He says in his post that he prefers personal checks. To send payment you would need to get his mailing address. Sounds like it would be pretty easy to track the guy down.
And do what? Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see guys like that dragged through the streets from a trailer hitch on my truck but its not like anyone is ever going to do anything.
Piracy will always be around so long as someone is looking for "a deal". While there are plenty of folks on this forum and others that see it for what it is, we are but a drop in the "market" bucket. I fear it is an occupational hazard and one that will always be with us.
I wonder if we are reaching the peak of what the market can bear. I understand that no one is being paid what they are worth when it comes to sculpts and production, but is it realistic to think that as times get harder, manufacturers and producers should charge more for their figures to make up for costs or should they back off a bit, lower prices to spur sales and weather through a hard market and when things get better increase prices? How often have members of this forum told neophytes wanting to produce a commercial line of figures that its great to do but don't expect to make a living at it? Is it a case of expecting too much? Trademark, copyright and intellectual property law is not about wrong or right but who has the deeper pockets. Small guys don't stand a chance against a larger company, and international cases are impossible to enforce, control or bring to trial. If it were the case otherwise, there are alot of guys here that would be sitting pretty on their judgment earnings.
I know that at Atlanta, I looked at figure prices and suffered some sticker shock. I suddenly became very discriminating in what I wanted and was willing to pay for figures. No longer will I accept the "production flaws" or less than stellar sculpts, and I have narrowed my figure focus to things I will do in a short time rather than build up a stash and they are subjects I really want. Not something that I look at and think "that might be something different to do." This attitude is shared by more than just me and ripe for counterfittiers.
So as prices edge up, counterfeits will too. Simple enough to just stay loyal, bite the bullet and pay the extra. Ignore the inevitable, it will always be there. E-bay will not care, they have been successful at beating most of the counterfeit law suits they've been implicated in, and they are really nothing more than a pawn shop selling stolen goods. In short, they are too big to care or for any of us to do anything that will effect change.
