Grey market discussion thread (Let's keep the discussion mature) Rules on pg 1 please read before yo

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Like I said before, this will be a problem for no one but re-sellers. JB will be fine. People love Michael Jordan. Nike will be fine. But the day of 350-500+ for a pair of XIs is coming to an end, and I for one have no problem with that.
 
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fools out there are easy to drop fakes i think im gonna start to carry my ndc receipts like a license :smile: lol
 
receipts dont mean jack only for your own peace of mind.

anyone can save receipts from legit shoes and buy the GM pair and send it with the receipt

same damn thing
 
Like I said before, this will be a problem for no one but re-sellers. JB will be fine. People love Michael Jordan. Nike will be fine. But the day of 350-500+ for a pair of XIs is coming to an end, and I for one have no problem with that.

nah, this aint gonna stop those prices from happening
 
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No ones safe! Lmao.  Just buy a GM pair or spend $500 for a GM pair advertised as Authentic w/ fake receipt. Who cares anymore.
 
Actually what nike needs to do is hire whomever is making these grey market pairs. If they look as good if not better than most retail pairs then who exactly is making them?
 
Forget licking soles. Best thing to do is take a Very small chunk off the sole from an inconspicuous area and put it in a pipe or some type smokingg device. Legit authorized soles are harsh and make u cough. Gm soles are smooth and mellow...
 
Are these the same pairs being sold by Randy and Marquee?
Yeah they have to be since they get them early and they don't have Nike accounts.  People try to eliminate them and buy directly from sites in China  so they don't have to pay reseller type prices but it's a big risk because you never know what your gonna get.  That's why a lot of people don't bother and just buy from them. 
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   Either way it sucks but some people don't have an option to buy from a legit retailer because they don't live by any retailers and it is damn near impossible to buy online since everyone is using bots nowadays.     What I also hate is that most of the heat only releases at HOH and Niketown and a lot of people don't have one near them.   I know because West Michigan doesn't have them. When I move back there in a few months  I'm either gonna  have to go 3 hours to Chicago or 2 1/2 hours to the Detroit area to cop the exclusives
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  More then likely I'm gonna be taking some time off from buying shoes because it's gonna become to much of a hassle. 
 
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I'm a longtime lurker, but been in the game so to speak for a minute.  People these days get their definitions mixed up and tons are misinformed.  The resell game is just flat out messed up.  You have people now wearing their kicks at least 5 X and saying their kicks pass as DS, fakes flooding the market and resell prices through the roof.  There's just no trust out there and everybody is out there to make a buck.  Reselling was fine years ago, it was like ok miss out on a release, pay a bit extra and get a pair you couldn't get.  Now, it's damn near every single release on anything remotely "limited" and it's certainly not a bit extra.  Let's face it though, things won't change as long as it's profitable to flip shoes.

As far as the grey market discussion goes, this is my thoughts.  If Nike did not authorize them, they're not authentic.  Take digital downloads for example.  If you pirate mp3's vs getting a digital copy from itunes, you're getting the same product too.  I download music like anyone does, but I have no illusions of saying I'm getting an authentic product.  I am getting a product as good as the authentic product, but that doesn't make it authentic.  Another example I would use would be numbered pairs.  Let's take the V's Quai 54 F & F edition.  There were 54 pairs released.  What if the factory making them produced extras?  Would you consider those pairs authentic?  I definitely would not when a big part of the appeal of the shoe is that only 54 pairs were made.  There is no way in hell would I pay anywhere near market value for a pair that shouldn't have been produced even if it were made exactly the same as the authentic version.

I don't have a problem with people buying these and rocking them.  The problem I have are those guys buying these and reselling them and passing them off as authentic to make a buck.  People doing this are scumbags in my book.  It's a shame it's come to this, but there is zero trust when it comes to the sneaker community these days.  You have to assume you are being scammed with any transaction you do and proceed carefully.  I used to pay using paypal and sent as a gift all the time and never once got scammed years back.  We looked out for each other, so we didn't want to have our fellow sneakerheads paying extra fees.  It was a different game back then.
 
I'm a longtime lurker, but been in the game so to speak for a minute.  People these days get their definitions mixed up and tons are misinformed.  The resell game is just flat out messed up.  You have people now wearing their kicks at least 5 X and saying their kicks pass as DS, fakes flooding the market and resell prices through the roof.  There's just no trust out there and everybody is out there to make a buck.  Reselling was fine years ago, it was like ok miss out on a release, pay a bit extra and get a pair you couldn't get.  Now, it's damn near every single release on anything remotely "limited" and it's certainly not a bit extra.  Let's face it though, things won't change as long as it's profitable to flip shoes.

As far as the grey market discussion goes, this is my thoughts.  If Nike did not authorize them, they're not authentic.  Take digital downloads for example.  If you pirate mp3's vs getting a digital copy from itunes, you're getting the same product too.  I download music like anyone does, but I have no illusions of saying I'm getting an authentic product.  I am getting a product as good as the authentic product, but that doesn't make it authentic.  Another example I would use would be numbered pairs.  Let's take the V's Quai 54 F & F edition.  There were 54 pairs released.  What if the factory making them produced extras?  Would you consider those pairs authentic?  I definitely would not when a big part of the appeal of the shoe is that only 54 pairs were made.  There is no way in hell would I pay anywhere near market value for a pair that shouldn't have been produced even if it were made exactly the same as the authentic version.

I don't have a problem with people buying these and rocking them.  The problem I have are those guys buying these and reselling them and passing them off as authentic to make a buck.  People doing this are scumbags in my book.  It's a shame it's come to this, but there is zero trust when it comes to the sneaker community these days.  You have to assume you are being scammed with any transaction you do and proceed carefully.  I used to pay using paypal and sent as a gift all the time and never once got scammed years back.  We looked out for each other, so we didn't want to have our fellow sneakerheads paying extra fees.  It was a different game back then.
Your Mp3 analogy is flawed. Lets say I buy an mp3 off of iTunes. Now someone downloads that mp3 from me via P2P. He gets the same exact song file I just paid for (grey market). Now lets say if downloaded a song from iTunes and someone comes by with a tape recorder and records the song. That recorded version would be have worse playback because its not an exact copy of the original (fakes aka replicas). Understand the difference? Nikes authorization doesn't change what the shoes are made out of or where/how they are constructed. So it has bearing on its authenticity as far as the actual shoe goes.
 
Your Mp3 analogy is flawed. Lets say I buy an mp3 off of iTunes. Now someone downloads that mp3 from me via P2P. He gets the same exact song file I just paid for (grey market). Now lets say if downloaded a song from iTunes and someone comes by with a tape recorder and records the song. That recorded version would be have worse playback because its not an exact copy of the original (fakes aka replicas). Understand the difference? Nikes authorization doesn't change what the shoes are made out of or where/how they are constructed. So it has bearing on its authenticity as far as the actual shoe goes.
His analogy isn't flawed. He said it was the same music but it wasn't authentic. Same with grey market shoes as explained in this thread. Same shoes just not authentic. In not cases the product was not authorized by the owner. In some cases of grey market shoes they were authorized but went missing from the owners, aka Nike's, stock.
 
Your Mp3 analogy is flawed. Lets say I buy an mp3 off of iTunes. Now someone downloads that mp3 from me via P2P. He gets the same exact song file I just paid for (grey market). Now lets say if downloaded a song from iTunes and someone comes by with a tape recorder and records the song. That recorded version would be have worse playback because its not an exact copy of the original (fakes aka replicas). Understand the difference? Nikes authorization doesn't change what the shoes are made out of or where/how they are constructed. So it has bearing on its authenticity as far as the actual shoe goes.
Just to be clear, you can get superior quality from pirated music than you would from iTunes.  Does that mean it's authentic?  No, it just means you can get FLAC quality tracks through pirating that you can't through iTunes.  Therefore quality of the product has no bearing on whether the product is authentic.  In your eyes, it can be just as good as an authentic pair and that's perfectly fine.  That's a personal choice no different than downloading.  The fact of the matter is if it's not authorized by Nike, it isn't authentic.  If we kept that definition simple, I think we would all be better off.
 
Just to be clear, you can get superior quality from pirated music than you would from iTunes.  Does that mean it's authentic?  No, it just means you can get FLAC quality tracks through pirating that you can't through iTunes.  Therefore quality of the product has no bearing on whether the product is authentic.  In your eyes, it can be just as good as an authentic pair and that's perfectly fine.  That's a personal choice no different than downloading.  The fact of the matter is if it's not authorized by Nike, it isn't authentic.  If we kept that definition simple, I think we would all be better off.
The definition of authentic is related to ORIGIN, or ORIGINAL. Using the word authentic or fake does not apply to these shoes because they have the same ORIGIN and are made of the ORIGINAL materials. Unauthorized yes, fake, non authentic, not applicable.
 
Just to be clear, you can get superior quality from pirated music than you would from iTunes.  Does that mean it's authentic?  No, it just means you can get FLAC quality tracks through pirating that you can't through iTunes.  Therefore quality of the product has no bearing on whether the product is authentic.  In your eyes, it can be just as good as an authentic pair and that's perfectly fine.  That's a personal choice no different than downloading.  The fact of the matter is if it's not authorized by Nike, it isn't authentic.  If we kept that definition simple, I think we would all be better off.
The definition of authentic is related to ORIGIN, or ORIGINAL. Using the word authentic or fake does not apply to these shoes because they have the same ORIGIN and are made of the ORIGINAL materials, made from the original design. Unauthorized yes, fake, non authentic, not applicable.
 
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The definition of authentic is related to ORIGIN, or ORIGINAL. Using the word authentic or fake does not apply to these shoes because they have the same ORIGIN and are made of the ORIGINAL materials. Unauthorized yes, fake, non authentic, not applicable.
Ok, go back to my Quai 54's example.  Are pairs unauthorized by Nike in a limited 54 pair run authentic in your opinion?  There should be only 54 pairs out there in the world but you are getting #'s 55, 56, 57 and so on that should not exist.  You still think you are getting an authentic product?
 
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