Since July 22nd, 2008. WORK Co. LTD. has switch wheel ID from sticker type to punch mark on inner barrel of each wheel produced and assembled from our factory in Japan. This is only available on our two and three piece wheels, Emotion series wheels will remain the same. The punch mark shows the Wheel model, wheel size, offset, disk type, bolt pattern, finish, bore size and production serial number. This is to help with wheel identification on quality control, authentication and warranty claim. We encourage all WORK wheels owners to regeister their wheels through our website, so we can keep track of your wheels specs. Any WORK Wheels without any identifiable ID will not be cover under warranty!.

I have been reading a lot of people's opinions about grey marketed products lately and I just wanted to give you guys an insight on how this all affects our industry, to the consumer as well as the re-seller.

Grey marketing is NOT illegal. To the average consumer, grey marketed products are usually appealing because it may or may not be a cheaper alternative. What people need to understand is that when you purchase a grey marketed product, because the re-seller did not go through authorized channels, there will be no honored manufacturers warranty on the product. Usually a proof of purchase is needed when performing and submitting any warranty work and if the product was not purchased from an authorized dealer, you'll mostly likely be turned away. Another downside to buying grey marketed products is the lead time. You may be waiting months at a time on your product because the re-seller does not have any priority with backorders or they may be trying to stay under the radar if too many vendors are asking questions or conducting an investigation to find sources. There is never a 100% certainty that the product is even genuine when it comes to grey marketed products. Vendors are also selective on who they sell to. They evaluate the the re-seller's ability to serve customers, product knowledge, and enthusiasm of the product itself. Some companies have no other alternative than to resort to grey marketing because they were denied to be authorized.

What you as a consumer should know is that grey marketing is illegitimate. Official U.S distributors, importers, and manufacturers such as NISSAN North America, Mackin Industries, HKS USA, Nukabe Automotive spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing and advertising their imported products. They have full support and cooperation from the Japan operations on grey marketing. All the pictures, ads, events that you see are all funded by the U.S importers and own the rights on the intellectual properties that were created by them. Grey marketers use this to their advantage and make no contribution to the companies that spend the money to promote all these products. Yea, you may or may not be paying a slightly higher mark up than getting it through the grey marketer, but you are making a positive contribution to the industry by purchasing from an authorized dealer. When a grey marketer is using the marketing tools of a U.S importer to sell a product but not purchasing through an authorized source is unethical and illegitimate. It also hurts the vendors that are authorized or buying through authorized channels because they're losing the sale. Purchasing through an authorized dealer will give you peace of mind knowing your product is authentic, your manufacturers warranty will be honored, and will help the cycle of success to the automotive industry and culture.

Your support as a consumer is a lot more important than you think. Your purchases from authorized vendors help support their business which in turn will help support all the marketing companies and publications. Publications like Super Street and JTuned help promote the culture that we all have a passion for here. For the most part, grey marketers are out to make a quick buck. They may claim that they're bringing products in at a lower price to help the market but in the long run, it only hurts our culture and delays us from progressing in a positive movement.

This thread may sound biased to some, but these are the tolls and affects of grey marketers as a whole. I am not trying in any way to tell forum members what to buy from who, your hard earned income is what you want to do with it. I think that it is important for people to know the affect on both ends of the spectrum of what grey marketing does to our culture and it is not a positive one.