Is Your Merch Fake?: Don’t Get Conned At A Con

I don’t buy a lot of merchandise at comic book/gaming/nerd conventions, but when I do I automatically expect it to be the real deal. I honestly never really even thought about whether what I’m buying comes from the artist or not. Since it was such a big contrast to other vendor’s rooms I’d been in, when I hit the Metrocon vendors room I noticed pretty much right away that there weren’t stands for Funimation, Crunchyroll, and some of the other big con hits. What I didn’t realize was that it was because of the high volume of fake shit at Florida conventions. It first hopped up on my radar at a Metrocon panel hosted by the Oh No, Anime! podcast, where they discussed some of the fake items they themselves found in the vendor’s room, along with some tips on how to separate fake from real merch. This is an important issue, because the more bootleg items that get bought and produced, the more money gets diverted from the real artist or artists, making sequels and more art less likely to come your way. [quote_simple]BUT BOOTLEGS ARE CHEAPER![/quote_simple] Of course they’re cheaper, you walnut. You’re buying shit from some asshole who did a fraction of the work to bring you a fraction of the quality. [quote_simple]FINE. SO HOW DO I KNOW THEY’RE FAKE?![/quote_simple] I’ve got a few pointers. [icon_check] Bleeding colors. Like, if the “art” visually represents how My Chemical Romance made you feel in 7th grade, maybe don’t buy it… It’s not OKAAAAAYYYYEAHEEEYEAHHAAAYYY [divider type=”…