In my last two black market tours, I focused on drugs in Mumbai and Delhi
and those were really really risky videos.
So let's enter the much safer world of counterfeit books.
And I'm here at the Daryaganj Sunday bookfare.
And you can find so much here including buying books by the kgs.
But if you want to buy new books, you need to be aware that so many of the new books here are just counterfeits.
So I'm gonna show you how to identify those counterfeits.
And if you want to buy counterfeit books, you need to know how much you should be paying for them
so you're not getting ripped off.
And you can tell I'm in the right place because
I've already been sold a fake bottle of Bisleri water called Brislie.
Yeah. I'm really at the right black market here.
Now I've got a copy of Michelle Obama's number one selling book.
It's not the kind of book I would read. I'd rather be reading about Indira Gandhi.
Anyway, we are gonna use this book, we are gonna go around the market
and try and find some counterfeit copies.
We're gonna find out what the best price is we can get for these counterfeit copies.
And then I'll show you how to, like, compare and make sure you're buying a real copy, if that's what you want.
Okay so the pricing is pretty clear now.
It's based on the thickness of the book.
And that Michelle Obama book is pretty thick.
So a 100 rupees is the best you're gonna get because these guys need to make a little profit as well.
And I'm guessing their wholesale is somewhere around maybe 50-60 rupees per book.
So the thinner the book, the cheaper it will be.
If it's really thick, it's gonna be like a 100 to 150 rupees.
And as a foreigner, I don't think you're gonna get below a 150 rupees to 200 rupees for a book here.
But bargain hard and maybe you'll get it for 100 rupees.
There are a number of ways to tell a fake from a real book.
And the first one is the print job.
And the print job in these counterfeits is so bad.
The covers look like they've been photocopied, literally.
One of them's matte actually and the other one's shining.
And the print jobs in these books can be so bad that sometimes they're even missing pages, like,
it's just a blank photocopy page.
I had that when I bought Shantaram off the street here in Mumbai.
Be a great place to buy because it was siting there but..
Yeah, the counterfeit copy was missing so many pages.
It's a thick book.
So I totally understand why they screwed up photocopying a bunch of pages in that one.
Inside the book, nothing is printed straight. It's all on an angle.
And then when you get to the photos, the photo printing is terrible in the middle of the book as well.
Secondly, check the binding.
Most authentic books don't use this kind of thin white glue.
They use kind of a thick, almost clear, glue that will keep the book bound together.
These books, the glue is so thin on that, they're just gonna fall apart after one read or so.
And then thirdly, you have the huge huge price difference.
So the counterfeit book was under 2 dollars American
and the authentic book was around 11 dollars
or 14 dollars if you want the hard copy.
So basically if you're buying a book and it's not from a legitimate retail store here in India,
it's likely a counterfeit if you're buying it here off the street.
And I understand why Indians buy these counterfeit books
because for the price of one book, 700 or 800 rupees,
they can buy like 10 or more depending on the thickness of the book, right?
And Indians just don't have 700 or 800 rupees lying around, you know.
The average Indian doesn't have that much to spend on one book.
So I get why this is kind of here and why people are buying them.
But obviously, the author doesn't get paid from these kind of books.
And if you want to find them, you can find them at Daryaganj Market.
You can find them outside every single metro in India on the street corners.
And while you're at an intersection, a guy will knock on your window and sell you them as well.
So they're absolutely everywhere. Long live India!