[Drew68]

I beg to differ. They are made "after hours" in the Epiphone factories in China, but they use crap wood (usually plywood). They're not anywhere close to real Gibsons in terms of construction or playability. These things flooded ebay about a year ago, and it was just a matter of time before they started showing up in the US on resale.

It is hard to say what quality these instruments were. I've seen some Fender and Gibson fakes that were horrible instruments and very obviously fake in that they didn't even really look like the instruments that they were supposedly counterfeits of.

On the flip side, there are very convincing counterfeits out there that could easily command several thousand dollars from knowledgeable buyers.

[ScreamingFist]

On the flip side, there are very convincing counterfeits out there that could easily command several thousand dollars from knowledgeable buyers.

Negative, they command thousands of dollars from people that think they're getting the real deal......and the chinese and koreans have cashed in....

[Terabitten]

It is hard to say what quality these instruments were. I've seen some Fender and Gibson fakes that were horrible instruments and very obviously fake in that they didn't even really look like the instruments that they were supposedly counterfeits of.

On the flip side, there are very convincing counterfeits out there that could easily command several thousand dollars from knowledgeable buyers.

There was a big to-do about these on the guitar forums a year or so ago. The ones coming off ebay were utter garbage, from all that I read.

One-offs by individual luthiers may, indeed, be spectacular - Max and Derrig come to mind immediately.