Almost all MDR-V700DJ headphones on eBay are fake

So I’m on eBay and I’m looking at all of the Sony MDR-v700DJ headphones on sale and I can conclude at this point that just about all of them are fake.

I’m making this snap based on the following information:

1. Almost all of the items are way below the cheapest retail price available on Pricegrabber (if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that a deal is often sour if it’s too good to be true).
2. Almost all of the sellers for these items are located in China (the land of knock-off goods)

A lot of the descriptions for these items say that they come straight from the factory in China. I guess this could be true since it’s not uncommon for gadget companies to make their items in China. If this is true, then I guess the headphones are “genuine”, and that they only lack the official Sony-certification (even if they come with a real retail box). If not, it’s a testament to the fact that China has incredibly sophisticated bootleg technology and manufacturing processes.

In all honesty, it’s very hard to tell the difference between real ones and fake ones, and at this point, I’m thinking about buying a cheap pair on eBay to see if the sound quality stands up to its official retail counterpart. If they hold up, then I’ll be laughing for a very long time…

Expect a review as soon as I get back home to NYC.