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I wanted to get my best friend an offical World Cup ball, because he would LOVE it!
The only thing is, I wanted to get it off ebay, but they also have a lot of replicas.
My question:
How do I know if it's fake or not?
The only thing is, I wanted to get it off ebay, but they also have a lot of replicas.
My question:
How do I know if it's fake or not?
Replica: Has the oblong designs but instead of oblong patches around the ball, it's built like a normal soccer ball with pentagons and octogon patches.
Here's a link to some balls for sale at Amazon.com of all places Notice the design of the Teamgeist balls and how they have the pentagon/octogons surrounding the oblongs.
Official: It has the oblong designs (or tampon designs as my friend calls it) and I think there's 4 oblong-shaped patches along with 4 pieces/quarters that surround each oblong. (This was why everyone was making a big hoopla about the ball because it didn't have the pentagon/octogon designs everyone was so used to.)
Here's a picture: http://www.soccerballworld.com/HistoryWCBalls.htm
Hopefully that made some sense (Also, usually--and this is for apparel, I don't know about soccer balls--there's usually a tag that says 'Official 2006 FIFA World Cup Merchandise' or 'Official 2006 World Cup Ball'. I know my France fan jersey and the WC trackpants I got has someting like that on the tags.)
Though, I would suggest hunting around soccer stores or sports retailers (as you're from Canada, this helps---I can give you names of stores! :D) like Sportchek, probably Sport Mart and maybe Sport Traders. Though Sportchek I recall had the official ball but also sold replicas and I'm sure the boxes would say 'Replica' or 'Official'.
But if you'll be sticking with eBay, then perhaps only look at vendors who have pics of their merchandise, maybe ask (I have NO experience with buying off of eBay) if the picture shown is the picture of the actual product if you're doubtful. Keep an eye out for the design on said ball. ;)
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The oblongs are made up of two pentagons that are 'fused' into one as opposed to the actual oblongs seen on the official balls. :)
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thank you so much for your comment, it really cleared up a lot for me.
I MIGHT just get him a replica because I think he wants to play with it and I don't think it's wise to get an offical ball to play around with.
and I'm pretty sure the price difference for both offical and replica are quite big, right?
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