A Cautionary Tale from Audiogon
- Thread starter jazdoc
- Start date
As Audiogon threads go, that one's pretty classic. I don't really follow baseball much, but Ty certainly struck out on that one. Counterfeiting is insidious. People may think little real harm comes from a fake LV bag or Rolex watch (other than to the manufacturer, whose image is tarnished by shoddy goods, whether or not the person that buys the cheap fake would ever be a customer for the real thing), but the problem is far more pervasive than that: think airplane replacement parts, medical equipment, drugs, or other things where tolerances can be life-critical.
And, the notion that the presence of counterfeits, even if they aren't badly made, will bring down prices is crazy. If the product could sell on its own merit, it wouldn't be branded with someone else's trademark. The manufacturer of the authentic goods also has additional expenses, not the least of which includes lawyer's fees, time and effort involved in cooperating with enforcement, civil or criminal, investigating alleged counterfeits, etc.that only adds to their overhead and takes away from the time devoted to the core business.
And, the notion that the presence of counterfeits, even if they aren't badly made, will bring down prices is crazy. If the product could sell on its own merit, it wouldn't be branded with someone else's trademark. The manufacturer of the authentic goods also has additional expenses, not the least of which includes lawyer's fees, time and effort involved in cooperating with enforcement, civil or criminal, investigating alleged counterfeits, etc.that only adds to their overhead and takes away from the time devoted to the core business.
Yes it's like that piece that 60 mins did on counterfeit drugs from China, etc. Pfizer has a separate division just to deal with counterfeit drugs like viagra. Problem is that in some cases, they're just not counterfeit, they're toxic--like lead paint used to paint lines on the roads added to the drugs to give it the right color.
Funny thing is that they are such good copycats, down to the printing of the boxes, that it takes an expert and chemical analysis to tell. And they often have inside help because pharmaceuticals change their packing every couple of months to combat fraud. That's why would never buy from an online pharmacy. You don't know what the hell you're getting!
That's a scarry thought counterfeit drugs! Where I work we got a bad lot of inductors. Had to recall and retrofit the hardware on our dime. We sent some of them back to the "manufacturer" for analysis. They promptly took them back and immediatly called us saying they were conterfiets wanting to know where we got them. The only way you could tell was that the core bobins used to wind them on were not correct. Only the manufacturer could tell something was wrong looking at the X-Rays on the outside there were identicle.
Rob
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