# IYHO, Is the DVD listed in this eBay auction genuine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 9, 2005, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577 "2005-06-09T09:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/1 "2005-06-09T09:12:06Z")
[http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2292&item=6404366191&rd=1](http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2292&item=6404366191&rd=1) On the one hand, it claims to be ‘official’ and ‘sealed’ and the seller has a fairly good feedback rating. On the other hand, the phrase ‘Quality is excellent’ often appears on bootleg/pirate movie listings and ‘What you see in the picture above is exactly what you get’ could either be a guarantee **or** a disclaimer. A small handful of feedback comments (out of the 2+ thousand) mention non-original or copied materials, however, these are just a few comments - a small enough number to be possibly attributable to noise/stupidity etc. Of course I’ll ask the seller, but there’s no real way to be sure that the answer I get will be believable. What do you think? At the moment I’m tending toward the ‘no’ side of undecided. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/2 "2005-06-09T09:38:07Z")
> [@](#): > > All my dvds come in official amaray dvd cases as seen in blockbuster video and also come packaged. That’s pretty much an admission that it’s a bootleg. Unless for some reason the person discards the original cases and replaces them with “official” blank DVD cases with inserts. > [@](#): > > includes all interactive menus and features, and chapters. That’s much more of an admission. “I ripped the whole DVD – not just the main movie.” The good feedback is probably a reflection of the (relative) honesty of his descriptions. Not many people would bite on that if they weren’t going to be happy with a copy. (Steeply-priced copies, though. Eesh. What nerve.) ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/3 "2005-06-09T15:13:29Z")
Judging from the pictures he has posted, it certainly doesn’t look “sealed” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/4 "2005-06-09T15:35:39Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > Judging from the pictures he has posted, it certainly doesn’t look “sealed” to me. Good point, although he’s selling more than one of this item (and it looks like it might be a stock item anyway), so a shot of an opened pack wouldn’t be out of the question. But it still sounds dodgy. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/5 "2005-06-09T15:38:02Z")
IMDB doesn’t list this film as available either on DVD or in Region 2 - this also adds weight to the idea of it being a copy. I’m not buying. I’ll post back if/when I get a response from the seller anyway. ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/6 "2005-06-09T15:52:07Z")
I just looked through the first 600 reviews & found 11 references to receiving copies. Some from positive reviewers. One guy bought more than one movie & received one original & one copy. I think it most likely that this is a copy. Probably a good one. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/7 "2005-06-09T16:18:35Z")
The 1979 animated version of _The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe_ was made for TV by CBS and is supposed to be available on VHS only. Based on the cover art, that is the version your seller is offereing. It looks like the copy on eBay is a HK factory-made bootleg. The production standards are pretty high with those copies, and a lot of times it’s hard to tell the difference between a bootleg and the real thing. The 1988 animated version was made by the BBC, and _is_ available on DVD. The cover art - and everything else about that disk - are different than the one apparently for sale here. I think the version in the auction is a bootleg. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/8 "2005-06-09T16:28:20Z")
Regarding a “sealed” film. If you mean with that crap clear plastic shrink-wrap, anbody can do that. You get a roll of special plastic film, put the DVD/VCR in it, hold a hair dryer over it until it shrinks to fit. I used to work at a small electronics store and they would re-shrink wrap all of the used videos for sale. They never claimed they were “new”, unused videos, but they never admitted they weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/9 "2005-06-09T20:44:30Z")
The date on the photo looks a little iffy - _2002_? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/10 "2005-06-09T21:10:59Z")
> [@Uvula Donor](#): > > The 1979 animated version of _The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe_ was made for TV by CBS and is supposed to be available on VHS only. [Campus Crusade for Christ](http://www.goccc.com/liwiwaandvd1.html) is selling it on DVD on their website, with nearly the same packaging. (The DVD label is uninterrupted image to the hub, unlike the eBay version.) I have a hard time fathoming that they’d be selling pirated copies – but at the same time, they don’t seem to have any problem with characterizing it as “A NEW ANIMATED DVD!” without mentioning that the _content_ of the DVD is twenty-five years old. I think it has probably seen at least limited distribution as a legitimate DVD, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iyho-is-the-dvd-listed-in-this-ebay-auction-genuine/307577/11 "2005-06-10T07:41:18Z")
Well, the seller hasn’t responded to my question (I just asked ‘is it a factory-pressed disc or is it a DVDR or something?’). I thnk that’s enough for me. If there are a bunch of good-looking HK factory bootlegs in circulation, isn’t it possible that CCC has also been taken in?