Lowepro bags sold on eBay - Are these genuine?

chouglez

chouglez

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I am watching a Lowepro Backpack bag on eBay and wondering if these are genuine or if anyone on the forum has bought something similar from eBay and were satisfied with it?w

eBay Linky

Thanks
 
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I bought one Lowepro bag from eBay and it is genuine or fantastic, even if it is fake then i am happy with this fake bag because the price is unbeatable to avoid.

Maybe one day i may buy another bag, could be Lowepro or not from eBay, in fact i can't tell if the genuine Lowepro bags i buy from authorised dealers will be any much better than those i buy from eBay chinese sellers.
 
£179 from the LowePro Store. $250=£159 from B&H in the USA. £153 from Argos. £150 from Amazon. £124 from Amazon. £124 from Park Cameras.

And only £61 from eBay. Hmm. The seller blatantly admits that he will lie about the product's value so as to evade import VAT. But even if you add VAT to his price you still only get £74. I think it's probably a fake.
 
I bought a Lowepro Slingshot 202AW for a friend off Ebay about 6 weeks ago. It was from a Chinese seller and only cost about £26, so I was expecting it to be a knock off. However, side by side with my genuine one, the Ebay version was markedly inferior. The stitching and interior finishing in particular, was pretty shoddy.
 
I bought a lowepro 400aw off eBay couldn't tell you if it's fake or not! Seller messed me about, in end only paid £40 for it! So probs fake but does the job and has rain cover like real one!
 
I bought a flipside 300 from an ebay seller and next to my flipside 400 from jessops its a brilliant match, no imperfections that I can see in the stitching or any where else, so I'd be pretty confident mine was genuine.
 
I'd be weary buying any branded item from China. They are known for their ability to copy stuff and they're most likely fakes. The bags themselves might be okay but I wouldn't trust them in the long run.

But Lowepro bags and other bags on eBay from the UK, are more trustworthy as there is the chance they are genuine. Of course they could still be fake but the return costs in the UK are a lot cheaper than china.

You are protected under the distant selling regs and eBays protection if it is a fake though. But returning to china for a refund won't be cheap. Also having to prove its fake, isn't always that easy as you may have to jump through a few hoops.
 
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Alisonfd said:
I'd be weary buying any branded item from China. They are known for their ability to copy stuff and they're most likely fakes. The bags themselves might be okay but I wouldn't trust them in the long run.

But Lowepro bags and other bags on eBay from the UK, are more trustworthy as there is the chance they are genuine. Of course they could still be fake but the return costs in the UK are a lot cheaper than china.

You are protected under the distant selling regs and eBays protection if it is a fake though. But returning to china for a refund won't be cheap. Also having to prove its fake, isn't always that easy as you may have to jump through a few hoops.
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You're not cover by DSR if you buy from China :)
 
Have a look at Ffordes selection of used bags. I got a genuine Gladstone #11 that is virtually unused for £45 a couple of weeks ago. And the service is excellent.
 
Aren't you covered through PayPal if the bag is inferior quality, I've been looking at buying a lowepro pro runner 450aw from china too, the price is very attractive, there's one Chinese seller that's got quite good feedback, I spoke to someone on another forum who said some sellers on ebay buy a batch from china at their low prices and sell them on at a lot more money, I'll bide my time see what happens guys.

Sean.
 
simonblue said:
You're not cover by DSR if you buy from China :)
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My brain derped - that is true.

SheffSean said:
Aren't you covered through PayPal if the bag is inferior quality, I've been looking at buying a lowepro pro runner 450aw from china too, the price is very attractive, there's one Chinese seller that's got quite good feedback, I spoke to someone on another forum who said some sellers on ebay buy a batch from china at their low prices and sell them on at a lot more money, I'll bide my time see what happens guys.

Sean.
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You are covered but if you claim its fake, PayPal will want proof. E.g. Lowepro inspect it and confirm it is indeed a fake.

Some sellers buy from bulk in China and sell them on eBay, but they're also fakes and also cheap. The only way to get hold of actual Lowepro bags would be buying them from Lowepro or one of their authorized wholesalers.
A lot of the Chinese sellers are even willing to customise the bags to have your own logo.

This one for example, slows a Lowepro bag, but they say they can put your own logo on it.. So its a fake , although the picture does show how shoddy it is.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/digital-camera-bag_1145966198.html

And this one, this lowepro bag is like £250 iirc. But these guys can sell it to you for a few dollars and even put your own branding on it.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-new-arrival-lowepro-camera-bags_1674345924.html

China is amazing at copying stuff. But a lot of the time, they very rarely copy the quality to even a decent enough standard.
 
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Thanks for posting that Alison, unless I'm looking at the wrong thing I can't see any difference between the bags in the pictures and my present bag, well apart from the price of coarse, but then again I'm not expert in this field.

Sean.
 
I buy a lot of stock for my shop from Chinese sellers (always small businesses designing and producing their own products) but I often get Chinese factories contacting me and saying that they can produce the bags I already sell in my shop for a lot less money. The non-brand bags I can understand, but they were offering to copy F-stop bags! (I declined, just to be clear)
 
SheffSean said:
Thanks for posting that Alison, unless I'm looking at the wrong thing I can't see any difference between the bags in the pictures and my present bag, well apart from the price of coarse, but then again I'm not expert in this field.

Sean.
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To me, the first bag I linked looked a bit cheap. Parts of the bag look dirty, and some of the stitching looks a bit cheaply done. The pictures might of the original bag though.
My Billingham bag was off eBay, £120 instead of £180. I took the risk, and It was worth it as it is genuine and is an amazing bag. But if it was £50, I'd of ran a mile.

Rigu said:
I buy a lot of stock for my shop from Chinese sellers (always small businesses designing and producing their own products) but I often get Chinese factories contacting me and saying that they can produce the bags I already sell in my shop for a lot less money. The non-brand bags I can understand, but they were offering to copy F-stop bags! (I declined, just to be clear)
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Same. This year I had a Chinese supplier try and sell me a copy of Fisher price toys. After I stated they are fake, they said 'We can stick a CE mark on them so people think they're real and safe'... I ran a mile.
It amazes me the amount of sellers on eBay who list items saying 'CE marked', and don't understand that the Chinese factory putting a CE logo on it, doesn't make it approved. Plus a lot of the time its actually a China Export mark. I understand the average consumer making that mistake but importers shouldn't.

For those wondering about the differences:
220px-Comparison_of_two_used_CE_marks.svg.png
 
I know lowepro bags are top notch but if I could find a comparable backpack at a fraction of the cost I'd very seriously consider buying it, ok I know when you consider how much we spend on our gear the asking price for a backpack is small but my money is better in my pocket or spent on other stuff like a new tripod and head.

Sean.
 
The Lowepro bag I bought in Ebay that came from China is Fake! So beware if you plan to buy Lowepro bag in Ebay, specially if they are coming from China. I can post side by side comparison if someone is interested.
 
Not really a help but there is a massive mark-up on bags Jessops used to have some great deals on lowepro bags at around 50% normal selling price. they use to have a sale every 3 months or so not sure if they still do.
 
popeyebx said:
The Lowepro bag I bought in Ebay that came from China is Fake! So beware if you plan to buy Lowepro bag in Ebay, specially if they are coming from China. I can post side by side comparison if someone is interested.
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Yes please popeyebx, and if possible the seller you bought from if that's allowed on this forum, some forums don't allow naming and shaming that's all, thanks.

Sean.
 
New lowepro flipside for £26.50 on ebay when genuine lowepro flipside 400 is £87 on amazon.....hmmmmm. Edit: Sorry didn't see you linked to the pro runner but I'm guessing it's the same kind of price difference.

SheffSean said:
Thanks for posting that Alison, unless I'm looking at the wrong thing I can't see any difference between the bags in the pictures and my present bag, well apart from the price of coarse, but then again I'm not expert in this field.
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The ebay sellers used to use actual photos of their bags and it was easy to see they were fakes compared to the real product. Now many images used seem to be the actual stock images used by lowepro themselves. The photo of the bag on the grass is probably an actual photo of the fake product. It's little things like the orange/red tripod pocket symbol that is missing that gives them away and the not so good quality of materials/manufacture. If the ebay seller is saying stuff like 'Note: The real color of the item may be slightly different from the pictures shown on website caused by many factors such as brightness of your monitor and light brightness. Thank you!' then you know it's probably not going to be the real lowepro product, lowepro don't put that on their website and their products are the sand as their images.

Some china products are very good (yonghuo triggers) but it's the ones that are trying to be past off as another manufacturers product I have issues with. Why don't they just sell them unbranded, probably because they know they would sell as many. If something breaks and hundreds/thousands of pounds worth of camera gear crashes onto a concrete floor it's probably not worthy he initial saving of £50/60 in the short term.
 
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I have worked for a company that manufactured in China. It's common practice for them to filter products out of the production line for unofficial sale. Sony found that out the hard way with 20% of sony dvd being fake but made in their factory on nights!!
With a genuine
Lowepro you are paying for design, marketing & future investment. Even a fake can be as good as the original.
I work on the principal that if it's on ebay it is fake and ignore any brand names. In this case would I buy a camera bag for that price?
 
SheffSean said:
Yes please popeyebx, and if possible the seller you bought from if that's allowed on this forum, some forums don't allow naming and shaming that's all, thanks.

Sean.
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I'm not sure if we can name and shame here in the forum, if Mods will allow it, I can exposed the name of the seller. Mods...?
 
Bought a Lowepro Flipside and having not seen a UK sourced one I would not be able to determine if it was a fake.
Totally happy with the quality and the saving made though either way.
Iirc it was £37 del
 
Personally I understand why some people would be a little miffed at getting a copy when they've bought what they think is the genuine article albeit at a knock down price but if the quality of the material and stitching was up to snuff I don't think I'd be really bothered, I suppose for some people it's like paying for beef and getting horse.

Sean.
 
Ok, here are some side by side comparison of original Lowepro bag vs a fake one. It can be easily spotted which is which, you be the judge :)






















​
 
Copy doesn't look that bad and probably still good value (guessing the 2nd is the Lowepoo)
 
Sorry but I couldn't tell, I'd be no use spotting counterfeit stuff, just goes to show how good these guys are at manufacturing these backpacks.

Sean.
 
Sean,

You can easily tell there's a big difference between the original and the fake one.

1st image: the fake one can't can't stand on its own, it keeps falling down. Note there's no gear inside the bag, just imagine if your gears are already inside and the fake one and what could happen. No problem with the authentic one with or without gear inside it can stand on its own.

3rd image: dividers of the original ones are more thicker

4th image: thin and sluggish
 
Any one with a flipside 400 care to put up some pics so that I can compare them with mine. I presume mine to be a fake but I cant tell purely by looking at it.




 
remember its not that you are buying a fake so much its also where your money is going, into untaxed enterprises that do not support the UK economy, into a repressive society that thinks its ok to add random protein to baby food to increase profits that killed scores of babys..... just remember that when you buy a fake from china.
 
darkman said:
Any one with a flipside 400 care to put up some pics so that I can compare them with mine. I presume mine to be a fake but I cant tell purely by looking at it.




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I can have a proper look at my bag tomorrow but a quick initial comparison with the first photo above the three memory camera pockets there is no www.lowepro.com label and the fold over tabs on the memory card pockets should cover the width of each pocket without any extra either side.
 
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Thought as much given the cost. Had it a year and been well impressed so far. Seems well put together and lasted better than other genuine lowepro bags I have previously had.
 
I've been hunting eBay for a good new bag.....but have struggled to see through all the fakes and dodgy VAT Dodgers.

Jessops have 40% off selected bags - I have bought the Manfrotto Pro 20 for £100
They've also got discount on Manfrotto bags...I think it was 25% - bought a pro-light too and we'll keep my favourite.
And Wex have 15% off bags for a little while longer.

Go with these if I were you.
 
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Just to update. Totally chuffed with the quality.
 
Greg Lavers said:
I've been hunting eBay for a good new bag.....but have struggled to see through all the fakes and dodgy VAT Dodgers.

Jessops have 40% off selected bags - I have bought the Manfrotto Pro 20 for £100
They've also got discount on Manfrotto bags...I think it was 25% - bought a pro-light too and we'll keep my favourite.
And Wex have 15% off bags for a little while longer.

Go with these if I were you.
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Lets make ebay responsible for the vat as its their platform that allows it to happen.

I've had several discussions with them about items held at customs were the ad says item in UK. They tell me I have to pay the vat, I tell them they have to give me a refund as it was advertised as UK sale
 
Oh right, thanks for the heads up mate, gonna get one of them as soon as I can, cheers.

Sean.
 
The seller was responsive to email queries, provided tracking # etc. Will not hesitate to buy another item from sale seller if that helps.
 
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