Fake 'Original' Market Street?

[NizNoz]

Hi all..

I bought a used Market Street a few weeks back off eBay. Seller described as 'used once, bought as original, great condition, no substitutions' etc.. Price was good, but catch was 'missing box, manual and minifigs/fruit'. No biggie there...

Now I've come across something while organizing pieces. Some of the pieces are not consistent. Here's an example (and actually the only example I noticed thus far..) For light blue 1x8 brick (3008), there seems to be a mixture of at least two types: Solid bottom tubes, 3 cross support at the position of bottom tubes, and Solid bottom tubes, 5 cross supports at the position of bottom tubes. I know this is getting technical, but if this indicates that the blocks didn't come from an original set this is a valid concern, right? Should I confront the seller?

The pic is representative.

[gregpj]

47 minutes ago, NizNoz said:

Hi all..

I bought a used Market Street a few weeks back off eBay . Seller described as 'used once, bought as original, great condition, no substitutions' etc.. Price was good, but catch was 'missing box, manual and minifigs/fruit'. No biggie there...

Now I've come across something while organizing pieces. Some of the pieces are not consistent. Here's an example (and actually the only example I noticed thus far..) For light blue 1x8 brick (3008), there seems to be a mixture of at least two types: Solid bottom tubes, 3 cross support at the position of bottom tubes, and Solid bottom tubes, 5 cross supports at the position of bottom tubes. I know this is getting technical, but if this indicates that the blocks didn't come from an original set this is a valid concern, right? Should I confront the seller?

The pic is representative.

There is always a chance the seller rebuilt the model from a big box of parts and didn't realize they grabbed some of the "wrong" parts.

Like thoroaken said... what would you like to come of it? Personally, I'm a purist in that the parts should not be different. I could accept the hollow tubes vs solid tubes but not the 1x8 with just the cross supports... that brick is 50 years old (yada, yada, they still fit with today's bricks but the plastic does get more brittle with age).

Unless you got a fantastic deal you don't want to give up (you can always replace with original parts), I would return it. Bricklinked is one thing, using 50 year old parts is another.

[thoroakenfelder]

It does tend to indicate different ages of pieces. Sure, the guy may have misrepresented his set, but the real question is, is it going to bother you? If it is, what is the end goal of calling him on it? Are you hoping to get money back? A full refund? An exchange of parts? Ebay or Paypal are likely to side with you, but you'll need to put in the effort to make it a thing.

[citymorgue]

It also depends too.  It doesn't necessarily mean it's actually not original.  There are many instances in which during a production run of a set, Lego will change up the mold styles and you can have a couple different types of pieces in the same set.  It doesn't mean it's still not original.  So you could always check to see exactly when the mold changes happened and if it could co-inside with the actual set.

Also, like it was mentioned above, how much are you truly concerned about it?  Are all the pieces the right color, and stuff for the actual set?  It all boils down to how picky you really want to get with it.

[Alpinemaps]

I'm guess it was Bricklinked, and not bought as an original.  I do Bricklink sets at times, and I do sell them, but I don't advertise them as "bought as original."  I do represent them as used, though.

I wouldn't worry about it if you are planning to sell it down the line.  You don't have to mention that it was Bricklinked (you don't know that it was or wasn't), you don't know if it was bought as an original (you don't have any proof other than his word).  But you do know it is used, it has been displayed, and all the correct parts to build it are there.

It could have been nothing more sinister than the set was deconstructed at some point, and put into a tub with tons of other bricks from multiple other sets.  Then, when he put it back together to sell it, he could have just grabbed the correct brick types.

[KShine]

I would just leave it be. The crossbeam one is certainly ancient (and I would look to swap it out when you have a newer piece), but the other 2 could very well have been from the same new set.

[NizNoz]

Also, in case another obsessive person comes across this in the future, I just found an interesting post by someone who had the same issue with bricks from apparently, the same set...http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/4522/why-are-some-of-the-supports-on-bottom-of-a-lego-piece-hollow-and-other-are-sol

Thanks guys

[NizNoz]

Honestly it doesn't bother me personally. The set looks beautiful. But when I sell it one day I want to be able to represent it accurately. Also, I don't like being lied to...

 

[NizNoz]

Lol. Too much info can be a bad thing. If it were not for forums like this I probably wouldn't have even noticed If nothing else comes up I guess I'll forget about it. And keep building cool stuff!