darkSpyro

I think this is a fake variant:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-S...=item2c66ba822b

Reason: You can obviously see the fire base at the bottom of the pictures.


Post any more scams you find here.

Yeah, it looks fake. Although it doesn't really matter since it wouldn't show up gold on its sticker, card, or game.

Oh wait... unless that guy wants extra money for it... then it would matter.

Worst paint job ever...lol...you can still see the bottom of the flame base...lol. I mean...how dumb do you have to be to even consider buying or bidding on this. Laziest fake ever...I reported it as a fraudulent item.

Quote: xerokills

Worst paint job ever...lol...you can still see the bottom of the flame base...lol. I mean...how dumb do you have to be to even consider buying or bidding on this. Laziest fake ever...I reported it as a fraudulent item.

so did i, before i noticed that you had

To be fair the gold coloring actually looks correct and I would mistake it for a real one if they had properly painted the whole thing.

I hate to break it to you guys, but that's a legit gold Flameslinger, and you've been reporting him for nothing. Don't believe me? Pull out your plain Flameslinger. What you think is the end of the paint job is actually a ridge that's part of the figure's mold, and although the lighting catches the figure in a way that it looks like there's no paint below it, it really is just the lighting. This seller has sold plenty of legitimate loose variants, including clear figures, which can't be forged. There's no reason to think this toy is anything but the genuine article.

i actually emailed the sender asking if it was real or not (stupidly after reporting it) they sent me a better picture of it and its clearly real

you mean to tell me that they don't paint the gold all the way to the bottom of the base down the the green border? Because upon closer look...it still appears that it's not painted down to the green edge as it should be. Maybe I'm just seeing it wrong. I personally don't or have never seen a gold one in person, but I don't recall it being that badly painted before. See how badly painted it is? I can see the flame base about 1/8" from the green...which looks unpainted...am I crazy?

It's poor lighting. The other screens the seller has supplied show it more clearly. I agree that it looks like a plain flame base here, but the ridge on the mold of Flameslinger seems to be catching light in just the wrong way. It really does look hokey, I'm not going to lie, but I think it's genuine. The guy is in the process of selling a full set of loose variants, past, present, and even Toy Fair, so it would just seem out of place to me that he would go and forge a Flameslinger.

I like that he took pictures of it sitting on his painting table.

I hope that in Giants they find a better way to do variants than gold and silvers. Crystals are fine in my book...but no more color variants...it's too easy to fake em.

Hmm... what happens when something gold, and therefore at least partially reflective, is placed on a RED surface...

Quote: xerokills

I hope that in Giants they find a better way to do variants than gold and silvers. Crystals are fine in my book...but no more color variants...it's too easy to fake em.

You said it. I think they may have learned their lesson with the crystals and, to a lesser extent, the glows, but they're going to have to prove it with Giants.

I hope those reporting this didn't cause too much grief for the seller, because It looks legit to me given the mold line shown above. They also have a gold Drill Sergeant up for auction, and I scrutinized the picture pretty heavily to see if if looked have too (it looks real).

It's legit. I get what Tashiji is saying now. I never noticed they had a part release at that point of the model on Flameslinger. I was seeing the highlight on the model as looking like the tape edge on a painted part. If the seller was smart, he'd be placing it on a blue or black surface to avoid confusion. The red surface throws things off a bit. And who really cares if you screwed up his auction. He can repost it...and it won't really affect anything. Should I really feel bad for a guy selling a marked up rare? Nope...I don't. But yeah...it would be an honest mistake from looking at it...90% of people would believe that's a poor repaint.

I think Toys 4 Bob need to scale back the variants or they'll continually lose customers. People will get fed up...especially in this economy...I won't even look for specials with Giants. But alas...I've seen how crazy some parents get...so...they feed off each other...blah

I can't see them scaling back on the variants. They'll just get smarter about how tough they are to fake.

Quote: matthewgerber

I hope those reporting this didn't cause too much grief for the seller, because It looks legit to me given the mold line shown above. They also have a gold Drill Sergeant up for auction, and I scrutinized the picture pretty heavily to see if if looked have too (it looks real).

the seller emailed me again last night(uk) and said he understands my concerns but can confirm its real, plus i was almost ready to open my gold flameslinger to look but you can see it from in the packaging that there is a line

Hoo boy, looks like its time to get lookin' on evilbay! (puts on safari hat)

I only have 1 gold figure ( ), which his base is completely gold.

Yeah, if you look at the base in the other pics, the rest of the base appears orange..

Quote: Himewad

I can't see them scaling back on the variants. They'll just get smarter about how tough they are to fake.

i swear your avatar just blinked

it did

Quote: xerokills

It's legit. I get what Tashiji is saying now. I never noticed they had a part release at that point of the model on Flameslinger. I was seeing the highlight on the model as looking like the tape edge on a painted part. If the seller was smart, he'd be placing it on a blue or black surface to avoid confusion. The red surface throws things off a bit. And who really cares if you screwed up his auction. He can repost it...and it won't really affect anything. Should I really feel bad for a guy selling a marked up rare? Nope...I don't. But yeah...it would be an honest mistake from looking at it...90% of people would believe that's a poor repaint.

I think Toys 4 Bob need to scale back the variants or they'll continually lose customers. People will get fed up...especially in this economy...I won't even look for specials with Giants. But alas...I've seen how crazy some parents get...so...they feed off each other...blah

Yeah, I don't think it would impact the listing either. As far as I can tell, the auction doesn't even show anything despite the sheer number of queries the seller must have fielded by this point. Let's not blow this out of proportion an start guilt-tripping people for making a reasonable assumption that eBay may have forged variants. There are tons of them, the picture definitely looks like it in this case, and even if it turned out not to be true, that doesn't mean people had no reason to question this sale. I've fielded some odd questions on eBay myself, and you really can't take a little doubt about your product personally. That's the way of sales in the first place.

Quote: Tashiji

Quote: xerokills

And who really cares if you screwed up his auction. He can repost it...and it won't really affect anything. Should I really feel bad for a guy selling a marked up rare? Nope...I don't. But yeah...it would be an honest mistake from looking at it...90% of people would believe that's a poor repaint.

Yeah, I don't think it would impact the listing either. As far as I can tell, the auction doesn't even show anything despite the sheer number of queries the seller must have fielded by this point. Let's not blow this out of proportion an start guilt-tripping people for making a reasonable assumption that eBay may have forged variants. There are tons of them, the picture definitely looks like it in this case, and even if it turned out not to be true, that doesn't mean people had no reason to question this sale. I've fielded some odd questions on eBay myself, and you really can't take a little doubt about your product personally. That's the way of sales in the first place.

eBay is famous for abruptly shutting down auctions, and suspending or even canceling accounts based on the flimsiest of evidence. It's their site and under their complete control with no real appeals process or rights for users. What they say goes. Their PayPal system is even worse, since it handles actual currency, which they can lock away from a user without any real reason whatsoever.

I'd encourage people to think twice before coming to an enthusiasts forum, claiming fraud, and encouraging others to report the auction. A bunch of fraud reports on the auction could get this seller's account flagged, get his auction suspended, or even get him booted from eBay. We know there are forgeries on eBay; flag 'em if you're sure. I report keyword spamming on a regular basis. But there was reasonable doubt here, as evidenced by the research above.

Just because the internet is relatively anonymous doesn't mean it's OK to leave our better behavior behind when we log on. Kudos to those who contacted the seller for answers!

Quote: matthewgerber

Quote: Tashiji

Quote: xerokills

And who really cares if you screwed up his auction. He can repost it...and it won't really affect anything. Should I really feel bad for a guy selling a marked up rare? Nope...I don't. But yeah...it would be an honest mistake from looking at it...90% of people would believe that's a poor repaint.

Yeah, I don't think it would impact the listing either. As far as I can tell, the auction doesn't even show anything despite the sheer number of queries the seller must have fielded by this point. Let's not blow this out of proportion an start guilt-tripping people for making a reasonable assumption that eBay may have forged variants. There are tons of them, the picture definitely looks like it in this case, and even if it turned out not to be true, that doesn't mean people had no reason to question this sale. I've fielded some odd questions on eBay myself, and you really can't take a little doubt about your product personally. That's the way of sales in the first place.

eBay is famous for abruptly shutting down auctions, and suspending or even canceling accounts based on the flimsiest of evidence. It's their site and under their complete control with no real appeals process or rights for users. What they say goes. Their PayPal system is even worse, since it handles actual currency, which they can lock away from a user without any real reason whatsoever.

I'd encourage people to think twice before coming to an enthusiasts forum, claiming fraud, and encouraging others to report the auction. A bunch of fraud reports on the auction could get this seller's account flagged, get his auction suspended, or even get him booted from eBay. We know there are forgeries on eBay; flag 'em if you're sure. I report keyword spamming on a regular basis. But there was reasonable doubt here, as evidenced by the research above.

Just because the internet is relatively anonymous doesn't mean it's OK to leave our better behavior behind when we log on. Kudos to those who contacted the seller for answers!

Right! I bought a prototype Gameboy game off of Evilbay and before I could buy it, eBay shut the auction off! But the guy gave me it anyway..

http://losangeles.craigslist.o...3161018721.html Very Fake

Quote: ShadowMewX

Yeah, it looks fake. Although it doesn't really matter since it wouldn't show up gold on its sticker, card, or game.

Oh wait... unless that guy wants extra money for it... then it would matter.

variants dont work like that. only the figure is different color.