That’s a Complete Croc part 1 of 2

Recently, we were just over the border in China in the megalopolis Shenzhen where you can buy just about anything and everything. There are legal markets in the world and there are black markets. And then there is Shenzhen with it various shades of grey. Mostly light grey, but grey none-the-less.

In Shenzhen, when you see that US$2.00 Nike hat or those US$5.00 pair of Converse Allstars there are two distinct possibilities. One is that it is an unlicensed knock-off. This is definitely the case with all of the “copy handbags” and “copy watches.” If you buy a cheap Coach purse it Shenzhen (or in Hong Kong), it’s a fake.

But that’s not necessarily true of every cheap brand-name item. Here’s what sometimes happens: VanHeusen shirts gives an order for 10,000 shirts of a particular design. But the factory in China will actually make 15,000 and sell the extra 5,000 through its own grey market outlets. So that QuickSilver shirt you bought for a fraction of the regular price isn’t necessarily a fake. It could very well be from the exact same factory, made with the same materials, to the same specifications as the one on the rack at Macy’s back in Chicago retailing for $29.99.

The trick (if your conscience allows you to buy merchandise on the grey market) is to try to figure out the difference. It’s not easy. You have to really look for tell-tale signs and sometimes, in the end, you just have to rely on your intuition.

A few years ago colleague of mine was doing some pretty brisk business buying brand name golf equipment in Shenzhen and then re-selling it on E-bay for four or five times his costs. In the beginning, he was pretty convinced that he was dealing in the real McCoy. But over time, he became less and less convinced that he was brokering in the genuine article. Out of hundreds of customers, he never had a complaint. None-the-less, he has since scaled back his little import-export side business.