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Just my 2c...

Generally though, there have not been any comprehensive fakes in the Tamiya world.

Sure, the chinese have faked Tamiya kits going right back to the 1980s. But they were easy to spot as they usually weren't even sold with Tamiya logos on the boxes (Supershot clone), or were called something different (that Fox clone called the...ripper? stinger? something).

The closest thing to a hard-to-distinguish Tamiya 'fake' are Tamiya's own re-release parts, which fans of original cars usually don't want. But since there's no subterfuge about those, Tamiya clearly label them however they need to (making them easy to spot).

Otherwise, Tamiya collecting and black porsches and so on are all such a tiny, niche market. The chinese are too busy faking Louis Vuitton handbags.

And as for private individuals who use their mad modelling skillz to fake stuff, well...I think collectors will usually work it out. Lars has figured this one out based on nothing more than an internet pic

cheers,
H.

I think that at the end of the day, the term "Fake" really only means something if the item you buy is intended as an investment for resale at a later date for a profit, or as something to show off to people as a jealousy-making "Look what I've got" statement. If you've bought the item for a price you're willing to pay for it, & just because you like the look or feel of it, or appreciate the workmanship etc, then I'd say it doesn't matter if it's the genuine article or not.
In fact, in the tooling world, you very often find "Fakes" that far exceed the quality of well known brand stuff, for a considerably lower price. Does that mean the faker should be made to stop trading & we all use inferior quality tools because they're the real thing?

Guess the bidders knew the difference also...
An original would surely do more than $500.
For that price it's probably not a bad buy at all.