I've heard this at several cons and seen this come up from time to time, but when it comes to rare items that are shrink wrapped, it still seems to throw me on ebay bids as to whether they are legit and not just a bunch of papers shrink wrapped over a real looking cover. I have passed up on things that most likely were legit just out of fear that I would be purchasing fake goods.

Take for example this item  
** expired/removed eBay auction **


Its not common to see these with covers and its a shrink which once again, makes me pause. I don't know this person nor have I purchased from them before (maybe some of you have). Do you just gamble on shrink items or only purchase from people you know and trust? Seem to be a an easier way for someone to fake an item as no one in their right mind would open this if they purchased it.

I struggle with this and wonder if some of you have a process to help protect yourself against buying fake goods that I havent thought of.

--Thor

Although I don't know them personally, rudipitudy is a pretty well-known seller who has sold a lot of items from a TSR employee in the past.  So I would expect this is the genuine article.  

Jade Hares with the cover are insanely rare; I think there are maybe six known copies (now including this one).  I know that at least one of the other known copies was also in the shrink.

That being said, there is a bigger question here:  how can you tell if something in the shrink is genuine?  Those with expertise can help tell if the shrink is original, or done later.  That would help verify whether the item is authentic.  Of course, as long as it stays in the shrink, you never will actually know what's inside.  It could have been a printing error, and every page inside could be blank.  

Personally, I don't collect shrinked items, at least not intentionally.  I like to actually be able to look at what I buy.  And the price differential isn't worth it to me.  Other collectors want everything they can get in the shrink.  YMMV.

Like Bracton stated, I look at what else they have. I look for the possibility that this seller would have this rare item. If someone is selling almost all 4th edition stuff but they happen to have 3 of the rarest, most expensive OD&D items with it and nothing else between it - I'm going to be pretty skeptical.

I run into it a lot with my Antique Glass, Coin and Stamp Collecting, all fields that have an amazing amount fakes, reproductions, and other trickery involved with collecting them. Take glass for example, if a seller lists an amazing level piece of antique glass that was repopped in the 1970's and everything else they have is not old - it's probably not old.

I ran into a guy years ago that was selling Magic Cards, had multiples of all of the rarest cards - no commons or uncommons. I asked him if he had any of the less common cards? He said no, he had blown them out to another dealer. Seems suspect, doesn't it?

In my collecting, I have done some things other Collectors would freak out on so that I'd be certain the item I had was old. At least once, I damaged an item making sure it was legitimate - not proud of that, but it happened (stupid bronze screws).

With this one, if I wanted it - I wouldn't be afraid to bid on it. It's eBay, you can always return it. Do it yourself or take it to someone that can authenticate that the shrink is correct for that time period. Here's a trick Stamp Collectors use in buying high dollar stamps. Stamps come out in groups most of the time. like the 1893 US Columbians. The 2 cent Columbian is one of the most common old Stamps you'll see, and most of the rest of them are relatively inexpensive. The $1, $2, $3, $4, and especially the $5 are really expensive, especially well centered, mint never hinged ones. You study the cheap ones, they were made at the same time - same paper, same gum, same engraving process. If you are going to collect shrink, you should probably have a small selection of examples of cheaper items still in shrink to compare to that spans across TSR's publishing history. Beauty of it too is, they don't have to be "perfect" shrink - 10 inch split in the shrink, who cares.

Good luck

Invincible Overlord wrote in Rare Shrink Items:

Mister Yuk wrote in Rare Shrink Items:
I ran into a guy years ago that was selling Magic Cards, had multiples of all of the rarest cards - no commons or uncommons. I asked him if he had any of the less common cards? He said no, he had blown them out to another dealer. Seems suspect, doesn't it?

Good luck

You can carry a giant box of commons, or a few dozen power nine cards with dual lands, and blow out the commons/uncommons.

Not suspect at all if he has a bad back, or is carrying a large D&D gaming bag  :-)

It's a lot of work to sell commons...

I knew I'd get called out on that

What you say is very true, but in the case I'm speaking of the printer ended up going to prison.

Wow!

TechMan wrote in Rare Shrink Items:Curious, is this the highest amount someone has paid for a rare D&D item?

I think that honor goes to the $22,000+ paid for a 1st print wood grain with some added bonus material.

if you can't tell if something is fake or not then you sure don't need to be spending $18000 on it....

It's posted now.  It sometimes takes a while for an item to show up.

Not collecting SW items is my method of avoiding fakes. YMMV.