Bandai is getting screwed

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:01 am

Thanks to amazon.. a huge amount of potential buyers have gone down the drain because they have been selling bootlegs. I'm not giving a link to a bootlegger site, amazon is not a bootlegger site, it's just where there are people there who get away with selling them.. specifically most common is out of print box sets for anime. So here's the deal.. don't take this as me breaking the rules, I'm doing this because this NOT being known is doing more harm than good to the company and the customers. Bandi has already released many box sets of entire series for the same price that these bootlegs are being sold for, so if they only had released this series as an "Anime Legends" box set, then they would probably be making more money on this series. Oh sh**, I haven't even mentioned the series yet. It's cowboy bebop. It has been one of the top anime DVD sellers at amazon for a year or so. Go check the top seller list right now. It's the tenth top seller right now.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:13 pm

It can't be worse than on ebay where well over half of all listings are bootlegs. (I reported over 100 in an hour one day)

CrackTheSky · Post by **CrackTheSky** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:43 pm

Yeah...I bought a bootleg copy of Evangelion off of Amazon a couple years back, before I knew about bootlegs.

:/

They're everywhere.

freddy12354 · Post by **freddy12354** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:27 am

I have also ended up with a bootleg of Gunslinger girl from e-bay, it's some damn shit i want the real ones not those damn motherf*****g bootlegs, send them straight to hell

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:13 pm

which is why you DON'T go to places like Amazon and eBay...

Yeesh, buy from a COMMERCIAL area where the sellers are REAL freakin' companies... [aka company websites]

Geneon
ADV Films
Funimation

They have websites among other anime release companies. [and I doubt that they'd have eBay or Amazon as 'potential sellers' but if they do, then I got to say, the release companies are farkin' stupid]

Which is why I try to buy domestically off the shelf if I can't get it online. [which happens more often than not to me]

aesling · Post by **aesling** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:10 pm

Usually you don't get sent bootlegs from Amazon unless you go to the new and used section and you buy something there that claims to be new and yet sells for quite a bit cheaper than the product listed by Amazon. That's fairly suspicious, and it's easy to realize that it's probably going to be a bootleg. These transactions are through third party sellers that merely list themselves on Amazon. In general, Amazon itself is usually legitamate. Only once have I actually seen a bootleg listed on Amazon itself, and it was fairly obvious because it was the entire Samurai Champloo series selling for $30.

Unlimited Rice · Post by **Unlimited Rice** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:06 pm

I usually look at the ratings and comments from other people. If it's all good...and they have a lot of ratings average around 4+ stars, and a lot of comments that don't mention anything suspicious, they're usually find. I've been able to get some cheap legitimate dvds and boxsets that way.Though I don't order there often/anymore b/c it takes forever to get my stuff shipped to my house.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:57 pm

One thing to note. Online bootleggers are actually breaking more laws and face tougher penalties if they're caught then someone that sells stolen DVDs out of the back of a van or whatnot. If they ship the item through the U.S. Postal service it's mail fraud.

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:32 am

OmniStrata wrote:which is why you DON'T go to places like Amazon and eBay...

The company Amazon doesn't sell bootlegs, it's the offsite sellers over there. Also the only time I have got bootlegs over there was for boxsets of offsite sellers, that's why I make sure to be careful when getting box sets, and just buy directly from amazon, rightstuf, bestbuy, frys, or deepdiscount DVD. And if the seller has a good ranking, Unlimited Rice, doesn't mean that they are not selling bootlegs. It seems most people are too ignorant about the issue to really tell what they're getting.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 3:31 pm

Also, you don't have to be buying from non-reputable places to get bootlegs. A friend of mine got a bootlegged box set of outlaw star from Suncoast.