Hi, I've been filling some gaps in my collection slowly buying from discogs. Sometimes the CDs I want are OOO so there is not many people selling them. A CD I really want from the Australian Raven label is being sold by a guy in Latvia for a decent price (13 euro plus shipping). My question is, is there any way to identify if I am buying a russian counterfeit or the real Australian thing? If I buy it I have to send it to England for someone there to bring it to me in Argentina and I don't want to go through all that to end up with a fake. There are probably other people like me so hopefully this thread might help them as well. So.... should I buy from the Latvian seller?
If your not certain, i would say to not purchase it. The seller is probably a decent guy selling an honest product but if you have any doubts then dont purchase it. You can check seller feedback and see what other people have said about them of course.
Thanks, I wonder if there is a list somewhere where you can see if a certain CD was counterfeited or not. EDIT: Seller has 100% positive feedback. He has a few neutrals but no one complains about counterfeits.
Discogs lists counterfeit versions as well as far as I know, you just aren’t able to buy them anymore *though I suppose* it would not be difficult to pass off an unlisted counterfeit. I used to specifically buy certain Russian counterfeits just to get the disc in a jewel case.
Exceptions always exists, but chances of getting a genuine very rare Australian CD from a Latvian seller are almost zero.
Eastern Europe is rife with counterfeit CDs, but they're usually pretty easy to discern. Just check if the same rare item is up for sale at different sellers, often at an affordable price across various (Eastern) countries and second-hand platforms (discogs, eBay, cdandlp, musicstack, etc). If that is the case the chances it's a pirate edition are rather high.
Yeah, this is a pain. I know for a fact that there are honest dealers in Russia and its neighbors, but the prevalence of pirate editions coming out of Russia has just poisoned that whole well for me. I don't ever order from Russia or the former Soviet Union (nor, alas, from internet dealers with East European addresses). That said, different buyers will feel differently about the issues on the table, so do as you wish. It's just a massive shame to me that a whole part of the world gets a black eye just because in one country property rights are so laxly enforced (even, one suspects, gleefully ignored in some kinds of instances).
Just going to be pedantic and point out that Latvia is, technically, in northern Europe. It's one of the Baltic states, along with Estonia and Lithuania. It does border Russia and was part of the Soviet Union, but the Baltic states have different cultures (sometimes with more in common with the Nordic states, for example Estonian and Finnish being closely related languages), and are members of the European Union.
Same here. Whenever I see Russia as the location of a seller, I pass - might be real, but too likely that it isn't!
There are 5 for sale on discogs. The one from Latvia, then Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. Stories 2fer.
I seriously doubt, someone would bother to fake not expensive Australian CD. I've bought fake from Argentina once, BTW.
I wish there was a way of knowing if counterfeits were made of this cd. I like that, looking at the glass half full.
Fakes are a big thing in the metal scene, especially with OOP expensive albums. One code phrase to watch out for on eBay is "recent European reissue". That usually means fake.
I can share my experience: I've purchased 5-6 CDs from Russia and one from Latvia. They all were good, real deal. Does it mean anything? No. I've bought fake SACD of Brian Ferry from Germany. Happened to be just a CD with SACD logo (and obviously fake inserts). The guy fully refunded to me though.
My experience is that you can run into the Russian fakes anywhere. One of my favorite record stores - Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey - is a place I used live only a few miles from and went to on a weekly basis. I bought a lot there over the years. When I put my collection into Discogs, I found that several (mostly non-US progressive rock) titles that I had purchased new from that store were, according to Discogs, "unofficial" fakes. Off the top of my head, I recall that these were titles by Amon Duul II, Agitation Free, Camel, Area, Jethro Tull, Ikarus, and maybe one or two others. It was not a lot, and certainly not a lot in comparison with how much I bought from there over the years, but it was nevertheless very annoying to discover that these (often) higher-priced items were fakes.
Feedback means nothing when you have stupid people out there. I was BLOWN away at the amount of people buying the Chinese counterfeit Beatles mono box and saying 'as long as the cd's play, I don't care'. Just incredible the apathy towards these things sometimes. beave
As a russian I must say this whole thread is fake news and a witch hunt. Pirate CDs are VERY easy to tell apart from original and NOBODY here sells them as originals. There is a market for pirate CDs (people who want dirt cheap CDs) and and entirely different one for originals. NOBODY would risk their reputation as a seller selling $2 crap for $13. Raven CDs from what I remember always have big fat booklets with photos, essays etc, something pirates never care to duplicate. And please cut the crap regarding "different values" and remember that while Russia had it's share or pirate CDs, the vast majority of them were made in China and across EU.