Sure, you got a great deal on the Spyderco counterfeit the guy was selling outside the entrance to a county fair. What, did you really think that you could buy a Paramilitary 3 for 30 bucks because it didn’t have a box? And when the lock fails or the blade snaps I hope you are not doing anything important, like building a fire when you’re lost or some other dire circumstances.
Buying online isn’t a guarantee either. Here’s a slightly truncated version of an article from the March 28 2018 edition of Knife News.
A recent study by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed that consumers who buy from third-party sellers on major online e-commerce websites risk ending up with counterfeit products.
Although no knives were included in the GOA investigation, they report that more than 40% of purchases made through third-party sellers on sites like Amazon, WalMart, eBay, and Sears turned out to be counterfeit. Amazon, the largest online retailer in the U.S., has more than 3,000,000 such third party entities participating in their Marketplace. Sales through the Marketplace make up nearly half of Amazon’s total business.
According to industry watchdog The Counterfeit Report, “Amazon’s 13 global websites operate under a huge legal loophole, virtually immune to prosecution. The foreign sellers are difficult to identify and escape liability.” The glut of sellers and inconsistency of product listings make it hard to discern fake from genuine products. “Amazon also utilizes a crafty approach to avoid removing reported counterfeit listings claiming ‘Your trademark must be in registered status in [each country the item is sold in],’ ignoring their own counterfeit policy,” The Counterfeit Report points out.
According to The Counterfeit Report, Amazon emulates the notorious eCommerce outlet Alibaba, which has been on the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List multiple times, most recently in 2017.
(I found Randall knife look-alikes several years ago at Alibaba. If you didn’t buy your Randall knife from Randall, are you sure it’s real?)
Other products are shipped from and sold by Amazon directly. Buyers often assume these products are the real thing, but in 2016, Apple found that 90% of chargers it purchased directly from Amazon, using official Apple imagery on the product listings, were fake and even dangerous.
As early as 2015, Spyderco said they could not authenticate or otherwise guarantee the genuineness of any knife purchased from Amazon “due to their practice of co-mingling inventory with their 3rd party marketplace vendors.”
(Still don’t think counterfeits are a problem? Where did you buy that protein powder and health supplement from anyway? Could they not only be worthless, but actually harmful?)
According to industry watchdog The Counterfeit Report, “Amazon’s 13 global websites operate under a huge legal loophole, virtually immune to prosecution. The foreign sellers are difficult to identify and escape liability.” The glut of sellers and inconsistency of product listings make it hard to discern fake from genuine products. “Amazon also utilizes a crafty approach to avoid removing reported counterfeit listings claiming ‘Your trademark must be in registered status in [each country the item is sold in],’ ignoring their own counterfeit policy,” The Counterfeit Report points out.
According to The Counterfeit Report, Amazon emulates the notorious eCommerce outlet Alibaba, which has been on the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List multiple times, most recently in 2017.
(I found Randall knife look-alikes several years ago at Alibaba. If you didn’t buy your Randall knife from Randall, are you sure it’s real?)
Other products are shipped from and sold by Amazon directly. Buyers often assume these products are the real thing, but in 2016, Apple found that 90% of chargers it purchased directly from Amazon, using official Apple imagery on the product listings, were fake and even dangerous.
As early as 2015, Spyderco said they could not authenticate or otherwise guarantee the genuineness of any knife purchased from Amazon “due to their practice of co-mingling inventory with their 3rd party marketplace vendors.”
(Still don’t think counterfeits are a problem? Where did you buy that protein powder and health supplement from anyway? Could they not only be worthless, but actually harmful?)
But, if you want to reduce the risk of ending up with counterfeit knives, your best option is to buy from a reputable knife dealer.
(I can’t think of anything else to add.)
(I can’t think of anything else to add.)
