) that some Michael Kors handbags that they have purchased have turned out to be fakes and the people are furious etc etc (as usual) however as usual, when reading some of the forums posts, they are paying £45 - £65 for bags that are usually starting from about £150-£200 for the bottom of the range bag, up to near £1000.

Why people think and fall for and then complain that the very cheap bag they bought turns out not to be the really dear bag they thought it would be. No matter how good someone is at selling you it, you know no one in their right mind would give away a bag worth several hundred for a few measly pounds. Not even in a sale will you find an MK bag that cheap. In fact I don't think you would find one even in a closing down sale or bankrupt store cause everyone knows how much they are worth.


 


Luckily I am a guy so I don't need to buy handbags and even if I did have the need for it, I wouldn't buy one more than about a tenner :). However for people contemplating buying an MK bag online from Amazon, Ebay, Gumtree or classified ads, you may want to inspect the bag before purchasing to make sure your getting the real deal.

As usual I have been looking around the internet and gathered together some resources across different websites for you to look over so you don't get caught out by some wheeler dealer.

Here are some quick tips to determine if your bag is real or not:

  • As with all designer handbags, price is a big indicator of what you’re buying. Michael Kors handbags range from the mid one hundreds and can go up to a thousand dollars. Research the price range for your purse. When considering an online purchase, stay away from bags listed below this price range.

  • Look for the designer’s trademark square buckles and fixtures. All Michael Kors handbags, big or small, display these square accents.

 

  • Authentic Michael Kors purses have multiple “MK” insignias on buckles, snaps and other metal parts. 


  • Authentic Michael Kors handbags are made from very fine quality materials and are superbly handcrafted. Although he’s only been designing accessories since 2001, MK bags are extremely well priced. You’re getting great value for your dollar when you buy an authentic Michael Kors purse.


 

  • MK uses silver tone and gold tone hardware. This is a sturdy, shiny metal that feels very solid to the touch. Replica Michael Kors handbags usually use cheaper metals and plastic.

  • Do a quality check. Again, MK uses only high quality materials and there’s a lot of attention being paid to the craftsmanship put into every Michael Kors bag. The stitching should be even, straight, perfectly aligned with seams and never loose. Large, uneven stitching is a sign of replica Michael Kors handbags.

  • The stitching is the hardest thing for replicators to copy. Because it takes a lot of experienced, skilled labor, the stitching on replica Michael Kors handbags almost always comes up short.

  • The inside of the bag is often made of a soft canvas-like material with leather trimming around the lining. The zippers, trim and seams are always stitched. If you see unstitched seams and tags, then you know they're being held together by glue, another sure sign of replica Michael Kors handbags.

  • Visit a boutique or the official website and study the bag you want. Compare it to the one you’re planning on buying online. Compare all of the features. Are all of the buckles and insignias in the right place? Do they look like they should? All individual MK lines are designed the same with all their features in their respective places. If anything is out of place, red flags should be going up. When you know what you're buying, it's easier to identify replica Michael Kors handbags (see the above picture).

When purchasing MK handbags online, purchase from a reputable dealer. Read our section on how to avoid buying replica Michael Kors handbags for a resource list on what to look for when buying from an online retailer.


Another very important way of protecting yourself from suspicious sellers, especially on online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, is to read their feedback and to review their return policy. If their bags are authentic, they’ll have no problem taking it back.

Read the listing carefully. Remember, if it’s described as “replica” or “designer inspired”, it’s not real. 


Many Thanks for reading guys.

Henry 



Sunday 13 January 2013

Spotting Fake Monster Beats Headphones by Dr Dre from China

Spotting Fake Monster Beats Headphones by Dr Dre from China

Hi guys,



In my quest for bringing articles that help to identify the differences between genuine products and their Chinese counterfeit parts, I have another article which I found to be very useful, as you will find many people on Amazon complaining about the headphones they have received are fakes and the sound is terrible etc and why Amazon is not doing anything about it and all that. Yes the Monster Beats and other headphones may be over priced and think you are just paying for the name thats on the packaging etc. but I have actually heard a real set of these headphones compared to a fake pair that I ordered myself and only then will you see the or hear should I say the difference.

Fake copies of headphones and audio equipment tend to have a very tinny sound to them as if they are played in an empty room slightly in the distance. Once you hear a real Dr Dre Beats headphones you will be blown away with the sound quality. Bass is much more prominent and the sound is absolutely crystal clear with no slight muffling or cackling of any kind which some fakes tend to produce.

So if you have bought a set of these earphones or if someone has bought you them as a present, here are some tell tale signs that they are not the real deal. I bet Dr Dre would be none too happy, nor his bank manager, if he thought customers were being ripped off and he is loosing profits to pirates, but I say, I am guessing he has enough money at the minute to last him till the 3 millennium :).

A great source I got the following information from is from this link http://forums.ilounge.com/ear-headphones/258315-fake-monster-beats-studio-hd-here-how-tell-real-fake.html in which a user has a genuine pair of Monster Beats headphones next to the fake set of headphones.

It is only when you see the real deal and then a fake side by side do you get to see the major differences between the two. It also shows the great lengths people who produce these counterfeits will go to achieve almost near perfection and replication of another product and its packaging. The REAL headphones and packaging are always on the LEFT and FAKE are on the RIGHT:




Starting with the front cover, it is clear that the imitation good does not bear the "TM" (trademark) sign beneath the word "studio" on the bottom left hand corner of the box (may be a little small, but you can see that a little dot of text is missing from the picture on the right).




On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adaptor are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.



On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adapter are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.



Dr Dre's headshot. Very clearly different. The printing on the fake is generally much darker, and you can't see his neck area very well. His neck is clearer on the original. Also do note the use of a " | " instead of a " / " between "beatsbydre.com" and "monstercable.com" on the original and imitation respectively. Also, there's a whacked up model number on the bottom right hand corner of the fake one, and there isn't any on the real one.




Removing the jacket to reveal the red box, we can see that the black pull-out tab on the real deal is longer than that of the imitation.




The Quick start guide where you can clearly see the difference between the two. The real is always on the left remember.



The battery cover of the real deal, of course, has the serial number and Dr Dre's signature. The fake doesn't have any (Picture of fake battery cover not included, just imagine an empty space where the signature and serial should be).



On the back of the quick-start guide, there are subtle differences in font size and the usage of " | " and " / " again. Once again, real deal on left, imitation on right.




These 2 documents are provided with the real deal and not with the imitation.




Super big difference between the provided cleaning cloths. Original cloth is huge. Fake one is tiny.

As you would expect, as the counterfeiter's who produce these items get wind of any obvious defects in their packaging, you will find they will change and try to amend the packaging. This is what results in some fakes being different to other fakes, never mind comparing it to the real thing. The most obvious way to tell if something is fake from China is to look at the packaging. If you start to pick out spelling errors in a lot of the products description, then it is more than likely a copy.

One box set I bought, and is in another post about copied Chinese DVD's, was the True Blood Season 1 Box Set. The back of the box has a review on the back that the original one says "Terrific" but the Chinese copy is spelt "Terrifig". As its the largest of the writing on the back  I am pretty sure the company who produced the DVD's would have checked this and any errors rectified before it hits the shelf.

Lastly, here is a video on difference of fake and real Dr Dre Beats from Youtube to help you with identifying if yours is real or not.




Thanks for reading guys and I hope you have found that your Dr Dre Beats is the REAL DEAL. If not wherever it came from send it back for a full refund, however I would recommend getting your money first before returning anything if it is fake as pirates and sellers of dodgy goods seem to vanish at will when trouble arises.


Later Guys.

Henry

Friday 11 January 2013

How to spot Fake Pandora Bracelets from China

How to spot Fake Pandora Bracelets from China

Hi Guys,



I have came across some great websites recently, over the past week or so, which helps identify different fakes of products which I will post individually. This article is about spotting fake Pandora bracelets which seem to be making their way across the water and onto the arms of either unsuspecting people, or people who want the look of the Pandora bracelet, but obviously cannot afford it.






Usually people will say "If it looks too good to be true, it usually is." and I have learnt over the years of buying and selling of imported items, that this is 100% true. Pandora bracelets, depending on the type of material they are made of whether its leather, silver, gold or fabric, usually start off at the cheapest of £35 and going up to around £600 to £700. If you see a bracelet that is a genuine Pandora bracelet online for around £4.99 or £10, I ca guarantee you that it is not genuine as the saying at the start of this paragraph applies to this situation.

If a person paid a large amount of money for something, why would they sell it so low? even if they didn't like it, they still know how much a bracelet with this kind of brand name attached to it is worth. I don't wear women's jewellery, as it would raise some awkward questions because I am a man, but I even know how much that bracelet was wort hand if someone gave me one, I would not sell it for so low a price.







Lots of people still new to online shopping usually get caught out or fooled by thinking its on special offer from whatever supplier it is coming from. There is only a handful of authorised sellers for Pandora bracelets and charms in the UK, so unless they have the receipt and date of purchase etc and all packaging of where it came from, I would not touch it.

I can locate a website that sells Pandora bracelets with the copied exact packaging and at first glance no one could tell the difference. I could also sell it for £14.99 and make a profit of around £11 on it. Someone online could not, from a picture, tell that it was a fake Pandora bracelet until they got it into their hands and felt the quality, the weight and tested the durability of it and how easy the fakes are to break.






I can also obtain online and sell replica charms and beads which look very nice and would fool most people. These can cost anywhere from $0.49 cents which is a bargain to fill up a charm bracelet as most Pandora charms are around £15 each about $25 for the basic ones. You can see how attractive the markup is for counterfeit sellers to make a killing on an unsuspecting buyer.

Here is a few on the spot tips from John Greed's Jewellery website located at:

http://www.johngreedjewellery.com/en/uk/pandora-information/pandora-how-to-spot-a-fake/page/bpfake/

Like all successful things PANDORA is much copied. The fakes fall into two broad categories: those that are simply charm bracelets or beads like PANDORA but do not pretend to actually to be PANDORA and those that that are actually pretending to be PANDORA.

Lot of customers who have unwittingly bought bracelets and charms that pretend to be genuine PANDORA and are not. They usually come to us because there is a problem with their bracelet due to a quality issue.
  • On the high street this is pretty obvious as a genuine dealer will have all the PANDORA window displays, furniture and packaging . If you are overseas this should also be the case. Genuine PANDORA jewellery is NOT sold in markets, from stalls or anywhere else other than reputable jewellery shops.

  • Online things get a bit trickier. In the U.K. there are only a handful of genuine, authorised PANDORA retailers.

  •  You can tell we're genuine because we have the 'Certified PANDORA online retailer' logo on our website. Also any one with 'PANDORA' in their domain name other than PANDORA in the U.K. is fake. PANDORA for brand protection purposes do not allow us to trade with 'PANDORA' in our domains. A lot of them are Chinese or Indian sites pretending to be genuine PANDORA sellers. You will be lucky to get anything back for your money at all from these sites.

  • Genuine PANDORA is not traded on Amazon and only a very small amount on Ebay is genuine. So if you are contemplating buying fake PANDORA because you think it will save you money, consider the following:






Jewellers receive many Genuine PANDORA bracelets with fake beads that have become stuck on PANDORA's patented screw thread system. Usually the PANDORA bracelet has been damaged in the attempt to remove the bead.

Jewellers receive many Genuine PANDORA bracelets with fake beads that have become stuck on PANDORA's patented screw thread system. Usually the PANDORA bracelet has been damaged in the attempt to remove the bead.

The point of fake goods is to make fast cash for the supplier. This usually means that fake goods are built to a quality to impress at the point of sales and that's it. Most instantly fall to bits right after the purchase and indeed have been designed to. So however little you have spent or how much you've saved it's often a complete waste of money. We see dozens of fake PANDORA bracelets and they are all poor quality imitations.






A bracelet swinging around your wrist all day long needs to be high quality and well built to withstand the daily rigours, to go for anything less than the genuine article is a waste of time.

The whole point of PANDORA is the ability to treasure your precious moments, if your perception of your charms is of cheap counterfeits, you've missed out on the whole point and real value of PANDORA .

Thanks for reading guys and I hope this helps some people out if they are dubious about whether or not their Pandora Bracelet is fake or real.


Bye for now.

Henry

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Chinese Herbal Weight Loss Pills - Not Easy To Sell

Chinese Herbal Weight Loss Pills - Not Easy To Sell on  Ebay

Hi Guys,

Another product I remember I binned them all as I couldn't sell them was the Herbal Weight Loss Pills I had ordered from a supplier on Aliexpress. They got held up in customs for 7 days as they must have been examined when I was following the tracking information and when they arrived they had customs celotape around them. They must have tested them for different kinds of drugs incase they were being disguised as something else that wasn't on the packaging if you get my drift.

These are the pills I purchased which gave me more of a headache than weight loss as they had to be binned:





Anyway when they came in I was checking the price on Ebay and it seemed there was a good markup as they only cost around $2 a packet and they were selling on Ebay for around £7.99 upwards, so I thought I would give it a go and make a few pounds.After a day or two a sale came through and as soon as the sale came through thats when Ebay cancelled the listing.

Apparantly they are in breach of their user agreement in relation to selling drugs and drug paraphernalia and can only be sold by someone who has a medical certificate or is a registered doctor who can authroise prescriptions etc. I thought it was weird though that if customs seen a batch of 50 packets of these coming in they are obviously not for personal consumption and could have halted and returned the shipment there and then. Oh well the world is a weird and wonderful place and we all learn from our mistakes so as Ebay wouldn't let me sell them I ended up just binning the lot of them :). I couldn't use them as I am skinny already and if I ate all those pills I might dissappear down the cracks in a drain or something LOL.




So in the end I would avoid buying anything thats to do with drugs or pills etc as for some it can raise some questions as well as to how safe they are as the health and safety laws in China are a lot different to what we have here in the UK.

Thanks,

Henry