Ethics

[chans formers]

lolz^,took the words right out of my mouth

people who do "knowingly" pass off or try to pass off k/o's as authentics are pretty much akin to a piece of forskin......useless waste of skin

[TFtoys]

the hardest thing to identify is the Fansproject city commander series. The hardest thing is if MISB, you have to open the box to find out whether it is K.O.

[Optimus_Prime]

Personally, nothing could make me buy a KO and put it into my collection, not even the inability to buy the real deal. Reproductions are cool (as long as they're from Hasbro, Takara, etc.), but of course selling them labelled as the original while knowing better is low; I don't think anybody would truly disagree, not even those who are responsible for that act.

[Nullray]

I think it is just bad business to fraud someone with the misleading idea that your getting something authentic when it is not. I also hate when an item you buy isnt the same as the pic or descriptions provided. I just got rooked on ebay by misleading pics and description. There is squat I can do about it and the sellar just dismisses like its no big deal.
Sell/trade whatcha have... barter your prices... get whatcha pay for.

[Pascal]

But who other than a handful of overseas Ebay sellers try to pass KOs as the real deal? I've never heard about fans trying to scam other fans. I think the problem is greatly exaggerated.

[joshimus]

Personally I am against repos and KO toys and don't bother with them. That said I don't care who buys them either so long as they know it's a KO or like Fansproject kind of toys where it is based of G1 character but new design etc. I won't buy them, but not against people selling them and people buying them, so long as the seller and buyer KNOW the whole deal.
Pascal, maybe not so much now, I dunno cause I haven't been on ebay for a long time. I do recall a time where sellers where passing off "authentic" that were fakes but not labelled as fakes.
That all said, I really should check ebay for something i'm trying to find. BAF Kilowog. New Lantern toy looks terrible and half that wave of figures I don't want. Just want me a good Kilowog figure.

[Aernaroth]

Buy the repro boxes, and then mark a side you won't see during display with a big old "REPRO" sticker or with a sharpie marker or something so you dont forget down the road. It's not like its worth anything, RIGHT?

[Larkhainan]

So the concern is you wish to purchase reproduction boxes for display and are concerned that, down the line you may sell those boxes and THEN have someone else claim the BOXES (but not the toys themselves which are legitimate) are legit originals?

Simple solution would be to not resell the boxes? I see no real harm in purchasing reproduction boxes for yourself and then destroying them if you decide you need to resell the toys down the line.

[Gaetznes]

I used my self as more of a hypothetical to open the question of ethics of reproductions. That was my first mistake, as people miss understood what I was trying to do. My bad. It was a way of trying to talk about Ko products, but not having the same old coversation KO vs Original. Which I think I have achieved. I've seen alot of nice opinions.

However, I didn't articulate my synopsis of Ko Ethics properly. I attempted to do it in a more story form, which wasn't as effective. It actually caused more fustration, if not in direct aggression. But I feel that, that nothing was meant by it. Overal I do believe it (the thread) has produced a positive vibe in opinions.

If I personally were to buy Ko boxes (personally not really intrested in KO g1 figures unless I was using them as mod fodder), I'd just alter the box in some way to make it obviously a Repro to me and any one else. Either by the method suggested by Aernaroth or to clip the box.

The only Ko toy I would be intrested in, would be a High quality odd coloured seekers.

In regards to miss repersentation of a product, I think that its more Flagrant for those total oblivious or unfimilar with the existence of the Ko market. Anyone fimilar with Ko's, not to say were all experts, and we to can be fooled. However, we may notice it quicker then joe blow that after 20 years goes on to ebay and buys a Seald in Box G1 OP for $40.

Also if we concern our selves with ebay. This time I am using my self as an example, this did happen, I'm not just using it to press a conversation.

I've bought countless accessory lot. Some from people that have purchased transformers from estate sale etc, not knowing what they really are re-selling. Generally I'll ask them for additional pictures, but that generally doesn't help at all. But I do my best to make sure what I'm after is as authentic as I can. I feel no animosity towards them, ebay is ebay. Out of those lots, I know i've purchased some weird Ultra Mag and Superion super sized weapons and accessories with some crazy coloured made from cheap plastic.

Its just that you do have the occasional *blank blank* that will try to *blank blank* you to the *blank blank*. On the other hand you have people that are super awsome about telling you that what your buying is a ko lot of accessories, ex: wheeljackslab. Which is uplift to know that there are people out there which may or maynot be fan, but are not miss repersenting themselves or the products they are selling. As I do believe that the individual accessory can be harder to determine its authenticness vs that of the actual figure or box which may have more tall tailed signs of something peculiar

[Hellboy]

Is there any guarantee that KOs aren't making their way to retail shelves anyway?
With the amount of counterfeiting going on with clothing and fashion accessories who's to trust that shipments of these new DOTM toys are legit?