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Do all Bespaq pieces have a sticker?


kokomo

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I just bought a Bespaq curio cabinet from the Bespaq website in their bargain basement and it came in the mail today but there's no Bespac sticker on it anywhere. Are all of their pieces supposed to have some sort of stamp or sticker attached so it can be identified as a Bespaq? It just crossed my mind that maybe the bargain basement items aren't genuine Bespaqs but I'm not sure.

I was also curious if anyone knows anything about the Meirucorp furniture. I see it on eBay all of the time and it seems almost as nice as Bespaq. It looks to be pretty good quality but then again I've never owned a piece. I googled them but can't really find any information about them other than that they sell their stuff on eBay and Amazon. Does anybody know anything about them?

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I like everything I’ve seen from them but honestly thought they were/are a competitor of Bespaq - I bought a few pieces of Bespaq at a show recently and some had stickers and one didn’t even though I know it’s a Bespaq - I wish there was some consistency. 

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There are only a very few manufacturers of miniature furniture in China. On the Meirucorp site I recognized items from Bespaq, Lee's Line and Aztec. I recall the owner of Lee's Line telling me one year she had switched from one workshop to the one that made Bespaq's furniture. These small manufacturers, or as they'd be better named workshops, will sell product to anyone who'll buy enough of them. Meirucorp is a Chinese company that didn't design or commission the pieces, they're just willing to buy whatever they can get at a lower price and resell it at discount.

One of the reasons Aztec, Handley or Bespaq, for instance, will be out of items for a very long time is because the Chinese won't ship unless you have a full 40 foot long containerload of items. That means thousands upon thousands of pieces of miniature furniture have to be shipped at one time to any one US miniatures company. There are super cheap miniatures on Ebay that are sold directly from China at wholesale prices, just another reason I decided to get out of the business. It was just becoming a frustrating pain in the neck, and although I always made a profit, I just didn't feel like it was worth the aggravation any more.

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The cabinet that I bought has a picture of the item with a Bespaq watermark over it so I assumed it was a Bespaq piece. Not that it matters that much because I like the cabinet but if I wanted to sell it someday to fund other minis I cannot rightfully say it's a Bespaq if it doesn't have a sticker, right?

I assumed that Meirucorp was a competitor of Bespaq, too, but it sounds like Meirucorp isn't very loyal to any one particular "workshop". What is a workshop, anyway? A manufacturing company on a small scale? I wonder if Bespaq does the same thing as Meirucorp as far as purchasing from other workshops goes.

I've seen all of those cheap miniatures on eBay, sometimes selling for a very healthy profit. You can buy almost all of them on AliExpress for peanuts. I haven't ever purchased anything from AliExpress myself but have spent hours browsing their site. It's definitely tempting but I'm too scared to actually do it! lol

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23 minutes ago, kokomo said:

What is a workshop, anyway? A manufacturing company on a small scale? I wonder if Bespaq does the same thing as Meirucorp as far as purchasing from other workshops goes.

The "factories" that make miniatures have around 10 to 20 woodworkers. I've seen a video Bespaq showed of the place where their miniatures are made. When people think of factories they think of big machines churning out hundreds or thousands of things at a time, but the miniature furniture "factories" are really just woodworking shops. Bespaq uses one particular workshop exclusively, I heard, however, that sometimes the workers are willing to put in overtime to make more money by making extra product which they'll sell to some Chinese distributor without Bespaq's knowledge.

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Hunh. Like Meirucorp, perhaps.

When I think of Chinese imports I do think of big factories with machines just spitting out gobs of product. Somehow I don't picture the employees sitting there hand carving every piece. But I suppose that's why places like Bespaq can justify charging so much money for their furniture. I would be really interested to take a close look at two of the same Bespaq pieces to see how they differ. Might restore my faith in "hand" made anything.

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Sometimes they have stickers, sometimes the logo is stamped into the wood. And the sticker blue has dried up on some pieces I’ve bought. I’ve also bought pieces without stickers or stamps.

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Well, I'll just assume that my cabinet is a Bespaq then since it came directly from the company itself. Just one without a sticker. I guess it's like Susie said, they're not very consistent. That's good to know.

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I'm joining this conversation a little late, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I've purchased many pieces directly from Bespaq - and am therefore confident they are not counterfeit - and the markings (or lack thereof) vary greatly. Sometimes the pieces have no markings, sometimes there is a sticker, and one of my larger, more expensive pieces has "Bespaq" engraved in the bottom. I'm guessing that the way Bespaq marks their pieces has evolved over time. You've probably read about some of the legal battles because Bespaq's designs were being copied illegally. My guess is that some of the older pieces (like the "bargain basement" ones) are less likely to be marked.

Although it would be a little tedious, you could attempt to document your sale as being direct from the company if you're afraid it'll be challenging to prove that it's a genuine Bespaq piece in the future. Maybe you could save your invoice and print out a copy of the web page that shows it's photo on Bespaq's site.

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Thanks, Cynthia. Yes, I'm keeping the invoice. I'll also take a screen shot of the page. For this purchase it's not that big of a deal since the cabinet I bought is a very low sticker price item but that's all really good to know for the future. In case I ever buy (or can afford!) anything a little more substantial.

I had no idea that Bespaq is, or has been, in legal battles but I'm not surprised. It seems that there is always someone lurking around in the corners just waiting for the next unsuspecting victim to come along. ;)

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