Bootlegged Blu-rays being sold on Ebay

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

I thought developed countries don’t produce pirated goods? I guess pirated products are not exclusively a “Third world problem”.

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Hmm. Didn't know there were bootleg pressed Blu-ray's. I always thought they were all BD-Rs.

Yeah there's loads, usually released by companies like Resen. Sometimes rips of existing discs from the likes of Shout or Twilight Time, or HDTV rips of films unavailable on Blu-ray like Ryan's Daughter.

[skylark68]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Those warnings are probably just to scare you. Obviously they don't give a crap if these sellers have been getting away with it for so many years.

They've probably got Corky Romano on the case...

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

It's not such a big deal. BD-Rs are easily recognizable, whereas pirated CDs and DVDs can be indistinguishable from the real thing. Buy from longtime sellers with good feedback and you'll be fine. If the price of a desirable title is low and if they've sold more than one of the same title, it's probably a pirated copy.

Once you can actually SEE the playback surface then yes, it's obvious, but it's the 'seeing the playback surface thing' that ebay listings etc aren't so hot on.

Got caught out myself recently, bought an Incredibles 2 Blu-ray on ebay for a tenner. Seemed too good to be true and it was, all the discs inside were boots and the cover quality was poor (though the slipcover looked great, oddly enough). Contacted the buyer, said it was a boot, they said they'd refund it once I sent it back, I said "nah, it's a bootleg, I want my money back in full" and they quickly sent the money across.

[aaron158]

one time back when sony was making those choice collections that were on blu ray rs i had a coupon for $10 off 20 for ebay. so i ordered one of them off an a seller i think there store was called OddBanana they looked like a legit store but the copy i got was just a blank blu ray with no data on it when i put it in my pc blu ray rom it asked if i wanted to burn data to it so it had never even been wrote to. contact the seller was useless they didn't reply to any emails. had to open a return request with ebay and when the seller blew it off ebay refund me.

another time back when i was still buying dvds i ordered a 3 movie box set and they were so badly faked that the bootlegger put the labels on the disc in the wrong order so like they were all mixed up.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Those warnings are probably just to scare you. Obviously they don't give a crap if these sellers have been getting away with it for so many years.

Do you mean to tell me I'm the only one who's called the feds to alert them about apparent video piracy??

They were very nice. They investigated and called me back afterwards. I'm serious.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Some good guidelines to follow:

Anything that seems to good to be true usually is

Anyone who has multiple copies of a film, especially a hard to find one, is probably selling a bootleg.

Try to only buy from those that show actual pictures of the product, and not jut a stock picture

Obviously don't buy anything form China, unless it's an Asian export (but still follow due diligence)

This is great advice.

I will add to always check the seller's negative feedback if they have any. Even if their favorable rating is 99.9%, still check on what is stated in the 0.1% reviews that are negative. Often times people will call them out for selling bootlegs.

The main reason why their rating isn't lower is because most people don't realize that they've bought a bootleg, and probably leave a favorable review upon receiving the item before going to actually watch it.

[Knrsa333]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I've found that most of the Bootlegs I've encountered come from DIY'ers in Brazil personally. I'd also avoid anything from "Russian Federation" as well.

Same here, the seller I see trying to sell all of the most popular OOP blu ray titles is selling from Brazil

[Knrsa333]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

I cannot find anybody by that username at the moment, do you have a link to any of his listings?

Obviously, everyone should be diligent when shopping on eBay and if they wind up with a bootleg or illegal copy, report it and submit the appropriate feedback.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F352835505943

^ a link to one of their listings.

[Knrsa333]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F264501309946

^ really suspect listing. I was really really debating on buying this, but the seller having so many copies of a brand new OOP title is crazy.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

I've been burned once. Kinda. Stupid low price on The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki. I figured it was probably a pirated copy, but thought if it wasn't, I'd have gotten a great deal. And if it was, I thought eBay would let me keep it... they made me send it back to the seller!

[Knrsa333]

Before I was smarter about buying OOP titles, i recently purchased a copy of a brand new, sealed copy of "Clownhouse" on DVD for like 10 bucks, and at the time (few months ago) there was suddenly a ton of listings for brand new copies of the movie, to which I suspected that someone/a few people got copies from old stock or something, seeimg that so many sellers were selling brand new copies for cheap out of nowhere had me thinking that they were legit copies... everything actually seems a-okay for the copy i recieved.. still havent opened it but it has a legit security sticker on it, artwork looks professionally maufactured, etc. I will most likely open the DVD later today to further look into it... but did anyone else see these listings on Ebay/pick up a copy?

[HD Goofnut]

Best giveaways are the misspelling of easily spelled words and shoddy printing.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Knrsa333

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F352835505943

^ a link to one of their listings.

Clearly a bootleg, the fact that it says in the description that it's a "region free MOD" says it all.

Originally Posted by Knrsa333

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F264501309946

^ really suspect listing. I was really really debating on buying this, but the seller having so many copies of a brand new OOP title is crazy.

Going by the pic, it seems legit. Some sellers will pick up lots (meaning a grouping, as opposed to the synonym of plenty) in auctions or liquidation sales and often luck out with rare items to sell. Feedback for this seller doesn't seem to indicate anything wrong. His listing says he is open to questions so you could always ask him how he came about so many copies.

Edit - I guess there is one guy who left a review saying it's a copy, so there you go.

[Axl Rose]

Ive only been burned once on a DVD set of The Wire a long time ago. Usually i could tell a fake right off but this one was scary good. Everything was printed cleanly, the box was sturdy, and even the slip was embossed! Someone put allot of effort into it.

However the picture quality was bad and season 4 in particular was horrible. It also had no copyright protection on it and the disc were only 4GB. Ebay buyer protection is pretty much bullet proof though, so you can easily get your money back.

[redrunner97]

I find that you just know a BD-R when you see it. I'm color blind, so to me the bottoms tend to look kind of golden mixed with purple.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by Knrsa333

The problem is, the seller I am specifically mentioning doesnt use stock photos, has good feedback (except for one person who left feedback advising the seller is selling bootleggs) and is not selling at low prices that seem "too good to be true".

Pretty sure I know the guy you mean (though it's possible there are multiple Brazilian sellers). The one I am thinking of specifically says "These are Region 0 discs officially released in Brazil" (or something along these lines). This is specific language which bootleggers include in their listing because it will trick ebay into believing that they aren't bootlegs. Since there is no other reason to mention this, it's 100% a guarantee.

[Knrsa333]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Clearly a bootleg, the fact that it says in the description that it's a "region free MOD" says it all.



Going by the pic, it seems legit. Some sellers will pick up lots (meaning a grouping, as opposed to the synonym of plenty) in auctions or liquidation sales and often luck out with rare items to sell. Feedback for this seller doesn't seem to indicate anything wrong. His listing says he is open to questions so you could always ask him how he came about so many copies.

Edit - I guess there is one guy who left a review saying it's a copy, so there you go.

Glad you found that review, I actually didnt see that. So glad I didnt jump on buying a copy. Kind of crazy that they even went to the trouble of maling a legit looking security sticker, or maybe thats just for the one pictured, not the one buyers are actually getting.

[Knrsa333]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

Pretty sure I know the guy you mean (though it's possible there are multiple Brazilian sellers). The one I am thinking of specifically says "These are Region 0 discs officially released in Brazil" (or something along these lines). This is specific language which bootleggers include in their listing because it will trick ebay into believing that they aren't bootlegs. Since there is no other reason to mention this, it's 100% a guarantee.

Yeah, the seller im referring to now specifcally says "authentic" MOD release in their description, tricking skeptical buyers into thinking maybe its a legit studio MOD copy. Ugh. This seller from brazil didnt use to include this in his description, but im guessing as some people came to see they were getting bootlegs that they thought adding "authentic" in the description would sucker people into buying.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by Knrsa333

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F264501309946

^ really suspect listing. I was really really debating on buying this, but the seller having so many copies of a brand new OOP title is crazy.

There are two different kinds of shrinkwrap in the pictures. Clearly a bootleg.

[Knrsa333]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

There are two different kinds of shrinkwrap in the pictures. Clearly a bootleg.

And whats funny is I actually messaged this seller and asked "so I was wondering, are these legit studio copies of this release? Or are these bootlegged copies?" The seller replied "what are you talking about??? I dont know what you mean????"

Also look at the other items they are selling, all OOP releases... and this is a common thing with all of the sketchy sellers...