Best or worst 'fake' CDs

This seems to be a growing concern. Long out of print titles suddenly 'popping up' online. Quite cheaply too, in some cases! Having recently been burned with a decent looking, but ultimately fake edition of the Barry Gibb 'Now Voyager' album, I wondered how many more people had been ripped off. They're not all bad, but some are quite horrible! What are your best or worst fake/bootleg CDs?

 

the smelly beatles stereo cd box that cost me $100

 

I guess you mean counterfeits. There are no best ones. "Best counterfeits" is a contradiction in itself. They all suck.

 

Not a CD but I did get a fake "vintage" Beatles 45 complete with picture sleeve. Checked it against known variations after I bought it from Amoeba and it was a fake....a very good one.

 

I know what you mean, but a lot of people don't realise that their fake CDs are fake! Some are quite well produced and at least try to look the part. The Barry Gibb CD I mentioned is one such disc. If I didn't examine those old MCA CDs thoroughly I doubt I would have known...

 

Is this the black 2009 box set?

 

yes

 

I disagree. I have some great boots in terms of quality packaging and sound. Those are certainly better than a CDR with crap sound and a xeroxed cover.

 

I didn't even realise they bootlegged that! I bought mine from Amazon shortly after it's release. Hope that it's genuine!! How could you tell it was fake, BTW?

 

That's what I meant.. Nobody WANTS fake CDs, but with some it's hard to spot that they aren't genuine...

 

If anyone wants to post pictures of their 'treasures', that would be good. I actually haven't got many, but my sh%#€y iPad camera doesn't do them justice..

 

it smelled bad ! literally the smell! & bad glue of the sleeves.

 

I am unable to find out what this thread is about? Boots? Counterfeits? CDRs?

 

Hence your original post! I didn't pick up on that!

 

Anything you've bought that turns out not to be the official version of the CD.

 

Please.. terminology matters. Counterfeit equal pirate equal boot.

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/detecting-a-pirate-cd.311245/page-2#post-8606858

 

Counterfeit equal pirate boot?

I don't understand.

 

I probably got the same Barry Gibb CD from EBay like the OP did. The thing is, it looked legit and sounded great. Same with a copy of "Living Eyes" I had bought. Anything on EBay that says the seller is from the "Russian Federation", it's a boot.

 

There are few "good" counterfeits. Fortunately, they are often easy to spot online. Many counterfeits of early CDs can be identified by inspection of the mirror band or hub area. We've seen counterfeits of Japanese pressings with unusually wide mirror bands. Also, counterfeiters can't reproduce the aluminum hub of West German pressings. In some cases, counterfeiters have done a poor job trying to match the font on the label side of the disc. For new CDs, look for spelling errors.

 

Exactly. TBW are we allowed to talk about bootleg over here?

 

The smelly Beatles mono cd box that also cost me €100 (but which I luckily got back).

 

This was my one and only counterfeit. BEYOND on CD was issued in Japan for a very brief time in the '80s, so when I spotted this on eBay, I foolishly leaped for it at a cost of something like $90. Once I received it and looked carefully, something looked off. The fonts didn't match what Japan was releasing for A&M in this era, the A&M logo is from the wrong era, there's no JASRAC logo which should have been there, and next to the bottom line it says "Mae by Canyon Records", missing the "d" in "Made".

After a lot of back and forth with the seller and eBay/Paypal resolution, I was declared the winner, but the counterfeiter wouldn't give me a proper address to send the thing back, so I ended up with both the CD and my original funds.

But - bottom line - the sound on the fake CD is excellent, as was the reproduction of the cover art. So while I still don't own the genuine article, this is not a bad representation.

Harry

 

Looking at the picture, it's not bad! The spelling mistake is weird but I'm not sure if I would have picked up on that one being fake!

 

The only things that gave mine away were the too wide band break around the hub and the fact that the disc felt flimsier than an 80s MCA CD would... The printing on the CD and the artwork were excellent! Sounds great too!