First I would like to say that I watch japanese anime from various sources, youtube, official dvd release, fan subs, and cartoon network etc. The craze of japanese anime has been taken advantage of by greedy counterfeiters and scammers who ripoff fan subbed series or subtitle the episodes themselves which is poorly done and even poorly translated. So how can you safeguard yourself against purchasing one of these low quality dvd boxsets?

• Do not buy the dvds or dvd boxsets from sellers in China, Singapore, or Thailand. Where do you think most of these bootlegs originate from? Am I discouraging people from purchasing anything from these asian countries, yes! because the government of these countries are doing little if anything to stop the rampant bootlegging and distribution for a profit of illegally copied material. EBay seems to encourage this type of activity when they don't punish these counterfeiters, or a better word would be criminals.
  

• Of course not all counterfeit anime DVDs are from those asian nations, some are made by anyone who has access to a dvd burner, dvd label maker, inkjet or laser printer. I'm talking about the people who burn the fan subbed series on their blank dvds and label it with a sticker to make it look official. Its not official and what they are doing is illegal and unethical. You can usually spot these types of dvds because they have some odd number of episodes to an on-going popular anime series such as Naruto, One Piece, or Bleach. For example: Naruto episodes 1-200 + movie or Bleach episodes 1-140 + OVA + bonus. The number of episodes change because new ones are constantly being released every week. Don't be fooled by these people, you can get all of these episodes for free from fan subbers.
  

• Obviously fan subs are illegal once the anime has been licensed, but what about series that have long ended and only contain about 24-26 episodes. There are different ways to spot these bootlegs. Some sellers don't show pictures of the actual item being sold or post an image of the main characters of the show. Those are the dvd burner bootleggers. The asian bootleggers actually show the product but its in some 3-4 foldout box case. Sure, the box art and case looks nice, but the content within the dvds are a completely different story. The subtitles are badly timed or poorly spelled, sometimes the subtitles are way off in terms of translation. The picture quality leaves something to be desired (like good quality picture!). The official release of dvds usually come in ONE dvd case with ONE dvd containing at the most 4 episodes. You can pick these up at local stores such as BestBuy or at TokyoPop.
  

• What subtitles would tip you off to bootlegs?
  
• Bootlegged dvds from China and Singapore usually have Chinese and English subtitles.
  
• Homemade dvds most likely have English subtitles but you can tell its homemade when you watch the Intro scenes of anime series and see it was subbed by some fan subbing group.
• What would the price of a bootleg be?
• The price of one of these boxsets varies, but the price will usually be very low. Read carefully though and look through the entire auction. Even though the price may be low they usually try to circumvent eBay fees by charging super high shipping rates to run the costs up to the actual price of the boxsets which range between $20-35 for a 26 episode boxset depending on how popular the series is.
  
• How can I tell if they are homemade dvds by looking at the description or images?
• If a seller describes his anime dvd boxsets as having original artwork but no picture of what you'll actually be receiving, than you can safetly assume its a homemade burned dvd because he has no courage to post pictures of his homemade dvds. Sometimes these sellers will post an actual image of what you'll be getting, and the item just screams: Don't buy me! The picture image on the dvd disc itself will be crooked or not have the title of the anime series printed on the disc. This is for homemade dvds only, the bootlegs from China or Singapore have for the most part have passable dvd labels on their discs.
  
• Save your money for official releases or just download the fan subs till its licensed in your home country. Sometimes the bootlegs you buy won't even work on your DVD player or if they do work some episodes won't play or isn't even visible. To get a replacement you'll have to send your DVDs back ( on your own money and time mind you ) to the seller in Asia and then wait for him/her to send you the replacement. That process will take 2-4 weeks give or take depending on if your seller gives a damn about your DVDs. And who knows if the replacements are any good, they probably don't even bother to check them because thats a waste of time to them.
  

Thank you all for reading and taking an interest in how to prevent funding these criminals and hopefully I've helped someone from buying a dvd bootleg and wasting their money. I have purchased bootlegs before on eBay and the quality on a few of the dvd videos were good but the subtitles ( timing, accuracy, and spelling ) were just plain AWFUL. eBay's marketplace are flooded with bootlegs, don't buy it if you know they are fake because you'll regret it. I know I did.