I'm concious that more and more people are being duped into fake items on ebay lately and thought I'd post this one just in case anyone's thinking of bidding.

Whilst this might look like the bargain of the year.....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/...RK:MEWA:IT

It's a German boot version made to look almost identical to the original but with some subtle mistakes.

Hope no one gets caught but thought it worth a post just in case.

Glad you pointed it out Gav.

I've notice a lot of very rare stuff appearing in larger numbers of recent. For years they were few and far between, now all of a sudden, we are gettin lots of...

MPLS single
Gett Off Damn near 10 min
The War CD
Apollonia 6 (still!)
Vanity 6
Various unheard of promos

Very suspect.

Now where did I put that Salvador Dali really rare EP

Gav said:

It is in storage with my faberge eggs, declaration of independance and hitler diaries....(still sealed M/M)

.

Nice one.

Hopefully no-one will get duped.

IIRC the subtle changes/mistakes are:
On side 2 "Rockhard in a funky place" is mis-spelled "Rockard"
Orignal copies have a barcode sticker on the sleeve (although I have seen a fake with this too)
Original copies have the catalogue # on the spine of the sleeve.

EDIT>>>Looking at that one listed, either it is a different pirate pressing than I have mentioned above or they have used a stock photo of a legit label.
[Edited 2/8/05 5:26am]

He's been clever by showing only the label of side 1

However this has several layout errors on it.

Gav said:

You're right, the copyright info on the outside of the label comes round too far - it should not reach the same point as the tracklisting. Here's a pic of a genuine label for anyone who wants to compare.

Good spot serpan

I've emailed the seller as its possible they don't even realise its fake

Ebay seems to be getting out of hand lately with fake items

Gav said:

Oh they know it's fake - the previous high bidder withdrew their bid stating that they believed the item to be a fake and there was no proof of it's authenticity. I guess they must have read this thread!

Ebay seems to be getting out of hand lately with fake items[/quote]

Problem is the differences are quite subtle. Usually you know its a fake from where you aquired it. A guy recently offered me a copy which he bought in a record store for £15 back in 88/89 (assumed it MIGHT be genuine). But remember from day 1 this item was rare. The vinyl certainly did not reach any stores in the UK. So anyone who had it day 1 would realise what it was. Also if there was a rack of 10 copies thats another give away! Problem is that its hard to tell the German 'fake' from the original, thats the Ebay lottery... Sounds like a few folk have either seen this item or asked the right questions.

Gav said:

Why don't you report it to eBay and get the auction pulled?

Thanks for the heads up guys.

starbass said:

Have done it in the past and quite frankly starbass, ebay don't give a monkey's

As long as they get their listing fee they're not interested.

For example, there's one well known Prince trader, Neil McKay, who for the past 3 months has still been listing on ebay and hapily taking money yet not sending anything out. He now has nearly a whole page of negative feedback yet ebay say that he hasn't infringed their trading rules and therefore he can still list items.

Gav said:

True - there's a certain person on eBay who is constantly listing burned copies of bootleg DVds for sale (including fan made "trade only" discs), in direct contravention of the rules. I know that this person has been reported numerous times, yet eBay does nothing.
What's Neil MCkay's id - I'd like to read the feedback.
[Edited 2/27/05 8:09am]
[Edited 2/27/05 8:09am]

gsh said:

http://feedback.ebay.com/...l_s_mackay

Gracias!

I have bought several times from this guy and never had any problems. I wonder what has happened (to him)?

Gav said:

I know what you mean although I have reported several fake items in the past and they were removed, it all seems rather random as to whether they are pulled or not. Remember..."eBay is just a venue" which is their way of saying "we can't be bothered"

Just had an email from the seller.

He was selling it on behalf of a friend and wasn't aware it was a fake.

Gav said:

Yeah yeah!..he is so concerned he has cancelled the auction
[Edited 3/1/05 3:54am]

starbass said:

Ummm...I don't think so, the auction is still up:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/...4704397295

serpan99 said:

Yes but he has added this at the top and the "Ready to bid" area.

Please do not bid on this as it is a copy apparently

Probably just doesn't want to go throughthe hassle of pulling the auction or maybe wants to see if anyone would still buy it knowing it is fake.

gsh said:

Nope, he didn't wanna go through the hassle of pulling the auction. After I put to his attention that it was a fake, he reacted with something like "so it is true". I guess he had hoped to get a good price, but after the different emails he had about the fact that this is a pirate, it was dawning on him that this is indeed not a genuin oficial copy and thus no money. If he puts it up again he is lying, but my guess is he simply didn't know. (or maybe I'm naive)

gsh said:

I had not seen this myself, as it is mentioned ont he bottom of the auctionpage. Weird that he didn't just cancel the auction though...

Hey there,

Question: does anyone know how I would be able to tell the difference between a real Gett Off Promo Vinyl and a fake? Any help would be appreciated.

floralelephants said:

Photo's at http://sleevographia2.fre...0USA11.htm

Of course. . .I never checked Sleevographia [stupid me]. . .

One thing though, I haven't opened up my copy. . .so I have no clue if it is legit. The cover looks the exact same. . .

You know what would be cool?

If one of you guys/gals made a website on how to tell the differences between fake cd/records and real ones. Maybe show pics as examples. Any if we all collected the numbers inside the middle of the CD and create a list of what numbers to look for, in case the boots are that good.

Link it from Prince.org

That would really help out a lot of people here.

Any recommended resources to utlize in the interim?