Would you bid on this?

[nearlymint]

To be honest, when you look at the people that post anything the percentage is very low. I feel it does not seem to make a blind bit of difference. I used to get quite annoyed about it but maybe the odd topic every now and then as I started here is enough and may hopefully help someone out that does not post but just looks.
Fed up with trying to point the finger as it’s to bloody awkward, just add the odd picture of the crap that they sell should be enough.
But I am not bitter and twisted am I.
J

[Idris]

Jason, I share your frustration but, as long as big business continues to put profits before principles, there is little that can be done on a public forum apart from providing cribs detailing generic issues with faked models. In this respect, it is a great shame that Nick's 'VBD Auctions' initiative never got off the ground since, if properly policed, it would have provided a platform on which buyers could be reasonably confident that what they were buying was a genuine factory product (unless clearly labelled otherwise).
The fakers will be with us as long as buyers do not do their homework. Joe (Tinman) has told us many times that the key to all this is information, information, information. Thanks to Nick (with his online variation catalogue) and many others (e.g. Stannard, Houghton) plus the many fora, the information buyers require in order to spend their money wisely is not only out there but also freely available. However, as long as some buyers have more money than sense, the fakers will not only continue to prosper but also to multiply.
As the saying goes "A fool and his money are soon parted". The sold pages of online auction sites provide more than adequate proof that that old adage regrettably still hold true.

[Viewfield]

My main problem with fakes and restorations is that at some time in the future they will appear for sale as genuine models.
A buyer who has been “ taken-in” with a fake will invariably offer it again sooner or later, for sale. In many cases someone who’s been conned will not accept the reality he’s been conned and will always look for ways to cut his losses. I wonder when we will see many of these model in question again up for sale.

Rod

[jsherwood]

My thoughts:

(a) We need to attract more Matchbox collectors to the hobby, especially younger ones, and raise awareness of expensive fakes to stop people being conned. But in doing so, are we putting people off from collecting and encouraging new fakers? I think that collectors need somewhere to go where they can ask about a model currently on sale and the pros outweigh the cons.

(b) I would like to see a blacklist (either online or 'offline') but I appreciate the legal problems involved with publishing. The list of trusted sellers is useful. Perhaps those sellers can all use the same 'VBD approved seller' logo in their listings if we could create one, and it would attract people to this forum.

(c) Some buyers believe that they're protected from buying fakes online. I think that as time goes by, larger numbers of expensive 'rare' models will be purchased online as the internet-savvy population grows. Some buyers will gladly pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds online via the well-known selling platforms, yet they wouldn't dream of paying £500+ for a 'rolex' from a market stall. They believe that sellers are vetted and don't want to pay auction house premiums.

(d) As more fake models enter the market, there will be more innocent people selling them on without knowing that they're fakes.

(e) Some categories of models such as Star Wars have an approval rating system such as AFA or UKG but the models are sealed in cases and mistakes can still be made in grading.

[Idris]

Three good rules of thumb to avoid getting stung on an online auctuon site:
- Do not buy anything being sold out of The Netherlands, Eastern Europe, or South America (unless you truly believe you have enough knowledge to confidently separate the wheat from the chaff).
- Remember that if a BiN is too good to be true, then it's almost certainly a fake.
- If a seller is offering an interesting model, check what else he has for sale and call up his sold listings. If he has an extremely high percentage of rarities (especially wheel variants), walk away.

[Idris]

To be honest, when you look at the people that post anything the percentage is very low. I feel it does not seem to make a blind bit of difference. I used to get quite annoyed about it but maybe the odd topic every now and then as I started here is enough and may hopefully help someone out that does not post but just looks.

There are an awful lot of lurkers out there: the 30b poll has only nine votes as of now, but almost 300 views!

[Sebastian10]

But I am coming to the conclusion there is only so much we can do, if we have a few pointers then it's upto them t make the final decision.

I agree - the buyer has to make the final decision. But it would be good if fewer people were being taken in.

Did anyone see the red 45 Vauxhall sold recently for very big bucks, check out the base and see what you think.
J

I just found four red Vauxhalls and I’m not sure I liked the bases of any of them... not one showed a picture of the dashboard either (though I think that someone is removing those now). The most expensive one I found has the later small triangular braces in the front wings - surely the wrong casting!

Dr. Jeep

Was this one of the four red Vauxhalls?

(You will need to click on the link and then when the listing appears you will get a message saying the listing has ended, just click on the word 'listing' which should be highlighted in blue and this should bring up the red Vauxhall page)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matchbox-45a ... 1438.l2649

This ended just this Saturday morning. It has the usual small photographs but does mention the lack of a dashboard brace which seems to be confirmed in the photographs. However the rear rivet post seems to be thicker than what I think it is supposed to be but I don't have my yellow brace less model to hand so I am not sure - I could be wrong on this.The Seller has a long history of sold rare items (mostly wheel variations) which have fetched high prices though with positive feedback. Interestingly the seller is located in fes which seems to be somewhere in Chile but although they post to Worldwide it excludes South America!

Sebastian

[Idris]

[Was this one of the four red Vauxhalls?

(You will need to click on the link and then when the listing appears you will get a message saying the listing has ended, just click on the word 'listing' which should be highlighted in blue and this should bring up the red Vauxhall page)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matchbox-45a ... 1438.l2649[

Msvpilot1984 is not a seller I would buy from: I've been aware of him for some time, my attention having been drawn by his BPW 34a VWs (yes, plural).. A quick look at his sold listings should set the alarm bells ringing: it would appear that the red Victor has already been sold once, presumably only to be returned as unsatisfactory, and there is also an SF53 Ford Zodiac in RW colour. In addition, he uses two locations: Chile and APO/FPO (which appears to be the same as Fes, but see here). So, rather like Eric Jonkers, he is able to list models in two different countries: Santiago, Chile and Fes, Morocco. (Although living in Barendrecht, The Netherlands, Eric lists some of his models as being in the USA>)
To reduce your chance of getting stung online, don't buy from South America, Eastern Europe or The Netherlands!

[DrJeep]

No, not that one - the one I saw was even more expensive and the wrong body casting. I think this seller from Chile has also bought from our favourite seller from the Netherlands (search his completed listings).

Perhaps we should just add “don’t buy a red Victor” to the list of tips?

[paelzermaen]

Perhaps we should just add “don’t buy a red Victor” to the list of tips?

What about red Thunderbirds?

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Ultra-Rare-1960 ... 1438.l2649