Ibanez Counterfeit Warning

Nice job Graybeard, you just saved some saps from buying some fakes.

I believe that I may have scored a slightly bigger hit. Whilst I was waiting for some work to finish, I occupied myself with listing all the auctions for fake guitars from one Chinese supplier and reported them to Ebay.
He is now no longer a member of Ebay. 1 down, too many to go.

Great work. You are not alone in your quest greybeard. There is a sticky in the electric guitar forum over at harmony central dedicated to reporting fakes on ebay. I guess it's a little like trying to stop the tide - but it all helps.

BTW there is some good info on that thread on tell tale signs to look out for which gives the game away that it is a fake (apart from the obvious that its from China).

It's also worth noting that at least one UK ebayer is buying dodgy guitars from China and them selling them on for a profit using the same username :roll:

Good work, Greybeard!

Those headstocks are pretty funny, too. If you're going to cheat, why make it so obvious?

It's not. Suppose you're playing live, nobody is going to see whether that's an U or an O. People will just assume it's a real Gibson, so they'll assume you're a really cool guitarist. It's just as much about faking the player as having the player fake the rest of the world.

Well I was talking about the shape of the headstock, rather than the U / O thing, but I guess your point holds up either way.

Anyway, a "Gibsun" SG just showed up on the DC Craigslist. Jerk is asking $750 for it.

Great work. You are not alone in your quest greybeard. There is a sticky in the electric guitar forum over at harmony central dedicated to reporting fakes on ebay. I guess it's a little like trying to stop the tide - but it all helps.

BTW there is some good info on that thread on tell tale signs to look out for which gives the game away that it is a fake (apart from the obvious that its from China).

Can you post a link on that forum

The thread on Harmony Central concentrates on the content of the auction, which is easy to correct. I've noticed a change in their descriptions, over the last couple of weeks. They're learning!
Some have, already, stopped putting in close-ups of the headstock.
The worst problem is EBay, though. Getting them to do something is getting very hard. These sellers put in 4 or 500 hundred items, each with a listing fee of say 50p. If ebay pulls the auction, they must refund the listing fee. What do you think is going to happen? NOTHING!!!
I wonder if, by taking no action, they become accessories to fraud? They are aware that what is being sold is counterfeit and take no action - surely, that is a crime?

Edit: I've looked again at Harmony Central and see that I messed a few pages, that have some good info.

Yeah you do have to search for the good info in that thread, but it's in there if you are prepared to sift through the other stuff.

Some useful tips indeed.