Bought 2nd Hand Textbook Online, Pretty Sure It's Counterfeit - Is This Common?

LGenghisGun on 08/06/2018 - 20:00
Last edited 09/06/2018 - 12:25 by 1 other user

Bought a 2nd hand engineering textbook (reinforced concrete design, for those who care) from an 'Australian' seller on eBay, received the book about a week later which was clearly within acceptable 2nd hand condition (few corner bruises on the cover etc. but all of the pages seemed perfectly fine at first) - no issues on the purchase/delivery front.

A few days later I am thumbing through the pages to find a section of the text that I needed and noticed that all of the pages were in black and white, including company branding/logos, everything - this seemed odd.
I kept reading, and at some point I also observed that some of the pages seemed to have been printed poorly (you know when you print something with a crappy printer at home and you get tiny little dot marks and printer headlines?), and I noticed that the page content on some of the pages had a slight, almost imperceptibly small orientation defect (I'm talking the page content was not orientated correctly to the edge of the page, with like 1 or 2 degrees of rotation). The front cover of the textbook was printed in colour and to my eye appeared completely normal.

At this point, I suspected the book was a counterfeit. This book retails for ~$180 and i bought 2nd hand for ~$60 - probably too good to be true.

I filed an eBay return with the seller and after a strongly worded return request (something something i threatened to call the feds (who even are these feds?)) to which I received the following from the seller:

"-the book was sold as a second hand from a student who might have gotten the book from anywhere or even overseas. The item seems to be in good condition for reading and general usage perspective. We have no intention of selling forgery one nor we are aware in the possession of it. Should you not satisfied with the item, you are welcome to return it with the same condition when you received it.-"

This is pretty much where my story ends, I just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone else has had similar happen to them?

I think that the seller pleading ignorance at first, and then essentially implying that the book was fit for purpose anyway so there was no issue with them selling it was pretty lousy. I paid good money for a 2nd hand original and I think it is not good enough to simply say it is fit for purpose, so who cares?

This is a fairly well reviewed seller (280 reviews, lots of 2nd hand textbook sales, some of this exact textbook, 100% positive) - so I dont really suspect they make their money selling fakes - hence why I havent reported them to eBay.

Perhaps I just got a bad egg, and perhaps I'm a little hard on the seller who may have been duped too.

Are there a lot of fake textbooks floating around? is this a big business? You'd think so with the retail price of them.

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  [Deactivated] on 08/06/2018 - 20:05

  +6

  I've bought textbooks directly from Elsevier in India. (Headache getting it to Australia cause they won't ship.)

  Apart from being soft cover and the majority of pages being black and white, the content is the same.

  It's just the econoprint option. Cost about a third.

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    GenghisGun on 08/06/2018 - 20:07

    Oh dang, is that a legit thing? I would never have figured a publisher would deliberately print a lower quality book.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 08/06/2018 - 20:08

      +2

      Legit.

      It is the option between being able to sell a book vs not being in business in these countries.

      • 

        GenghisGun on 08/06/2018 - 20:09

        Thanks for the info! In any case, I was not told of this when I purchased, so it still bugs me somewhat.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 08/06/2018 - 20:11

        @GenghisGun:
        I cherish my textbooks so I would be too.

        I've since replaced all those shitty textbooks with the hardcover top quality print versions.

    • 

      scrimshaw on 08/06/2018 - 21:00

      +3

      Here is an excerpt I found on NYtimes from 2006

      https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/education/29textbooks.htm…

      The textbooks are printed legally in India under copyright arrangements worked out over the last decade by American and British publishers. Using tax breaks and cheap labor, Indian companies publish the books in black-and-white, low-quality paperback editions, and sell them for as little as 10 percent of the cost of the same book in the United States. But under the licensing agreement, the books may be sold only on the Indian subcontinent and in surrounding countries — limits that are stamped on the books' covers.

      There are no penalties for students who import books for their own use, under a 1998 Supreme Court decision that ruled that manufacturers who sell goods more cheaply overseas than in the United States have no protection against having their products sold back to the American market. But businesses or individuals who buy books for resale outside India could face prosecution for copyright infringement.

      I think the same applies for video games as well. In 2008 I bought some crappy shooter game that was quite basic in terms of packaging — a fairly thin cardboard box (with the correct artwork) but there was no fancy jewel case, just a paper envelope containing the disc and with the CD key printed on the envelope itself, this would be sold in SE Asian markets.
      The Australian copy was in a thicker box and had a printed manual as well.

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  thatonethere on 08/06/2018 - 20:11

  +1

  Sometimes publishers make lower quality books for regions who wont buy at say $180. Eg India.

  But yeah could be a fake. If it is just a guy who collects textbooks at a uni and resells them they may not be aware of that. Probably just paid $20 and flicked thru it quickly.

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  trustnoone on 08/06/2018 - 20:40

  +1

  Yeah pretty much heard similar as well, theres a lot of books that are made hugely subpar with cheap manufacturing for places that can't afford it. Theres even video games that are similar (pricing in Russia and stuff i think is way cheaper on Steam then it is in Aus or US for example). Possibly other media as well?

  Or it could be counterfeit, who knows? But more likely the case is the seller buys the books from a cheap place then sells it to a more expensive place and make some profit inbetween. Technically they're probably not supposed to, but thats likely more of an "agreement" then legislation? (not a lawyer).

  Might seem a bit dodgy, but then again, I don't know how many times I've bought something from somewhere like China on eBay due to being cheap and getting it delivered here.

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  altomic on 08/06/2018 - 20:46

  I used to buy all my psych textbooks from Abebooks. The were "International" editions which were printed in India. they were soft cover rather than hardcover and cost a third or less than what the uni co-op was selling them for. they were full colour and good print quality.

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  ladybug1 on 08/06/2018 - 20:58

  +1

  Take a look and see where it was printed. It could have been printed in India-and then will say something like not for sale outside these (7-8) countries. If it claims to be printed in Australia or the UK and still has poor quality printing, you may have got a counterfeit.

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  mskeggs on 08/06/2018 - 21:00

  +4

  I think you are being a bit rough on a seller who has offered to accept a return if you are unhappy.
  It sounds like your real complaint is that the publisher produces cheap versions you didn’t know about, and were disappointed when you bought one assuming you were getting the premium version.

  Remember that if we act poorly as customers we discourage people from selling things second hand, driving up prices for everyone.

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  [Deactivated] on 08/06/2018 - 21:03

  +1

  reinforced concrete design,

  It must have been a negative bending moment when you identified the dodgy text

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  GordonR on 08/06/2018 - 21:51

  +1

  I wrote a textbook (true) and the publisher put out a version for the Chinese market, same content (in English), but cheap paper and printing, and a Chinese subtitle on the front cover. So as the others are saying, probably legit, but not the first-world edition.

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  El Grande on 08/06/2018 - 21:54

  Indian print quality is low but books are very cheap. Most are in $5-20 range.

  Medicines are quite cheap too. Panadol is Like 60-80 Cents a pack. Its called Crocin (Both brands are owned by GSK). They change the names to stop people from grey imports in high margin countries.

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  aoeueoa on 09/06/2018 - 11:10

  There are counterfeit books out there. When I was in Iran they had bookstores t hat were 100% counterfeit reproductions (back in the days of heavy sanctions they couldn't import anything).

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  WreckTangle on 10/06/2018 - 08:38

  Any problens referencing these books in assessments?

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  Love a bargain on 10/06/2018 - 10:51

  Return it and buy a real counterfeit for cheaper or buy a legit/ premium copy for more - here is the question

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  shaybisc on 10/06/2018 - 14:25

  What's the name of the $180 retail book?

  I'd love to know what the profit split on something like that is.

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  whooah1979 on 10/06/2018 - 14:38

  This book retails for ~$180

  $180 for a textbook. Talk about rip-off.