Subject:
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Re: Interesting Castle on Ebay
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Wed, 5 Jan 2000 20:46:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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1863 times
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In lugnet.castle, Kevin Salm writes:
> I don't see how any of the pieces can be anything but genuine Lego. It is
> really hard to tell from the photos if the corner wall segements are rounded
> or not but I don't think that they are. If you look at the assembled pieces
> at the top where they meet the plate above them, the joint looks just it
> should. If I took a fuzzy photograph of my own Castle wall corners I bet that
> they would look rounded, too, especially the plain Gray ones.
I agree with you here- they don't really look rounded to me-- the shadows from
the upper overhang make it look pretty flat.
> If some company other than Lego decided to fabricate plastic pieces identical
> to Lego they would have to spend a helluva lot of money just for the equipment
> and molds. Even if the quality is only 50% of Lego, the cost involved with
> exact copying of Lego elements would be excessively prohibitive. And no
> matter how shady or devious another company might be, why would they attempt
> to market thier clones in packaging that is clearly "identical" to Lego
> packaging.
I'm wondering on this one... suppose you bought a lego set-- how much would it
be to make something like a sand or plaster cast of it from which you made a
new mold? It'd probably be a lot less expensive than designing your own
molds...
> As I understand the trademark system to operate, anyone can produce pieces
> identical to Lego and even sell them in arrangements (sets) identical to Lego
> but the Dalu and Daluland logos are clearly overstepping the Lego image
> trademark.
Well, that's assuming that the trademark/copyright system is enforced
everywhere. There are doubtlessly some countries where there aren't such laws
(for example the game Starcraft's CD's were copied and re-sold by another
company in another country (Indonesia I think? Somewhere out there..) and there
was no law against it, since whatever country it was didn't recognize
Blizzard's copyright to the software) It could be that back in the mid-late
80's in Saudi Arabia, there weren't any recognized copyright/patent laws
governing Lego, and so it was easy to come in and make a clone...
> I have to stick to my theory that some individual has dummied up the box and
> created this Daluland stuff--perhaps for fun and amusement to see how many
> suckers will bid on this!!
Nah... WAY too much work, money, and time for 1 person to make the box look
THAT good and only make one of it, solely for the purpose of fooling ebayers..
probably whatever he makes on the auction wouldn't be worth the price to print
a box up that nicely and take the photographs so well... (the box's
photographs, not the photograph OF the box) If *I* was trying to fool some
ebayer into thinking I was sending a unique set, I could probably use photoshop
to phony up an instruction cover, then post the picture, claiming it was a scan
of the instructions... no need to photograph the box... why include the box
anyway? There are much easier ways to fool people than what this theory would
suggest... and also IF he WAS trying to fool people, why not post MORE pictures
of his hard labor-- where are the phony instructions? Also, IF he's trying to
pass it off as authentic and he's already gone through all the trouble of
finding an old-style castle set's box to base his picture on, why not put some
other info on the box like a piece count to make us believe further that it's
really Lego?
> I have thought up another angle on the seller. Other items for auction on
> Ebay by this seller are either Civil War items or automobiles. The Lego
> doesn't seem to fit in the scheme of things. Any why are there no other items
> from Suadi Arabia like Desert Shield/Desert Storm collectibles? I wonder if
> this seller has some connection to a pawn shop? This is where the Lego set
> may have turned up. Or not. All I know is that I do not trust the seller
> here.
As previously stated, my stake on the seller is that he needs money. He went
looking through his attic for things that might be valuable, and came up with
this stuff... He's also auctioning off his car... in other words, this says to
me 'I really DO need money'. Or maybe he just bought a used car, and thought
rather than post an ad in the paper where he sells it for a certain price, why
not sell it to the highest bidder?
Also-- if you're going through the bother of printing and making up ONE phony
Lego set, why not do more? Assuming that SOMEHOW he has access to high quality
photography equipment and printing equipment for making the box, etc, why not
find OTHER, RARER things to rip-off? Why choose Lego, and ONLY Lego? It just
doesn't make enough sense.
> > This point of yours ("The most valuable pieces from set 6074 are not present
> > in this auction offering. Likely harvested out; other pieces added to
> > compensate and make a more "complete" castle.") is fairly compelling
> > to my suspicious mind, though.
>
> I think that this is key to the whole thing. Someone wanted the best pieces
> but decided to try and sell a "complete" Castle set anyway.
Nah... that's WAY too much trouble to go through just to keep 'rare' pieces. I
don't really know how much it would be to make a phony Lego box like that, but
I bet it's easily more expensive than buying these pieces online from some
other trustworthy Lego fan...
Plus (as an aside), of all the sets I've bought secondhand from ebay, rtl and
lugnet auctions and sales, only ONE set has been 100% complete. Almost
EVERYONE, INCLUDING die hard Lego fans forgets a piece here or there (usually
things like horse backings, a missing 1x1 brick, an extra sword, plumes, etc.,
or there's a substituted piece like the wrong color legs or helmet, etc.), and
they STILL advertise them as being complete. There's precious little to be lost
by still advertising your set as complete, even if you know it isn't. And on
this note, assuming that he only has a mostly complete 6074, you've got to take
into account that in order to be profitable for him, he's got to assume that
selling it as a phony set will get him enough money over selling it as an
incomplete 6074 to pay for actually designing and implimenting the phony
box & instructions. And guessing at about $40, maybe $50 for an incomplete
6074, and maybe expecting about $100 when posted as a 'rare' set, that'd mean
he's expecting to pay less than $50 to make the phony box, etc., which I'd
doubt, unless, again, he's got access to sophisticated photography/printing
equipment...
Anyway, my thought is it ain't Lego. As if the box, pieces, and logo weren't
enough, the fact that the seller says the pieces don't say "LEGO" on them (or
even "DALU") is enough to convince me that it's some sort of knock-off...
Personally, I think that's the best explanation... hopefully whoever wins the
auction will be kind enough to post info about the set...
DaveE
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Interesting Castle on Ebay
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| (...) An inkjet printer would turn out good enough pictures for this purpose (...) What if he has a bunch of 6074s? I'd watch this fellow to see if he auctions more of these, and if in the future he auctions the rare pieces. (25 years ago, 5-Jan-00, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.market.theory)
| | | Re: Interesting Castle on Ebay
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| (...) Most likely Taiwan. I know they do not support International Copyright Law. I have some CDs I purchased before I knew of this that are rip-offs. They were made by a company called Son May, which copies Anime and Video Game Soundtracks and (...) (25 years ago, 5-Jan-00, to lugnet.castle)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Interesting Castle on Ebay
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| (...) I don't see how any of the pieces can be anything but genuine Lego. It is really hard to tell from the photos if the corner wall segements are rounded or not but I don't think that they are. If you look at the assembled pieces at the top where (...) (25 years ago, 5-Jan-00, to lugnet.castle)
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