Fake Rare Vinylmation Now Circulating

[Lizzy&CJ'sMom]

The fact that there are fake vinyls out there is very disturbing. I am so sorry for those that were scammed, and I hope that they received refunds or their traded vinyls returned. I certainly hope that the individual is not bold enough to put the fakes that were returned to him back into circulation.

I was scammed in a similar way back in the mid 90's with Ty Beanie Babies. There was one in particular that was very old that I wanted very badly. I purchased it from a seller on Ebay with 100% feedback, and a lot of it. When I received the item, everything looked fine, but it didn't feel like the same knap in the fur. There was an actual service that authenticated Beanie Babies. I sent it in, and was informed that it was indeed a fake. I contacted the seller, told him it was a fake, and asked for a refund and to return the item. It was in the old days of eBay when you sent money orders through mail to sellers. I never received a return reply, so I left negative feedback and kept the fake. A few weeks later, I was looking for a "real" beanie, and the same seller had of the same fakes for sale. I contacted eBay, but nothing was done. This ruined the trade for me, and my beanies are in plastic tubs in my basement.

I do want to collect P1's and U1's, but I will be pulling the heads off to look for the embossed numbers. Eventually, these people that make the fakes, and have no conscious, will come up with ways to emboss the numbers in the head, stems, and so forth.

Believe me, I have my first P1 arriving sometime this week...a Creepy Wallpaper, and it will be headless for a few seconds while I look for the embossed number!

[UStayClassy]

Wow! You know, I thought about buying a set of Park 1's but after seeing this I don't think I wanna risk it. All of my collection was bought soon after release, thankfully...

[niftyk13]

Quote Originally Posted by NJparttimer View Post
... Disney could combat this by switching production stateside ....
AMEN! I've been trying to plant that seed for two years! You, new member, get applause: So many issues with Vinylmation would be easily solved by moving production stateside.

A lot of things in the USA could be fixed if production was switched to stateside.

All this makes me so nervous. Especially because my grail is P1 Kermit. I've been so tempted to buy him off ebay so many times, but I always get hesitant. After reading all the posts in this thread, it seems like it was bound to happen, but it makes me, a fairly newer trader, disappointed because I'll never have the chance to purchase these directly from Disney and there will always be that thought of is it fake?

[jollyjes]

My friend just traded a vinylmation for an Alice from the animation series and I have been trying to figure out what the bottom serial number for the Alice is to compare with the one my friend has. If anyone who has the Alice from the first animation series tell me the serial number at the bottom of the figure I would greatly appreciate it

[Carol]

My friend just traded a vinylmation for an Alice from the animation series and I have been trying to figure out what the bottom serial number for the Alice is to compare with the one my friend has. If anyone who has the Alice from the first animation series tell me the serial number at the bottom of the figure I would greatly appreciate it

I haven't got my Alice with me at the moment so can't quote you the serial number - however, there have been no reports of any fakes from that series - to be perfectly honest, it is not worth faking a vinyl of that value - the ones that have been faked are Park 1 Balloon chaser, Park 1 Kermit and Urban 1 Gold chaser which are much more expensive than Alice!

[CarnivalofAnimals]

I wonder if these people on Ebay who replicate Vinylmations have also started replicating the cards that come with the older sets too? Otherwise it seems like its a safe bet if the Vinylmation comes with a card.

[erikanicole]

I wonder if these people on Ebay who replicate Vinylmations have also started replicating the cards that come with the older sets too? Otherwise it seems like its a safe bet if the Vinylmation comes with a card.

There have been several instances of card fraud as well

[Oooooo]

I honestly never knew until reading this thread that anything like this was going on. Very interesting.

[gunmetale46]

Hi Everyone
I just wanted to give you all a heads up that fakes are getting sold on ebay and amazon currently. I don't know if these have hit the trading market, but they may be soon. This new batch also took into consideration what was previously found to be wrong on the old fakes, and tweaks have been made to their mold/processing.

I've always been following ebay and other sites for sales to keep up with market value for a lot of the vinyls. I noticed that a lot of P1's were making their way out of Missouri (St Louis area) from two sellers on ebay, both selling P1's with box but no card. Then my friend told me he scored P1 Balloon Chaser with box without card for 200 on Amazon. Looked up the listing and that also is coming out of the same place. So I looked into an ebay auction a little deeper, link below. They actually show pictures of the numbers on the head post and inside the head, but show some other interesting signs I'll discuss after the link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Disney-Vinyl...item257ad820c7 - listing was pulled soon after I released information on another forum

I am in no means a Vinylmation expert, but I have personally owned 3 different balloon chasers, and heres what I noticed.

1) Paint Flaws - There looks to be paint transfer at the base of the head and on the body around the head post which looks like the paints may have been a little wet when head was put on, and also touch up paint by the number on the post.

2) Cloud misshapen - the cloud on the arm in the close up picture comes up to a point, where as its suppose to turn down and be rounded

3) Balloon String - if you take a close look, the line for the string to the balloon is painted all the way through the balloon, where as the ones I have, the line stops at the edge of the balloon.

Here are the accounts I believe to be linked, but there could be more
Ebay: mousedreams, bobbalooo
Amazon: missj1975

If you have purchased any vinylmation from these sellers, I recommend you file a complaint and get your money back now.

It is obvious that the seller is on or browses vinylmation forums as once this info released earlier, they cancelled the amazon listing and ebay auctions. Please be aware, they have made fakes of the full Park 1 series and ship with fake P1 boxes.

Another friend recently purchased SMRT1 from mousedreams, so I asked to borrow it and compare. I will note some differences I noticed, but will not name them all as its obvious they are making new versions that correct mistakes they made that have been noted before (edges on bottom of feet, numbers on post and head...)

The colors are still off on the fakes and some details are still missing or wrong. The paint on SMRT1 should have a consistent light shimmer, fake has a purple matte finish on some parts and the light shimmer on others. There are a few more errors that are easy to spot and some not, but I am going to stop here so I don't help them correct their mistakes.

[MickeyMaxwell]

Great job!

I wrote a similar post about this same issue last year and am really disheartened that these scammers are up to no good again.

Just want to add to Gunmetal's post that not only is the vinyl a fake but also the boxes. The boxes are replicas of the original P1 boxes. I will try to post pictures later.

We need to sticky the thread I wrote and gunmetal's so new collector's know what to look out for when purchasing older vinyls.

[MickeyMaxwell]

Bump

More fake Park 1 vinyls circulating on eBay. This time the seller is pimping out the "original" box (also a fake) along with the vinyl. Please do your homework and be careful when purchasing old vinyls.

[Tooie]

thank you so much for showing us what to look for, after reading your post i checked my p1 figmouse, thank god that its not a fake!

[Anders Limpar]

I think my Park 1 collecting days are over as the vinyls are too rare and cost too much. Thank you to gunmetale though I appreciate the effort.

[IamThePan]

http://vinylnation.net/forums/showth...088#post553088

Mousedreams has been selling these fakes for months. I noticed a couple of her fakes back in July. eBay buyers need to really focus on the detail of the paint and compare them with other listings (active or completed). It's often difficult to spot the fakes if you have nothing to compare them to.

[iDisneyGirl]

Hi I have a question, my mom bought me a Happy Birthday Celebrations Vinylmation off ebay.
It's boxed, the bottom has a few wrinkles like it's been opened. The vinylmation is leaning to the side, I can see paint on the plastic in the box and the front of the box. The paint on the ear is chipped, some of the blue looks like it bled. Is it a fake?

[crazybones27]

Hi I have a question, my mom bought me a Happy Birthday Celebrations Vinylmation off ebay.
It's boxed, the bottom has a few wrinkles like it's been opened. The vinylmation is leaning to the side, I can see paint on the plastic in the box and the front of the box. The paint on the ear is chipped, some of the blue looks like it bled. Is it a fake?

Most likely no its not fake. The fake ones you find will be earlier more valuable series . I'm sure yours is probably fine.

[bizkitty]

Oh man, just makes me happier that we got into vinyls around Urban #2 and Park #3, and have managed to finish collections from box-pulls up until Park #4 and Urban #4. Guess we gotta stay ahead of the curve that determines what vinyls are valuable enough to fake, but that means starting all new collections! We've been out of the game for more than two years, and there are so many new collections! Where to begin?!?

[Magic]

It is so crazy how far someone will go. It would seem to me it would be cheaper to go on Ebay then it would be to create a mold and paint these things myself. I will never understand people.

[crazybones27]

It is so crazy how far someone will go. It would seem to me it would be cheaper to go on Ebay then it would be to create a mold and paint these things myself. I will never understand people.

These people creating fakes are not making a mold they are just using blank create you own vinyls and painting them to look exactly older more sought after ones.

[Magic]

Ah that makes more sense but I would still rather collect these pieces for me that's the fun. What's sad is these people are turning around and selling them to people like me or trading them for expensive ones to finish a set to sell off.

[BandE710]

Such a shame that people have to ruin a good thing, I guess all we can do is make each other aware of fakes.

[Moparkatie]

This makes me nervous as I purchase more valuable vinyls. Do we think it spread past original park 1 and urban 1?

[saguel]

Usually if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. There is no way you can get a balloon chaser for less than $300, and if you did, it is probably a fake. I wouldn't be surprised if this extends to other series in the future. 20 years from now, Animation 1,2 and Haunted Mansion could very well be duplicated. The best way to prevent these mishaps is to collect these yourselves directly from Disney. Since the older ones are being counterfeited, just close the book and see if you run into a random storage auction one day with a P1 or U1 tray. Thats a lot of hope.