Counterfeit Editions

Counterfeit printed copies of The Art of Electronics have made their appearance, starting in December 2015. We have bought counterfeits from at least a half-dozen Amazon “Other Sellers.”** These may be represented as “new,” or as “like new” (or sometimes “used”), but in all cases so far they are inferior products, with poor bindings, misaligned pages, faded halftones (photographs), and other defects; also, in all cases they are copies of the first printing. Although “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” this is going a bit too far — our readers deserve a quality product, not the junk that these criminals are selling. Our readers report good success in getting full refunds; and if a refund is refused, you can use Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee.

One or more of these indicates a probable counterfeit (see also the samples following):

1. there are blank white pages after the last index page (1st through 13th printing; 14th onward, with expanded indexes, has two blank pages)
or
2. Winfield is spelled “Wineld” on the title page
or
3. the cover on the spine is wrinkled
or
4. printing is misaligned with page edge
or
5. pages are stuck together at edges
or
6. pages unreadable into the gutter (inner edges)
or
7. the black end-pages (and nearby white pages) are wrinkled or smudged with glue
or
8. the photographs are faded or misaligned
or
9. sold as “new” or “like new,” but priced too low to be believable

** In every case copies purchased as “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com” are geniune copies; it’s some of the marketplace sellers who are selling fakes (and some of these include “Fulfillment by Amazon” with Prime shipping — that’s no guarantee of authenticity). A current list of our “test purchases” is here.

Dave Jones (EEVBlog) has some fun with this here.

 

Here are some examples