BonkleFanatic

What's your opinion on knockoffs? I'm talking about those nearly perfect duplicates you can find on sites like Wish, AliExpress, DHgate, and TaoBao. What do you think about them? I personally am not that big of a fan of them, but since G2 is so expensive, you pretty much have to buy them if you don't want to turn your wallet into a nuclear wasteland. Example below

I bought one of them from Aliexpress and I got it about a month ago. It's honestly a pretty good copy, but there's obviously problems. The trans pieces were slightly less glossy than the originals, the bone and shell pieces were extremely tight or really loose, the pins and pin-holes weren't molded very well and had problems connecting, and some pieces were very sharp. However, for the price you'd pay for a knockoff vs an actual set, it's worth it.

Yeah, it's pretty sad how now one of the only ways to get cheap G2 is to buy the knockoffs.

I think Bricklink and brick and mortar Lego stores are the best option. A lot of the sellers on eBay and Facebook Marketplace are usually just selling stuff they found from their kids or stuff they found. They (sometimes) aren't very experienced in pricing sets and will usually charge you a lot of money for somewhat minuscule sets. G1 sets on eBay and FM are alright, they sell for usually around 1.5x their MSRP, but G2 is a whole 'nother story. Last month, I got a sealed Skull Slicer off Bricklink for $8 and current listings for G2 on Bricklink look a lot lower than they do on eBay. However, I do agree with you that sets do get gobbled up fast. A few weeks ago, I saw a listing (bid) on eBay for a parts lot, and in the picture, you could clearly make out a Tahu Uniter, Ketar, and a headless Pohatu Uniter. People jumped on that bid and it sold for around $40 IIRC. I'm not very experienced on thrift stores, but I assume that you could probably pick up some G1 sets, but probably not G2, since they're relatively new and people might still want them.

Same, I really wanted to collect G2 back in 2015 but I could only afford one Toa and one Protector

I've been prowling eBay, Bricklink, and Amazon for Bionicle G2. Obviously, I'm gonna give a pass to Amazon considering everything there is overpriced. However, G2 on eBay and Bricklink have seemed to increase tenfold ever since I last checked on them a few years ago. Why? If G2 was a true flop with few people buying it, why would it sell for so much on the aftermarket? G1 sells for relatively cheap, and that line and in an extent it's parts have been gone for almost a decade by now.

I have bought a bootleg Umarak the Destroyer by the brand KSZ off Aliexpress. Please forgive me for these crimes. Okay, other than that, has anyone ever tried bootleg Bionicle sets, specifically KSZ or XSZ? If you have, please reply.