I have spoken with a few dealers and it appears that the problem with fake Sakura's stemmed about 60 days ago or somewhere in that time frame.
I am working on a piece that will help to determine if your Sakura's are fake or indeed real. I encourage everyone who purchased a Sakura beanie in the past 60 days to check it over carefully. This is NOT in NO way to suggest that it is a fake, just the possibility of it!

I have also done some digging on policies from auction and trading sites. What I have found is quite disturbing and must be changed in order to protect you, the collector.

Examples - One site only offers to refund your money on ANY SALE, even if you can determine it's a fake up to 7 days. My question to them would be - How is a collector expected to have a piece authenticated and returned in a 7 day period?

Many of the reports I am receiving indicate that most of these fakes come from trading and auction sites and therefore this extra time would give collectors more confidence in knowing that they would be protected.

I think they need to re-examine their policy and extend the time for collectors who wish to have merchandise authenticated with a reasonable return time or back what they offer for sale.

The collectibles hobby has been tarnished by counterfeits and it appears that most are just concerned with making money and not protecting the collectors.
Prove me wrong! Protect your buyers by offering policies that protect them once and for all!

I urge you to be careful, don't believe everything your read! Some auction and trading sites offer kickbacks for those who promote them.

I'm sorry if this comes across a little harsh but I'm getting fed up with collectors being misled and scammed out of their hard earned money.

Look for more details to be posted soon. In the mean time read all site polices and protect yourself and voice your opinions where there is concern!

I am NOT an expert and have never pretended to be. But I do take counterfeiting seriously and encourage others to do the same.
This is not an endorsement, simply a suggestion to ask the authenticators for their opinions and possible have your pieces authenticated. You may want to contact Peggy for future help.

Action speaks louder than words and as a united front we may be able to stop these scammers once and for all!

Ms. Janie