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

Thanks Keith! I was not aware of Square Trade. I will look into it though. Hopefully, it will not come down to that.

Jorge

 

Thanks Dave for your support! I used PayPal and it was backed by my Visa card.

 

No problem, Jorge. Glad to help. I sincerely hope that you are able to get this resolved adequately without any hassle.

 

I would imagine that these fake discs will eventually wind up at record swap meets. Can anybody here tell us the specific differences between real original triangle Abbey Roads and these counterfeits?

 

I haven't seen the counterfeit Abbey Road disc up close, but the clear plastic ring and mirror band do not look right. Someone here posted a link with a picture of an authentic copy on page one of this thread. Compare that picture to the one of the fake.

There is no way that I would buy the fake disc, but I would love to see it up close to see the quality (and hear it as well). I imagine that details on the inserts are a bit blurry upon a close inspection, as is often the case with counterfeit printed items.

 

The colors are also all wrong on the cover. That skyblue, in fact everything, is way too bright and not the right pigment.

 

Dave, I had noticed that too, but then I wasn't sure if that was an artifact of a bad picture.

 

With major enhancements like that I seriously doubt it myself. It looks razor-sharp on my end here.

 

Heh, I wonder if these bootlegs were even copied correctly, with the pre-emphasis.

 

That was me bidding for that one, his reserve was over $80.00

JohnnyH (hazel9428)

 

Hmm...I thought that one looked like a fake too. It had those strange 17-18 scratch marks around the disc and that red writing on the inner ring. Maybe one edition had that?

 

Nope, definitely the real deal. Look at the color of the black triangle itself and compare that with the fake one. Big difference. Someone obviously marked this one with red felt possibly for ID purposes.

 

Was it determined that there is a counterfeit of this CD out now?

 

The Abbey Road discs being offered with low Buy It Now prices most certainly look fake.

 

Here we have the fake first and then the real deal. You decide.

 

I'm still not sure: The difference in the look of the disc could be due to the picture and lighting and the white jewel case might have been replaced with a black one. Although it wouldn't surprise me if there was a counterfeit out now...

 

I guess the thing that bugs me the most is this...on the first (fake foto) the color seems too enhanced. Now why is the CD, especially the black color, itself so faded when the booklet is so sharp and clear? It just looks way too modern. In the second shot (real-deal) the colors match my copy exactly with the correct pigments in both the artwork and the black on the CD itself. Then there's the center of the CD-R. It is completely different and looks nothing like any other CD pressed around that time.

 

Unfortunately, unless one knows what to look for to identify an original, these scumbag sellers can easily fool people into thinking that their knockoffs are originals. They probably have more counterfeit copies at their disposal than the total number of authentic copies pressed by Toshiba/EMI back in 1983.

 

In looking at the picture of the alleged fake CD, what bothers me is that the text on the back cover of the booklet looks relatively sharp, while the text on the disc looks fuzzy.

 

One mystery can be solved: the "real deal" CD has had one of these protective sheets stuck over the label side.

http://tinyurl.com/4yvfe

 

If you're kidding Russell, which I'm guessing you are. If you're not.

 

No, absolutely not kidding! The link is to Gaylord, which sells archival & library supplies. Look at the "CD protector" they're selling. It has red printing around the center hole, and while Gaylord's picture isn't clear enough to make it out, the model number of this item is CYXF, and the Abbey Road disc does indeed say CYX. You can also make out, in the Gaylord pic, the little lines around the outer edge of the protector, and you'll see the same thing on the Abbey Road disc. Some libraries do use these protectors, for a good reason: the label side is more vulnerable to damage that can't be repaired, and (as I know from checking out hundreds of library CDs) some patrons really abuse the discs. Now, why the original owner of this Toshiba Abbey Road thought it would be a good idea to slap one of these on.. and why the eBay seller didn't mention it.. who knows?

 

Oh ok, I see what you mean. The seller of the real one has one of those type of decals on his CD.

 

Right. Some folks had noticed the red printing and the marks, and the "protector" accounts for those features. Even with the protector in place, it looks like the genuine article, and the other one clearly isn't.

 

Ahhh, cool, thanks for straightening out that mystery. The 'scratchlike' marks baffled me.