Fake/Pirate DualShock 3 controllers - Stop buying them!

[Tyree_Cooper | 755]

I'd like to show you how to spot a fake DualShock 3. Factories have obviously moved to DualShock 4 and 5, and are probably not manufacturing DualShock 3 anymore. But the market is literally FLOODED with fakes, so you don't want to buy one by mistake, or if you do, make sure you pay the price of a fake, not the price of an official.

The most pirated model is the one with red background colour on the front and back card (the older model is black with a much more Asian/proprietary text font).

This guide is for blister packs. For later models in cardboard packs, God help you, because the situation is even worse, and you have the added issue of resealable packs which wasn't an issue with hot-sealed blisters.

 

Take this one for example: CLICK HERE TO SEE A NICE FAKE DUALSHOCK 3 SOMEONE ACTUALLY BOUGHT

1- First of all, make sure the colour actually exists. Any colour except for the standard black (called Charcoal Black) is mentioned on the right side of the box. So you already know this one is fake. Also, the part number ends with DR, which is supposed to be the colour, but it doesn't seem to match anything official. Here's a Japanese Candy Pink with the color designation on the right side of the box.

2- The (R) logo everywhere on the box is an easy giveaway. The font is different, the stroke is different, the size of the R is too small inside the circle, the R is not centred properly, and the whole (R) logo isn't aligned properly with DUALSHOCK. Easiest place to see this is on the front, at the bottom. Fake first, then official.

3- The left side of the box must have PET and part code stamped on the box. Fakes don't have anything, or a much shorter code, or just the plastic recycle triangle somewhere.

4- Some fakes have CE at the back, which is wrong. But the easiest thing to spot is the SONY text on top of the yellow/red logo. It's completely different, and the logo itself has completely different colour shades. This is because small logos and texts with colours are harder to copy and print accurately. Frankly if there's one thing to check it's this one. The SIXAXIS text is also much crappier.

6- The blister quality. Much thinner and most of the time wavy, as it ages faster and warps/shrinks a lot, just like in this case (yes, I know this one has water damage too). Harder to spot in photos, but extremely obvious when you have it in your hands, after you've held an official blister in the same hands.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Tyree_Cooper

[Estil | 1,265]

A few  years ago my wife ordered a deck of Uno cards off Amazon (all the more reason we learned to only get ships by Amazon and sold by Amazon in future purchases!!) and they were fake Chinese knockoffs that included blank or incompletely printed cards and even smelled really funny!

Seriously can't they find anything better to make cheap knock offs of than a $8 or so deck of Uno cards?