Fake mono White Album on ebay

I stumbled on this the other day. I can't believe that there are dumbasses who would bid on this and I am surprised it hasn't been taken down yet. It is laughably fraudulent, from the description and pictures to the seller's credentials and not accepting paypal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/BEATLES-WHITE-A...md=ViewItem&pt=UK_Records&hash=item2eae3573d6

 

Hmmm.
Curious. Photo location is consistent with seller's older auctions. Style of auction matches his 20 feedback score.

What about the photos don't you like?

 

The description reads like something out of Babelfish.

 

No. 0000000.

 

someone will be along with some information at some point. Maybe.

 

A mistake by the seller, it sure looks like 0000006 to me. I predict that this one is going to go for megabucks.

 

The seller appears to be Italian so his English may not be the best. I didn't think that being a foreigner was an executionable offence on eBay? I also think that the number is actually 0000006.

 

Is the label suppose to be blank?

 

The cover, the inserts, the inner sleeves, etc. all look authentic to me. The only thing that seems odd (other than the ridiculously low number) is the blank labels.

 

Don't know if it's fake, the vinyl (if the the labels) appear have some age to them, however alarm bells ring at the refusal to take paypal as this blocks some buyer protection.

 

+1..I did not know it had white labels too..hmmm hopefully Jakobian will chime in and tell us about those labels.

 

I guess there is always the possibility that I am wrong, so maybe someone could edit the thread title. There are too many red flags though and whoever bids on this should do so at their own risk. To be fair to the seller, the misreading of the number on the jacket would suggest he did not doctor it himself.

 

We can all look and make our own guesses.

From the view count it's not coming up high on everyone's radar.

I predict a big finish.

 

I think the problem there is that paypal can also block the sellers protection.

 

I asked the seller what would be the preferred payment method. So far, no reply

 

This is a fake - if you believe anything else you are out of your mind.

 

Details please

The only way I can see of faking this is to make stampers from an existing mono record.

Discounting the discs, what of the cover, inserts and inner bags? They would add a premium to any other mono copy in worse condition.

Provenance is skechy; seller is skechy but seems legit so far as we can tell from the limited info we can find on eBay. Seller's other items including a Kiss single that sold for $2 are 'mega rare'.

If everyone thinks the number on the cover is fake, that's fine. That makes it a few hundred instead of thousand.

I can't help thinking that someone ran off some low-numbered covers for a joke, or for themselves, during the original release period and that they also managed to score an unofficial pressing. Using a blank label is one way of having an excuse when leaving with them.

So far, other than the 0/6 ambiguity, we have no refutation of what the seller is saying. That means someone might get garbage for their UKP40, or mono addition to the retirement fund.

No, I'm not bidding. However it wouldn't be in my local store anymore if it appeared there and looked like the photos.

 

Seems like a lot of work to counterfeit a top loader and stampers.

 

The No. 5 pressing sold for over $29,000 USD, it was not a small premium. The loader and stampers are not relevant and never caught my attention. The suspicious part is the undocumented white label and a number stamp that would make this the second earliest pressing that didn't belong to a Beatle. It may be a real copy that is being grossly misrepresented in the attempt to bilk someone out of many thousands of dollars.

 

I'd like to have a close look at this one in person, but thanks for snapping me back to reality with your concise psychiatric evaluation.
I must have been acutely delusional to think there's a slim possibility of it being a genuine pre-production test pressing.

One thing I don't see though, is the tell-tale pressing imprint on the label near the spindle hole, like the UK copies.
Then again, who's to say where it was pressed even if it does turn out to have authentic UK stampers, inner sleeves and cover.

 

That's true, but with really solid provenance from the record executive owner and some following up Beatles experts. AFAIK there were several sets of low number white albums, each set distributed to separate groups of record execs who were each of course very happy. Very low numbers were retained by Apple/the Beatles themselves. I'm pretty sure that's why number 5 was so sought. There wasn't a number 0, we don't count from 0 we count from 1, especially in the pre-computer age. Anybody know about separate mono and stereo numbering, or were all the early covers dual purposed?

You can see the center circle pressing mark on the top right label if you zoom it. Just.

The cover is laminated, and I think I can see tell-tale indenting of the 'No' part of the number. Like many covers, the impression is blurred to one side by pressure. I do think it's number 6. I feel it's a sample or other illegitimate pressing, and that someone in the plant turned the numbers down for fun when making 'their' cover. If the presentation copies were exactly like this, and that ought to be out there, then this is one. I'm pretty sure the presentation copies all had real labels. I've very seldom seen white blank labels on UK LP pressings.. not until promo 12inch singles were the rage, in fact, in the early 70's.

Fun to watch, though.

 

If you need a "psychiatric evaluation" go for it.
But yes, you are delusional if you are going to send your money and expect to receive genuine pre-production test pressing. There are too many red flags about the seller and the product offered.

 

It shows PayPal accepted for me. Also shows this although I haven't read the terms yet.

 

Well, not sure, but if I look very closely at the 2 last pictures, I can see some glue residue, maybe someone for any reason has cover the original labels with the white ones.

 

Now at GBP 1128 (4 days to go)