Ripped Off?

[iceman57]

Why don't you open a claim with the "counterfeit" alert ? This seller may have several account but not thousands of IP adress.

Simply broke her neck and hang her behind a car for a mile...

[iriakun]

I got the same problem with this seller, picture was quite small and when I got the F.....draw, of course it was a fake one!!! I got refound from paypal but I had to send back the draw
Another seller is an italian.
http://cgi.ebay.com/SHIKISHI-Autographe ... 2ea89a5998

He was selling a lot of draw including one very weird from Naruto. In the description, he wrote "I got it in an event in Tokyo the 18th something in August" so I asked him what kind of event because there's never event during the week and especially I live in tokyo so I am aware about sign sessions.
He replied me "I went to the Shueisha company in the studio where Kishimoto is working "
Kishimoto as all mangaka NEVER work in the publishing company building!
Finally, I found on ebay that the weird draw was just a replica from a dojinshi.
It is so easy to say "I went to Tokyo, I met this artist, I got an autograph".

Even on yahoo auction, you have a lot of fakes especially, Miyazaki, Takahashi Rumiko, Oda, Kishimoto and Toriyama. Easy draw, easy sign, easy money

http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/127016312

Be careful about ebay and yahoo and the best is to meet the mangaka/animator of course!

[iceman57]

For signatures, boycott Ebay or YJA and focus on Mandarake.
This is an established company and you can easily claim.

[cutiebunny]

For signatures, boycott Ebay or YJA and focus on Mandarake.
This is an established company and you can easily claim.

BS. Mandarake sells bootlegs as well.

The most recent example are some of the Sailormoon cards I saw for sale during the Fall BWA. They were prism sticker versions of the Bandai Graffiti cards that were produced in Japan in 1994. The thing is, Bandai only produced six prismatic cards for each set and the ones Mandarake was selling were not the legitimate ones. These were all chinese bootlegs cards that had been selling in the US for years and that you could get out of the card machines for 25 cents.

I don't think that all the shikishi that you see on YJ is fake. I've bought many from YJ and a lot of sellers will include the original packaging that they received from the manga company that they won the item from. Also, read the feedback. If a seller has several negatives due to selling fakes, it's a wise idea not to buy from them(and there are a few that do business on YJ). Plus, buyer beware. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Every week I see a lot of colored Miyazaki shikishi starting at 20,000 yen. Come on...every week?! I'm sure Miyazaki only did a handful of those and I'm sure that no one would be selling it for 20,000 yen.

The majority of shikishi on YJ is that from production artists, doujinshi artists and relatively unknown manga-kas. These, I believe, are your best bets to purchase in terms of buying originals. Counterfeiters aren't going to spend time drawing unpopular characters to bring in a couple dollars.

[iceman57]

BS. Mandarake sells bootlegs as well.

I was writing about the autographs.

[cutiebunny]

But even so, how do you know?

If a shikishi is not dated, there is no way to prove that the signing happened at an event. I have yet to see a Mandarake auction stating that an antiquities specialist looked at the signature and confirmed it to be 100% accurate. Does Mandarake contact the artist specifically and ask them if this is their signature and artwork? And if they do, why not mention it in their auction. Obviously, they can't do this when the artist is dead, but....how really do you authenticate it? And, are there specialists in this genre that can credibly authenticate an item?

The thing about the Mandarake guarantee is that it is only guaranteed up to the auction's opening price. And, in many cases, the artwork starts at a low price. So, either way, the auction house can't lose.


When you buy a shikishi, you also buy the possibility that the item is not legitimate. You can scour YJ, look for reputable dealers and study the style of any artist as much as you want, but there will always be the possibility that what you have is a fake.

[iceman57]

This is not a matter of "fake or not fake", this is a matter of safety.

Mandarake company is registered on the Japanese stock exhange and the biggest merchandising seling company in Japan. Each time this company create an invoice, it engage his name. If there is a legitimate claim, you can claim to Mandarake, and suit to court like with any company.
When you buy on the other media, you consciently take the risk of being fooled by an individual (and there are lots). That's why it is strongly recommended not to buy from individuals but to companies.

Regarding your note about the start price, this is easy to balance even with Mandarake. Insure your expedition for the paid value and use your paypal invoice as invoiced payment. Do this everytime for every item and when you see the art insurance company they insure it for more that the start price.

[cutiebunny]

No one, outside of Japan, is going to sue Mandarake simply because the matter would be far too costly to do so.

Yes, if Mandarake was selling fine art and Picasso paintings worth upwards of several million dollars, I could see that anyone who was ripped off would sue because they would have the money to do so. They could easily pay for lawyers both in their country and in Japan, round trip first class tickets between countries and whatever else was needed.

But, most anime collectors do not have unlimited funds. And, furthermore, most anime collectors couldn't see paying several hundred thousand dollars to sue Mandarake over a piece of artwork that cost them less than $1K.

A lot of insurers want to know that what they are insuring are legitimate items and not fakes. Many of these companies have people working for them that are specialists in certain areas. If you have a pricey collection, they send out a specialist to verify that the goods are authentic. But, while we all consider ourselves, as collectors, knowledgeable in our wares, none of us have a career where we authenticate items. I've never heard of anyone doing so in our particular genre. Which is why, even with Mandarake, I take the "you have no risk of buying fakes" line on their website with a grain of salt. I've seen Mandarake sell fake items that are not identified as being bootlegs.

Now, if, in the case of Miyazaki shikishi, Mandarake did hire a professional and/or contacted Miyazaki personally to verify if it was an original, I would think that they would put that in their listings...especially when you consider that these shikishi end upwards of $6K on their BWAs. That would establish a higher degree of credibility rather than a blanket "we don't sell fakes' tag on their website. But, they don't use 'experts' to identify whether something is fake or not. For all we know, there is the possibility that the $6K Totoro shikishi on the recent BWA is a replica.

For insurance purposes, I would think that Mandarake's credibility would be equivalent to cases where one receives the original packaging and/or photo of the shikishi with the creator, although, I would probably give more credibility to the cases where items come with a photo and/or packaging. That allows you to prove some kind of provance, whereas saying "I got it from Mandarake" doesn't establish that.

[zerospace]

hat's why it is strongly recommended not to buy from individuals but to companies.

If everyone did this for all of his/her collecting, this hobby would pretty much die, because the majority of artwork sales today are collector-to-collector, rather than dealer-to-collector.

Also, iceman, I don't know if you intend to sound this way, but you sound as though the only credible source of original artwork is Mandarake, and this is most certainly untrue. In fact, if you really want to go that far, the only truly credible source is directly from the creators/studios themselves.

[iceman57]

Also, iceman, I don't know if you intend to sound this way, but you sound as though the only credible source of original artwork is Mandarake, and this is most certainly untrue. In fact, if you really want to go that far, the only truly credible source is directly from the creators/studios themselves.

Indeed, or autograph sessions.
But to buy autographs from Japan when you've not living there, the unique way to open a claim is against an identified company to hope get a refund, and not the YJA or Ebay tricky people with generally multiple accounts.

[zerospace]

While it may be true that it is often easier to get a refund from a company, I have heard past horror stories about doing so with Mandarake. I wouldn't count on getting a refund from anyone with regards to buying artwork, which is why I would do my homework before bidding on anything, be it on YJ, eBay or Mandarake, and only bid the amount I'm willing to risk if the item is a fake.

Just my two yen, though.

[Serendipity_Collections]

You will all note that now her auction states "Autographed FanArt" or at least that last set of links one of them had this as shown above. She is trying to be slick! Watch out I would report her to Serasell as well Midnight. Has that been done...?

[iceman57]

You will all note that now her auction states "Autographed FanArt" or at least that last set of links one of them had this as shown above. She is trying to be slick! Watch out I would report her to Serasell as well Midnight. Has that been done...?

"Autographed counterfeit" may better fit

[MidniteKitten]

No serendipity, I haven't, but seeing as this is a repeat offense I'll see about contacting a mod and discussing it with them. She always changes the titles after being confronted, which means she knows very well what she is doing.

[iceman57]

She always changes the titles after being confronted, which means she knows very well what she is doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFppkEv7Bjg
(From 6:30 to 6:50).