FAKE hobbit minis

Jamros · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:20 pm

mertaal wrote:

I've bought from the "skull white primer" guy before. I'm not sure why people think he's pirating. He has a listing with 52 different figures. The only ones he has left are a few broken or unpopular figures Yes, they're cheap. That's why he's sold out of almost everything he had. If he were pirating he wouldn't be out of stock, would he?

I re-stripped what I bought from him. The skull white primer is to hide the fact that he's not done a fantastic stripping job. To properly strip a miniature you often have to spend 10 mins or so per figure with a toothpick, getting it all out of the tiny cracks. Selling for 1.50 a piece I imagine it's not economical for him to do that, so he just primes everything white after stripping.

Honestly, i think people should be a bit more careful about pointing the finger. It's a shame to see a legitimate seller lumped in with the obvious (and terrible) pirate models posted by the OP.

You're right--I'm wrong. After discussing it with everyone else here and reviewing his listings several times, I'm pretty sure this guy is genuine.

I thought he was a pirate because I mistook "52 sold" as referring to an individual model, not the total sum of the unique models. Ie, he somehow has 53 identical mounted Gandalfs without packaging and is selling them all for 1.50; in reality, "52 sold" refers to each individual listing (1 Gandalf, 1 Merry, etc, etc).

I did not know that the models had been undercoated Skull White. I thought the reason the miniatures were white was because they were made from a home-made resin.

The low price, and white undercoat, is apparently due to the fact that, as you've explained, he's hiding a bad stripping job.

The most embarrassing thing is that when I was writing the original accusation, I literally thought to myself, "I should triple check before I accuse this guy of piracy." But I didn't :/

mertaal · **Posted:** Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:44 pm

You know what? We all make mistakes. But not very many of us are man enough to stand up and admit that we did. You have huge amounts of my respect for that.

.

cooper101183 · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2014 11:56 am

With regards to the white primed minis, I can confirm that they are legitimate. My Merry Crouching arrived this morning. It is evident on inspection that this mini has been stripped many times as the edges are very rounded and the minute detils have been compromised. The seller probably primes them white so the details look sharper which indicates why the price was low.

joshuar_au · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2014 1:30 pm

I bought a large order from the first seller at the start of the year, I reported him to paypal and returned the items to him and eventually got a refund, although I had to pay return postage so after months of waiting I still ended up $25 out of pocket with absolutely nothing to show for it, very disappointing. but at least I got my $180 refund...

cooper101183 · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2014 2:18 pm

joshuar_au wrote:

I bought a large order from the first seller at the start of the year, I reported him to paypal and returned the items to him and eventually got a refund, although I had to pay return postage so after months of waiting I still ended up $25 out of pocket with absolutely nothing to show for it, very disappointing. but at least I got my $180 refund...

It must have been really frustrating and annoying. At least you got your refund, imagine how many people have ordered from him and either have kept the goods not knowing they were fake or decided they didnot want to lose more money by posting them back. Personally I think people selling fakes as legitimate minis are damaging the hobby, it diverts money away from the legitimate sellers and stores who are more likely to reinvest in new figures and keep the hobby thriving and financially viable. However Those who sell and make cheap alternatives and clearly identify their models as being such, I don't have any issue with and actually support their endeavours.

J.R. · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2014 6:12 pm

I did also buy from the first buyer

, but am still awaiting my package. I doubt my items are legit, but hopefully they are. otherwise, I will of course report him etc. But I do not look forward to all the fuzz coming with that.

I do not think that involving the police will lead to any action at all, but who knows.. :roll:

I will try it anyway if he sold me bad copy's.

Argish · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2014 5:58 pm

Jelier wrote:

I did also buy from the first buyer

, but am still awaiting my package. I doubt my items are legit, but hopefully they are. otherwise, I will of course report him etc. But I do not look forward to all the fuzz coming with that.

I do not think that involving the police will lead to any action at all, but who knows.. :roll:

I will try it anyway if he sold me bad copy's.

Why not? How many people have ordered him fake resin gw miniatures? We have more than enough evidences. I ordered some minis from him, luckily metal ones, so I will have no problems I guess.

I'm also spanish and he doesn't live that far...

We can even make a serious call to GW.

J.R. · **Posted:** Fri May 02, 2014 8:02 pm

Well I will report it, but I just doubt it will lead to much action. Maybey If i live in spain, but I dont see my local police take much action for a seller from another country. But I have no experience with reporting it yet, so who knows what might happen.

I do however have some police experience and just doubt much will happen.

the big goblin · Last updated 7-1-15

Denizen wrote:

the big goblin wrote:

No wonder they are so cheap. Azog costs 35 euro and that guy is selling him for seven.

That's the shipping cost you're looking at

Sorry didn't see it.

Hodush · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 6:59 am

Everyone who has bought from him should report him to GW, they will take action if they get a few notices - got to make the legal dept. earn their money.

Moj · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:58 am **Posts:** 93

Hodush wrote:

Everyone who has bought from him should report him to GW, they will take action if they get a few notices - got to make the legal dept. earn their money.

i've yet to hear a response from that blasted legal team. i reported this around 2 months ago now. my local GW guy said that one case took 7 months before anything happened. all this waiting time despite GW stating on their website that they will take action against counterfeiters.

cooper101183 · **Posted:** Tue May 06, 2014 4:28 pm

You can very easily click on the report item option on the ebay page. If enough of us do that and select the counterfeit goods option Ebay will ban this guy permanently. While it may be easy to set up another Ebay account it is not as easy to set up new bank accounts and paypal accounts, so if he does open a new Ebay account they will link his bank details, address etc and ban him again

Moj · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:58 am **Posts:** 93

i submitted an individual report for each fake mini i bought off him. i hope that ebay will pay attention somehow. i also left negative feedback to warn other people.

if ebay bans this guy and he creates a new account, it will not have his previous feedback history, so people might trust him less that way.

i want my minis cheap, not cheap minis! (savvy?)

cooper101183 · **Posted:** Sat May 17, 2014 1:17 am

i want my minis cheap, not cheap minis! (savvy?)

What a wonderful philosophy you have.

The best way to get the expensive one cheap is to look for speeling mistakes or listing errors. I just bagged a Twilight Ringwraith for under £5 because the seller listed it as 'nazgul in spirit form', and a Golfimbul listed as Glorfinbul.

Moj · **Joined:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:58 am **Posts:** 93

How do you find misspelled minis? One tactic I have is to check out other ebay sites because some of em only advertise their stuff in another language.

jscottbowman · **Posted:** Tue May 20, 2014 4:47 am

On a related note about copied miniatures... I did recently buy a set of Watcher in the Water tentacles from ebay... thinking they were legit and with them being discontinued, I bid fairly highly to secure them... I won the auction, and was thanked for bidding so highly, so as a thank you, he'd send me two sets!

They duly arrived and were white metal and decent quality casts. The one thing I noticed was the metal was much harder that the usual white metal used, and it was an absolute sod to file the mold lines off, I gave up using my usual needle files and had to resort to the grinding tool on my dremel.

They came out well in the end and painted up fine. But just goes to show, you never really know what you are getting when you bid on ebay...

J.R. · **Posted:** Thu May 22, 2014 12:33 pm

Well I opened a paypal dispute with pesadilla_props , not becouse i know for sure they are fake, but becouse i did not receive anything although the track and trace shows it has deliverd more than a week ago...
The problem with this track and trace is, that it does not show where it was send not even the country.. so I have no idea of that package is sent to me.

I wonder though, I started a conversation with him on the paypal website, but it automticly became a claim a few minutes and chats later. I did not click on make a claim yet, is there a reason why that happens ??

Hodush · **Posted:** Fri May 23, 2014 4:10 am

Any chance of linking your tentacles scott? I got a few a month or 2 ago, pretty sure they are legit and they have some weird mould lines, but not like you have described. Would be good to compare if possible.

viciouscircle · **Joined:** Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:17 pm **Posts:** 13

I know this is an inactive and old thread but as a very late collector (i started two years ago) i have to search for most of the back catalogue on ebay mainly and i wonder how is possible that some sellers can have an almost endless supply of miniatures, sometimes even the same miniature, sometimes rare ones.
I have purchased for several sellers on ebay. Some miniatures came with the same metal as GW, some were darker and have prime remains, some were deffinitely made of another material even when they look pretty good imo.
If not all miniatures are fake, how its possible to sell every week the same miniatures?
Btw im talking about metal miniatures

MacCollac · **Posted:** Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:31 am

Those are recasts.

FAKE hobbit minis

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