Petersen speaks of counterfeit game issue

Another argument to support brick and mortar.

I've always been amazed at the level of counter-fitting in China. So crazy. The IP lawyer at work told me it's because they have never absorbed any of the European Enlightenment, which culturally enshrined the right to an individual to own property. Sounds oversimplified, but I guess it could explain it.

Pat II wrote: Another argument to support brick and mortar.

I got counterfeit Pokemon cards at a brick & mortar five or eight years back. Very nice quality, but with 700 hit points instead of 70. Other than that you couldn't really detect a difference by hand or eye.

Not board game related, but one of the reasons that Herman Miller expanded operations into China was to combat the counterfeiting of their seating products. It was easier to challenge the counterfeiting with operations in country. Other reasons were in play, but that was one spoken about.

Counterfeiting from China does do one thing, though...It creates a supply of out of print things that SHOULD help original firms gauge interest.

I got my preprinted Temple of Chac adventurers for 20$ direct from PRC, courtesy of eBay. These have been unavailable or egregiously expensive for years, and BOOM, there they were.

Flawless quality, too.

Back when Attacktix was a thing, just after the line ended, there was a slough of counterfeit figures that had been previously unreleased but that were in huge demand. Those models never would've seen daylight.

Imagine if you could get a legit looking Queen's Gambit from China for 40$? How many people would be screaming bloody murder on BGG while also secretly buying several copies? I'd buy it without a single qualm, personally, because Hasbro chose not to reprint it despite demand allowing the price to reach astronomical levels, even in Post/KS times.

Considering that I sold a copy for almost $300, yeah. I'd buy one for $40.

Edit: I look at it in the same way I do music. If it's an artist that's relatively recent, still playing, and still recording, I buy their music from them. I don't get free downloads from somewhere else. I assume they're still making a living at making their music so I give them my money. If it's some "classic" something-or-other where the revenue stream has long since been diverted to middlemen or a rights owner, I don't mind finding it for the cheapest price possible.

It sucks that I wont be able to sell out of print asmodee titles on Amazon. I could usually get 2x to 3x times the money than ebay from what I can assume are loaded people who just dont care.

GW fakes were big about a year ago with multitude sellers in Yoymart & Aliexpress. Then GW hammer came, and now they are reduced to sharing Excel of spreadsheet and email orders. But still very well alive. There's a group in reddit with review and discussion on kits from various recasters. Generally the Chinese are better than Russians, and American recasters suck.

This is only possible because of GW's high price. The chance of seeing miniature-ladden, counterfeit board games is still extremely slim.

I'm cashing in!

Another thing that they pirate is Lego kits. And they're not kidding about it. They're pirating the modular kits for the fraction of the original's price. It's usually around 60-75% off.

Hex Sinister wrote: I'm cashing in!

With quality like this who can say no...

Michael Barnes wrote: Years ago I thought about doing a shocking expose on games manufacturing in China. I talked to several publishers, and it was really kind of shocking how little companies having games made in China actually knew about the processes or places their games. Everyone I spoke to in the industry dodged around questions regarding factory conditions, human rights, and product safety issues. One fabulously famous games maker assured me that their stuff was made in the same factory that Disney uses...as if that assuaged any concerns.

Anyway, one designer/publisher- a name you would probably recognize- did give me a little more. He showed me pictures of when he made a "surprise" visit to the company that was making his stuff in China. Sure enough, right out in front of the shop, this printing place had a stand set up on the street selling unauthorized copies of EVERYTHING they made. So there was a huge stack of this guy's game, which was one that would probably only sell a few thousand copies worldwide. But right there, you could buy it for I think he said $5 USD. They had added Chinese language to the box on these copies, although there was no Chinese edition of the game.

At the time he was switching production back to Europe because of stuff like this.

So yeah, the counterfeiting does exist. I've only ever seen one counterfeited game, it was a copy of Bohnanza that a friend bought when he went to China.

This seems like the only cost-effective way to successfully pirate a modern boardgame.

This has been a big problem on Amazon the past year or so. The first time it came up was with Secret Hitler. More recently Asmodee stuff has been showing up. I believe there was some issues with Rio Grande and Dominion as well.

charlest wrote: This has been a big problem on Amazon the past year or so. The first time it came up was with Secret Hitler. More recently Asmodee stuff has been showing up. I believe there was some issues with Rio Grande and Dominion as well.

I got my Secret Hitler as a free print and play download from their website: www.secrethitler.com/

Did I get a counterfeit Secret Hitler?

No, there was a specific version being printed by a Chinese factory that was identical except for a lower quality board and using cards instead of tiles for the legislation pieces. You can find them all over ebay right now.