China has started making Venture Titanium 5.2 Hi counterfeits, specifically the 2018-ish P-Rod golden eagle model with the white graphic on the hanger.
4 dead giveaways for me:
1) These are a 2018-ish model but are sold as brand new
2) Sticker on the baseplate list production used the DD/MM/YYYY date format, genuine ones use MM/DD/YY
3) Sticker on the baseplate has the "pass these trucks along after you're done skating them" text, which to my knowledge only appeared in 2020
4) Price, these are $35 shipped to your doorstep, typically retail for twice that
Probably won't matter to most of you guys but I'm imploring your help. My buddy and I have been warning our local scenes about counterfeit Bones bearings, Baker / Crail / Toy Machine decks, Independent trucks and Spitfire wheels. No knocking anyone for buying or using them, they perform adequately or above their price. Our issue is online retailers and legitimate shops marketing them as genuine and selling them at full price. So we are doing our best to educate our local scenes: watch out for counterfeits.
Asking if anyone on here has a pair of 5.2 V-Titanium Hi, ideally the same model in relatively good condition. If you're able to send us pictures of how much they weigh, stickers the baseplate, general condition, that would really help out cause. We are doing a series of post on IG on how to spot the fakes and need photos for a side by side comparison. US branded trucks (especially Thunder and Titanium) are exceedingly hard to come by so your pictures would help us do a good side by side comparison.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001724255941.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.2adc2ab1hpORMW&algo_pvid=7d7ce43e-9b30-4d87-86c7-3964bc9bfc6c&algo_expid=7d7ce43e-9b30-4d87-86c7-3964bc9bfc6c-1&btsid=0bb0623f16053700747428162eef99&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_Here is a link for the trucks. The seller does not show pictures of their other trucks in sale but they are selling counterfeit Indys, probably some pressure from NHS' distributors to stem the flow to retailers.
They are also selling Venture x Thrasher 5.2 trucks with a hollow kingpin. Genuine ones only come in Standard.