Have you reported it to Amazon as well? Seems there could be some liability issues for them as well.

 

Six hundred and seventy bucks and no white gloves? Scandalous!

 

Right? It should at least have "real abalone" keys!

 

No - The form for copyright infringement on Amazon is only for a brand's respective owners. I suggested Selmer file an inquiry.

 

A more believable one -different seller name- and a happy customer. Selmer needs to be the one policing this.

http://www.amazon.com/Selmer-Flat-S...d-Taiwan/dp/B00X61B3KQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_267_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=13NV15MBDKNEXK5HDCVW

 

Wow, Amazon makes it very difficult to report a fraudulent listing on their platform. Even using help doesn't help, it routes you to the forum where non-Amazon people try to answer questions. Sad.

 

I discovered that, too. I keep on receiving Amazon emails intended for someone living in Rockport, IL. I have his complete order history from the day he was given an Amazon gift card.

 

It's ridiculous. I reported that one too. I told selmer I appreciate using their products, but I wish they'd do a better job protecting their value.

 

I cannot believe that you are worried about the value of YOUR horn - at least it's the real deal. I'd be more concerned about people getting ripped off, thinking they are getting some great internet deal.

 

The Chinese have been doing this for ages with Gibson Guitars, they`re happily passed on and even reviewed as "Chibsons".the Fakeness is harder to spot than the fake Ref54 (It`s a damn sight easier to make a superb guitar than a sax) . Amazon don`t sell them as real at a fraction of the price of course, they don`t even sell them as Replicas but they`re everywhere and are even accepted ...

It`d take a special kind of idiot to believe they`d get a real ref-54 for that kinda money if they`ve even had a cursory glance into how much they cost and you`d know after playing it what it wasn`t .. if they`re half decent Chinese Generics like a Jericho or Buffet 100 it could be fun to have one as a backup / pub-horn (though at generic Chinese prices of course) .

Of course the action of selling them as the real thing needs to stop, thankfully the price is a massive warning flag .as to Selmer stopping the makers, they don`t stand a hope in hell.. Gibson are a lot bigger than Selmer and and haven`t managed to stop the Chibsons and if anyone could, they would .

 

…It`s a damn sight easier to make a superb guitar than a sax…

Not sure about that. Have you built any superb guitars? Or maybe you're joking. I think they are equally difficult, but one thing about building guitars. It calls upon many more disciplines than saxophones. For instance, you need to master wood building, inlay, electronics, magnetics, paint, lacquer, french polishing, extremely accurate slotting, milling, selecting tonewoods, etc. I could go on, but there's a lot more to guitar building than you might think.

 

Actually Henry Selmer Paris (which is the company that makes the horns as opposed to Conn/Selmer in the US that is olny their distributor but it is an unrelated company with the same name) does quite a bit to protect their name and interests and to warn customers.

I have reported very often the sale of counterfeits and they have acted upon those. They also warn about the fake Selmer instruments on their site.

http://www.selmer.fr/index.php

http://www.selmer.fr/media/FAQ/counterfeit_panpipes.pdf

Unfortunately policing these things efficiently is near impossible and it is not unlike what Louis Vuitton is confronted with ( take a look at this Chinese site clearly offering copies!)

http://www.pursevalley.cn/handbags/louis-vuitton-replicas.php

On the face of it, Amazon and Ebay do have a policy against counterfeits but let's say that they are not particularly scrupulous in enforcing these things. If your items are being faked and the fakes are sold on line by one of these giants it is not that just by complaining ( no matter how big your legal office is) that things are going to be removed overnight ( to reappear under another name minutes after).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201166010

But, I have said it often enough, the worst thing of all on counterfeiting planet is the counterfeiting of medicinal drugs.

That is a serious threat.

http://www.amazon.com/Fake-items-on-Amazon/forum/Fx2S2JX41LKL663/Tx1FQS00JNGQS7K/1?asin=B000TGB4UU

http://learntogrowwealthonline.com/does-amazon-sell-fake-products-2

Ultimately if you can buy a " Selmer" for little cash anyone knows that they are fakes.

Although with a fake bag or watch you might " pretend" owning the real thing ( but the world knows it because your lifestyle doesn't match the money that the real thing would cost, so what is it that you are pretending?) , by buying a fake Selmer everybody understand that despite the name on it, the thing that you will play is NOT functionally the same ( nor looks, really, the same).

Selmer, like Vuitton ( BMW & Rolls Royce!) have serious problems about this.

Vuitton are sold at every street corner in the world, the police forces of every country could be spending all day long chasing these counterfeits and they don't.

One would think that something serious like cars would be a bit more complex thing to fake and sell, right?

For the time being, the only car market that has opened itself to Chinese copy-cars is the Russian market, despite the fact that the Chinese cars are dangerous look-alike's they say they meet Russian road safety standards ( if there is such thing).

The only defense against fakes is not buying them!

REMEMBER buying a fake is potentially a felony ( it certainly is in the US)

 

Here is the seller
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/main/r...p_merch_name_1?ie=UTF8&asin=B00X61B3KQ&isAmazonFulfilled=0&seller=ADIP7L0HQ69YV

But this mandolin really made my day:
http://www.amazon.com/Mandolin-Reyn...Reynolds-Flat-Three-Split/dp/B00XPV2ZD6/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=ADIP7L0HQ69YV

 

LOL Aldevis - that has to be 1:- the weirdest looking Mando on the planet or 2:- the most overpriced generic Chinese French-horn shaped object . at least they were honest about the "3 split" business, probably the most accurate way to describe the awful attempt at rotary valves on these things

 

could have been one of these

 

at least that is of more use ..

 

it is provided with a rotating element to regulate the action

 

Yeah spotted that - probably designed by the same guy who did the Compass Ligature

 

Bottom line, this definitely fits the "if it's too good to be true" adage. When you see a horn advertised as a high end brand (usually worth a few thousand dollars) selling brand new for a few hundred dollars, it's a FAKE, plain and simple. Best you can do is point it out and maybe save the ignorant sucker who is constantly looking for that 'great deal' from wasting their money.

 

When I was in China, I obviously went to the " Silk Rd. market" in Beijing where fakes are everywhere. The place was littered with westerners buying loads of fakes.

Then I went to a new quarter where the shops of all the major brands were. These shops were mostly empty but generally frequented by Chinese people, the fact that somewhere else in the city there were fake Gucci shoes didn't seem to have any effect on the price of the new ones!

No one who is anyone in China would dream of buying a fake and pretend they have the real thing. Fakes are generally bought by westerners who delude themselves that they can live in a council flat and show off their fake Gucci, fake Bulgari, Burberry's and so on... .

What kind of " status " would that add to them and their lives is very doubtful to me but the world of the real brands hardly ever collides with the world of fakes for the same people and this is as true for shoes as it is for saxophones.

The rich people who buy a Gucci product on the 5th avenue or Rodeo drive have never set foot in Canal st. or even remotely consider buying a fake on the pavements of the same cities. They are oblivious to the fact that copies of the real thing exist and they don't think that copies devalue what they are buying.

 

Prada copies, and copies of all kinds of other prestige brands, are easy to buy on ebay and other places, you even see them for sale in tourist areas in Italy. It does not hurt them. Why would it? As long as a copy is relatively easy to distinguish from the real thing (and a sax copy will always be easier to identify than a copy of a much simpler Prada bag) then no problem at all. The value of the real thing will be unchanged.

 

Fender and Gibson seemed a lot more concerned, Hence Epiphone and Squire. People like cheap junk, the review on Amazon is proof. Besides the point, anyways.

 

Since people were talking fake designer handbags, someone knowledgeable can spot one a mile away. Just like someone who knows saxes can spot a fake Selmer. Genuine LV bags for example never have the logo cut off by stitching, fakes don't have that attention to detail because it's not worth the effort.



Epiphone had little to do with competing with fakes, but rather were competing with lower-tiered guitars that were cheap to produce, thanks to the lower overhead of the Asian labor market. Mirrors what Selmer Paris does with the Seles or even the AS42 (made with US Selmer)--they're not competing with ebay fakes, they're competing with legitimate competition from Cannonball, P. Mauriat or some other Chinese/Taiwanese maker.

Fakes usually don't hurt the value of the real McCoy. For example fake Mona Lisas area dime a dozen. Doesn't mean you can take the real thing off the Louvre for $20.

 

One of these was just listed for sale locally (used, sans white gloves).
I let him know it's a counterfeit, hoping he didn't already know that and list it anyway.

 

You guys didn't notice that a customer reports :

"Looks beautiful and sounds amazing!"

Are you maybe worried that a chinese counterfeit sounds as good as yours? (sorry, I'm kidding)