Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This:

Yes.

Yup!
emac.

There's a lot of these coming out of Italy these days.

beatlefreak wrote:There's a lot of these coming out of Italy these days.

Yep, one of them was bought by me 5 months ago. Just recently I learned that it's a fake. I emailed the seller today, demanded a full refund and threatened to alert eBay that she was selling counterfeit items.

the ebay seller wrote:The TRC is strictly new!!

Yeah, because he just made it!

I just bought one of these. How can you tell it's a fake? The one I bought looks much the same but also has MODEL 4001 under Made in U.S.A.

doc

Yes . How can you tell ?

The current Ric policy of not selling TRCs which lead to a $2 piece of plastic selling for $125. With that overinflated price counterfieting that part becomes attractive and lucrative.

and illegal.

And awesome!

Docmus wrote:I just bought one of these. How can you tell it's a fake? The one I bought looks much the same but also has MODEL 4001 under Made in U.S.A.

doc

If it has the "model 4001" bit on it it is most likely a real one!
emac.

jwr2 wrote:The current Ric policy of not selling TRCs which lead to a $2 piece of plastic selling for $125. With that overinflated price counterfieting that part becomes attractive and lucrative.

The rationale for the policy was that it prevents unscrupulous folk from dressing up fakers as genuine Rics. If the counterfeiters can just tweak a few details, the fake TRCs will be impossible to detect and the policy will be totally pointless as opposed to somewhat annoying.

BTW, to get a replacement TRC, Aussies have to go through Ric Asia (great people, but Tokyo is hardly on the direct route to California). This involves a mere 10,000km extra travelling for the TRCs (5000km for the old and then the new). Then you have to insure the package for $150-200. Not the slickest arrangement on the planet by any means, but I guess not in the top 10 list of things that need fixing...

Docmus wrote:I just bought one of these. How can you tell it's a fake?

Remember to do your homework before bidding on Ebay. This seller had the exact same ad on Ebay recently. Here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-TRC-Tr ... dZViewItem

So one way is if a seller has multiple TRCs they're selling. Another thing that should raise a flag is if it's coming from Italy. Someone over there seems to have a mold, and is manufacturing these. There have been several (that I've seen) sellers from Italy selling TRCs. Rickenbacker guitars are hard enough to get in Europe, let alone parts.

weemac wrote:If it has the "model 4001" bit on it it is most likely a real one!
emac.

Not necessarily. There have been counterfeits turn up with that designation.

I reported it to eBay.