Suspicious anime on ebay.

Dark_Matter · Post by **Dark_Matter** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:47 pm

I was parusing through the anime selection on ebay looking for good deals when I stumbled across at least one dealer with prices that are astronomically low. Say, for instance the entire series of Cowboy Bebop on "Buy it Now" for $22.00. Now I can't be totally sure, but I think that these are bootlegs and he sells quite a volume of them. The seller's name is googledeals.

I was wondering if anyone on this site knows a website for a phone number for me to call where I can report this possible pirating. If this thread seems way off topic, I apologize. But its something that I believe something should be done about.

Thank you for your time.

AmazonMandy · Post by **AmazonMandy** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:20 pm

Most of the dealers who sell like items like the ones you are talking about are out of country. Even if thier location SAYS they are in the states (usually they pick California, don't ask me why), most ship from Hong Kong, which means if such a number did exhist, it wouldn't do much that i could see...

bobbarker31 · Post by **bobbarker31** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:29 pm

Before a beer raid
Ness: Here?!?!
Malone: Everyone knows where the booze is. The question is "who wants to cross Capone?"

They have to know about them, all of the studios.... Their legal forces are legion to stop them and if that was not enough, there is the RIAA and the MPAA out there to help them too.

I don't think the studios have trouble finding them. You see them all the time on Ebay. You see the dealers sell them at comic conventions and at their own stores. I can't say why they have not dealt with them more aggressively. You hear of a raid here or there, but nothing that really scratches the surface.

I don't like bootlegs either, but it is almost a law of economics bootlegs have popped up. There are bootleg cigarettes that people buy because they do not want to pay the high taxes. Many things are like that.

If the studios want to fight bootlegs, they should lower their prices and/or include things that cannot be easily copied. There is no reason why a DVD should cost more than $15 let alone $20. They should put more liner notes or fold up posters in the DVDs cases. They should create more 5.1 dolby soundtracks to make consumers want the best sound.

But is that happening? The latest development that I have read was that Gantz was going to be released with only two episodes per disc. Less than a hour's worth of material on a DVD is a waste. Things like that only make the bootleggers flourish.

I hate bootlegs, but there is a way to dimenish their numbers and effects without increased law enforcement.

Brsrk · Post by **Brsrk** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:53 pm

My friend picked up Kenshin on 12 DVDs for only $40, and he didn't care that they were HKs...

Over 3/4 the anime on ebay is pirated, you should order the anime from a known legit distributor, even if it costs you more.

I saw VCDs for sale on ebay for $5... one ep per disc means that they're just HKs put into CD format. Someone I know sold anime for $5 a disc because of the time it takes, the effort, ect. He got arrested the next day, thanks to me

Evangelion Unit 01 · Post by **Evangelion Unit 01** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:02 pm

Well I am almost 100% certain it is a boot. The few ways you can tell, are
1. Is there only 3 dvds? If yes then it is a boot. Most 26 episode anime series are sold in 3 disk sets, and the dvds are 10 dollars a pop.
2. If the case is in sort of a panflit form, which folds open to show the three dvds. This is ture for most cases, however bandi's love hina and dot hack sign which I bought at best buy fold in a panflit form. However those are the only two I ran across. I know there not boots, because I have some faith in that store, and that they are not only three dvds. They are like 6 for dot hack and I think nine for love hina, because of the movies.

But there are other ways which is listed in the sites How to spot a boot FAQ.

http://www.animemusicvideo.org/phpBB/vi ... ad54d1a3fc

And just as a rule of thumb, unless you know the store is offical, like Best Buy, always be on your toes, because even at cons, or at least one of the cons I went to, they had boots. Mind you I didn't buy any, because they are boots and because I usually don't buy anime dvds at cons any way. i am there for all the extra crap.

If your looking for good prices on line you can find that in the head's up form http://www.animemusicvideo.org/phpBB/vi ... 9cc232cbd4

Also I usually shop at right stuf, which I am pretty sure does not sell boots, and they usually have some good deals. http://www.rightstuf.com/

Evangelion Unit 01 · Post by **Evangelion Unit 01** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:16 pm

bobbarker31 wrote: I don't like bootlegs either, but it is almost a law of economics bootlegs have popped up. There are bootleg cigarettes that people buy because they do not want to pay the high taxes. Many things are like that.

On thing I forgot to mention!
That to me is suprising that people will go to the length of bootlegging stuff like that. To me it would seem it would be more costly for some to produce non dvd or cd products due to the mass marketing and the material you need. It just does not seem like one person could do that, you would pracically need your own factory. Cigarettes I guess could due to the fact that they can be grown, but I don't understand how people boot stuff like plushy dolls, and walls scrolls and what not.

bobbarker31 · Post by **bobbarker31** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:09 pm

Evangelion Unit 01 wrote:
bobbarker31 wrote: I don't like bootlegs either, but it is almost a law of economics bootlegs have popped up. There are bootleg cigarettes that people buy because they do not want to pay the high taxes. Many things are like that.
On thing I forgot to mention!
That to me is suprising that people will go to the length of bootlegging stuff like that. To me it would seem it would be more costly for some to produce non dvd or cd products due to the mass marketing and the material you need. It just does not seem like one person could do that, you would pracically need your own factory. Cigarettes I guess could due to the fact that they can be grown, but I don't understand how people boot stuff like plushy dolls, and walls scrolls and what not.

They do it because the cost of production is smaller than the revenue they generate from the sales. If the legitimate maufacturers of the material priced their goods to cover the demand that is out there, this would not happen. As such, the risk is not great enough to disuade the bootleggers. Granted, that anime and anime related material is not drugs or other contraband, the demand that is not being met is enough to spur it on.

If you can buy an entire 22 episode 45 minute per episode season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer with loads of extras like cast and crew commentaries, behind the scenes documentaries, and loads of other stuff for $40 to $60, it should not cost $29 for a single anime DVD with 2 to 4 episodes at 25 minutes per episode. Other live action series get translated into two more languages too.

Lower the cost of the DVDs and you will see the fan base grow exponentially. And the bigger the fan base, the more money will be generated.

+Endless_Waltz+ · Post by **+Endless_Waltz+** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:24 pm

Ya, you can't trust E-bay as far as you can throw them. You can't, my point proven!

But really, if you want to find good anime, go where I get mine. Amazon.com!

They really do have a really good selection of anime and even manga. (More so anime then manga.) Really just go there and you won't have as much problems with bootleg copies.

Gemberkoekje · Post by **Gemberkoekje** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:29 pm

For benelux peepz, try http://www.archonia.com

atrophiedXlungs · Post by **atrophiedXlungs** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:38 am

I'd like to point out that buying from eBay is fine...if you know what you're getting. For instance, I managed to score a factory-sealed, official version of all 7 RahXephon dvds for $57 including shipping (and the movie + box, from another seller for $30). And that's definitely a lot better than if I had gone to Best Buy, or bought from RightStuf (I do both sometimes, but usually only if I have some financial incentive to do so...like if there's a sale going on), where the entire series would've cost upwards of $140 (and the movie with the box another $45), plus tax. And that's far from the only great deal I've found on eBay (and I never buy anything that even seems like it could be a bootleg).

My advice is to just do your homework. Know what you want, and search through the gunk until you can find it. And as far as bootleggers go...I believe any attempt to shut them down is futile, seriously. It's simple economics, like Monsieur Barker has enumerated...there are many people who will pay a much smaller price for a somewhat inferior product. That's the way the world works.