In July 2018 Ebay seller jbeerd (aka carplatespro) from Moscow in Russia was trying to sell these replica Cape Verde, Djibouti CD, French Polynesia, Madagascar CC, Mauritius, Mozambique and St. Vincent plates. He usually has up to10 copies of each plate with the same numbers. They were all made from photos of genuine plates that were for sale on Ebay, from various other sites on the www and from German and Russian collectors› genuine plates.
The big problem with these plates is that the genuine plates from these countries are made from two-piece French or Spanish type blanks or other, more cheap, means of manufacture whereas all his plates are pressed from a single sheet of aluminium like the German, Russian, Danish, etc. ones. There are also various other problems with them such as the Cape Verde having the flag wrong.
Do you really want in your collection a fake plate that is not only so obviously wrong but that many other people also have? You can’t even boast about your latest plate to other collectors since they will laugh at you for wasting so much money on rubbish when they see what you bought.
The big problem is going to come later when some of these plates get into the market. From a photo during a sale or trade it could be difficult to tell if the plate or plates are genuine or not to someone without the correct knowledge. It just proves that any plate you bid on or trade for MUST be checked VERY carefully against the huge number of photos of genuine plates available on the www. You are always welcome to send me an email through this site to ask if a plate is genuine.
This just makes everything difficult for everyone. Reproductions are very bad for the hobby and if you care about the future of the hobby, it is better you do not buy reproductions, especially such poor quality ones like this seller makes.
[previous] [next]