I was perhaps a bit naive when I started out with the international shirts, and almost immediately came across my first fake, a Malta away shirt.
Although the shirt looks well made up front, the maker's logo is missing, and there is no maker's label. Also the crest says "Malta Football Team" instead of "Malta Football Association". In this case I was given a full refund and told to keep hold of the shirt. The seller says he did not realise.
A few days later I bid on a Peru shirt, apparently signed by Noberto Solano. However as I was about to pay for it I noticed that the badge had 'Peru' on instead of 'FPF'. I did not pay, and the shirt was relisted with 'Unofficial' in the wording.
After these fakes I decided to come up with some rules for buying shirts:
1 - I must have seen a photo of the players wearing that shirt so I can check the badge, logo etc.
2 - I won't buy any shirts from eastern Asia since they produce far too good quality fakes for me to be able to spot the difference.
3 - When bought abroad they must be from 'proper' sports shops.
I actually have that peru shirt as well.. a friend of mine visited peru and brought me that.... but the official sponsor is Walon ... and the style is that of a stripe going diagonal .. like that of River Plate of Argentina... i knew it was a fake but still it was a gift :P
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