Cheap Anime Boxsets on eBay legit or bootlegs?

Robos A Go Go

I got curious about how much the Paranoia Agent and Samurai Champloo box sets were and, after a quick search, I've found that some sets sell for something like $20 while others sell for around $100 or so. Naturally, I'm drawn to the cheaper version, but I'm wary of spending any amount of money on something when there's the slightest possibility that a good deal might disguise a scam.

So, what's the deal with the cheaper sets? Are they low quality copies, or are they the real deal, albeit in a less attractive package?

PolloDiablo

They are almost always bootleg.

Now, from what I've seen they aren't low quality, but they are copies. I'm not sure which part of that would put you off.

Rook

It might just be people selling off what they now think is junk. I've let a couple of series go that I spent a bit of money on for quite low prices. If it's sent from china, it's always a bootleg.

Treeloot

Signs of a bootleg:

Region 0 (I think there's one anime company that actually had a few legit region 0 releases)
Box art doesn't match US box art (check rightstuf.com)
Chinese subtitles
Chinese seller

MushroomStick

There is a 99.9% chance they are bootlegs. What's freaky is that a lot of the time the bootlegs are nicer than the legal releases.

Nappuccino

Just don't get the cowboy bebop 3 disc set

It's terrible quality and you can buy the complete set at BestBuy for 10 bucks more.

As far as other sets go, I have no idea.

ceres

In my experience, almost always bootlegs. I used to buy them in my more naive days, thinking they were Japanese copies, and I would think to myself, "Boy, the Japanese sure put out some shitty DVDs!"

But no, pretty much bootlegs.

Demosthorn

I know the Berserk bootlegs were pretty much the exact same thing as the American releases, just a lot cheaper.

xxhennersxx

A lot of anime (my love hina box sets for example) are just rips of the region 2 disc, reencoded to be region 0, with chinese and english subs added.

you can tell if you get them.

acidlacedpenguin

Yeah it's almost guaranteed they are not legit. They're also really inconsistent, for example, my brother's initial D bootlegs had like 2 season of Chinese DUB and the rest was original audio, but extremely terrible subs. Like, imagine taking a bad fan sub, translated to chinese on google, then pass the result back into google translating from chinese->english

Gabriel_Pitt

That's essentially how it works. I remember seeing one where it had stretches of the characters speaking in English in the original audio, which the subtitles managed to get completly wrong. Essentially, if it includes Chineses subs, it's a bootleg, and it's a total crapshoot what kind of audio/video/translations quality you're going to get.

Æthelred

It's like GBA games. Unless you find an auction that looks truly genuine (an obviously original photo in someone's room + layout), then it's bootleg.