Chinese Product Reviews

How to spot fake Nike Trainers - What To Look Out For Chinese Fakes, Thailand etc

2014-08-19T19:29:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

in today's post we will look at how to spot the signs so we can tell if a pair of Nike trainers are real or not. There are a lot of fake shoes popping up all over the place for sale on Ebay, Amazon and other places by sellers looking to make a quick turn around on cheap knock offs that are nowhere near as high quality as the real Nike shoes.

Video for spotting fake Nikes:

It may fool many people that you have bought the latest pair of Nike Air max shoes worth about £120 a pair or more, but someone who has the genuine article will be able to tell with no doubt that they are totally fake. Even if you hid the cost of them from someone who has already owned a pair that they cost only £30, they can tell from owning the genuine article anything that may be a bit askew or off on your pair. Its the little things that give the fakes away and we are going to have a look from different sources on the Internet how people have spotted the tell tale signs of a fake.

Don't get burned, if your looking to get the best from a manufacturer either with shoes or clothes, don't judge them on the quality of cheap fakes that are out there, visit the genuine shops and Internet retail sites that are authorised to sell the branded merchandise to compare them to the ones you want.

As usual if its too cheap and to good to be true.....it always is and is a fake!

This is actually first on my list of things to watch out for:

1. What price are the Nikes? If someone is selling a pair of Nikes which have a retail price of £90 RRP and are selling them for around £20....I would bet good money they are fake. Unless it was from a well known chain store closing down or shop clearance such as JJB, Podium for Sport, Decathlon, Sports Direct etc, I would not trust them to be the genuine article. When you buy an authentic and genuine Nike product you are paying for the quality and durability of the materials used. These two qualities are a worthy investment as they will last much longer than cheap pairs of shoes made with inferior materials.

2. The time it takes for products to arrive. This may not strike suspicion with someone ordering a pair of Nikes as to whether they are fake or not, however, products for instance ordered from Official Nike websites either in Europe, USA, Asia, South America etc will take about 3-5 business days to arrive at your home. If they take around 7-18 days to arrive....chances are they are coming from China which would ring alarm bells in my ears! Most Nike websites will deliver fairly quickly as they have large fully stocked warehouses full of products and makes it much cheaper to have them there in the country they are sold in than paying shipping to send a pair of shoes or t shirt half way around the world per order.

3. US sizes are usually not listed on most counterfeits. Most counterfeit Nike trainers do not have a USA size of 13 and up for men or size 9 and up for women. If you can see all other sizes listed on the website, its usually a sign that they are authentic Nike's.

4. How are the shoes packaged? Some sellers sound quite sincere like they are looking out for your best interests when it comes to shipping. Some may say they can do the postage cheaper if they do not send the Nike trainers in a box. This however is a bit of a ploy as to avoid you inspecting the cheap and flimsy boxes that the Nike trainers come in. You of course will accept not sending the box to maybe save a few dollars or pounds which everyone will do these days. Nike trainers come in very strong and sturdy cardboard boxes that can take a bit of strain before bending or breaking. Flimsy cardboard boxes with skinny walls are definitely a sign of a fake!

5. What do the soles look like and what are they made of? If you have bought a real pair of Nike shoes, they will use BRS 1000 rubber. When looking at photos of them on websites online, it may be hard to tell whether or not they are made of this material, especially if the seller has touched up or photo shopped some of the photos to make them look more appealing. Soles that look plasticy, slippery or very shiny means there is a very high chance they are counterfeit. Sporting people using these for running, jumping etc may need to take care as they may be made using sub standard products and actually cause people to slip now and again as they will not have as good a grip on the ground as the authentic shoes.

6. Do the SKU numbers and print match on the box and the shoe itself? On the outside of the box should be a label with the SKU number. Check the tag on the shoe itself to make sure it matches the SKU number on the outside of the box. Sometimes the counterfeit sellers will put on an SKU number which may actually relate to a totally different pair of shoes, making them appear authentic when really the SKU number means nothing to this particular pair of shoe. If the box or shoes is missing the SKU number altogether.....run for the hills from that website!

Always buy from trusted sources, I buy from Amazon every time as nothing sold by Amazon themselves or the Official Nike retailers is fake:

The main source website I used for collecting the majority of this information was at: http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-spot-fake-nikes.html It has been rewritten in my own words.

Here is some more articles to spot specific types of Nike shoes being fake and other tips:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5923790_tell-fake-nike-shoe.html
For Nike Air Max Shoes 24-7

http://www.leifwild.co.uk/how-to-spot-fake-nike-air-max-tell-tale-signs
For Nike Air Max Comparison, Real Vs Fake Post

Thanks for reading,

Henry

How to Spot Fake Louis Vuitton Handbags from China and other places

2014-08-18T20:57:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

when it comes to fashion, everyone knows that Lois Vuitton is the creme De la creme of luggage and handbag brands and is known all over the world from the Antarctic to the moon for its sleek design, sumptuous leather and intricate details that make every one of us want to buy it. I know I am a man and may not see the attraction to buying such an expensive handbag from a design or aesthetically pleasing point of view, however I would buy one as an investment for the future, especially rarer design ones.

Great Video on how to spot a Louis Vuitton:

Your probably thinking some strange thoughts about a guy wanting to own a handbag and I would be the same in your shoes, however I did see a Louis Vuitton Antique luggage case sell on the popular Channel 4 show called "Four Rooms" in the UK. It was from around the 1930's if I remember correctly and the guy sold it eventually for £4000, even though it was not in the greatest condition. So for a man seeing money to be made and a long term investment in buying a bag like this so not only would it look a woman look stunning, as if they aren't stunning and gorgeous enough, this bran of bag on your arm will make you a goddess and others will fall at your feet and worship you!

Now before you go nuts breaking out your credit cards and checking the bank balance to see if you can afford one, I know I cannot, make sure what you are buying is 100% genuine as if you have bought a dodgy one from a dodgy seller, asking for your money back will more than likely make him or her run for the hills.

Luckily I am here to help in weeding out the fakes and making sure you get the top quality, authentic and beautiful bag you deserve. I have found a very good article on Forbes.com which I will put a link to in the end of this post as there is a video with it too I will try and embed also.

How to Spot Fake Louis Vuitton Handbags:

1. Is the bag made of leather or not? A lot of Louis Vuitton bags are made from a coated canvas, however the trim on the bag is made of real leather. Leather to the touch feels quite dry and not oily, slippery or sticky which some of the Chinese versions feel like. This is probably synthetic leather which feels kind of cheap to touch.

2. Is the stitching perfect? Every Louis Vuitton bag will have went through a rigorous quality check before being let out of the factory. Every stitch will be checked to make sure it is even, not lop sided or skewing slightly compared to the other stitches.

3. Have you seen any sloppy spots? No back and forth stitching should be found anywhere in the bags seams, even under flaps, and in nooks or crannies. Louis Vuitton does not approve this type of stitching to be of a high enough standard for their bags.

4. Do the patterns match when they go over seams? Look at the seams and follow the pattern on your bag around the seam to make sure it matches up on the other side. If any letters of the logo crosses seams they will be continuing straight away on the other side of the seam as Louis Vuitton does not split its logos apart. These should lineup and match precisely.

5. Does the inside lining match another bag from a trusted source? If you have already seen your bag in a shop and looked at the inside of it, make sure the inside of the one you are ordering matches the colour tone exactly. If it is a near match and not 100% totally matching then it is fake.

6. Does the bag feel heavy or hollow? If you have ever had even a real leather wallet you will find there is a little bit of weight to it. A bag is no different and should have a heavy feeling to it as there is a lot of material and leather in these bags so if its light as a daisy and feels loose or kinda hollow, its not a real one.

7. Can you see any imperfections in the printed design on the bag? If you have a brown colour on the outside of your bag and there is a design printed over the top of it, for instance a red flower, all that should be showing inside the flower is the colour red and there should be none of the brown colour of the bag showing anywhere inside the red flower, especially at the internal borders of the design. If you see some of the bags colour showing through in between gaps of the colouring on the design, its a fake.

8. Just because it has a Louis Vuitton logo on it does not mean it is genuine! Some counterfeiters put the logo on to make it appear more authentic than it really is. However if you look at a real bag online or in the shop, that may not be the location of where the logo should be, or, some bags do not have any at all on them. If you see this on a bag and compare it to the original and its not the same its one for the bin I am afraid. This is the same as copying the hang tags that come with bags to make them appear very authentic, save your money don't be fooled, knowledge is power!

9. Where has this particular bag been made? Not all Louis Vuitton bags are made in the same place. Different designs are made in different countries. Some may say they are made France for example, but a quick check online on the real websites, you can see the original label may say made in Spain this particular design. That's when you know you have another copy for the scrap heap.

10. My top tip is always.....If it sounds too good to be true......it usually is! If you see a bag you know from Louis Vuittons website is £650 or $1000 and someone is selling the exact same bag for around £50 or $80 roughly, you know its a pile of junk. DON'T try selling your fake handbag if you find out it is a fake. Better putting it in the bin, you can get into serious trouble on Ebay and even at customs if they find out your importing fake bags and selling them off as real. DO NOT DO IT please!

Further ways to spot fakes from others:
http://www.wikihow.com/Spot-Fake-Louis-Vuitton-Purses

Where to buy? The Louis Vuitton Website or Amazon.co.uk:
http://uk.louisvuitton.com/eng-gb/homepage

This has been the source of information for this article:
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efik45efleg/how-to-spot-a-fake-louis-vuitton-10-questions-to-ask-107/

Thanks for reading everyone.

Henry

US UK ASIA REGION FREE Xbox One and PS4 Games up to £12 cheaper than in store prices! Tried and tested from supplier in Japan.

2014-05-07T16:14:00.002+01:00

Hi guys,

I thought I would let you know about REGION FREE games that are available for your Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles which could save you from £7 - £12 off the prices you would pay in game stores on the high street or even on Amazon, Ebay or Play websites.

Many people think there is some catch with the games because they are so cheap, however that is not the case. If you think around £37 is cheap for one game, then you must be loaded! When you think of the grand scheme of things, all new release computer games are quite expensive, however ordering them from Asia, like most other things, can work out cheaper for you in the long run. The only catch is that you may need to wait up to two weeks, 14 days, for delivery from the release date to start playing your game. This is a minor issue though.

My mission today is to save you money. A supplier I have used since 2008 for Xbox 360 region free games is Play Asia, of which I have placed 13 orders since being a member. Every order has come without any problems with delivery, with customs or items not being sent at all. They are a very respectable company and remind me a lot of the Asian version of Play.co.uk in relation to how their website is laid out. They also send money off vouchers with orders quite frequently which can get you up to $5 - $10 off your next order by inputting it in at the next checkout process.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL PLAY ASIA REGION FREE PLAYSTATION 4 GAMES

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL PLAY ASIA REGION FREE XBOX ONE GAMES

What are Region Free Games?
Video games are released in different formats for different countries. America has NTCS australia and europe have PAL and japan has JAP. a game that is a different format than the system it is trying to be played on will give the system a disk read error. A region free game is one that is made in a universal format so all countries to get the same exact game. So for instance you could a region free game in a PAL xbox and a NTCS xbox.

Example of PAL vs NTSC version of the game Watchdogs:

As you can see there are very minor differences and there usually are mainly on the front or back cover. You can see that the ratings are differentas well as the logo in the top right hand corner which states whether the game is NTSC, NTSC-J or PAL. The game is exactly the same when you play it as one you pick up at a local GAME store or anywhere else in the UK, US, ASIA, EUROPE you name it, it doesn't matter. The formats relate only to how it is displayed on the different TV's around the world. The barcode may be slightly different also as it relates to the country of origin.

Now lets look at the price difference if ordered from Play Asia for XBOX ONE with FREE P&P:

Watchdogs Amazon.co.uk Price: £46.00
Watchdogs Game.co.uk Price: £49.99
Watchdogs Play.co.uk Price: £44.98

PLAY ASIA price is: £37.30 WITH FREE DELIVERY!
MINIMUM saving is £7.68 and MAXIMUM saving is £12.69

If you do buy a lot of games per year, you can clearly se ehow these savings can add up over time. I have over 110 Xbox 360 games, as you can tell, I play a lot of games, and have bought 13 games since owning my Xbox 360 from Play Asia. This means if I saved a minimum of £7.68 per game for instance, 13 times, I would have saved £99.84!.

It doesn't sound like much at the time that you are saving, but over time it does all add up trust me. The key is patience, buying a game the dya it comes out is not always the way to go, patience will yield savings :), poetic I know, but thats now my favorite saying at present.

Check out some of the deals at Play Asia right now below:

Any questions or doubts about ordering please let me know and I will give you any advice I can as ordering from China and Japan should be safely done, its all about choosing the correct supplier. This is a 100% legitimate supplier and if you have any problems with them you cna call me all of the names of the day, however I wouldn't hold your breath :).

Thank you.

Henry

Get 12 Months Xbox Live GOLD Subscription for £27.23 ($45.99) and 12 Months Playstation Plus Network from £29.60 ($49.99)

2014-05-05T19:15:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,

Just letting you know how to save money when it comes to your Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3, Playstation 4 yearly subscriptions that could help go toward your next game. Also how to get games a lot cheaper, delivered right to your door from Asia, which will work without any compatability problems whatsoever on your game console. These are what is known as REGION FREE games.

Before I get onto the juicy stuff of how to get the cheaper games and explain what the difference is in them, which is very little, from one you can walk down the street and buy for around £7 - £10 more, I will let you know how to save around £6 - £12 per year on your Playstation and Xbox Live Gold subscriptions.

A website I have used for years, but no one has really heard an awful lot of, even to this day, is Play Asia. I find it hard to beleive not many people in the UK and Europe use it as much as they should, as I found it in 2008 and have ordered many items from it for Xbox 360 and Playstation without a single problem. I ordered Pro Evolution Soccer 6 for my Xbox 360, as my first game, just to test if it was a legitimate site or not, which it is! It is sort of like an Asian version of Play.co.uk or HotUK Deals.

There are some real gems to look out for if you know what to look for. One which I will let you into right now is the prices for Xbox Live Gold Subscriptions and Playstation Plus yearly subscription.

Playstation PLUS Network 12 Months Subscription

The Playstation PLUS Network UK subscription for a year is £34.34 or $57.99. If you want to switch from paying online directly the £39.99 per year when signing up to the network from your Playstation device, then this is a great way to save a few pounds. The US version is even cheaper at around £29.60. It is delivered digitally and very fast delivery. Game.co.uk have it for £39.99 for the exact same service and will save you around £5.64 which is money everyone could use in their pocket these days.

Click the link below that corresponds to your country:

Playstation PLUS Network Subscription - United Kingdom (UK)

Playstation PLUS Network Subscription - United States (US)

XBOX Live GOLD 12 Months Subscription

The Xbox Live GOLD Subscription for a year is £27.23 or $45.99. If you want to switch from the yearly Microsoft billing of £39.99 then click on the link below that corresponds below to your country which the subscription relates to:

Xbox Live GOLD Subscription - Europe

Xbox Live GOLD Subscription - Japan

Xbox Live GOLD Subscription - United States

Prices may change due to currency conversions that change daily. Make sure to order the correct one for your country / region, or it obviously may not work, or only allow you to download content exclusive or available to that specific country the code relates too.

AliExpress.com Product - NEW DIY Google Cardboard Virtual reality VR mobile phone 3D glasses by Unofficial Cardboard [No NFC]

Play Asia is a very reliable website and I can vouch for them I have ordered around 18 items since 2008 and never had a thing go wrong with an order. No taxes are usually charged on import duties due to their are under the normal threshold. However all tax relates to your country of residence and you should follow its laws, rules and regulations.

I will make another post now about the REGION FREE GAMES and how to get them cheaper from PLAY ASIA as well.

Thanks for reading guys.

Henry

Car GPS Satellite Navigation dropshipped by me to you from China

2013-03-26T01:56:00.001+00:00

Car GPS Satellite Navigation dropshipped by me to you from China for £34.99
(Sat Nav)

UK Customer service handled by me. All returns sent to UK address.

Hi guys,

Its been a few weeks since I last posted on the blog but just to let you know I am experimenting this time dropshipping products again on Ebay from Chinese suppliers. If you would like to purchase a very cheap Sat Nav for your car with preloaded maps then check out my Ebay listing here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151017471655?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

POSTAGE is FREE on this item and it will be delivered straight to your door. As there have been many changes in the Chinese Postal system relating to countries such as Russia especially, causing major delay sin postage of items, order to the UK seem to be still coming in and being delivered within a maximum of 21 days.

My Ebay listing says to wait a maximum of 60 days but this is just a worst case scenario preparation which rarely happens.

If you are interested in a very cheap and effective sat nav then check out the product details below, there is also a youtube video of a guy unboxing his exact same sat nav he ordered from the same supplier and shows you how it works.

The device is preloaded with highly detailed maps including:

1.USA+Canada+ Mexico

2. Europe
Russia, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Israel, Poland, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, England, Ukraine, Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,

3. Brazil

4. Argentina + Chile

5. Singapore + Malaysia + Thailand

6. Australia + New Zealand

7. Brunei + Indonesia + kuwait + Oman + Qatar + Saudi Arabia + United Arab + Bahrain + Egypt
Program languages for the map: English(US,UK), Russian, Turkey, French, German, Spaish, Italian, Czech, Denmark, Estonian, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Finnish, Belgium, Greek, Bulgarian,Ukraine, Slovakian, Slovenian, Sweden

Product Details:

4.3 inch high sensitive touch screen
Display solution: 480*272.
GPS navigator CPU: MTK3351/468MHz.
Operating system: WinCE 6.0.
Built-in 64MB SDRAM.
Built-in 4GB memory.
External memory: support TF , max support 8GB.
Full frequency FM transmitter: output audio from GPS to your car.
Earphone port for audio output.
Hi-fi stereo earphone and built in Hi-fi speaker.
Built-in rechargeable Li-on battery.
Audio Player/Video Player/Photo browser/Calculator/Unit converter/Games.
Friendly user interface, easy to use.
GPS Menu including: English,French, German(Deutsch), Spanish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Russian, Denish, Italian, Finlish, Czech,Polish,Turkish,Slovakian

Package includes:
1* 4.3”Car GPS Navigation build in 4GB memory with map.
1* Car Charger.
1* Wall Charger.
1* Vehicle suction cup mount (Car Holder).
1* USB Cable.
1* English User manual.

May or may not come retail boxed however it is likely that this type of item will be retail boxed for protection. UK plug should be supplied, if not I can send a plug converter.

Thank you.

Henry

Longest Ever Aliexpress Transaction EVER! - Tablet PC's from China

2013-02-03T12:57:00.000+00:00

Longest Ever Aliexpress Transaction EVER! - Tablet PC's from China

Hi guys,

An order that I ordered, which I had a problem with a Chinese supplier on Aliexpress for the first time ever in using it, took 56 days to arrive for an item that I dropshipped from China to a customer in Russia who was furious and who could blame her.

I had sold the items on Ebay on November 1st 2012 and they sat in the Chinese Customs Depot apparantly for 43 days as the status had not changed on their website tracking of the parcel. I know the Chinese had brought some new Customs procedures in for exporting and importing but what the heck are they doing with the items while they sit there, loading up Angry Birds and having a few games at break time on them?

If every package took that long to send out from China then the country would be back logged for years as items I ordered from other suppliers and the same supplier as well all arrived within 14 days of ordering.

Even though the customer wanted a refund, when the items were released again from customs I asked if she still wanted them and she said yes she would take them but at a reduced cost so I gave her them for the price I bought them for minus about £5 off each one again. So she got 2 tablets for £60 and will be sending my the money on the 4th February. Overall I lost £10 in the transaction but would be better than losing the entire £70 altogether.

My advice would be even if it does take a long time to get something despatched and your dropshipping an item to someone, if anything goes wrong, try and contact the customer even if they have cancelled their order to try and recoup some of your losses. As the supplier kept saying he isn't refunding my order until the customer refused delivery of the items and he got them back, which could take another month due to China's slowish methods when and item from outside the country enters their customs system.

The worst part about the whole ordeal was, the items where not as described either as the specs of teh tablets did not match what the Android OS brought up in its settings so that was another salt into the wounds and thats where I gave the customer an extra £5 back on each tablet.

The rule here is its best to buy the items first instead of dropshipping I would advise, as relying on a foreign supplier, not just Chinese, it could befrom anywhere in the world, can seriously wreck your Ebay reputation big time.

Thanks guys, hope this was a help to you.

Regards,

Henry

Michael Kors Handbags - Spotting Chinese Replicas

2013-01-31T01:34:00.001+00:00

Michael Kors Handbags - Spotting Chinese Replicas

Hi Guys,

I seen on a few forums there are a lot of people complaining (as usual) that some Michael Kors handbags that they have purchased have turned out to be fakes and the people are furious etc etc (as usual) however as usual, when reading some of the forums posts, they are paying £45 - £65 for bags that are usually starting from about £150-£200 for the bottom of the range bag, up to near £1000.

Why people think and fall for and then complain that the very cheap bag they bought turns out not to be the really dear bag they thought it would be. No matter how good someone is at selling you it, you know no one in their right mind would give away a bag worth several hundred for a few measly pounds. Not even in a sale will you find an MK bag that cheap. In fact I don't think you would find one even in a closing down sale or bankrupt store cause everyone knows how much they are worth.

Luckily I am a guy so I don't need to buy handbags and even if I did have the need for it, I wouldn't buy one more than about a tenner :). However for people contemplating buying an MK bag online from Amazon, Ebay, Gumtree or classified ads, you may want to inspect the bag before purchasing to make sure your getting the real deal.

As usual I have been looking around the internet and gathered together some resources across different websites for you to look over so you don't get caught out by some wheeler dealer.

Here are some quick tips to determine if your bag is real or not:

As with all designer handbags, price is a big indicator of what you’re buying. Michael Kors handbags range from the mid one hundreds and can go up to a thousand dollars. Research the price range for your purse. When considering an online purchase, stay away from bags listed below this price range.

Look for the designer’s trademark square buckles and fixtures. All Michael Kors handbags, big or small, display these square accents.

Authentic Michael Kors purses have multiple “MK” insignias on buckles, snaps and other metal parts.

Authentic Michael Kors handbags are made from very fine quality materials and are superbly handcrafted. Although he’s only been designing accessories since 2001, MK bags are extremely well priced. You’re getting great value for your dollar when you buy an authentic Michael Kors purse.

MK uses silver tone and gold tone hardware. This is a sturdy, shiny metal that feels very solid to the touch. Replica Michael Kors handbags usually use cheaper metals and plastic.

Do a quality check. Again, MK uses only high quality materials and there’s a lot of attention being paid to the craftsmanship put into every Michael Kors bag. The stitching should be even, straight, perfectly aligned with seams and never loose. Large, uneven stitching is a sign of replica Michael Kors handbags.

The stitching is the hardest thing for replicators to copy. Because it takes a lot of experienced, skilled labor, the stitching on replica Michael Kors handbags almost always comes up short.

The inside of the bag is often made of a soft canvas-like material with leather trimming around the lining. The zippers, trim and seams are always stitched. If you see unstitched seams and tags, then you know they're being held together by glue, another sure sign of replica Michael Kors handbags.

Visit a boutique or the official website and study the bag you want. Compare it to the one you’re planning on buying online. Compare all of the features. Are all of the buckles and insignias in the right place? Do they look like they should? All individual MK lines are designed the same with all their features in their respective places. If anything is out of place, red flags should be going up. When you know what you're buying, it's easier to identify replica Michael Kors handbags (see the above picture).

When purchasing MK handbags online, purchase from a reputable dealer. Read our section on how to avoid buying replica Michael Kors handbags for a resource list on what to look for when buying from an online retailer.

Another very important way of protecting yourself from suspicious sellers, especially on online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, is to read their feedback and to review their return policy. If their bags are authentic, they’ll have no problem taking it back.

Read the listing carefully. Remember, if it’s described as “replica” or “designer inspired”, it’s not real.

Many Thanks for reading guys.

Henry

Spotting Fake Monster Beats Headphones by Dr Dre from China

2013-01-13T12:45:00.001+00:00

Spotting Fake Monster Beats Headphones by Dr Dre from China

Hi guys,

In my quest for bringing articles that help to identify the differences between genuine products and their Chinese counterfeit parts, I have another article which I found to be very useful, as you will find many people on Amazon complaining about the headphones they have received are fakes and the sound is terrible etc and why Amazon is not doing anything about it and all that. Yes the Monster Beats and other headphones may be over priced and think you are just paying for the name thats on the packaging etc. but I have actually heard a real set of these headphones compared to a fake pair that I ordered myself and only then will you see the or hear should I say the difference.

Fake copies of headphones and audio equipment tend to have a very tinny sound to them as if they are played in an empty room slightly in the distance. Once you hear a real Dr Dre Beats headphones you will be blown away with the sound quality. Bass is much more prominent and the sound is absolutely crystal clear with no slight muffling or cackling of any kind which some fakes tend to produce.

So if you have bought a set of these earphones or if someone has bought you them as a present, here are some tell tale signs that they are not the real deal. I bet Dr Dre would be none too happy, nor his bank manager, if he thought customers were being ripped off and he is loosing profits to pirates, but I say, I am guessing he has enough money at the minute to last him till the 3 millennium :).

A great source I got the following information from is from this link http://forums.ilounge.com/ear-headphones/258315-fake-monster-beats-studio-hd-here-how-tell-real-fake.html in which a user has a genuine pair of Monster Beats headphones next to the fake set of headphones.

It is only when you see the real deal and then a fake side by side do you get to see the major differences between the two. It also shows the great lengths people who produce these counterfeits will go to achieve almost near perfection and replication of another product and its packaging. The REAL headphones and packaging are always on the LEFT and FAKE are on the RIGHT:

Starting with the front cover, it is clear that the imitation good does not bear the "TM" (trademark) sign beneath the word "studio" on the bottom left hand corner of the box (may be a little small, but you can see that a little dot of text is missing from the picture on the right).

On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adaptor are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.

On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adapter are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.

Dr Dre's headshot. Very clearly different. The printing on the fake is generally much darker, and you can't see his neck area very well. His neck is clearer on the original. Also do note the use of a " | " instead of a " / " between "beatsbydre.com" and "monstercable.com" on the original and imitation respectively. Also, there's a whacked up model number on the bottom right hand corner of the fake one, and there isn't any on the real one.

Removing the jacket to reveal the red box, we can see that the black pull-out tab on the real deal is longer than that of the imitation.

The Quick start guide where you can clearly see the difference between the two. The real is always on the left remember.

The battery cover of the real deal, of course, has the serial number and Dr Dre's signature. The fake doesn't have any (Picture of fake battery cover not included, just imagine an empty space where the signature and serial should be).

On the back of the quick-start guide, there are subtle differences in font size and the usage of " | " and " / " again. Once again, real deal on left, imitation on right.

These 2 documents are provided with the real deal and not with the imitation.

Super big difference between the provided cleaning cloths. Original cloth is huge. Fake one is tiny.

As you would expect, as the counterfeiter's who produce these items get wind of any obvious defects in their packaging, you will find they will change and try to amend the packaging. This is what results in some fakes being different to other fakes, never mind comparing it to the real thing. The most obvious way to tell if something is fake from China is to look at the packaging. If you start to pick out spelling errors in a lot of the products description, then it is more than likely a copy.

One box set I bought, and is in another post about copied Chinese DVD's, was the True Blood Season 1 Box Set. The back of the box has a review on the back that the original one says "Terrific" but the Chinese copy is spelt "Terrifig". As its the largest of the writing on the back I am pretty sure the company who produced the DVD's would have checked this and any errors rectified before it hits the shelf.

Lastly, here is a video on difference of fake and real Dr Dre Beats from Youtube to help you with identifying if yours is real or not.

Thanks for reading guys and I hope you have found that your Dr Dre Beats is the REAL DEAL. If not wherever it came from send it back for a full refund, however I would recommend getting your money first before returning anything if it is fake as pirates and sellers of dodgy goods seem to vanish at will when trouble arises.

Later Guys.

Henry

How to spot Fake Pandora Bracelets from China

2013-01-11T14:14:00.002+00:00

How to spot Fake Pandora Bracelets from China

Hi Guys,

I have came across some great websites recently, over the past week or so, which helps identify different fakes of products which I will post individually. This article is about spotting fake Pandora bracelets which seem to be making their way across the water and onto the arms of either unsuspecting people, or people who want the look of the Pandora bracelet, but obviously cannot afford it.

Usually people will say "If it looks too good to be true, it usually is." and I have learnt over the years of buying and selling of imported items, that this is 100% true. Pandora bracelets, depending on the type of material they are made of whether its leather, silver, gold or fabric, usually start off at the cheapest of £35 and going up to around £600 to £700. If you see a bracelet that is a genuine Pandora bracelet online for around £4.99 or £10, I ca guarantee you that it is not genuine as the saying at the start of this paragraph applies to this situation.

If a person paid a large amount of money for something, why would they sell it so low? even if they didn't like it, they still know how much a bracelet with this kind of brand name attached to it is worth. I don't wear women's jewellery, as it would raise some awkward questions because I am a man, but I even know how much that bracelet was wort hand if someone gave me one, I would not sell it for so low a price.

Lots of people still new to online shopping usually get caught out or fooled by thinking its on special offer from whatever supplier it is coming from. There is only a handful of authorised sellers for Pandora bracelets and charms in the UK, so unless they have the receipt and date of purchase etc and all packaging of where it came from, I would not touch it.

I can locate a website that sells Pandora bracelets with the copied exact packaging and at first glance no one could tell the difference. I could also sell it for £14.99 and make a profit of around £11 on it. Someone online could not, from a picture, tell that it was a fake Pandora bracelet until they got it into their hands and felt the quality, the weight and tested the durability of it and how easy the fakes are to break.

I can also obtain online and sell replica charms and beads which look very nice and would fool most people. These can cost anywhere from $0.49 cents which is a bargain to fill up a charm bracelet as most Pandora charms are around £15 each about $25 for the basic ones. You can see how attractive the markup is for counterfeit sellers to make a killing on an unsuspecting buyer.

Here is a few on the spot tips from John Greed's Jewellery website located at:

http://www.johngreedjewellery.com/en/uk/pandora-information/pandora-how-to-spot-a-fake/page/bpfake/

Like all successful things PANDORA is much copied. The fakes fall into two broad categories: those that are simply charm bracelets or beads like PANDORA but do not pretend to actually to be PANDORA and those that that are actually pretending to be PANDORA.

Lot of customers who have unwittingly bought bracelets and charms that pretend to be genuine PANDORA and are not. They usually come to us because there is a problem with their bracelet due to a quality issue.

On the high street this is pretty obvious as a genuine dealer will have all the PANDORA window displays, furniture and packaging . If you are overseas this should also be the case. Genuine PANDORA jewellery is NOT sold in markets, from stalls or anywhere else other than reputable jewellery shops.

Online things get a bit trickier. In the U.K. there are only a handful of genuine, authorised PANDORA retailers.

You can tell we're genuine because we have the 'Certified PANDORA online retailer' logo on our website. Also any one with 'PANDORA' in their domain name other than PANDORA in the U.K. is fake. PANDORA for brand protection purposes do not allow us to trade with 'PANDORA' in our domains. A lot of them are Chinese or Indian sites pretending to be genuine PANDORA sellers. You will be lucky to get anything back for your money at all from these sites.

Genuine PANDORA is not traded on Amazon and only a very small amount on Ebay is genuine. So if you are contemplating buying fake PANDORA because you think it will save you money, consider the following:

Jewellers receive many Genuine PANDORA bracelets with fake beads that have become stuck on PANDORA's patented screw thread system. Usually the PANDORA bracelet has been damaged in the attempt to remove the bead.

Jewellers receive many Genuine PANDORA bracelets with fake beads that have become stuck on PANDORA's patented screw thread system. Usually the PANDORA bracelet has been damaged in the attempt to remove the bead.

The point of fake goods is to make fast cash for the supplier. This usually means that fake goods are built to a quality to impress at the point of sales and that's it. Most instantly fall to bits right after the purchase and indeed have been designed to. So however little you have spent or how much you've saved it's often a complete waste of money. We see dozens of fake PANDORA bracelets and they are all poor quality imitations.

A bracelet swinging around your wrist all day long needs to be high quality and well built to withstand the daily rigours, to go for anything less than the genuine article is a waste of time.

The whole point of PANDORA is the ability to treasure your precious moments, if your perception of your charms is of cheap counterfeits, you've missed out on the whole point and real value of PANDORA .

Thanks for reading guys and I hope this helps some people out if they are dubious about whether or not their Pandora Bracelet is fake or real.

Bye for now.

Henry

Chinese Herbal Weight Loss Pills - Not Easy To Sell

2013-01-01T13:14:00.001+00:00

Chinese Herbal Weight Loss Pills - Not Easy To Sell on Ebay

Hi Guys,

Another product I remember I binned them all as I couldn't sell them was the Herbal Weight Loss Pills I had ordered from a supplier on Aliexpress. They got held up in customs for 7 days as they must have been examined when I was following the tracking information and when they arrived they had customs celotape around them. They must have tested them for different kinds of drugs incase they were being disguised as something else that wasn't on the packaging if you get my drift.

These are the pills I purchased which gave me more of a headache than weight loss as they had to be binned:

Anyway when they came in I was checking the price on Ebay and it seemed there was a good markup as they only cost around $2 a packet and they were selling on Ebay for around £7.99 upwards, so I thought I would give it a go and make a few pounds.After a day or two a sale came through and as soon as the sale came through thats when Ebay cancelled the listing.

Apparantly they are in breach of their user agreement in relation to selling drugs and drug paraphernalia and can only be sold by someone who has a medical certificate or is a registered doctor who can authroise prescriptions etc. I thought it was weird though that if customs seen a batch of 50 packets of these coming in they are obviously not for personal consumption and could have halted and returned the shipment there and then. Oh well the world is a weird and wonderful place and we all learn from our mistakes so as Ebay wouldn't let me sell them I ended up just binning the lot of them :). I couldn't use them as I am skinny already and if I ate all those pills I might dissappear down the cracks in a drain or something LOL.

So in the end I would avoid buying anything thats to do with drugs or pills etc as for some it can raise some questions as well as to how safe they are as the health and safety laws in China are a lot different to what we have here in the UK.

Thanks,

Henry

Identifying fake Chinese Breitling Watches - Compilation of guides

2012-12-16T01:53:00.001+00:00

Identifying fake Chinese Breitling Watches - Compilation of guides and tips

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone had ever came across some of the fake Breitling watches that have been circling around online? I have had the pleasure to see 3 different fake Breitlings bought for £65 from India the supplier was from, and taken to a jeweller, and they thought it was a real Breitling. A friend in work I know has one and he took it to a jeweller here in the UK to get the battery changed inside it and the jeweller told him that he wasn't insured to work on those types of watches, even though he examined it quite thoroughly.

Here are some quick tips from an Ebay.co.uk user guide on spotting fake Breitling watches:

1. On a Genuine Breitling the window for the date is large and eats into the second and minute markers, The fakes like above do not.

2. Original Breitling's do not have raised sub dials.

3.The inner bezel on the fake does not blend seemlessly into the dial, You can see a black ring on the picture above. The genuine watches do not have this.

4.Breilting and wings logo are embrossed on genuine watches, On the fakes they are Stamped on.

5. On a Breitling fighter watch the finish is completley brushed. On the fake its a gloss finish.

6. The back case. The original has markings on the underside, Normally 4 -6 letters and number on the 2 closest links, The fakes do not.

The dead Give away. On an Original Breitling, Look at the very center pin that holds the minute, hiur and second hand. It should all be the same color, Normally silver. The fakes all have a black pin.

Here is a history of breitling watches to watch before checking out how to spot the fakes:

This is what facinates me by the Chinese, how they are able to make such good quality copies of things that even experts are fooled by. Before you spend a couple of grand on a Breitling watch, I have composed a compilation below of videos and tips to look over briefly before making the purchase to make sure that the watch you are buying is the real deal. The actual watch can fool everyone but unless you have the right paperwork such as the reciept or certificate for the watch, or know how to check to see if the watch is genuine or not, I would keep yer money in your pocket until you do. The only way to make sur eits genuine is buy from a trusted well known jeweller online or go into the shop itself.

I have seen 3 different models of Breitling and to tell you the truth I had no idea they were fake either as they were so good I was afraid to hold one when I looked their price up online. Then when I found out the friend had paid £65 for it, I was nowhere near as worried anymore :).

Here are some guides collected from people around the internet as not a lot of information is available about fake watches, check them out and let me know what you think.

Straight from the horses mouth (unofficially):

http://www.breitlingsource.com/articles_replica_dials.shtml

Here is some simple tips from Ehow on how to spot if the Breitling watch is a fake:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4843084_identify-fake-breitling-watch.html

Some tips about auciton sites and common sense:

http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/toptips.html

Hope this helps if your buying someone that special something this Christmas.

To buy authentic Breitling watches please check out the following Amazon links which are sold by Breitling themselves and are 100% authentic! No one else can sell these watches on Amazon as they are not approved:

See you soon.

Henry

Chinese Suppliers Messing you about, Fraud, Deception, Lies, BS

2012-12-11T23:53:00.001+00:00

Chinese Suppliers Messing you about, Fraud, Deception, Lies = Bullshit

Hi guys,

I recently tried listing product son Ebay to dropship to customers around the world, with a limited degree of success. My advice is if your trying to run a business, don't put your reputation in the hands of someone thats about 5000 miles away as, like I found, they really can mess up your reputation.

First item I listed was a 5 th Generation MP4 player which looks like the older and slim Ipods. I was excited for my new idea and thought could make some people happy and make a bit of money doing this without actually buying any products or taking them to the post office which does my head in everytime I go down and its pension day. 20 grannies trying to get their pension as you call down with a package or two on your lunch break from work and you have no time to fart around makes for very annoying situation :).

Anyway enough about grannies, I placed the Ipod replica MP4 players on Ebay and several sold within a day or two. I ordered them from the supplier, and put the details of both customers, who were located in the UK, and thought wow, that was easy. Jobs a good'un right? WRONG :) When the people recieved their items about 12 days later, everything about the item was perfect, the colour they requested which I forwarded onto hte supplier was correct, the package of accessories and size of memory (8GB) was right....couldn;t be better until the description I re-read said it had a camera onboard, which it didn't.

After contacting the supplier he said it was an error on his part and I said okay we're only human people do make mistake, so I offered the customer the profit margine I would be making (£7 on this particular item) as a refund to which they both accepted and lived happily ever after...as far as I know.

Next came the real stinger which I have opened a dispute with on aliexpress which has lasted the arrival of these items about 28 days so far with bugger all happening except broken promises and some evidence that supports my claim that I am being screwed. This was a costly effort as I had to refund tonight £165 through Paypal for 3 tablet PC's I tried to dropship from a totally different supplier from the MP4 player one.

Their supplier feedback was about 800 + and was 100% and since ordering these tablets it has dropped to 93% which made me think what the hell went wrong? So anyway two customer from russia ordered 3 tablet PC's I put on Ebay and again I ordered them thinking ding dang doo thats an easy sale and thats £12 profit for me for each PC sold.

Well what a nightmare it has turned out to be. One customer bought 2 tablets and the other bought one. The person with the 2 tablet PC's ordered theirs on the 4th November and I was told it left China on the 9th of November which is not what the tracking says as it says when translated from Russian using google translate, the status is "No Discharge - No Mark". This in my opinion means it hasn't been sent from China because there is no Customs sticker for that country or there was bugger all in the package to begin with and the guy was generating a number for an empty packet. So a dispute has been opened with that transaction. The tracking information on the Russian websit eis shown below:

Same supplier again but different Russian customer and the Russian Post Office helped me with this one catch the bugger out. They ordered their tablet pc on the 2nd of November on Ebay, they then shipped out apparantly on the 5th of November. Looks all and good, item showed up on the Russian Postage website as being sent out, however it was scanned in at the post office nearest the customers destination but somehow the weight has changed since it was re-weighed at the Russians end from 0.534 KG to a big fat ZERO 0.00. The Russian post office told me it seems very suspicous and could be an empty parcel with the tracking number. Again a claim has been opened for this order too and I have showed how the tracking information has changed as it enters the Russian end:

The Chinese suppliers excuse is that the customs policies have changed in China and long delays are expected. Since these orders for customers I have ordered my own electronics for myself a package of 4 Battery packs for Xbox 360, 50 Iphone 5 Covers, Another tablet PC from another Supplier and an in car camera, all arriving within 17 days. Don't let Chinese suppliers put you off everywhere has good and bad suppliers even Ebay or Amazon but the motto here is don't let the sods get away with it.

If Aliexpress does not refund my money or favours in the suppliers case, I will contact VISA which I used to pay for the items and explain it to their fraud department. Its amazing how quickly they can reverse payments in this day in age :D.

Thanks guys will do a review on my tablet PC soon as been very busy with work and Xmas.

Lata dudes.

Henry

Chinese Thermal Processor Paste - Xbox 360 RROD Fix (Red Ring Of Death)

2012-11-01T17:39:00.005+00:00

Chinese Thermal Processor Paste - Xbox 360 RROD Fix (Red Ring Of Death)

Hi Guys,

A few days ago I purchased a broken Xbox 360 with the Red Ring Of Death, 3 Red lights to be exact. This means that it is overheating. So I decided to try and make some money by purchasing a broken Xbox 360 and following the video I have enclosed below to see if I could solve the problem. I have no real experience in electronics or taking things apart as I always end up with havnig one screw left over when I have put everything back together which I find weird, however I decided to give it a go.

Here is the video I used to follow the instructions which unfortunately for me did not work because I think the paste was just not up to scratch for this type of job:

Before Air Vents were cleaned:

After some light hoovering (few seconds):

I had looked into the many ways people have tried fixing the RROD overheating problem before purchasing anything and the most viable I thought would be to replace the processor paste which had worn away between the Xbox 360's processors and their heat sinks. The methods people mentioned using towels and blowing a fan into the fan vents etc I thought might work in the short term for a few hours but it would eventually go back to the 3 red lights problem.

So I purchased the X clamp kit that conprises of a syringe containing white thermal paste and 8 screws with 8 metal washers and 8 neoprene washers. My task according to the video was to remove the Xbox 360 case, take out the motherboard, remove the X clamps, clean the old thermal paste off that was previously there (some leftover residue), and reapply the new thermal paste. Then I would plug it in and switch her on, and hopefully see the 4 green lights swirling around as it booted up.

I spent about an hour and a half on this, done everything in the video, put the Xbox 360 back together, plugged in the power and......BOOM! still 3 red lights :(. I am not sure if there is perhaps something wrong with the Xbox 360 other than the heating problem however the CD tray still works, the fans are working and so does everything else.

I finally came to the conclusion that maybe the thermal paste didn't work and I did buy it and the screws for around £1.99 with free delivery on Ebay. I should have known that such a cheap fix may not have been the answer, however I am going to take the motherboard out again one more time to check I have tightened the screws just enough so the heat sinks and the processors are actually touching as I had to play with them a little bit the screws for the heat sinks to sit level again on top of the processor when reinserting them.

As far as I can see for me, the thermal paste did not work, it may be because of the quality of it, lots of people say to use Arctic Silver paste is the best but I thought I would at least give the Chinese compound a go, ya never know yer luck eh? :) Turns out I haven't much luck LOL. I will tinker about with it for a while see if I can get it workin but if worst comes to worst I can keep the broken Xbox DVD drive for spares along with its spare outer case, connectors etc so it wasn't all in vain. One thing I will show you is how much dust a 4 year old Xbox 360 accumulates over the years I had hoovered it all up before installing the new thermal paste but made no difference.

I might take my working Xbox 360 apart to make sure that the air flow is steady and gets to all parts of the heatsink, as where mine sites gets very dusty all the time very quickly. The heat sink of the processor was the worst covered in dust inbetween its fins but I forgot to take a picture I am afraid.

All in all I don't think would reocmmend this heat paste, it just seems a bit too wet and takes ages to dry even with a heat gun which I found weird. After a few days it dried out and I tried again but still no avail.

Thanks,

Henry

Chinese Products but Spanish Supplier - Cuts out EU Customs Charges

2012-10-22T19:54:00.007+01:00

Chinese Products but Spanish Supplier - Cuts out EU Customs Charges

Hi guys,

Been busy completing some courses that's going towards my Open University Degree over past few months however, I am back and will be reviewing more Chinese items I have purchased. Most recent is 50 Iphone 5 covers and a new Android tablet PC which I will review in separate posts.

One website I would like to tell you about which is a bit like the website www.chinavasion.com but is a lot cheaper, is Nilodudes.com. This is a Spanish wholesaler which I have used twice and they have been very speedy in their delivery of orders plus they are very well packaged. The reason I am sharing this wholesaler with you is because if you order a large quantity of items through a courier (which Nilodudes use to deliver the goods and is why they deliver so fast) from China, you will more than likely be hit with a customs invoice or charge as soon as the goods arrive on your doorstep.

The driver will say you need to pay the customs charge before the goods can be released to you, or you will have gotten a call from the courier in advance, usually the central office, asking you to pay over the phone via debit or credit card so that they can then release the goods for delivery.

DHL use the previously method mentioned for payment of invoices, however watch out as I got a phone call from them to pay over the phone which I did, then the driver delivered the goods and asked for the money again from my mother who answered it. It was only £7 but it turns out I had already paid it on the phone and the sticker on the box from the DHL sorting office says ask for cash on delivery so it may have been a mistake where the sticker should have been removed. FEDEX and UPS usually send an invoice after the goods have arrived, normally 2-3 days later, asking you to pay their service charge fee for clearing the customs charge on your behalf of about £6-£10. All you need to do to pay this is ring the automated line, sometimes you will go through to a customer care advisor

HOWEVER, if you use NILODUDES.COM you will be charged VAT when you place your order at 21% currently in Spain. The good news is that if you are a business, you can claim this back if you have a VAT number. You can also save money by choosing Paypal as the payment option with them and a small discount is also applied when you enter the checkout process.

The items areonly about 10-15% once all delivery charges and VAT have been added etc. however they will arrive a lot quicker and with no worries of any extra charges of VAT, customs, freight charges etc when they reach you. This means you can order as many as you want, whereas when ordering them from China, if you wanted a huge amount, a freight container may be required, which will only go to certain ports around the world, then you need a freight forwarding company to deal with the paperwork to get them processed for you, then a delivery company (may be the freight forwarding company will do it for you) to deliver the goods. All the costs keep mounting up and up the larger the consignment as containers when they enter the port are also charged customs in relation to their weight as well, not just the value declared on the invoice that is sent with them.

Checkout NILODUDES.COM and see what you think. I ordered 8 Smoothie Makers that were from China from NILODUDES.COM and all 8 worked perfectly when I tested and sold them on Ebay for £50 a pop. The more you buy the cheaper things are as well on NILODUDES, as they have a wholesale tier structure which gives discounts if you buy in lots of 4, 6 , 12, 24 ,36 lots etc with the potential for a lot of high markups to sell on Ebay. A lot of the stuff is "As Seen On TV" items which you will probably recognise as soon as you see them. A lot of them are to do with healthcare, cooking and gadgets to make your life easier.

Check it out and let me know what you have purchased and how the order went.

NOTE: To change the site to ENGLISH, its in the top right hand corner the Union Jack flag or if your Spanish, keep it the way it is.

Thanks for reading.

Henry

Mobile Phones from China - Includes Chinese Phone Settings

2012-07-22T18:45:00.001+01:00

Hi Guys,

I remember a few years ago I ordered a lot of Chinese mobile phones of varying and very cool designs I must say, one had a transformer logo on it which was awesome, and thought I would give you some heads up on some of the problems you might have with them when using them on the different mobile networks.

All of the phones I ordered were tested on the O2 network and work fine for text messaging and calling people or accepting calls. The main problem with them is that they cannot seem to send picture messages even though it says on the boxes and on the phone itself it has MMS and picture messaging. Also a large majority of the phones have settings missing from them that you can't input settings for, but desperately need. This appears to be a software related problem and some settings appear to be uneditable like for setting up your data account for the internet a few had the option greyed out and wouldn't let you select it.

If you call or get O2 to send the details to your phone for your messaging and internet settings, when you input them you may run into some problems with getting access to the Internet or being able to send Multi Media Messages with pictures etc in them. If you tell the customer care people at O2 what phone you have they will look at you with two heads if you were in the room as its Chinese they will tell you its not authorised to be used on their network so cannot fix any problems you have with the phone. You will have to use the instruction manual to figure things out however the manuals are written in a broken English which can be hard to follow.

One of the newer Chinese phones however thank god I ordered only about a year ago for a friend of mine I got the Internet working on it fully along with facebook, Gmail etc. I searched for a while getting the settings for his provider which was O2 as well and had to input the details manually into the phone which worked a treat. It did take about 30 minutes to get it to work but I perservered and got it up and running no sweat at all.

To save some time for people who may be experiencing some problems connecting to the Internet on their phone or sending picture messages, I have included the settings information below for as many networks as I could find. The phone does need to be restarted a few times to ensure settings are saved, so when you put them in and click to access the Internet on a Chinese phone and it doesn't work first time, don't panic, they can be a bit tempramental until you get them up and running, be patient.

One thing I will say about Chinese phones is they do give you a lot of cool accessories with their phones the main bonus with them is they giv eyou 2 batteries which I have never seen any phone in the UK coming with 2 batteries which is impressive. Other phones have nice little touches to them like analog and digital TV which works a real treat specially when on the bus, camping, long road trips anywhere really you can whip it out and watch all local channels or news and stuff really is quite amazing.

Here is the list of settings for each network, if you want settings for any other country in the world, follow the link below to see that countries settings, enjoy:

http://www.quickim.com/support/gprs-settings.html

UK

Operator	GPRS APN	Username	Password	Optional Settings
Vodafone UK	Internet	web	web	-
O2 UK (contract)	mobile.o2.co.uk	web	password	DNS: 193.113.200.200, 193.113.200.201
O2 UK (prepaid)	payandgo.o2.co.uk	payandgo	payandgo	-
Orange UK	orangeinternet	[blank]	[blank]	DNS: 158.43.192.1, 158.143.128.1
T-Mobile	general.t-mobile.uk	user	mms
T-Mobile (One2One)	general.t-mobile.uk	Username	one2one	-
Jersey Telecom	pepper	[blank]	[blank]	DNS: 212.9.0.135, 212.9.0.135

Neo Cube from China - HOT SELLING GREAT GADGET WITH VIDEO

2012-06-19T18:36:00.000+01:00

Neo Cube from China

Hi guys,

I have ordered one of these little gadgets to play with as I get idle hand sin work and end up drawing on post its and note pads etc when on my break. It lokos a lot more fun than a Rubix cube and a lot more variety in what you can do with it than just matching up some simple colours.

The power of the magnets are awesome and they simply click and pull apart with ease to create magical displays of what onlookers seem to think is a skill in how you can manipulate the balls in the cube. It comes in a cool little gift tin and would be great for retailing in a gadget shop or place for boys toys. Of course girls will love them too as they come in lots of different colours and they can colour code them to their style of clothes, colour of their handbag or even to match their shoes.

This would definitely sell well at a trade show where the product sells itself on the demonstration provided by the seller. This demonstration has the power to wow people as they try to work out how it can make such complex shapes, and if you give them a go at it, they will find just how easy it is to create something from a simple cube into anything they can think of. You can get these for about $10 without the presentation case and about $14 with the case, however postage for these items in large quantities is quite heavy, however ordering one at a time the postage from a lot of suppliers is free.

It can provide hours of fun and you can make 2D or 3D shapes to show off to your mates and passers by. Once one person see it, they all want one guaranteed its a definite attention grabber. Check out some of the videos below for some neat tricks:

Get one for yourself in work as its a great stress reliever as well when you have something on your mind. It takes away from what ever is bothering you and helps calm the nerves when playing about with it.

Thanks.

Henry

Xbox 360 Accessories from China - Headsets, Rechargable Batteries etc

2012-05-29T18:28:00.002+01:00

Xbox 360 Accessories from China

Hi Guys,

Something I bought a long time ago and have several left over I found in my garage are Xbox 360 headsets, the old style ones, which have the volume control and microphone activation at the end where the jack is and enters the controller. These were incredibly cheap to buy from Chinese suppliers and are great in case of a sudden microphone packing in, which happens a lot more than you might think. I am currently on my first Turtle Beach headset which is wired and it has lasted for 9 months with no problems but up until I got my Turtle Beach for my birthday, I had been using a single Chinese Xbox 360 headset for 5 months solid and it worked perfectly, even to this day, it is still going.

Some people may be put off the headsets because they are unbranded and don't have a name on the side of them. This means nothing really in the long run as lots of stuff, even luxury items, are made in the same factory as the cheaper items, all with just a different name or badge put onto the product, which in turn increases its value.

These headsets are very good and reliable for a cheap replacement if one of your main headsets pack it in. The speaker on them is not incredibly loud but is sufficient enough to hear and make people out without any problems at all. They seem a bit more solid the older designed headsets as some headsets, the newer ones, have a 90 degress angled jack that goes into the controller with a flimsy wire that goees to the headset. These are the ones that I have found break the easiest, especially if you take the wire in and out after each gaming session. As its quite flimsy, you can end up splitting or breaking the wires inside if you keep taking it in and out a lot. The headsets however with the more solid base at the end of the wire have lasted for up to 2 and a half years (the old Microsoft Ones).

The newer model headsets I have went through about 4 of them and got so annoyed with them I preferred to use the Chinese made one and then eventually the beast of all headsets the Turtle Beach which is still going strong. All I am saying is don't be afraid by unbranded Xbox or PS3, Wii etc as they are very good value for money and most of them are very reliable.

Buy one as a tester for around £2 delivered some work out as and see for yourself.

One other great accessory for the Xbox 360 from China is the various rechargeable bettery packs that you get which include a charging lead. They don't last as long per charge as some of the official Microsoft Battery packs, however they do last a few days before needing recharging and all depends on how you are using and what games you are playing etc.

Some batteries feel a bit plasticy and very light which can also be a good thing, yes they are cheap but they will do the job they have been made for safely, as I have not heard of any comiplaints or bad feedback about them. If your strapped for cash don't rob a bank to pay for your Xbox addiction, buy something cheaper from China and save yourself a lot of bucks :)

Check out some of the great deals on Amazon you can get on new and second hand turtle beach headsets which are definitely worth the money. The sound on them is outstanding and can give you the dge in multiplayer games as you know exactly by the sound which direction the next bad guy is coming from:

Thanks.

Henry

Fake perfumes from China like Coco, Davidoff, Hugo Boss Etc

2012-05-27T20:15:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,

I thought I would give some people a heads up on some items that look very very real, but don't necessarily SMELL very real when you open them. The Internet has no way of letting you smell an item of course until you have received it, however I think there is a gadget that lets you do this with certain things, but anyhoo if you are ordering any perfumes from China at crazy prices like $15-$25, you can be pretty sure it isn't real.

Common sense dictates a perfume isn't real if someone no one has heard of before offers it at way below what major retail outlets and chemists can offer it at. However some people will be tempted to purchase these items because of the huge discount a seller is offering, only to be disappointed by the lack of smell or doesn't smell anything like the original which they may have purchased PROPER versions from a genuine retail shop.

People usually can tell that a perfume is fake mainly just by smelling it or applying it and seeing how long the effects of the perfume actually last. Most genuine perfumes and aftershaves can last for up to 6 hours some even 8 before starting to dwindle on the scent, whereas a fake perfume will last maybe an hour or possibly two in some cases I have heard, but then just disappear and evaporate into sometimes a nasty musty smell.

This musty smell I heard of intrigued me into what might be in the fake perfumes to replicate the smell of the originals. I looked it up on youtube and found an interesting video below describing some ingredients that go into fake perfumes and nearly threw up as if I knew I had been putting things like traces of urine onto my skin which has come from god knows where, a person and animal, I would rather go au natural body odour than stick that stuff onto me I can tell you know.

Some tell tale signs of perfumes that are fake are told in the video but include: cellophane not tight on packaging, thin cardboard for the boxes used, bar codes in wrong places, some wrong fonts used for the title of the perfume etc.

Check out the video below and be wary when buying Chinese products as the supplier may not answer you or give you a refund. They sometimes get away in their descriptions by saying that it is the China version of the product and this means its not original. I say that is no way to describe a product and if someone sells a fake to you or you even suspect for a micro second something is fake, simply return it and keep hounding the supplier for your money back.

If its on Ebay or through Paypal, submit your case through them as they will probably have dealt with a similar situation with this supplier before and vote in your favour and return your money :D. Check out the vid but don't squirt any perfume or aftershave on till you know whats in it LOL

Buy from Amazon to get the real deal as only authorised companies are allowed to resell the expensive or licenced perfumes. Check out the ones below if any interested you, the only problem is the price :):

Thanks,

Henry

Chinese Epad / Ipad replica with Google Android OS

2012-05-26T18:56:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

One of the first items I remember purchasing from Aliexpress and was very wary of as it cost at the time about $88 and was one of th ebiggest purchases I had made on the site about 2 years ago. I thought a touchscreen tablet PC could not cost that much and felt in the back of my mind that the package would never arrive. However I was relieved when it did and was actually surprised at the amount of technology in such a slim and portable device, which was also provided at an amazing price.

There are many different Epad's available from Aliexpress and from China in general with minor deifferences, not visually, but mainly in the specification department in relation to how much RAM it has, processor speed and what Google Android OS it is using etc.

I remember when I got mine it came in a nice retail style packaged box with the charger, instruction manual (which was written in broken English and was not very easy to follow),travel adaptor and USB cable. I was very impressed and still am to this day about it, however I wish I had kept it as I sold it on Ebayabout a week later after recieving it. I paid about £58 for it and sold it on Ebay for £77. This wasn't a bad profit and I was mainly testing the market on Ebay for this type of tablet PC as the Ipad 1 was the main contender for tablet PC's at the time and thought this would never sell as its unbranded.

The touchscreen on the device was actually fairly accurate and responsive, however nothing as you know can beat a real keyboard than a virtual one. It has little niggles in it now and again when trying to type fast as it can sometimes struggle to keep up, but I also own an Ipod touch 4th Generation model and its touch keyboard is the same so I wouldn't bad mouth the Epad devices just for being not lightning fast as even the to of the range products with virtual keyboards cannot keep up with the speed some people type at.

There is a great range of applications available for the Epad's as they run all Androids applications which there are literally hundreds of thousands of. One problem with Chinese Epads is that sometimes the version of the Google Marketplace does not work as it is the Chinese marketplace, and when it trys to connect to the internet via wi-fi or 3G, it does not recognise the local settings and so brings up an error. There are some remedies online which you can lookup to install the ENglush or USA version etc of the marketplace and some I have seen the methods have had a reasonable success rate from what I have read in forums and posts etc.

When I got my EPad, I wanted to use it in work mainly to play videos on and it does it very well from an SD card slot. It has an interface like a bookshelf which is on the Ipad 1, 2 and 3 which allows you to choose movies and ebooks, or songs as if they were sitting on a virtual bookshelf inside your tablet. The video playback on these items is actually pretty good as I watched and entire film before the battery started to go down on it which lasted about 2 hours long, and there was no issues with lagging of the picture or smoothness of the film, no out of sync sound and lips talking it was very cool. The screen isn't high definition however I See there are some models now which offer HD screens at a higher price of course. The screen which is standard on most of the Epads seem suitable and produce the lovely colours that the wallpapers which come with Google Android show off.

Lots of acessories can be bought for the Epad from Chinese suppliers which include leather cases, blue tooth keyboards and 3G modems to access the internet on the move. All Epads have Wi-fi built into them and they work very well in discovering new networks within range and connecting to them with ease.

I would not really use the tablet to replace a laptop as it can do a lot more than the tablet PC's however I would use it mainly for entertainment purposes, reading ebooks, watching films, listening to music, editing the occasional documents in office applications which can be downloaded for the EPad or sometimes come with free trial versions of them already installed on the unit.

Overall not a bad purchase and you could easily resell these to people as they are also great organisaitonal companions using the Google calender functions to help plan your day, meetings and so forth. I would recommend one if you had some spare cash about but don't expect it to run games which a laptop would run like World of Warcraft etc LOL it usually comes with Angry Birds, everyones fav game, and has lots of room to download more and keep you entertained.

Interested in purchasing the newer models? Check out the one I have recently bought below for a bargain. Its great for surfing the web, although can slow down now and again, but the screen and touch sensitivity are great on these models. Check them out:

Thanks.

Henry

Iphone 5 Covers from China - Made in advance

2012-05-10T21:03:00.000+01:00

Iphone 5 Covers from China - Made in advance

Hi guys,

I was wondering about new ways to make money online and was thinking if you can get the latest and quirkiest Iphone covers on the release of the new Iphone 5 perhaps later on at the end of this year, you could definitely clean up as sales of the device look like they are going to be out of this world!

You should stock up straight away as soon as the covers are released as many Chinese manufacturers of the covers have already been given the plans by several months ago so that they could start early in producing accessories for the Iphone 5.

Here is a photo of the latest Iphone from msn.co.uk and it does look like a real beauty. I will love to get my hands on it but knowing my luck it will be sold out for the next few weeks on release as I cannot stand the que's outside apple shops everytime there is a new product launched.

It can be fun and exciting sometimes getting the latest must have product. but seeing adults jumping up and down and running screaming out of the store because they got an Iphone or Ipad early etc really doesn't do it for me LOL.

Anyhoo if you specialise in mobile accessories online or have your own store, carboot etc you should get your foot in the door early and start earning while the hype is still fresh when its released as Iphone covers are cheap to buy but with a relatively high profit margin as well.

All the best guys just a quick thought.

Thanks for reading.

Henry.

1.8" LCD Wireless Car MP4 MP3 Player FM Transmitter

2012-05-10T20:51:00.001+01:00

1.8" LCD Wireless Car MP4 MP3 Player FM Transmitter SD MMC USB - From China

I decided to try out these items from a Chinese supplier for the car to see if they were any cop. I read some good reviews about some FM car transmitters and some bad so I thought it was probably going to end in disappointment this order and didn't hold my breath.

When I recieved the transmitters though I was very very impressed! The quality of them is amazing and very sturdy as in the pictures I kind of thought they were going to be very light and have a cheap plastic feel to them, but they actually feel a very sturdy little gadget for a such a great price.

The interface is fairly basic and when you load your SD card into the transmitter, it organises them into folders which you can name yourself on the SD card, however if you turn it off and on midway through a song, you have to find the song again and press play from the start, as it will not remember like a car CD player , where a song has been stopped or paused before being turn off. Apart from that Small Little niggle, its a great device to buff up your tunes in the car and is very stylish too.

As soon as my mates seen it in my Peugeot 206 going to the cinema or out for drinks, the little screen fascinated them by what else it could do all lit up and looking very cool in my very crappy 206. They thought it was something from the future I had brought back but I couldn't get to the future as my 206 struggles to get up to 88 miles per hour.

The controls are very simple and basic as the buttons on the device are very intuitive and clearly tell you what they do with the symbols on them. One very cool features is that there is a remote control included with each unit. This is good if you are busy driving and cannot find a song you want, where you can pass control over to someone in the back to find the songs for you while you drive.

As everything is on an SD card your music, you can have tons of songs literally 100's on a tiny SD card without carrying around loads of CD's and chopping and changing them every two seconds.

You can get these on Ebay for like £7-£9 and its a very worthy investment if you keep lots of your tunes on an SD card. I suggest testing these items when you get them simply turn you car engine on, stick them to the cigarette lighter quickly to see it power up and see the welcome message. Some people I notice from suppliers feedback do say now and again out of maybe 20 they order maybe one when they plug it in is totally dead. Its a very small percentage but just incase you sell it to a customer and they get a bit angry with you selling broken stuff and they get a bit miffed off about it.

Below is the product specs from one suppliers website.

Thanks for reading.

Henry.

Product Description

This is a MP3 mp4 player special used in car, It can download MP3 formats file from the computer and save them by the SD/MMC/TF. it is used high quality mp3 decoder chip decode MP3 file from SD/MMC/TF memory to audio signal, and transmit them through FM modulator chips change to FM signal, play back the high quality music by the FM radio of car audio system.

BE YOUR OWN RADIO STATION! NOW TAKE THE MUSIC WITH YOU!

Features:

100% Brand New.
Weight: 74g
Size: 9.5 x 7.0 x 4 cm
color: Black
Display size: 1.8 inch
Car mp4 player
Support SD/MMC expansion card (1GB-8GB)(SD Card is not included)
NO Memorizing function
With SD card slot & USB cable port.
Support MP3,WMA Audio format, Not Support WAV, MIDI format
Support SCV Video format only, Not Support AVI, WMV, ASP, RMVB, 3GP, MOV, FLV, VOB, MPEG-2,MPEG-4(MP4 ) format
Transmits the music to the car's audio system
With multi-languages selected
With infrared remote control.
7 EQ modes optional.
Built-in stereo wireless FM transmitter, FM frequency range: 87.5MHz~108.0MHz. Total 206 frequencies optional.
Play the music automatically when inserted to the 12V outlet.
Shows FM frequency, the No. name and lyrics of the song. volume, EQ mode, player mode on the LCD Screen.
Support 7 kinds of EQ music format: Nature, Rock & Roll, Pop, Jazz, Soft, DBB and Surround
Rotatable in wide angles to adapt to different in-car setting
Flexible joint for position adjustment.
Power supply: 12V-24V.

Package Content:

1 x Car MP4 player with built-in FM transmitter
1 x USB cable
1 x Remote control

Smoothie Maker from China - As Seen On TV

2012-05-10T20:30:00.001+01:00

Smoothie Maker - As Seen On TV from China - Available in White and Red

Worldwide Shipping now available I have got some for sale on Ebay.co.uk while stocks last:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150832258879?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

This is a great seller all year round as nearly everyone at some point in the year aims to loose weight and thinks of different ways to do it and diets to try. A lot of people like the idea of a smoothie as they are very tastey and can try out different recipies or make up their own with ingredients they have in the house.

The "Smoothie Maker" is an amazing little gadget that you used to see on a lot of late night shopping channels where the commercial had a presenter come on and show you all the things you can do with it like making ice cream, cooking sauces and great tasting smoothies. The thing though that makes this smoothier maker stand out a lot more than any other is the way in which it operates. Check out the commercial below thats on youtube to see it in action and you will think its an ingenious idea.

To make it work you put the ingredients in the large or small cup, depending on the size of smoothie you are wanting, and to activate the Smoothie Maker, the cup and top part of the unit rotate to a vertical position and turns on the blades. When you think it has had long enough to blend the ingredients together (It doesn't take more than about 10 seconds or less) you simply tilt it back down again and a safety switch knocks off the unit.

You can simply twist the cup the ingredients were in and the cup detaches from the unit which you can drink out of right away. There is a plastic lid that comes with the two cups which fits over the top and allows you to drink it like a coffee you get in a garage or takeaway cafe.

Another great safety feature is that to clean the blade of the Smoothie Maker, you do not need to touch the blades, as there is a small quarter sized cup that comes with it that you simply put water into, tilt it up and the blades clean themself in the water. You can see if you fill the large cup with water and turn on the machine that the blades create a unique column of water thats like a whirlpool in the centre, which helps suck all the ingredients down to the imulsifying disc down below which is amazing to watch.

I had bought two of these from a supplier in China and you get everything in the box the Smoothie Maker machine, 1 small cup, 1 large cup, a cleaning cup , one spill trayand the lid to place over the cups for instant drinking. One thing to remember is that ordering this item from China is that you will need a travel adaptor for the plug as its a 2 prong plug and not like in the UK a 3 prong. Travel plugs are cheap enough though to pick up on Ebay or at local supermarkets for like £2 or so.

I have seen the real deal package a friend of mine ordered off TV however the Chinese one does not come with the promised in full colour recipie book which was dissappointed with. There are tons of websites out there for free smoothie recipies you will find no shortage of ideas. It only comes with a black and white instruction booklet which offers some good safety advice I suggest you read first as usually smoothie makers, blenders, food processors (anything with fast moving blades) scares the crap out of me to use.

Just use common sense and you can be enjoying some great smoothies, soups, sauces or even ice creams (made using frozen fruit, very tasty) try it out for yourself.

Try some other models of smoothie makers with great reviews below:

Thanks for reading guys.

Henry

In Car Camera / Dashboard Camera from China - Helps with accidents

2012-04-28T00:13:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,

Another item I totally forgot about I ordered from China last year was my in car camera which I take everywhere with me when driving. The reason I bought it was because me and my brother where coming home from work one day and stopped at a set of traffic lights. There were two lanes, we were on the inside lane and on the right there was a large canvas lorry towing another canvas trailer behind it. As the lights turned from red to green, the lorry driver took off fairly quickly and as I began to move the lorry's trailer swayed to the left as he turned the slight bend in front of us to continue going down the road.

The trailer slammed onto the front driver side door and front panel of my car and tore the front bumper as well off. All in all it cost £800 to fix and luckily for us the guy fixed the car out of his own pocket because he owned his own company and fleet of lorries. However some people I have talked to haven't been so lucky. Especially when theres an accident, you take peoples details down etc and make sure they aren't hurt, get them to sign a piece of paper saying they are not injured and what happened etc. However as one of my friends found out, this does not stand up in court the piece of paper. This is because when for instance someone suffers from whiplash for example, signing the paper there and then at the scene and time of the accident means nothing, becaused the onset of whiplash usually takes a few hours up to 24 hours to kick in.

These cameras which nearly every car should have as well as taxis, delivery men, lorries, diggers, buses, motorbikes....even cyclists or any vehicle on the road should be equipped with what i like to call a "Black Box". This means in a court of law it would help to show exactly what happened or give at least some indication of who done what or what went wrong in an accident.

It should also help sort out insurance claims much much faster, as the insurer can do their own investigation with the police into the crash and confirm your statements and the other victims statements, comparing them to video evidence you can send them in the post or email to the claims handler.

Of course not all crashes can be caught on camera if you only have a forward looking one and someone rams into the back of you, but it does record sound as well and the time, date etc of when it happened to witnesses statements can be backed up by what happened. I have included a video I uploaded from my camera to show you the quality you can get from such cameras from China. One mistake I made in this video is that I did put the camera very close to the air vents coming from the dashboard and had them open. This is what makes the annoying noise in the video as the camera microphone is like a pinhole and when the air flows directly into it it can produce a lot of static.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. The camera I used does have night vision as well but I didn't test it out as I don't drive much at night.

Here is a small selection of cameras available on Amazon that are the same model or very near to the specs of the one I tested out and are very cheap:

Thanks

Henry

Beatles Box Set from China - Copies or ....just printed in China?

2012-04-27T23:51:00.001+01:00

Beatles Box Sets from China - Copies or ....just printed in China?

Hey guys,

Long time no type. I was wondering about why people bad mouth the Beatles box sets of the stereo 16 cd box sets and the mono 10 cd box sets? I looked on Amazon at the many reviews for these products and see complaints about the original and authentic ones being priced way too high, which is all fine and good right? However then you come to the printed in China box sets which are apparantly "illegal copies" as everything it seems to people that comes from China is an illegal copy, is of bad quality and the sticker on the CD of a copy has the inner circle cut out while the original shows a whole label stuck on with no inner circle etc. It started to get on my nerves a bit people both rhyming abou authentic products and copied which kinda confused me so I thought I would vent my opinion here.

The differences between the two are so minor and it all really comes down to just the packaging is different, rather than the audio quality thats contained on the CD. People are comparing things like the original box sets have the albums in order they were released in the set, the smell of the Chinese copied ones stinks of that "ink just printed smell", the cd's inner circle intersects the label when it should be one whole label not split by any other circle, the Chinese copied ones have flaps now and again that aren't glued down etc etc.

The thing that annoys me about these kind of people is that they never seem ot be happy. They have two choices when buying these Beatles box sets. Buy them or just keep quiet is the way I see it. The real one for the 16 cd stereo version about £153 and the mono box set is about £179. The Beatles fans will complain this is too high which they are correct in doing. Most Beatles fans already have these on CD and LP so why buy them again?

Obviously if you see the box sets for about £70 or so brand new, you can probably tell these are from China by the price, so the people order them and then read all the guides to spot fakes and then return them. So whether its an authentic item or so called copy, people are never happy. Some people obviously cannot afford the over £100 for some CD Box Sets that can be bought seperately for way less even on Amazon or Ebay. Basically what you are paying for is the presentation of the box which is very attractive I have to say.

I borrowed out of work an authentic beatles box set a stereo one and a mono before it was sent out to one of our customers and then played my so called copied sets together on the same PC comparing the sound quality and I could not tell which one was which by sound alone. People forget to check the quality of the merchandise first before pointing the finger too quick saying its fake itx crap, you have been ripped off by some scammer. I believe its the record company that rips the person off in the end when you really think about it. People should be able to make their own choices if they want to buy a Chinese version or not, as they can tell simply by the price alone, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work it out.

In the case of authentic Beatles box sets, EMI Records is the only winner here.

Thanks for reading my ramble :D

Henry

DVD's from China - Copies or simply region 1 versions?

2012-04-14T16:30:00.003+01:00

DVD's from Chinese Suppliers - Copies or simply region 1 versions?

I have ordered a few titles from China over the years, some more well known as others, and a lot of them are of such high quality, I cannot tell from the packaging or the actual image on the TV screen, whether or not they are fakes or illegal copies.

Most DVD's or when VHS was about, you could tell it was a copy because the picture was either crap or the sound was like the whole film was made underwater and you couldn't make out what people were saying. I done some research with legitimate manufacturers in the UK by sending them a DVD ordered from China, along with the packaging etc, and they told me its simply a Region 1 NTSC version of the product.

This got me thinking that if a manufacturer of DVD's or CD's in the UK couldn't tell the difference, then I think the terms "Its a fake DVD", "Its not a real copy at that price" "Chinese Rip Off" etc shouldn't really be used. It should be more like "Its an illegal unauthorised copy" as I think DVD's that are made in factories in China have been authorised and paid by large movie companies to make so many copies of a DVD, and then cease production. What the Chinese do I believe is continue running the presses of whatever movie or programme they have been asked to create, however when the deadline comes, they just ignore it and continue making them.

Most of them are either Region 0 (FREE) or are Region 1. The thing about Region protection on DVD's nowadays is that it doesn't really mean anything anymore, as most peoples DVD players are multi-region DVD players, which means they can read any DVD from any country. When the multi region DVD player came out, it pretty much made obsolete all the region encoding for different countries all over the world to help stamp out piracy.

Fair enough some shoddy Chinese copies of DVD's you can spot easily especially if you read the descriptions on the back. Some have some very bad spelling mistakes which a company would never put into print production until it was fixed, as quality control would definitely pickup on it. I bought a box set of True Blood Season 1, brilliant price, amazing picture and sound, great detail on packaging along with all insert art etc...but on the back soon as took it out of box noticed a review snippet on the back says it was "Terrfig.....sexy....witty.....wildly imaginative". Of course it means to say its "Terrific" but they may have been eating a fig roll biscuit at the time and got distracted when typing it in for printing the covers.

Also a lot of the "Unauthrosied Copies" copy the region 1 packaging or NTSC versions because there is usually no classfication of an age range you need to be i norder to watch the DVD. Compare each of the DVD cases with one in the UK and you will see the BBFC rating on them as well as (with newer printed DVD's and reissues) the Irish Classification which is a blue hexagon symbol beside the BBFC ones.

Just thought I would give it a mention incase you thought all the pictures of Chinese DVD's were crap. The ones to watch out for a which are a con when buying online is the Blu-ray DVD's from China. They are not truely blu-ray discs, but are just very high quality DVD discs and so is the file that has been burned onto them containign the film. No reduction in quality will be done for these discs. Not all display so well however on HDTV's as one my freind bought had lots of pixelated black blocks appear now and again at certain points which no one could explain.

Thanks for reading.

Henry