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Edit to not double post- this gave me a laugh
Size comparison with the Saturn V.
On topic: BrickVault mentioned in one of his streams that while he does not endorse it, he would understand if someone wanted to buy *cough* UCS Millenium Falcon in Lepin *cough* simply because it's cheaper. Crappier, but cheaper.
Ive had a very strange relationship with LEPIN stuff. Want to write about it. Guess I could, its an interesting subject, product cloning, and certainly an interesting study of ethical, economic, social issues and a lot more. It's not as simple as I think many would casually believe.
The SSD article touched on some great stuff.
I know I've said this before, but how they send these things from China for less than the price of a 1st class stamp astounds me.
I think there must be something going on between eBay and TLG that we don't know. I once tried to sell a replica Oakley Jawbone glasses on eBay and the listing was struck off in a matter of minutes. I never tried to sell a replica ever again.
As a data scientist and software engineer, it's straightforward to spot the majority of the fake Lego listings in an automated manner. It would take me no more than one day to develop such system.
I'm not sure why eBay is not already doing it for Lego but is doing it for Oakley?
I have access to eBay sales data and I estimated that each figure that falls into "fits" or "custom" generates around £2000 figure/year. For example, there were roughly 1200 Boba Fett figures sold between August 2016 and August 2017 in UK. Total sales were £4500.
It's interesting to note that in U.S the number of counterfeit figures is drastically lower. Only 250 Boba Fetts were sold and the total sales were £500. So perhaps the issue is with IP laws in each country?
I also found out that the market for fake Star Wars figures is around £200,000 in UK and £72K in U.S. Please note that this is only for Star Wars figures. There are many more: themes, countries and sets. There are roughly 150 Lego themes. eBay operates in roughly 30 countries. So a rough estimate would be that £200M-£500M of fake items are being sold on eBay every year.
One day of my time could stop a £200M-£500M market and Lego and eBay know it.
Why they are not doing it?
LEGO had record sales and profit last year so the growing fake market seems to be helping them in some weird way. Perhaps brands trying to be as cool as Lego empower Lego even more?
This is quote from TLG's CEO: “We were encouraged by our performance in mature markets in Europe and continue to see strong potential in China, which represents an attractive growth opportunity,” he said."
Please take those numbers with a pinch of salt. I didn't research throughly. It's a rough estimate.
Here is the thinking behind it:
£200,000K worth of fake Star Wars figures and sets were sold on eBay between August 2016 and August 2017 in UK . There are 130 (not 150) Lego themes on Brickset. We could say that the number of sets in each theme is correlated to the popularity of each theme. Otherwise, why wouldn’t Lego make sets of themes that are not popular or don’t sell?
There are 14,332 sets listed on Brickset, 570 out of 14,332 are Star Wars sets. Let’s assume 25% of those sets have replicas. So we could say 142 Star Wars sets generated £200,000 worth of sales. Or, let’s put in another way, every fake set generates £200,000 / 142 = £1408 worth of sales. Therefore, 3583 (total replica sets) * 1408 (sales per replica) = £5,044,864 worth of Sales on eBay between August 2016 and August 2017 in UK. If all the sets had replicas, then the figure would be £20M. If the 10% had replicas, then the figure would be £2M.
There are many more factors that should be taken into account such as:
Number of countries and retailers would boost the previous figure by several orders of magnitude.
This is a rough estimate but the point is the fake figures are big business and in some weird way it might be helping Lego given they had record sales this year.
Sets are faked too, but these tend to be larger SW ships and modulars. There is not really the demand for fakes of 5 year old Atlantis sets, for example.
Of course, aliexpress and alibaba have huge numbers. Lego are perfectly aware of what is going on there and on ebay (hence their current legal action against Lepin).
I don't really see how the claim that one day of your time can stop a £0.5 Billion market has any validity. Knowing there are fakes and doing something about it are two different things. If it really was that simple, don't you think that would have solved it by now?
For example, Apple vs. Xiaomi https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-Apple-sue-Xiaomi. Xiaomi blatantly copied Apple in China and China's legal system seems to allow it.
However, Xiomi can't get into other markets because of IP. This doesn't seem to be happening with Lego. Chinese Lego-wannabe companies are violating Lego's IP yet they are still able to sell overseas. Why?
I'm a postie and we get big shrouds full of this Chinese crap - everything from phone chargers to jewellery. The reason they can sell and ship it so stupidly cheap (99p delivered from China!) is that they can get so many of these tiny parcels in a shipping container, the cost per parcel is somewhere around 1 pence.
Learned that from the show Adam Ruins Everything.
https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32819765245.html?trace=storeDetail2msiteDetail#autostay
I honestly don't think they have even made one, they are just seeing how much interest is out there, then make it later.
Original MOC here: http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/317195
Seems there's even the LDD file, so no need to give money to those thieving *****.
I am Brick Linking mine, lol. Sets like these deserve the best bricks imo.
http://www.brickstruct.com/Brickstruct.com/Flying Dutchman page .html
The creator of THIS MOC actually posted on this site before, I believe. I am also a member of Eurobricks, and I am fully aware that Sebeus is the creator of the one that Lepin is stealing.
While I will admit the price is interesting for such a MOC, I can not support Lepin ripping off MOC'ers hard work. The only reason I even came to know about the Lepin version is because I have been doing a lot of homework looking into Flying Dutchmen MOCS.
He has freely admitted to starting to various projects concurrently and rarely finishes them. He is a man who needs help, not encouragement. The evidence is plain to see at http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/26940/brick-link-remorse
It should be noted that his username TheFew is merely a cover for his addiction. He is in fact known in other circles as TheMany.
I put it to the jury that the defendant is incapable of making a balanced decision due to his addiction. He needs therapy, not persecution or prosecution.
The defence rests ;-p
Just noticed the new UCS Falcon up as a pre-sell for £169.59, didn't take them long!
It does sound like you have plenty of projects going.
Looks like the bootleggers got there first with this one.