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

And they wonder why people are actually stopping using eBay as much.

 

Is this true? Has it been documented that eBay traffic is down? This may not be representative of eBay traffic as a whole, but I noticed a drop-off in the volume of CDs listed on ebay.com around Christmas, and the volume still has not picked up to pre-Christmas levels.

 

Despite the loser offering the bogus Abbey Road discs, the real deal is still going for good money. Note the auction below. This is good to see.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4068043657

I believe the winner is one of our members who bought and returned one of the bogus discs recently. If so, good for him!

 

Good money, indeed!

 

Actually Keith, I've noticed the volume down a bit year after year for the last 2 years. You compare how many audiophile CD sellers were there then as opposed to now and the volume is quite significant. Way less now than 4 years ago.

 

However. It is not good to see the price! I will never own one because of the price upping like this!

Ah well.

Such is life!

 

Paul, I understand your position. I was just pleased to see that the flooding of the market with counterfeit discs hasn't negatively impacted the market for the real thing. Actually, it's possible that the effect will be opposite. Perhaps the plethora of fakes out there will cause collectors to place an even higher value on the real disc.

$165 is a bit high for an authentic copy without the OBI strip, but not unheard of. Prices for the real disc have gone up in the past year or so (starting before the fakes hit the market). It used to be that copies without the OBI strip would go for $50-60 and those with the OBI strip would go for around $150. Copies without the OBI strip seem to regularly go for more than $100 now. With the OBI strip, you may very well pay over $200. Of course, things are highly variable on eBay.

By the way, I was in a used CD shop a few weeks ago that had a legit copy without the OBI strip for $400. They are going to have it for a long time.

 

Another victim contacted me and forwarded me an e-mail she received from the seller of the counterfeit Abbey Road CD:

"just look at the bottom of the disc , the #s match the # on the side of the case cp35-3016 , it is real , do not believe jorge , i am sure he has emailed you , he is mad at me , and has been emailing all my customers no matter what i sell telling them that what i sold was fake , he has been reported to ebay , and will be getting kicked off soon , so pay no attention to him , the cd is real , just look at it , there is no way to make one that good , its impossible to do"

 

Jorge send the seller the details we have uncovered especially about the 2 sides not matching up correctly on the cover decal at the botton below the clear plastic and also mention that there's no matrix number that every real CD ever produced has.

 

With writing skills like that, he MUST be honest!

 

I see our favorite seller was on hiatus for a few weeks, but is back with another fake Abbey Road Black Triangle CD....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4700188793&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

Ya gotta love eBay enforcement. It seems that the eBay customer service guy flat out lied to Dave.

 

Guess who's awaiting a phone call back from the presidents office at eBay?

 

This should be an interesting call. We have complained so many times, it makes me sick to think how many unsuspecting eBayers have been ripped off by this seller and eBay has not given them the boot yet. I look forward to hearing your response Dave.

 

Let's hope that something does happen. The thing I can't really comprehend is that the creator of eBay, can't remember his last name but his first name is Pierre, allowing this kind of shabbiness to happen in the first place. He was so adamant regarding people being treated with equal respect and playing fair when he first started eBay in the 90's and back then you were hauled out on the carpet over infractions like we're seeing these days. Maybe he's passed away or something.

 

I admire your optimism. Based on other's experiences with ebay (maybe it was yours?) I would expect them to say "oh yes, we'll take care of it right away." And then they'd go back to their lunch.

 

Truth be told... We have already gotten one of these Jackasses kicked off of eBay. That happened because of my first phone call. Unfortunately they didn't turf this seller because they turfed the other seller. Now they're going to have to do it anyways because I will not give up. If we want it right and to send the appropriate message to these would-be cons sometimes the hassle is worth it.

 

Dave, your efforts are appreciated. The faster these idiots get kicked off ebay, the fewer of these fakes that collectors are going to have to worry about in the future. As it stands, this issue is going to continue long into the future as the purchasers of these fakes start dumping them.

 

Oh no.... They are using another eBay name now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4702538175&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

Would it be classified as irony when one of the auctions by this "dealer" was won by .......
You would think this buyer would be all over the Abbey Road disc.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=4063111692

 

From nogreenbeans' item description in his Radiohead CD auction:

"Sounds almost too good to be true, but check my feedback and bid with confidence. One thing I value most is integrity."

 

Some questions:

1. What does the music side look like? Is it turquoise-looking, like a CD-R?

2. What is pre-emphasis?

3. How does the counterfeit sound?

Thanks.

 

Nice to see I wasn't the only one awake on this Tim.

 

Hi Jay and welcome.

1. I don't know, but the fake stick-on label is a dead giveaway along with the overly bright-colored artwork.

2. I don't know, I've never heard it although others claim it exists.

3. I don't know, but I'll bet my molars it doesn't sound as good as the original.

 

Dave, trust me. Pre-emphasis exists. Take a disc that is reported here to have pre-emphasis flags and make a CD-R with Roxio Easy CD Creator. You will hear the difference. It's obvious. Cymbals sound really sharp, vocals are bright. It just sounds wrong.