Starbucks City Mugs - Fake Relief Mugs

Fake Relief mugs

In 2016 the first fake mug of the relief series surfaced. Don't worry, if you buy your mugs in a Starbucks store, it is guaranteed that you have a genuine mug. But mugs can be counterfeit when bought for example on Ebay or Ali Express, especially when they are shipped from China.

The first fake relief mug is the red Shanghai mug. It was sold on Ebay by a seller with the following names fun-fang, Letussell2011. He also offered the blue Shanghai relief version 1 (the regular series) - that mug is suspicious.

Overview fake relief mugs

confirmed: Shanghai Xmas Relief 2013 - red mug
suspected: Shanghai Relief mug version 1 (regular series)

Genuine Shanghai Xmas 2013 mug

Bottom of the fake mug

Bottom of the genuine mug

Bottom

The bottom of the mug contains a lot of fouls. The lettering and spacing is off in many places. On the top row, there is a space between "DISH" and "WASHER". In the middle, the "B" in STARBUCKS is clearly a different size/font.

The size of the cup on the counterfeit mug is 16 fl oz / 473 ml. On the bottom row, the date is incorrect (it should be 2013) and there is no space between "STARBUCKS" and "COFFEE", no space after the period and no space between "RIGHTS" and "RESERVED".

Logo

If you look at the close-up of the siren logo, you notice that the logo has no nose on the fake mug.

On the fake mug there's an extra dot on her chest (is this supposed to be the nose?). The "TM"-letters are to big.

The eyebrows are identical on the fake mug, the genuine mug has different eyebrows. Tge right one is longer than the left one.

SKU-stickers

In the past a SKU sticker on the bottom of a mug was a guarantee that mug was a genuine Starbucks product. Nowadays even the SKU stickers are reproduced - stay alert!

Icon mugs

Information about fake icon mugs can be found on this page.

Thanks

I like to thank David Archwamety for the pictures of the fake mug.

Information

If you come across fake relief mugs, please let me know. I like to warn people on this page.

Last update: 2020.03.29

Created: 2016.03.13

Google Sites

Report abuse