i hear you on saving for real kaws, but i alreayd have a 5yl and a dissected, and thought this was really cool so i bought it. and i dunno about these bootlegs being as much as a real kaws at all... if u can tell me where u could get 1 chum for under $300 please steer me in that direction... i bought 4 of the bootlegs for $320, and can probably get them cheaper if i order them again as the dude is doing cheaper prices for me the second time around. and yes i bought the set of 4 for $320 but didnt keep all 4, i just wanted 1 and 2 others took the black and the white off my hands... so as a group buy it cost us about $75
No, I'm saying that your bootlegs cost nearly as much as the Chums originally cost - take the secondary market out of the equation. Bootlegs should be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than retail - like maybe 30% of what the Chums originally retailed for. I don't remember what exactly Chums originally sold for, but I know I got my Yellow one for right around $100.
a little while on the bay chums where going for around $300 i think yellow and clear for real ones didnt they find a stash of them in a warehouse
I agree that the bootlegs should be much cheaper (like $20 & the guy would still be making a profit). What's unfortunate is that most people that buy these off the bay don't know these are bootlegs. You could say it was their problem for not being 'educated', but I guess that same logic would apply if your mechanic used bogus auto parts and charged you for new manufacturer parts.
im sure they are cheaper, its the fact taht he's buying them from a store that knows its popular, and he told me they charge him over $40 a figure before its in his hands... insane i know... yeah i know the hcums are at like $330 right now... im thinking of snagging a clear one up sometime soon...
yeah... common practice if some of you dont know it, if taking your car to a mechanic, ask for the original parts returned to you when picking up the car. or else they could be bullshitting, to rake that price up... ive seen it happen too many times.
$320 on bootlegs is crazytalk . . . personally I'd rather have 1 cool legit piece than 4 lumps of knock-off landfill . . . but to each their own!
awsome pieces, bootlegs are fun as long as the person cranking out the original is not hurting because of it, and I am gonna go out on a limb and state KAWS is not hurting for loot, real clean sculpt and nice colors, I do not even like KAWS but these boots have struck my fancy
I don't mind bootlegs but why do they feel they can charge prices as if they were authentic designer/collector/artist toys? I know I know....because people go for the hype and pay for them.
Well, it's just not Kaws that would be effected by these...there is a chain of folks. Kaws is just one piece of the pie.
Given he's been around since the late 18th Century, the guy that designed the original Mr Bibendum is long since past caring about his cut!
If someone jacked someone else's art or toy designs prior to the design becoming known to the community of potential fans, that's one thing. Or if you are somehow producing bootlegs to the EXACT quality and aesthetics as the original and guaranteeing they are in fact originals, that's pretty bogus. More or less, bootlegging or jacking original ideas or art is pretty lame. But when the bootlegs are easily identifiable AS bootlegs... and people are buying the bootlegs for the shear fact that they tacky rip-offs... rather than buying them INSTEAD of the originals... then why not? Some are so low-qual that they are humorous... I don't see any malice in copping a few rip-offs to display next to your legitimate KAWS toys, or whatever toy it may be. I mean, I've never seen a snap-together Chum... and any real KAWS fan who buys something like that is well aware of what they are buying, and is in no way stabbing KAWS in the back, IMO.
So got in the pair of 5YL Companion bootlegs. Pretty cool stuff considering the weird size of it. Cheap crappy vinyl w/ a thick crappy paint job though. For some reason the right foot on the Brown one is softer and squishier than the rest. As you can see from the pic, because of that it has a slight lean to the right (left in the pic). Size comparison next to a Kaws 5YL Companion keychain. Crappy vinyl = tear like this.
Yep, Those are super shitty, congratulations! I'd imagine we'll see them in the for sale thread in a week.