[nperasmus]

Hello fellow smurfers!!

I recently was thrilled when I bought a lot of rare smurfs on Ebay.
Unfortunately joy turned to horror when the smurfs arrived. As I was cleaning them, paint started to come off!!! I had paid a small fortune and went bezerk on the seller!!! Anyway he agreed to refund me and now I will return them.

The problem is I cant determine what is real and what is not! . It turns out that some of the smurfs do not have the more common colors under their "fake" paint but appear to be "raw". For instance the Champion (Green) and Chaingang (red) smurfs are white underneath their paint. If they were fakes the gold wreath would be under the green wreath and the yellow shoes would be under the red.

So my question is this - does anyone own these smurfs and does the paint remove easily with an earbud? Are any of these smurfs genuine or are they fake? Please reply ASAP as I have to make a decision on what to keep and what not to.

Thank you all!!!

[Smurfysmurf]

Hello...I checked and saw who the seller is (hope you don't mind that I checked the auctions out)..and I am convinced that they are fakes...as this seller is one of the notorious ones

I also don't think the paint would come off easily if they were genuine...but you may want to wait until one of our experts will see the pictures and give you more information

What a bummer though, but at least you will get your money back

[Pitufo]

Hi!!!!!!well I am not expert in fakes, and I know what I am going to say you is not too scientific, but when a seller has always such an amount of fakes, i would say 99,99 % FAKE... I think I know who sold you those smurfs

[nperasmus]

Seller was morgram - was it who you suspected??? Who else is selling fakes?

[Syd Smurf]

Hi nperasmus

These are all fakes repainted by someone. The paint should not come off with a cotton bud (q-tip) that easily.

I am not sure that a some of these actually exist so I probably wouldn't bother buying a red flowered Courting smurf or the soccer players with odd colours....and every Chain Gang smurf with red shoes on ebay that I have seen has been fake. Even that variation of the Papa Captain with red pants is kind of doubtful in my opinion and I have not seen any proof that the Cook with red bow tie ever existed as I have only seen fakes of this one too. If they do exist then I doubt they would be so freely available on ebay and not by so many sellers with a dubious past.

I do have the Wreath Smurf with all green wreath and the colour on the one pictured above is way off.

It can be so hard trying to avoid repainted fakes and I have been suckered in by a few sellers early on but over time I guess you learn a little more to hopefully avoid these mistakes......but the sellers make it hard sometimes when they sell crap like this. I remember Attom had a Flower with red paint that was coming off in the plastic it was in and the seller was being an ass and denying it from memory.

The authentic smurfs have very good paint that has lasted for years and years and does not come off unless you scrape them pretty hard over a rough surface.....even then you won;t get paint loss like you have shown us above.

The white underneath could be from someone painting the smurf part white first which would be better since the older colour would not show through especially where the original colour is darker.

We would all love to have these variations but there is no proof other than a mention in the DSK that they exist and we all know you just can't go off that as we know it is very floored when it comes to authencitity. I don't think anyone can provide an absolute bible on smurfs as no one knows it all......we are just guessing sometimes but I can say I am 100% that these are fakes due to the type of paint being shown in the pics above as well as the shininess and also the wrong colour tones.

Some people can believe these types of repainted fakes are real but they just look foolish if they have been collecting for a long time and continue to state they are real. I have had a few so-called rare smurfs I wish were real but preferred to not look stupid by stating what they really are.

I never claim to be an expert but I believe I have learnt enough to know from the evidence provided in your pics that they are repainted fakes.

Dyar

[Rachel]

Hi nperasmus, sorry to hear you have been fooled by a load of repaints. I am afraid I knew who the seller was as soon as I saw your pics.

Like Dyar, I am also not 100% convinced all of these variations were ever genuinely released but apart from that, this seller has been selling to same repainted fakes over and over again for a very long time. It really is disgusting.

As for finding no genuine paint underneath, I'm afarid the fakers are a little bit more devious these days and either paint over with white to disguise the original paint or even strip the original paint off completely.

I do hope you get a refund but I also hope that you will consider leaving the feedback that is deserved.

[Guest]

they are looking like Morgram's fakes... "morgram" is the 2nd nick form "avator" so do not buy at these sellers...

[Yonna]

My first impression is too that these are all fakes. I'm so sorry. I have the bluejacket captain myself. The others are so rare that whenever you see those, they are fakes. So easy to repaint. It's not even profed (as far as I know) that these other variations even excist....

[attombomb7]

hi!

so sorry to hear your shocking news! at least he is taking them back
and he should pay the shipping costs as well, both ways
as he committed fraud.. and its cheaper then prison

I noticed right away who made these, and that they are all fakes

this seller has sold these now for a few years, and never mentions

the word re-paints or homemade paints...

I bought a couple from him., under different seller id's

so be careful he is a chameleon! with various ways of making fakes and profits

[nperasmus]

Thank you all for your help. I really appreciate it. He has refunded me now so at least that part is dealt with. Have any of you reported morgram to Ebay. Paint coming off these smurfs is not only fraud but a health hazard to small children should they ever get hold of them.

[Syd Smurf]

Paint coming off these smurfs is not only fraud but a health hazard to small children should they ever get hold of them.

Great point nperasmus.....it would be a health hazard for small children

Dyar

[Rachel]

Thank you all for your help. I really appreciate it. He has refunded me now so at least that part is dealt with. Have any of you reported morgram to Ebay.

I know the seller has been reported several times for having multiple Ebay IDs. Unfortunately, some buyers leave positive feedback and keep themselves in denial that they have just been ripped off if they have indeed realised.

Out of principal, I wouldn't buy anything from them even if I was sure that that item was 100% genuine.

Paint coming off these smurfs is not only fraud but a health hazard to small children should they ever get hold of them.

It is a very good point but unfortunately, the people who sell these fakes are only thinking about money and not anything else. I would LOVE to see someone take them to court because of the health risk!