Real or Counterfeit

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I don’t know for sure but here are some reasons it’s probably not.

1. The condition is used which basically gets rid of 99% of all potential counterfeit Leupold scopes. Often they are peddled as brand new with stock looking photos. This one has photos that are very likely to be of the actual item.

2. The seller is established. They also appear to be a pawn broker selling random pawn shop items on eBay for faster turnover of product and higher revenue. This indicates they are not a seller of imported Chinese knockoffs.

3. The serial number is displayed. If they were trying to pull a fast one they should have omitted that. Call Leupold and give them the serial number and they will tell you if it is legitimate or not. They encourage people to do this. Who knows. Maybe the pawn shop came upon a forgery second hand. It could happen but is less likely.

I have bought many Leupold scopes on eBay and am aware of the fakes out there. I have only bought them from auctions very similar to this one. I would have no problem bidding. Plus your protected with PP if it comes to that.

The markings you indicate are an area of concern with fakes. Notably, the lettering will be silver laser etched if it is fake. I have never seen a fake so I cannot tell by the picture if it is or isn’t. The serial number holds up to a few criteria but is not definite.

Here are some resources if you haven’t already found them.

https://www.leupold.com/service-support/resources/counterfeit-warning

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/dec/30/buyers-beware-of-counterfeit-leupold-ri/

https://www.thecounterfeitreport.com/product/162/Leupold-Rifle-Scopes.html

 
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Interesting. In research it looks very fake because of the pic that showed the sn and etching.
 
Pictures of fakes can look very real and vise versa. Like I said, I have never seen a fake so I really don’t know what they look like. I do have experience in counterfeit money, shoes, and women’s handbags though and can say that generalized pictures will rarely reveal the details.

I unfortunately don’t have a Leupold Mark 4 to even compare to the pictures with. Best to run that serial to find out for sure.

The picture of the lettering on the fake in one of the links I posted appears to have slightly different proportions on the lettering font. This is by no means an indicator but it lends evidence that one could be real and one not. Manufacturers are known to do this very thing over time however so it is a very shaky point.
 
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It doesn't pass the smell test to me, like I've said I've seen some great fakes some that may even be ok scopes. Having the serial number is not 100% safe either, they probably copied a real one.
Scope manufacturers need some kind of water mark or something these days.
 
I won’t bid on it. I am waiting for SWFA to get more SS 10x in stock.
 
It’s starting to seem awful fishy to me too. Starting with the fact there is no Leupold Medallion. I don’t know if there are Mark 4s without it out there or not as I am not up to speed in the timeframe of Mark 4s from when they began with the Medallion. Then again I am failing to come up with a picture of an example of a Mark 4, legit or not, that has a Medallion and it appears this is subject of debate. IDK.
 
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I think there may be more fake mark 4 then real ones sometimes. I've used a few and they were great then I've seen reviews were they called them a pos. It's pretty well know the mark 4 and the vx-3 are the most common ones faked. They fake acogs were scary how real they looked, I got 2 fake Bushnell trs-25 from Amazon a few years ago. They were well copied but I could tell.

The average person won't notice, normally the price gives it away, but what if they were the same price some may not notice or admit they got swindled.

My brother got 2 leupolds one day and speed them to me, he didn't say the price of were he got them. I looked like 5 seconds and said were you buy these take scopes form. He got all made and insisted they were real, I asked were he got them and how much. Ebay $125 each. I said you really think a $450 scope sold new for $125 is legit. He said nothing.
 
jbmillard said:
Take a look at this:

https://thecounterfeitreport.com/product_details.php?product_id=162

I think it's fake.
Click to expand...

I took it upon myself to scour the inner webs for info on this particular era and model of Mark 4. I could find nothing definitive without actually having the scope in my hands.

The biggest piece of evidence offered that the scope in question was counterfeit seems to be the “silver” etching on the bottom of the turret. Silver as opposed to what though? The only answer I could find was black but it pertained to a different era of the Mark 4. We really needed the scope caps off to see that lettering and what color it was.

Counterfeit Leupolds tend to go for less money when sold new. If a counterfeit gets into the used market and is being represented as genuine and an unknowing bidder or two get going then a counterfeit could sell for quite a bit more used than it did new.

Even with the evidence against it, I’m leaning towards it being legit. If a savvy Leupold enthusiast was the buyer, and at that selling price I would think it likely, they probably knew of the counterfeit examples out there and took precautions before bidding.
 
It already sold, but for future reference, if you have to ask, then the answer is yes. Also, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Lastly, I stopped dealing with ebay years and years ago because I got tired of letting myself get ripped off.

The secondary market, whether online or face to face, is a crap shoot. Anytime I want to sell something, all I get are offers of pennies on the dollar, yet, when I want to buy something, I end up having to pay 80% of the full price for a brand new item. And with craigslist face to face, you have to deal with all kinds of sketchy strangers you meet in box store parking lots.

I just say no thanks.
 
Nature Boy said:
I have a real Mk 4 and it doesn't look like that scope
Click to expand...

The EBay seller told me it was made decades ago and that they checked with Leupold and Leupold said it was OK. Either way, there is no way I would have bid on it.
 
Makes me NOT want to buy any name brand commodity. If others feel this way US companies are in worse shape than ever.
 
jbm said:
The EBay seller told me it was made decades ago and that they checked with Leupold and Leupold said it was OK. Either way, there is no way I would have bid on it.
Click to expand...
If it was made decades ago then that would probably take it off the table for me. Reason is the glass quality.
 
It can be hard to tell the dieefrence sometimes.One of my Mark 4's actually lost it's medallion that was on the side focus knob.I sent it to Leupold because of a wandering zero and when I got it back,it had a new medallion on it.That scope was made in 2015.I had one sent to me over the weekend to mount it on a rifle for a customer and I actually had it mounted before I smelled a rat.It was a VX-3.I shouldered the rifle to check the eye relief,and the scope was incredibly blurry.I grabbed the power ring to see if cutting the power back would clear it up,and the power ring worked backwards!Turning it clockwise cut the power back,where every Leupold I've ever seen increased the power if you turned the ring clockwise.That one also had a cheap set of extra high rings packaged with the scope as was a generic rubber scope cover set.The covers that come with the real thing have the Leupold logo on them.I looked online and that's exactly how the imitation scopes are packaged.Nobody else mentioned the power ring being backwardsthough,and I would think someone else besides me would have caught that.I took it outside this morning,and the optical quality is terrible.Poor guy I was working for bought 3 of them for a hundred bucks a pop.
 
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