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Buyer beware. Please read.

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JZ777

JZ777

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A few minutes ago I replied to a thread on here about someone buying some copy golf grips on eBay. I responded there, but thought I would share this as well with everyone.

Am a pilot for a major airline and before the plague, I flew to China (Beijing and Shanghai), 2 to 3 times a month. With a 50 hour layover, we would go shopping in each of their black markets. I can ASSURE you that I have been to “golf” shops at each. They don’t hide it and will sell you “knock offs” of anything you want. Callaway, TM, Ping, Titleist, etc. At times, I would pick them up and could tell right away they were knock offs, but sometimes I couldn’t. Brand new Cameron Newport putters for $25, set of new Callaway irons for $150, Footjoy shirts for $10, etc. I would see all kinds of characters in there buying lots of gear and all saying the same exact thing, they are for friends and family. They would ship them back to the states, sometimes they would get seized but sometimes made it through. Now with all that being said, I can assume that a lot of them are being sold on eBay. How would I know that, I saw lots of flight attendants buying and bringing back Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci bags, etc and selling them on eBay. NEVER buy any golf gear on there if you value your equipment and money. Especially new gear from sellers on the west coast that aren’t well known golf stores.
 
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That's a good reminder. Buyer beware. I remember I was in Baghdad after Gulf War 2 and picked up a beautiful Mont Blanc automatic watch. It cost me $30. It kept time within a minute for a week. Then it started losing an hour a day or so. Then it stopped working after a couple of months. I still have it and think it's a beautiful watch but it's a counterfeit piece of junk and completely worthless.

I know for me, when I buy online I try to make sure it's from reputable sites.
 
That’s another good point. I flew with a guy that was buying 20-25 watches a pop from this shop in Beijing. They were beautiful counterfeits of Hublot, Rolex, Tag, Omega, etc. (I even have a few). So this dude was buying them, bringing them back and giving them to his son to sell on his college campus. He told me his son was selling them and letting people know they were knock offs (but who really knows). But honestly, with a good quality knock off (Seiko guts of the watch), the average person cannot tell. I get compliments all the time on them. Point being, if you see a really good deal on a watch or new golf clubs on eBay, it’s probably not a good deal. It’s really amazing with what the Chinese can copy and counterfeit.
 
The ability to buy counterfeit products over in China is real. In some cases, the quality is top notch and in other cases, clearly substandard.
 
Yep, you can get a copy Rolex for $50 or a really nice one with Swiss movement for $350. Tough to tell at times, but if see it on eBay and sounds to good to be true, stay away.
 
They even sell copy ProV1s for $8 a dozen. I bought a dozen to see how they would be. Hit them on the range and really couldn’t tell a difference and actually felt ok. And most likely made someone happy when they came across it in their bucket on the range . 😂
 
Many years ago my boss happened upon a table at the foot of the Great Wall selling $10 Northface jackets.
I won’t buy grips off of eBay anymore.
 
I don't ebay anymore. Seems any good deals have moved to facebook groups anyways, and they rake sellers over the coals with fees. Counterfeit product is just another reason I guess.
 
Scorpion12 said:
That's a good reminder. Buyer beware. I remember I was in Baghdad after Gulf War 2 and picked up a beautiful Mont Blanc automatic watch. It cost me $30. It kept time within a minute for a week. Then it started losing an hour a day or so. Then it stopped working after a couple of months. I still have it and think it's a beautiful watch but it's a counterfeit piece of junk and completely worthless.

I know for me, when I buy online I try to make sure it's from reputable sites.
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Did you try to pop the case open and check for a battery?
 
Always good to get a reminder every so often that there are unfortunately some unscrupulous people out there.

I bought a set of grips off of eBay a couple of years ago. Seller had good feedback, and used a photo of real product in-hand! I knew since I had purchased a couple in the past. The shrink wrapped butt end etc.

Needless to say, the grips show up and it's immediately obvious that they're fake. Colour was off, and no shrink wrap on the butts. I sent a message and called him out. Full refund at least, but still annoying.
 
I remember a long time ago I bought a disc on the streets of Jakarta. It had every piece of software Microsoft had at the time. It was $20 and they all worked flawlessly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
2 years ago my buddy wanted new Muira's. He went on eBay and bought 4-pw for $725. (I forget the model). He texted me to let me know. I immediately told him cancel the order as the set it 2x that.
Long story short he was able to get his money back and then ordered the set from Muira directly for twice the price.
 
The sad thing about all this is we have to be extra cautious these days as the counterfeits can be so close it is hard to tell. Even the packaging now is almost perfect. The thing is make sure you do your best with references and so on.

Who is to say that some of the stuff we get from good suppliers is not counterfeit as well? I would imagine in some cases even then we cannot be 100% sure. The world is getting crazier day-by-day.
 
If you go to these places, then what do you expect to buy? Many Christmas’s ago, I bought about 6 ‘Rolex’ watches in Chinatown for friends and family as a kind of joke gift. Plus one for me. Cost me $60. I know how a Rolex sweeps around the face. These didn’t sweep, they clicked along. To be honest it worked flawlessly for about a year or so. Then one day I was playing V’ball and went to knock the ball to the front row. Caught my wrist just right and the watch literally exploded into pieces. There is no way I’ll go to FB, EBay, Wish, etc... to buy anything ‘new’ or what is supposedly a used expensive item for a ‘great price’.
 
Good reminder!

I bought 3 pair of 'Air Jordons' in Korea in 1986 for $7 each. They were selling for $110

couldn't play basketball in them but they were good enough to walk around with. My little cousin asked if I was rich 🤣
 
Beyond selling fake grips on ebay, which I see all the time, I'm also concerned about grips that have been blown on & blown off and sold as new. Some people are honest about it, some have probably played a couple rounds with them, cleaned them and selling As New.
 
JZ777 said:
A few minutes ago I replied to a thread on here about someone buying some copy golf grips on eBay. I responded there, but thought I would share this as well with everyone.

Am a pilot for a major airline and before the plague, I flew to China (Beijing and Shanghai), 2 to 3 times a month. With a 50 hour layover, we would go shopping in each of their black markets. I can ASSURE you that I have been to “golf” shops at each. They don’t hide it and will sell you “knock offs” of anything you want. Callaway, TM, Ping, Titleist, etc. At times, I would pick them up and could tell right away they were knock offs, but sometimes I couldn’t. Brand new Cameron Newport putters for $25, set of new Callaway irons for $150, Footjoy shirts for $10, etc. I would see all kinds of characters in there buying lots of gear and all saying the same exact thing, they are for friends and family. They would ship them back to the states, sometimes they would get seized but sometimes made it through. Now with all that being said, I can assume that a lot of them are being sold on eBay. How would I know that, I saw lots of flight attendants buying and bringing back Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci bags, etc and selling them on eBay. NEVER buy any golf gear on there if you value your equipment and money. Especially new gear from sellers on the west coast that aren’t well known golf stores.
Click to expand...

The Silk Market was always fun back in my 777 days as well. Never would buy golf gear, but sure saw a lot of it coming back. Most of it looked pretty mediocre, but the bulk of recreational golfers would probably not notice. Definitely stay away from all of it on eBay though, especially grips!

That being said, I did buy my cousin a fake Rolex back in '08 (one of the "good" ones) and that thing is still running, albeit not accurately. Never did unscrew the case to see which movement was in it, but considering the ETA and Sellita raw movements aren't that expensive anyway, it wasn't a big deal to spend a couple hundred dollars. The Market was all about the experience though!
 
All one has to do is go to AliExpress.com and you will be able to see lots of counterfeit clubs.
Here is an example of a P7TW iron set!
And yes, just yesterday there were two sets on Ebay that were a match to these counterfeits...now gone.
 

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Hammer22 said:
The Silk Market was always fun back in my 777 days as well. Never would buy golf gear, but sure saw a lot of it coming back. Most of it looked pretty mediocre, but the bulk of recreational golfers would probably not notice. Definitely stay away from all of it on eBay though, especially grips!

That being said, I did buy my cousin a fake Rolex back in '08 (one of the "good" ones) and that thing is still running, albeit not accurately. Never did unscrew the case to see which movement was in it, but considering the ETA and Sellita raw movements aren't that expensive anyway, it wasn't a big deal to spend a couple hundred dollars. The Market was all about the experience though!
Click to expand...


Yes, with the watches it’s always the luck of the draw, unless you buy one with the “Japanese” insides. I have about 8 that I have bought from Ting Ting at the Pearl market over the years and they are all still working fine. All the pearls that I have bought for the wife from the 3rd floor at the Pearl Market are actually legit. I think that’s about the only thing in entire damn country. CCC - cheap Chinese crap 😂😂
 
JZ777 said:
Yes, with the watches it’s always the luck of the draw, unless you buy one with the “Japanese” insides. I have about 8 that I have bought from Ting Ting at the Pearl market over the years and they are all still working fine. All the pearls that I have bought for the wife from the 3rd floor at the Pearl Market are actually legit. I think that’s about the only thing in entire damn country. CCC - cheap Chinese crap 😂😂
Click to expand...

Can't remember where the watch came from, but it was one place where crews normally went for the upper end stuff. Yes, the pearls were fantastic, almost forgot about them. Brought many sets back and they appreciated nicely. If I ever go back, those will be about the only thing on my list.
 
JZ777 said:
CCC - cheap Chinese crap 😂😂
Click to expand...
Or C³, as I sometimes write it. Yup. But eBay isn't the only place counterfeit goods will be found. You have to be careful sometimes on Amazon, too. I would never buy anything off Alibaba in a gazillion years.

As I wrote in the eBay requesting SS# thread: I've come to the point I rarely buy on eBay anymore. I've also reduced my use of Amazon. (I in fact cancelled our Prime auto-renew last month.) Both my wife and I are going to try harder to buy locally. For me, for golf stuff, it's going to be either locally, from a reputable on-line golf store, or direct from the manufacturer.
 
Deezballs said:
Did you try to pop the case open and check for a battery?
Click to expand...
Nope, I never opened the case. There's probably a batter hidden inside the little window with the "automatic" weight that moves around. It's probably some cheapie quartz movement. It's not important enough to me to bother with. It's a fake and I knew it at the time. It was part of the young, dumb, and stupid phase of my life.
 
JZ777 said:
Yes, with the watches it’s always the luck of the draw, unless you buy one with the “Japanese” insides. I have about 8 that I have bought from Ting Ting at the Pearl market over the years and they are all still working fine. All the pearls that I have bought for the wife from the 3rd floor at the Pearl Market are actually legit. I think that’s about the only thing in entire damn country. CCC - cheap Chinese crap 😂😂
Click to expand...

You know how to tell a real pearl from a fake? Smile and rub it on your front teeth. If it feels rough, it's real. If it feels smooth, it's fake!

And Chinese chicanery extends beyond anything discussed so far. There's a mycologist (mushroom expert) who has discovered amazing things about fungi. He appeared in a podcast where he allowed that his Dad was a businessman when he was young, and he vowed never to be one. But, reality intruded, and he needed a way to fund his lab and his research. So, he had to go into business selling supplements. The host asked him about purchasing some mushroom derived supplements from China, and he said absolutely not! He said that he knows Chinese mycologists who told him that you have no idea what you are really getting!
 
A friend of mine was working in China about 15 years ago. He asked me if I needed any Cleveland wedges for less than half the price. I said no thanks, their fakes. He explained to me they come from the Cleveland factory there, ?. Apparent it's called the "third shift", factory has two shifts and produces legit stuff for Cleveland. When it is supposed to shut down for the day, the owner adds another shift and the clubs go out the back door.
 
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