Imperial Guard Shako with Red Plume and Gold Emblem Pattern

[zinnn]

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2545pb01&idColor=11#T=S&C=11&O={"color":11,"cond":"N","iconly":0}

 

Why are there SO MANY shako hats for sale from German sellers? Do you think they are fakes?

[F1stzz]

They might be, Idk  The timing of dropping 4k printed shakos at the lowest price point on the market couldn't be more perfect, which is kinda sus, ngl.

Gotta say tho, it's not the first time I see some German shops selling particular items for the lowest price around while having the highest amount of product available. I've seen new Hector Barbossa minifigs being sold for like €8-10 each last year for about a month, and the seller claimed to own nearly 40 of them. This short period of sale has ended with the store still having around 25 minifigs left, but it closed for vacation or whatever, opened again couple months later — & not only the amount of figures was reduced to only 3, the shop has also doubled the asking price for 'em. I have no idea where the rest of the figs went, considering the seller was not active for couple months, but it all did seem weird for me 

[Alexandrina]

It's hard to see how they're not fakes, to be honest. Nearly 5,000 isn't a quantity anybody is going to come by through natural collecting even if their business model is buying joblots and selling the parts on, and for whatever reason they held on to the shakos. (If you had one of every set that contained the shako, you'd have 26 of them). Especially since they've been absent from Pick a Brick for years - in fact, have they ever been on Pick a Brick? I was in a mini-Dark Age in 2015 but I know the whole Pick a Brick range has had an overhaul since then. When you add in that the average price of a used shako has gone up 20p in the last two years, and suddenly they're selling them at barely more than 1/3 of the current going rate, where are they getting them from?

[Horation]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

 Especially since they've been absent from Pick a Brick for years - in fact, have they ever been on Pick a Brick? 

They were, and it isn't too hard to believe this user purchased 1000s for the purpose of resale down the line-but of course they might be fakes.

[Alexandrina]

Just now, Horation said:

They were, and it isn't too hard to believe this user purchased 1000s for the purpose of resale down the line-but of course they might be fakes.

I can believe that someone bought lots to resell.

I just don't think someone who invested the money in 1000s of shakos and held onto them for the better part of a decade would then proceed to sell them at such a cut price right as the price goes up because a new set is out and people want printed ones to replace the plain ones. The price of shakos has gone up recently, so if you had that many why not sell them at the old market rate? £0.39 a pop is too cheap imo.

[Horation]

19 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

The price of shakos has gone up recently, so if you had that many why not sell them at the old market rate? £0.39 a pop is too cheap imo.

Simple : if everyone is selling bananas for 18$, you purchased a bunch of them for 5$, why not sell 'em for say, 14$ or 15$? They'll sell much faster that way.

P.S. You could absolutely be right but I just don't buy into it, maybe someone would consider getting a few for the sake of testing 'em out?

[Alexandrina]

14 minutes ago, Horation said:

Simple : if everyone is selling bananas for 18$, you purchased a bunch of them for 5$, why not sell 'em for say, 14$ or 15$? They'll sell much faster that way.

But in this example you'd sell them for £0.80 (as they were selling for two years ago) and undercut the market by a believable amount. Selling such a huge stock at 1/3 of market rate screams 'scam'.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Yeah you wonder how the shop got all those pieces in the thousands. There are 16000 cleavers, 8700 handcuffs, 17500 black microphones...

EDIT: Or do such pieces show up at PAB walls in stores?

Edited July 12, 2023 by Yperio_Bricks

[Horation]

3 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

But in this example you'd sell them for £0.80 (as they were selling for two years ago) and undercut the market by a believable amount. Selling such a huge stock at 1/3 of market rate screams 'scam'.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

[jodawill]

The seller has been on Bricklink since 2001 and has excellent feedback - no complaints about fake parts. The printed shakos were never available on Bricks & Pieces. I know because I ordered the plain ones back then. It's not uncommon though for German sellers to have crazy stuff. I don't know why, but somehow German sellers have always had interesting inventories. I believe these are real, and they're cheaper than they would be if they were listed on PAB now. I may order some myself. Thanks for the heads up!

[CvS]

1 hour ago, jodawill said:

The seller has been on Bricklink since 2001 and has excellent feedback - no complaints about fake parts. The printed shakos were never available on Bricks & Pieces. I know because I ordered the plain ones back then. It's not uncommon though for German sellers to have crazy stuff. I don't know why, but somehow German sellers have always had interesting inventories. I believe these are real, and they're cheaper than they would be if they were listed on PAB now. I may order some myself. Thanks for the heads up!

Maybe that factory mega-PAB-store at LEGOLAND Germany has something to do with it?

[jodawill]

Just now, CvS said:

Maybe that factory mega-PAB-store at LEGOLAND Germany has something to do with it?

Probably. I just ordered 500 of them. I'll let you all know if there's anything fishy about them.

[eldiano]

That minimum buy is over a hundred bucks though 

[Arjo]

“May order some” then proceeds to snatch 500:) I like your style, cautiously testing the water is for whimps (like me😁)

[jodawill]

2 hours ago, Arjo said:

“May order some” then proceeds to snatch 500:) I like your style, cautiously testing the water is for whimps (like me😁)

Well, the shipping is basically a flat fee on that part, so the more you order, the cheaper it is. I got 200 for a friend and 300 for myself. I'll try to sell some of them to recoup some of the cost. I could probably just bring them to a LUG meeting and sell them for a dollar a piece. I actually kind of wish I had bought more because I'd like to keep more than I need in order to future proof my collection.

And, like I said, there's absolutely no way a seller who's been there since 2001 is selling counterfeit goods. He may have actually parted out 500 sets (I've met people who have) or found them in a PAB bin at Legoland. And as for the price, it seems like he just wants to get rid of them faster. Can you imagine how long it would take to sell 5000 at $2 a piece?

[Arjo]

The day I join you guys bricklinking stuff is probably the day I go broke. FOMO + “too good a deal to pass on” + too many retired parts/sets I cannot be tempted to buy from TLG sounds like a recipe for disaster for me personally. I don’t go to casinos, bars, or BL, safer that way:) that said congrats on your haul, I doubt you regret it if you are right and they all are legit!

[jodawill]

I got my shakos today. The shipping was incredibly fast! They look genuine to me, and these new bluecoats look way better with the prints.

[F1stzz]

1 hour ago, jodawill said:

They look genuine to me...

There should be TLG's trademark engraved on the inner side of the shakos, if I'm not mistaken (EDIT: I'm not — both 2009 shakos in my disposal & ones that came with 21322 have TLG's engraved trademarks) — is it there? The printing does look perfectly fine tho  Also, I agree: it is lovely to have 'em printed shakos on these new soldiers  Too bad we don't get those in the set for the premium asking price

Edited July 18, 2023 by F1stzz

[Arjo]

Looking great!

[MAB]

I have no doubt that they are genuine, I've bought from that seller 9 times over the past 10 years. They have huge stocks of old parts, from the warehouse outlet. Their prices are sometimes low as they sell in bulk often to resellers (who need to make a profit) and because they don't frequently change prices. That part has been in their store for five years. They might refresh quantities when they get low, and maybe check prices once per year or whenever the lot sells out.

[F1stzz]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

I have no doubt that they are genuine, I've bought from that seller 9 times over the past 10 years.

Cool!  Gotta bookmark 'em for the future then 

[MAB]

On 7/19/2023 at 10:04 AM, F1stzz said:

Cool!  Gotta bookmark 'em for the future then 

They have always been very good when I have ordered from them. They have huge stocks of older parts. Their minimum is high but I tend to buy what I need from them, double it for "just in case", then double it again to sell on to other UK buyers.  Not only does it help reach the store minimum, but it usually offsets the costs of the parts for me.

[Arjo]

What do you guys think of the cmf nutcracker shako? I don’t know why but the whole figure rubs me off the wrong way (despite buying a few as redcoat stand ins). Maybe the wig? It looks good from the back, but front view has odd shaping.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Arjo said:

What do you guys think of the cmf nutcracker shako? I don’t know why but the whole figure rubs me off the wrong way (despite buying a few as redcoat stand ins). Maybe the wig? It looks good from the back, but front view has odd shaping.

I don't like it mainly as the hat is splays outwards from bottom to top, rather than inwards like the common shako. The hair is not too bad if you use it for one figure, such as a leader / commander if the hat matched the style of the others. But having a very different hat makes it look odd. I prefer the red toy soldier shako for a bit of variation, as you can have one important guy in a different coloured ceremonial hat that is otherwise the same as the black ones.

The torso of the nutcracker is OK for me (and same with the toy soldier), but I don't like the legs. I prefer plain black.

[zinnn]

I think it's the wig that looks a big goofy