Spyderco Forums

Hi,i bought an FFG vg10 Endura 4 last week and need to know if this is the real deal,i never had a doubt about it or anything until i saw that the chinese were at it again with their copying,i dont want to ship this knife to golden colorado for inspection because im not in the US and it would take forever and cost more $$ so could any representative or any experts tell me from these pictures if this is normal? im refering to the bronze ish gold kind of color the markings on the blade has,is this normal? all the other ones i see are stamped with no color.

Welcome to our forum Thestreetpanda,
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that the Endura you purchased is not a counterfeit for two reasons.

First, we cannot make a judgment without receiving the knife to review it. Counterfeits have improved so much over the past several years that the only way for us to confirm your knife as legitimate or a counterfeit is to physically inspect it.

Second, we cannot guarantee that knives purchased through Amazon (even sold/shipped directly from Amazon) are legitimate due to their practice of co-mingling inventory with their 3rd party marketplace vendors.

I'm sure our members will chime in with their words of wisdom regarding your Endura. I truly wish we could assist you through the forum, but sadly the counterfeiters have made that impossible.

We hope you enjoy your time with us.

Kristi

Thestreetpanda wrote:Hi,i bought an FFG vg10 Endura 4 last week and need to know if this is the real deal,i never had a doubt about it or anything until i saw that the chinese were at it again with their copying,i dont want to ship this knife to golden colorado for inspection because im not in the US and it would take forever and cost more $$ so could any representative or any experts tell me from these pictures if this is normal? im refering to the bronze ish gold kind of color the markings on the blade has,is this normal? all the other ones i see are stamped with no color.

Yes, the goldish colored markings are normal, all my Japan Spydies have it. Also, the knife itself looks legit.

Even though yours MAY be legit buying direct from Amazon is in no way a guarantee of a real Spydie.

It is why I go with established well regarded vendors.

HarleyXJGuy wrote:Even though yours MAY be legit buying direct from Amazon is in no way a guarantee of a real Spydie.

It is why I go with established well regarded vendors.

The only Spyderco I didn't buy from Amazon was the 2015 forum Native, all my others are legitimate Amazon purchases.

The place you have to worry about is Ebay.

As far as the color goes, it looks fine to me. I have a brand new HAP40 Sprint Run Endura that is from a 100% legit Spyderco dealer, and it has the same coloring. With the photos you see here, it depends on the lighting and angle the photo is taken when it come to how the printing appears. Here are 2 photos of mine. In one photo the printing looks black and in the other gold color; however, I assure you it is actually the gold color:

thank you all for the replies! and thank you tazkristi.
I have seen a few on here with the golden engravings but most of them were just stamped(talking about japan vg10 endura 4s) maybe for different markets in different countries? I know of a few legit dealers around here but they were all 30-40$ more and sometimes charged shipping,amazon had free shipping and a great price,next time i will happily shell out the extra coin for peace of mind but right now im a student so money is kind of tight ;D
will look into how much $ to ship to colorado.

Lots of mine came from Amazon as well.

Not much of your photo to look at, but nothing obvious stands out that I can see.

What makes you think it's not genuine?

You can see the dealer you get it from when you order from amazon .who was the dealer.go back and check youre order details this can help us out by nowing who sold it.amazon goes threw many store's

can't freehand wrote:

HarleyXJGuy wrote:Even though yours MAY be legit buying direct from Amazon is in no way a guarantee of a real Spydie.

It is why I go with established well regarded vendors.

The only Spyderco I didn't buy from Amazon was the 2015 forum Native, all my others are legitimate Amazon purchases.

The place you have to worry about is Ebay.

For sure, I have seen cakes straight from Amazon though. I bet it is pretty rare.

My wife bought me a Sage 3 from Amazon with no issues. Well that or whoever made this fake needs to stop making fake Spydues just start their own knife company.

There is no way to know for sure. If concerned I would pay the $5-10 or whatever to ship the knife to and from Spyderco so you have an official statement. I would chalk this up as a stern reminder to buy from online dealers who charge just about the same price but you can count on.

For the record I find eBay FAR more reliable than Amazon as it's easier to see what's in someone's shop. If they have hundreds of Spyderco knives and other quality brands of camping gear it's pretty easy to figure out. Still not as reliable as a dealer but compared to stock images on Amazon??

Blerv wrote:
For the record I find eBay FAR more reliable than Amazon as it's easier to see what's in someone's shop. If they have hundreds of Spyderco knives and other quality brands of camping gear it's pretty easy to figure out. Still not as reliable as a dealer but compared to stock images on Amazon??

I agree completely... you can find a reliable dealer on Ebay and stick with them, but with Amazon you sometimes have to get whatever you get. Their stock gets mixed in with third party retailers, and since they are not knife experts, people can buy a legit knife and return a fake one, and they would be none the wiser, thus "poisoning the Amazon Spyderco supply" even further.

All in all, I tend to stick with online retailers I trust these days. Way too many fakes out there.

yeah thats the only picture that the forum would let me post all the others are ''too large'' even if i crop them.the thing is im not in the US so i highly doubt it would be 5-10$ try 40-50 wich would be ridiculous

Fresh Eddie Fresh wrote:All in all, I tend to stick with online retailers I trust these days. Way too many fakes out there.

Yep, the risk vs reward just doesn't make sense.

The Bronze in the engraving is pretty normal. I think it has to do with how it is cut/marked.

I don't know how it gets cut into the steel, but it must take some sort of heat to do it.

First time poster long time reader.... Lol
I wonder if you can get fakes on Amazon. Buy a legit knife, return a fake, and the next guy gets a fake??
I've bought a Cara Cara, (2) Vallottons, and a Endura from Amazon without problems but I did wonder. My para 2, harpy, and (2) grasshoppers came from eBay without problems.
I'm a long time watch collector and there are forums dedicated to amazing levels of replica knowledge, and they buy and sell them. I never knew this was a concern in the knife world till recently

It's not just amazon I'm worried about. It's any dealer at all that accepts returns and then resells those returns. I believe it's pretty customary for a dealer to resell a return knife if the package is intact and the product is undamaged/not defective.

It takes a pretty knowledgeable person to distinguish some of these fake knives from genuine knives and I don't think many dealers, if any, specialize in Spyderco knives enough to verify that each returned knife is what it's supposed to be.

Agree. I sold electronics for 2 decades. Not exaggerating but two (sometimes more) in 10 products received were sold to me as brand new. However upon inspection I'd notice finger prints in areas that shouldn't be there. Dials turned in directions that the factory would never of done. Re-taped plastic bags, dog eared manuals. It was NOT uncommon to see amateur repairs that were attempted and the units came to me defective. The practice was denied by everyone, still is but I saw it first hand.
Now that's not saying spyderco is doing those things. But resellers range from 100% ethical to crooks. I just bought a military yesterday from flee bay and the seller said he bought a wholesale lot of spydercos and if there was an issue contact him. He refused to tell me if it was authentic or not. Alls he would say is it is a good quality knife check it out.
I can't imagine Amazon being as big as they are know remotely the difference in an Endura or a Ladybug. A box is their most important guide I'd think. I haven't had any problems there but I'd imagine some have.