Do you think this is legit?

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
53,766
Location
Welling, London
im after a new airbrush. I found this one, which is supposed to be brilliant, here in the UK

https://airbrushes.com/product_info.php?cPath=400_403_1_9_47&products_id=18

Searching on ebay found me this one from Japan

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-ANEST...399?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c88f7313f

Problem is, I'm quite untrustworthy with things shipped from the Far East and the price difference is pretty hefty. In your opinion, would you say this is the genuine article or a cheap knock off? Problem being is that Iwata, are actually a japanese company.
 
Last edited:
Probably legit. I can find your airbrush for £115 in the uk easily. Thats £95 without the VAT.

No idea what import duty is, but I can easily see a Japanese product for sale in Japan been half the price of over here.
 
cheesyboy said:
They're $85 on Amazon US (fulfilled by Amazon).

it's most likely legit.
Click to expand...

No guarantee they are genuine though and the few bad reviews with faulty ones or ones not working again after one use might suggest these are copies too at $85.
 
Actually found a few forum posts elsewhere where people are having a massive moan about the UK pricing of Iwata stuff, so it is probably legit.

Problem is as Greebo said, quite a bit can go wrong with airbrushes and the ease of return, back up service and technical support of a good UK company is quite important.

On that basis, I think I should stick with a UK one.
 
robfosters said:
Actually found a few forum posts elsewhere where people are having a massive moan about the UK pricing of Iwata stuff, so it is probably legit.

Problem is as Greebo said, quite a bit can go wrong with airbrushes and the ease of return, back up service and technical support of a good UK company is quite important.

On that basis, I think I should stick with a UK one.
Click to expand...

You can buy two of those imports for the price of one UK one. I'd go cheap and risk buying twice - for the same overall price :)
 
Problem is the more I read thier website the more I believe they are exactly like GHD and hence control the worldwide price.

They appear to have only 2 authorised retailers in Europe and both are in the UK. They dont even have an authorised retailer in Japan!

And with they been "simple" high value products its quite easy to have them forged and copied.

Upshot is the same as aviators and Ugg boots. If you dont buy from an authorised retailer and pay a premium price its highly likely they will be fake and hence not as good.
 
Iwata airbrushes are built like tanks. It'd be surprised if you ever need to use the warranty.

Having said that, there's so many Chinese airbrushes on eBay, I'd be surprised if the place isn't flooded with Iwata copies.
 
There's tons of copies out there; do you have any other Iwata airbrushes? will you be able to spot a fake?

It looks borderline too good to be true to me. I've bought many airbrushes form the states to save a few quid here and there when it was cost-effective to do so, but all others I buy throuh cammet co, or other reliable UK sellers.

They're amazing bits of kit; so stump up the cash and buy the right one if you're even a bit unsure. at least the ad doesn't claim it's the same model made in the same factory etc etc - you have that on your side.

Depending on what you're doing, an eclipse might not even be the right brush for you anyway - what are you doing with it? they're a bit too 'general purpose' if you have a specific task in mind. I have one with a .5 needle in I use for launchng paint and that's about all I use it for.
 
It could be legit. But it is a risk for not that much of a saving imo.

You can only try to Google and find out.

I do know buying abroad can offer big savings. I've bought music gear from Germany a good 80-100 cheaper than the UK.

For example someone I know on a forum went over to america for a holiday/to buy a guitar.

He bought a gibson les paul 600-800 less than retail here brand new in america... so basically saved his air travel cost and got a holiday and a new guitar a lot cheaper.
 
Last edited:
R B Customs said:
There's tons of copies out there; do you have any other Iwata airbrushes? will you be able to spot a fake?

It looks borderline too good to be true to me. I've bought many airbrushes form the states to save a few quid here and there when it was cost-effective to do so, but all others I buy throuh cammet co, or other reliable UK sellers.

They're amazing bits of kit; so stump up the cash and buy the right one if you're even a bit unsure. at least the ad doesn't claim it's the same model made in the same factory etc etc - you have that on your side.

Depending on what you're doing, an eclipse might not even be the right brush for you anyway - what are you doing with it? they're a bit too 'general purpose' if you have a specific task in mind. I have one with a .5 needle in I use for launchng paint and that's about all I use it for.
Click to expand...

It's for modelling. Painting and weathering tanks and the like.

It seems to be very popular among modellers, so I would assume it's more than suitable for the job. I want a very good one as the last one I had was a very cheap import and it was horrific. No matter how much I cleaned it or how much I thinned the paint, it would just cough it out instead of spraying it.
 
Chinese auctions tend to ship counterfeit stuff, Japanese don't seem to have the same business model.
Given the normal UK markup I'd say that was legit, plus they show the box.
 
Airbrushes, especially Iwata are pretty much a rip off. I've got a few Iwata ones, then I thought I'd try a cheap Chinese one, it kicked the crap out of my Iwata ones.

So now I don't buy Iwata ones. One I would highly recommend is a BD180, that you can find on eBay for fairly cheap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BD180-Pro...005?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item566c90b7bd

I'd take that one any day.
 
bitslice said:
Chinese auctions tend to ship counterfeit stuff, Japanese don't seem to have the same business model.
Given the normal UK markup I'd say that was legit, plus they show the box.
Click to expand...

yea there business model is better.

Why can you have different identical products with different branding but not others.

makes no sense, just protecting the rich mans investments and money streams :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom