Is this ST Dupont a fake?

[deschete]

Those of you who are experts, can you tell from this picture of the bottom?



I am already skeptical due to the red box, I'm just looking for someone with more life experience in such matters to chime in.

[N2Advnture]

The serial number is typically in a different font. Also, unscrew the tab for the refill and take a bunch of pics of the bottom (use the "macro" setting on your camera and zoom in)

Also, a pretty good indicator is from where you bought it.

[deschete]

I didn't buy it, but the seller is in Rhode Island. He's got a fair amount of ST Dupont items for sale, and a lot of Colibri. He says "guaranteed authentic" but also says "all sales final."

My thinking was that perhaps he bought the Colibri stock when they went bankrupt and possibly it's legit, but I am not sure.

[CigarGuy88]

never seen the bottom of an ST. Dupont looking like that...

[wayner123]

Originally Posted by deschete

I didn't buy it, but the seller is in Rhode Island. He's got a fair amount of ST Dupont items for sale, and a lot of Colibri. He says "guaranteed authentic" but also says "all sales final."

My thinking was that perhaps he bought the Colibri stock when they went bankrupt and possibly it's legit, but I am not sure.

Where do you find the information about ST Dupont being made by Colibri?

[deschete]

Originally Posted by wayner123

Where do you find the information about ST Dupont being made by Colibri?

I thought Colibri was the USA distributor, in Rhode Island. They very recently declared bankruptcy.

[poker]

From what I know (and I been wrong before), Colibri was only contracted by ST Dupont of France to manufacture the X-Tend models.

[poker]

Looking at the bottom of my Ligne II:


S.T. Dupont is centered between flame adjust and fill port.
PARIS is centered below that.
Finally made in France centered below that.

The serial numbers are actually cold stamped and should appear at the very bottom


The red box is the usual norm.

[poker]

Very similar to what the bottom of mine looks like:

[poker]

Also looking close at your picture it appears to say "LAQUE DE CHINE"

If it is not a lacquer lighter, its definetly not real. And even if it is a lacquer style lighter, the "laque de chine" stamp makes me cautious every time.

I would be skeptical of a vendor who has many Duponts for sale. I got taken from an ebay vendor selling quite a few Dupont lighters, which turned out to be fake. You should be able to tell based on what you paid. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. But I don't have enough experience with them to determine if yours is real or fake by looking at the picture.

[Spect]

Originally Posted by poker

Also looking close at your picture it appears to say "LAQUE DE CHINE"

If it is not a lacquer lighter, its definetly not real. And even if it is a lacquer style lighter, the "laque de chine" stamp makes me cautious every time.

+1

Clear Fake on that alone. The "Paris" font is also wrong.

However most fakes don't have such a "hand stamped" look to the serial number.

[deschete]

Okay guys, here's an update.

I looked at the ebay seller's account and he's got a picture of himself. The account name is his actual name (Glen Spardello.) If I search google, I can find his home telephone number, address (in RI), myspace pages with his picture on them, and lots of information on him.

He has 24,000+ feedbacks, is a power seller, and has 99.5% positive feedback.

The next step was that I called p@yp@l last night and asked that if I bought the lighter and it turned out to be a fake, could I file a claim and have my money returned to me. A representative named Shawn reviewed the auction with me and said there was no doubt at all that my claim would win because the auction clearly states that it is "100% guaranteed authentic."

I decided to pull the trigger after talking to p4yp@l as there's now nothing to lose - just possible inconvenience if it's a fake.

For those who would like to review what I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260388043586

For those who would like to review his other Dupont items:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/glensp...dkw=&_osacat=0

If this helps prove these items are real, I hope I'm sharing some good deals (at least it looks like to me) on these items. If not, I hope we can all avoid this guy together!

Disclaimer: I'm not Glen Spardello, I've only been to RI once when I was 3, and I don't remember any of it.