Anyone notice the cheap black-triangle Abbey Road CDs on eBay recently?

Over the past week or so, I've seen several black-triangle Abbey Road CDs offered with low Buy It Now prices on eBay. One seller, iluvkaykay, has offered several copies. Just yesterday, another seller, way2skinny04, offered one. Both sellers are in Massachusetts and both use the same auction description and pictures, so perhaps they are one and the same. Here are links to two auctions that are current.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4061158134

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4061385778

Has anyone bought one of these discs? Are the sellers legit? I'm just curious. Something that gets me is the sellers' comment about the catalog number. These sellers say the following:

The "17A1" part suggests that they are quoting the matrix code. If these sellers have multiple copies, I wonder if they all have the same matrix code.

 

Keith, those two sellers are the same ones who are offering what I believe are bootleg copies of The Bee Gees "Living Eyes" CD. The photos of the Bee Gees CDs clearly showed that they were not West German Polygram pressed discs.
It's unlikely that dozens of copies of these rare titles have suddenly shown up. I smell a counterfeiter.

 

Dave, thanks. I hadn't checked the sellers' other items. Is it just me, or do the clear plastic ring and mirror band on the Abbey Road disc look odd? When I saw the first copy on eBay, I asked the seller about it, and he said it was just glare. I don't buy it. Something looks strange there.



Assuming these are counterfeit copies, my guess is that reporting the sellers to eBay would do nothing. They are not obvious illegitimate CDs like bootleg live recordings. Maybe eBay would take action if a buyer were to complain.

 

Geez, iluvkaykay has Living Eyes for a mere $30. I recall seeing one of these auctions a few weeks ago and realizing that something was up. The disc has a clear plastic ring, which suggests it's a fake. Buyer beware!

 

Keith,
Nice research on that one. I don't normally look at titles I already have.

Here's one that I find funny this Heart self titled triangle. The seller has been trying to sell it for a couple weeks. It normally sells for $10-20 dollars. He was asking $45 for it before. Now he is asking 26.20 British pounds. IMO, to confuse a buyer into thinking they are getting it for less. They are not. The CD looks legitmate though.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4059455163&rd=1

 

Those suspect Abbey Roads do not look like this one.

 

The Living Eyes CD they have on offer looks as though it is from the same factory as their Abbey Road discs.

There's your answer.

 

Yes, indeed they do. Unfortunately, many fans and collectors are not familiar with certain manufacturing details regarding early CD pressings, so they bid on them or pay with "Buy It Now" not knowing that the item is a fake.

I figured it was just a matter of time before these slime bags started booting the Toshiba "Abbey Road" Black Triangle pressing. Perhaps they used the fake Bee Gees "Living Eyes" CD to test the waters.

And I wonder how long it will be before we start seeing counterfeit West German Target CDs?

 

Thanks, Aaron. I saw that Heart disc. That bignoiseny seller is a total pain. First, he's overpriced. Second, he doesn't accept PayPal. Third, he doesn't show pictures of what he's selling. Fourth, he uses that pre-approved feature. :thumbsdn: :thumbsdn: This seller has offered some nice discs, but I've refused to buy from him because of these issues.

I've been wondering why this seller has been listing items in GBP lately. It could be that he's trying to give the perception that buyers are getting a good deal. Of course, the amount in U.S. dollars is shown right under the GBP price. Alternatively, it could be that he listed discs through ebay.co.uk when they were having a free listing offer or something like that.

One last oddity about bignoiseny is that he will use the same auction item number for more than one item over time. When he sees that a particular auction is winding down with no bidders, he changes the description to a different item and extends the auction a few days. That way, he saves listing fees. I've noticed this because I've stored some of his auctions in My eBay and then noticed a completely different auction title and description for the same link a few days later.

 

Absolutely correct. I saw this auction several days ago. That one looks like my copy, excpet that mine doesn't have the red ink in the plastic ring or all the marks (scratches?) over the label design.

 

This is scary. I would think that one would require expensive, non-everyday equipment to make reasonable-looking fakes. Hopefully this is not a growing trend.

Once again, my frustration with this is that it would probably be very difficult to convince eBay that these are fakes. You would end up explaining CD manufacturing details to someone who knows nothing about it. It's easy for the layman to look into an artist's discography and determine that some live concert CD is a bootleg. However, convincing the layman that an Abbey Road CD is a fake is something else.

(By the way, I've reported sellers of obvious concert bootleg CDs to eBay, and they've done nothing. )

 

Its funny that you mention "bignoiseny." I e-mailed him last night asking for condition on the UD1 of Meddle that he has since of course he didn't consider it important to list. He responded by saying "the blank side looks good" and the "the paperwork shows signs of wear" so I sent him another message to try to get him to be more specific. He has yet to respond to this message so I guess he is not interested in providing more info on the condition of the disc. I will stay away as a result.

 

Right! I complained about four issues with bignoiseny. I forgot about issue #5, which is that he doesn't state the condition of his items. He's a waste of time (and money).

 

If you look at these two characters completed auctions and items for sale, they are pretty much selling the same few "rare" items over and over again. They obviously know what CDs and DVDs command high Ebay prices, and use this information to decide what to counterfeit next.

 

In looking at iluvkaykay's feedback, most of the item numbers are listed as "Private" with no link to the auction. I've never seen that before.

 

Yeah I noticed that too...very odd. One of the 'winners' of one of those counterfeit "Abbey Road" CDs gave iluvkaykay an A++ feedback (the first Dec 11 feedback given). I guess a lot of people just can't tell when something is a fake.

 

Good observation, Keith--I saw one of those listings about 2 weeks ago and placed a bid for the hell of it, only like $30. At that time I did not realize he had a truckload full, all being fakes.

 

Yes, eBay UK had a free listing day last week.

Joachim

 

Phew! Mine's the real deal. That's not a very good fake....to the experienced buyer, but how many out there are serious collectors like we are. eBay has really gone down the toilet this last year IMO. It used to be fun. This isn't funny at all.

 

What's with the white tray on that disc from the Netherlands? My disc tray is black. It was black when I bought it new. Did Toshiba change to a white tray at a later point in the manufacturing?

BTW, for all the "quickly withdrawn" hype thrown around regarding this disc... I seem to remember it being available for well over a year. It wasn't until some big importer in California started bringing them in by the hundreds that Capitol got in a snit and forced Toshiba to stop pressing it. Sure it's still rare, but it was available for quite a while.

Kevin

 

The one we're discussing is a fake. I have seen both black and white trays for the real one although the black is much much more common.

It may have been sitting in retailers in N. America for a year, but the way I understand it is that it was only available for retail ordering for 4-6 months.

 

iluvkaykay continues to list the fake Abbey Road disc. Here's another copy, with "copy" being the operative word.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4061713957

You know, I wonder if these fakes were even made off the original black-triangle disc. Wouldn't it be real kick in the teeth if they are making copies of the '87 Capitol disc?

I'd really love to get this guy and the other guy kicked off of eBay. I reported both of them, but eBay's reporting system leaves a lot to be desired. You can't enter an explanation with your report, just the item number. I can understand that from the standpoint that eBay must wade through myriad complaints and feedback, but their reporting system still isn't as effective as it should be.

 

I guess I may be a day late and a dollar short, $57 to be exact. I was the winner of the first auction Keith has listed a the top of this thread. Somehow I missed this thread before today. I was searching eBay today when I came across the seller selling the same CD again. I also found the "other seller" selling the same CD too.

I have sent an e-mail to the seller of the auction I won demanding to know if this is a legit or counterfeit CD. I told him if it is not the actual CD, not to send it and refund my money. I am not confident he will comply, so I will likely have a fight on my hands to get a refund on this item if it is indeed a fake.

I have been an eBay member for several years. This is only the second time I have run into a legitimate problem in over 600+ transactions. The last time my credit card company refunded my money. I will keep you guys posted.

 

Jorge, I am sorry to hear that you got caught up in this. If the seller does not refund your money, you may be able to go after him with eBay's Square Trade service. I used the service once a little over a year ago. Back then, they offered two levels of service. One was a basic free service where they would contact the other party on your behalf and try to facilitate an amicable solution. The second option cost a nominal fee and provided some higher level of support. I went with the free option and did not really research the pay service. In the end, Square Trade worked for me. I haven't looked into it since, but I imagine that they offer the same levels of support. Just something to think about, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

 

Jorge I'm sorry you didn't get here in time. I sure hope you used Paypal. These con artists took every precaution to be certain they could do the crime and then vanish. They've covered every base knowing eBay is slower than a Slug in getting things done. Just sad.