[Ter]

My thesis is very simple :
Why do customs and police check and confiscate contraband luxury goods like handbags, watches and clothes ?
I am talking here about Rolex and Nike and all these luxury useless items who only serve to display wealth.

I buy fake luxury watches and clothes and bags to my heart's content on the streets of Bangkok and now also here in Dhaka. I know I am devaluing the value of those original goods but that warms my heart.

The question is : who do I harm by doing this ?
When I ask so-called knowledgeable people they tell me that the state loses income through VAT that was not paid. I am not satisfied with that explanation.

The owners of those luxury brands can get lost and fucked, why would officials of the state (who get paid with taxpayer's money) help them to avoid duplicate goods with their name on it ?

I can understand why they chase fake medicines for obvious reasons. But if I wear a fake Omega watch, it is nobody's fucking business.

[Albert]

Because they are protecting the business of the owners of these companies. Many modern luxury goods are a complete scam. These goods have no intrinsic value to them that actually make them luxury except for a brand name. Hence they can easily be counterfeited as it takes no exceptional skill and material to duplicate them.

[Godstud]

If it takes no appreciable skill or material to duplicate them, then they are simply over-priced goods, with a fancy name on them.

I am with @Ter on this one.

I bought my wife a $30 Calvin Klein purse, whereas the actual one was $2000. Who gets harmed by me buying her a copy? I'd never spend that much on an original, so the market for the "luxury item" isn't affected.

My friend having an Omega Skyfall watch(an amazing Chinese copy) that only cost him $120 in Bangkok, but is the quality, and appearance of the $3500 one, harms no one. He accepts that it's a fake. He would never have spent $3500 to buy an actual one, so the market isn't touched.

People who thrive on name-brands will buy the original, and I suppose it might matter to some people, and those are the people who will buy the original.

[Ter]

@Godstud
Thank you for your support but I think there is another reason : by having pirated luxury brands, we are devaluing the original stuff. Not every Tom, Dick and fucking Harry is supposed to have an Omega watch or a whatever fancy handbag. Especially if nobody can spot the difference between a 20 dollar watch and a 3,500 dollar watch.

I just wonder why the official authority bothers to chase those pirated items. To benefit the owners of the luxury brands ? Why ?

[Godstud]

Especially if nobody can spot the difference between a 20 dollar watch and a 3,500 dollar watch.

If you can't tell the difference between the $20 and the $3500 watch, there's a real problem in your stupidity of paying $3500 for that watch. That and, quite possibly, that $3500 watch isn't worth $3500.

I just wonder why the official authority bothers to chase those pirated items. To benefit the owners of the luxury brands ? Why ?

Yes, someone's paying for it, but in many places the authorities don't give a rat's ass.

Many of the designer clothing is done in Thailand, and as such, seconds, and one-offs, are not uncommon. They are below quality of the designer product, with still passable. That's why I can get a Lacoste shirt for $2 USD, which has a few mis-placed stitches.

[Albert]

Because the owners buy off the politicians or they are the politicians themselves. Plutocracy man.

Globemaster looks cool. This watch costs around $10,000. There is no way in hell it is actually worth that money. Overpriced bullshit.

[One Degree]

Counterfeits are profiting from the original’s advertising. If your $20 watch is just as good then why not put your own name on it? It is not the product itself, but the use of another’s capital investment that should be discouraged. Why do you want something with a fake name on it?

[Godstud]

If the original is worth 10,000% due to some petty advertising, then it's still over-priced. It it's double the price, most people would purchase the real thing. They do NOT spend so much on advertising to justify the price.

Why do you want something with a fake name on it?

Because it's just as good as the one with the real name on it, or close enough.


I had a friend take his fake Rolex into a Rolex shop and they fixed it. The Rolex repairmen could not tell the difference between the fake and the real one, but the guy who purchased the fake paid about $5000 less.

Would you not want a nice Rolex watch but pay $200 instead of $5000? You can't see the reason in buying something at a reasonable price, instead of over-paying an astronomical amount simply to make a company tons of profits?

[One Degree]

If the original is worth 10,000% due to some petty advertising, then it's still over-priced. It it's double the price, most people would purchase the real thing. They do NOT spend so much on advertising to justify the price.

Because it's just as good as the one with the real name on it, or close enough.


I had a friend take his fake Rolex into a Rolex shop and they fixed it. The Rolex repairmen could not tell the difference between the fake and the real one, but the guy who purchased the fake paid about $5000 less.

Would you not want a nice Rolex watch but pay $200 instead of $5000? You can't see the reason in buying something at a reasonable price, instead of over-paying an astronomical amount simply to make a company tons of profits?

I see no reason to pretend something I have is something it is not. To do so requires you to support the existence of over priced goods for the elitism they apply to you. You are condemning and embracing the elitism at the same time. I don’t care whose name is on my shoes if they are comfortable. Why should I?

[Godstud]

You might not, but others do.

Do you not want high quality items at reasonable prices? if anything, the market of "fakes", at least attempts to remedy this situation.

[One Degree]

You might not, but others do.

Do you not want high quality items at reasonable prices? if anything, the market of "fakes", at least attempts to remedy this situation.

Placing a fake name on it does not make it a quality good. It has nothing to do with the actual product.

[Godstud]

Placing the fake name doesn't make it higher quality, but when they make the fake to the same quality as the fancy name brand... what then?

When even your factory repairmen can't tell the fake from the original, is the fake really that bad?

Why not pay a reasonable price for a good product, and not over-pay for a good product simply because of the name on it?

[One Degree]

Placing the fake name doesn't make it higher quality, but when they make the fake to the same quality as the fancy name brand... what then?

When even your factory repairmen can't tell the fake from the original, is the fake really that bad?

Why not pay a reasonable price for a good product, and not over-pay for a good product simply because of the name on it?

Why do you care what name is on it?

[Godstud]

A lot of people don't. They want a quality item and copying a great one, to make a good one, is a good trade-off, if the price is right.

Also... often trade-names carry with them a guarantee of a certain level of quality, that some people like.

[One Degree]

A lot of people don't. They want a quality item and copying a great one, to make a good one, is a good trade-off, if the price is right.

Also... often trade-names carry with them a guarantee of a certain level of quality, that some people like.

The name doesn’t carry any guarantee if its fake.

[Godstud]

I know that, and sometimes taking that chance is worth paying 10% of the actual price, as you can buy a few, in case one putzes out on you. Duhhh...

[Ter]

@Godstud
It has nothing to do with quality.
The brand names just communicate that you can afford to pay fir a grossly overpriced product.
Shmucks like you and me devalue the brand.
I had an Indian friend who came into money and he went and bought an original Rolex in Hong Kong. He had to show me the box it came in, and a certificate, and a blue velvet bag in the box to convince me it was the real thing.

When I came back from holiday with my super good copy of an automatic Omega watch, my friends in the club laughed and said oh you went to Bangkok. But the people in the Rotary Club said nothing, they tought it was the real thing.

[Godstud]

People who can't normally purchase these items, won't. The people who can afford to, will pay for the real thing. Do you have some evidence that copies devalue the original?

You can make kit Ferraris and they're not devaluing the actual ones. They're simply catering to a different market.

[Ter]

Do you have some evidence that copies devalue the original?

That's easy. It is a matter of exclusivity.
Imagine that only 2,000 people in the whole world have a certain very expensive watch or bag or whatever. Now imagine 20,000 or 200,000 people having the same item, indistinguishable from the original. That will undermine the value of the original. The value lies in the scarcity and the perceived value. Those two elements will have gone to the dogs due to the enormous amount of pirated duplicate items sold on the streets in Asia.

By the way I noticed that the propaganda emitted to combat piracy tries to link it to child labour and even trafficking of people.

[Godstud]

Most people are not shy about acknowledging that they have a fake. The value isn't being affected to any appreciable degree, since the rich are still purchasing the real ones, and the people who cannot afford the high prices, are not. I don't buy the argument that it's devaluing these items.

By the way I noticed that the propaganda emitted to combat piracy tries to link it to child labour and even trafficking of people.

Of course it does, even if they're the one using child labour in their factories, to maximize profits.