Collectors have been shocked to discover a sustained campaign of signed goods forgery, with the perpetrator selling off his fraudulent handiwork as the genuine article.
The fraud appears to have been perpetrated on an almost industrial scale, with sales reaching a million yen a month ($10,000).
A Yahoo! Auction user, Maruhacs was discovered to have been suspiciously selling off artworks, supposedly signed by such famous mangaka such as Eiichirou Oda, Toriyama Akira, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki and even Miyazaki Hayao.
Observers first became suspicious of the low prices that the auctions started with, as low as ¥20,000, although it seems likely other factors must have played a significant role too, as setting an unrealistically low reserve price is an established tactic in such auctions.
Most of the works bore little resemblance to the original works of the mangaka in question, with both the artwork and autographs most likely obtained from other sources.
The auction pages do not give any information as to the provenance of the artwork and signature, but this seemingly did not stop people from buying them. In many cases pictures were not even included in the auction descriptions.
Indeed, checking the auction history of the account reveals that he had made around 1 million yen a month selling off these artworks on Yahoo!, and still has a unblemsihed positive rating from a hundred auctions.
In response to this, Eureka Seven animator and character designer Yoshida Kenichi posted on his BBS that he has informed his company of this activity.
Police action seems possible if it really is as severe as it appears, although the scores of fake works now on the market and in collections, to say nothing of the money defrauded, will not be so easily dealt with.
Clearly, someone has been paying attention: otaku propensity to buy anything coupled with rampant speculation by collectors has opened up a potential gold mine…
Xbox One “Clearly Inferior” To PS4, Sony Stock Surges
Microsoft Unveils Xbox One – “Enjoy Your TV & EA!”
China Quality Crossing: “Cross 100m in 5 Seconds…”
One Piece Cancelled Again as Eiichiro Oda Hospitalised
PS4 Revealed as “Square”
Top 25 Anime Girls Love & Guys Hate
Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Bride Naked Apron Anime
BlazBlue Gets TV Anime
Guilty Gear Xrd Sign: “In 3D & Using The Unreal Engine!?”
Electrifying Mikoto Misaka Figure
Japanese Makeup Terrifying as Ever…
Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Bondage Moe Anime
My Shironeko Can’t be this Cute!
Haganai Movie: “They Aren’t Even Trying!”
Macross Frontier Sheryl Nome Nendoroid
Top 25 Spring 2013 Anime You’ll Keep Watching
Kirino Kousaka One-Piece Dress Figure
Grand Union: “Just Give Up On Square Enix Already…”
Photo Kano Snaps Pussy
Vocaloid China Project “Even Cuter Than Miku!”
Korean Plastic Surgery More Impressive Than Ever
Fancy Frontier 21 Cosplay Fancier Than Ever
Wonder Festival 2013 Winter Cosplay
Ultra-Sexy Babes of Tokyo Auto Salon 2013
“Why Are Seiyuu Such Great Artists As Well?”
Even More Comiket 83 Day 3 Cosplay
Comiket 83 Day 3 Cosplay Cuter Than Ever
Comiket 83 Day 2 Cosplay Has Otaku Wet With Desire
Comiket 83 Day 1 Cosplay Cool As Ever
Chinese Cosplay Pure Quality: “They Even Have Enako!”
Seeing the title of this story, I thought it was referring to the creator of the manga 'FAKE'.
Nice cleft lip, really is a good representation of the people who got scammed being physically and mentally disabled.
huh?
Konata has a :3 face naturally i like that.
:3
guys who exploits fans are just sad
>guys who exploit fans are just smart.
Fixed that for you. Maybe if fans were a little less overzealous about how they spend their money when it comes to their respective hobbies, then it'd be far harder to con them like this.
"There's a sucker born every minute"
I bought a copy of KING QUEST collection for USD 130.I never regret it.
I'd do the same if I were a fan of the mangaka. I can't blame the fags that bought the autograph.
I can't find a better picture, but there was this really small one that he posted of an "authentic One Piece" artwork, which looks like crap, but is getting bid like hot cakes.
Suckers are everywhere, born in every second. Heh.
They will buy anything if sighed by a mangaka
Why crying Konata again..?
Again? Where was the first one?
she bought it after she knew that it was fake....
Had a feeling you used this image before. There are other sets of articles that used the same image, but the Lucky Star "house bomb" is what easily comes to mind.
Just read about this very same thing in the American comics scene.
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2009_04_29.html#017044
My meme! NOOO!
Hmm, Otaku really are not smart shoppers though, are they?
i'm a very smart shopper, i can burn so much money so fast....
The ironic part is: the fake drawings will probably be auctioned again, and still sold at high prices. This time, for being the "famed fake drawings", lol.
Advertising that your items are fake is not a good way to get high price sales.
But that's the reason they would be sold at high prices, in the first place...
You know how otaku are.
who wants to buy silly black and white artworks for tons of cash anyway? those buyers probably deserve that...silly fools
You could say the same about what populates the Louvre.
You could indeed.. The fine art market is also plagued by fakes...
Anyone who has ever been passionate about something can understand. Sketches and signatures from an artist are as good as gold to someone who likes that artist. The same can be said of a signed baseball or bat by a famed player.
Plus when you are alone like many otaku assumedly are, you have a lot of spare money.
I'd totally buy signed artwork by Ishikei.
Not for the "low start price of ¥20,000" but it'd definitely be something worth having.
What country's dollars are those?
Zimbabwean dollars.
i was going to say indon rupiah, but zimbabwe is fine too
You know that zimbabwe's dollar worth lower than indonesians rupiah?
Or so I told.
How much is that in Simoleon Dollars?
wow artefact just wow
I can't understand why people would pay that much money for none fappable material o.O ???
You shouldn't even be paying for fappable material.
It should be free for all
Eco? You mean Ero.
You people could use some basic education in economics.
How do you really declare authenticity for such an item? I'm not trying to be facetious but I'm really curious.
As an example I have a copy of FFVII signed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. I know it's real but if someone asked me to prove it, what would I do? It's not like I can send an e-mail to him and ask for his verification.
Usually people get a picture taken at the time with you standing next to the famous person atugraphing your stuff.
This is why you shouldn't buy collectables valued so high from the internet. Without some form of authenticity you are vunerable to fraud.
Actually going to have something signed and see the celebrity is much more valuable then just having the signature.
Plus you get to take stupid pictures of them signing it (when allowed!)
They even pose with whatever the hell they just signed too, although they do that one on their own...
A minor fix :) granted it's not exact math.
But overall 1$ = 100 yen, 1m Yen would not be 100k$ by that math but 10k$ :) It's still however sich amonth of money.......