How Do I Identify A Fake Beatles Mono Box?

Wanting to save a few bucks on something that initially was selling at price-gouged rates, I bought one at a lower price from an ebay seller. I GOT BURNED BY A FAKE AND DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT! I am both disappointed and pi-double (well you know) beyond words! Now with nearly a month and a half wasted (I didn't even get a chance to listen and was going to do so at my friend's place when he told me the news - I was so disappointed, I couldn't even bring myself to listen to it yet)....with nearly a month and a half wasted since I bought the fake, I'm losing valuable time at a chance on the "real" one! I'd really like to get a real one, but I'm not gonna pay some "scalper" prices like they were selling for before Christmas, nor am I buying another fake!!! Extremely disappointed here!!!

Oh, and the telltale signs to confirm my fake? The booklet. Someone mentioned pages out of order? Mine matched that description. Additionally, two of the page sheets near the middle were cut "slightly crooked" ("crooked" like the manufacturer and quite probably the sellers of these counterfeit box sets)... Again, I couldn't even bring myself to try the discs yet, as the mere fact of their being fake is irritating enough. I left negative feedback for the seller (thankfully I hadn't already left feedback, and often wait til I confirm the item is good) and I also reported them to ebay... Now to report them to the RIAA and other groups (just gotta find the right sources and go from there)...

On the bright side, if nothing else. At least I have some cool looking drink coasters, or at best, if I'm lucky enough to acquire the "real" Beatles mono box set, I can use the "fake" box/covers to hold the backup "CD-R" copies instead (while using the counterfeit discs themselves as drink coasters).

 

not a bad idea, they are probably error-ridden or even fake stereos! Hopefully you won't have to eat the cost. Though, the fake covers are so crappily made they won't stand up to regular use.

 

You may still be within the time limits of filing a dispute. And if not, you can consider whether you want to file with your credit card company...

 

I had a very kind person steer me in the right direction (someone who happened to have a legit copy which he sold me below the original retail price) - now I have a legit copy of "The Beatles In Mono" box set! Upon comparing the real vs fake, I could see the differences! The fake one has the booklet pages out of order (and though the photo quality is good, it's as if it's being viewed through a pane of glass, compared to the legit ...obviously since it was scanned)... Labels are "almost perfect" with the usual "slight blotches" (as if printed poorly or with older equipment) while the legit appears perfect. The inner sleeves that hold the CD on the fake are crumpled thin plastic, while the legit are thin "U-shaped" plastic (like some of those early 60s albums), but stiff enough not to "crumple". The rear insert on the outside cover is darker on the fake (notably the finer print), but otherwise appears identical to the legit. Also, the fake discs were not facing the same direction and the resealable sleeves sealed from the bottom or top (while the legits seal at the end and all the jackets were in order). So all said, the counterfeit copies (at least the one I have) seems to be a very good attempt at the real thing (quite convincing unless one looks for the obvious)... Just wanted to share my thoughts...

 

There is a much simpler way to tell, at least for the counterfeit set I looked at. The legit CDs were flat all the way to the spindle hole. The counterfeits had a co-centric ridge near the spindle hole.

Do you see that difference?

 

Beatles Mono Remasters

How can I tell if the box is the real deal and not the fake ones???

Jay

 

Is there any way to tell if it's sealed???

Jay

 

Agreed,I wouldn`t even take a chance.The best way to be 100% sure is to buy from a major retailer.You don`t want to end up like me.
My stereo box cds have a KGB anti piracy warning.I began to suspect they were those Russian conterfeits.

 

Cheap At Amazon Canada

For anyone interested, the mono box is $107.01 at (and sold by) Amazon Canada so it should be genuine. I ordered one so I hope so!

 

Beatles Mono Box - Fake vs. Real

Yesterday, while browsing through my local CD Warehouse, I came across a Beatles Mono Box - price $79.99. Since I have been waiting to purchase this for a "reasonable" price, my excitement was high. It was tempered by the suspicion that things that are too good to be true usually are - I was on the look out for a fake. Upon close inspection, if it was a fake it was a darn good one - certainly not one of the Chinese misprinted ones - and while I had learned a lot from this forum about what to check for, I certainly had not memorizied all the things to examine. I talked with the manager and he agreed to have me purchase it with the understanding that if upon closer inspection it was not legit I could return it for a full refund.

I took it home, consulted our wonderful forum and came to the conclusion that it was indeed a fake. I took it back for a full refund - no issues there.

Here is my question for all of you....did anyone else access a fake and listen to it in comparison with a legitimate edition? While in my possession, I listened to "She's Leaving Home", "Helter Skelter" and a bit of "MMT"...it sounded like the mono mixes (not stereo fold downs) but I was very unimpressed with the sound particularly in comparison to the Dylan Mono mixes which sound full and powerful....these did not. (even if they had sounded great, I would not have kept the box - I don't want a counterfeit anything at any price) I would think that with technology being what it is, copying the Mono CD content would be the easiest thing to replicate (rather than the packaging). Based on what I heard, I would have no desire to own the Mono box - Is there anyone that can tell me if they had the opportunity to make a comparison on the sound quality of the box ? I know this might seem like an obvious question...if they fake the packaging why would they pay attention to the quality of the sound...but I am interested if anyone made a comparison between the two.

 

I've got a goofy situation regarding the mono box. Back before 09-09-09, I fell for the "limited" hype and with little time left before the big day, many retailers were reporting "sold out".

With diligence, I managed to get a friend to order me one through his store's ability to do so, and I managed to get in under the wire at The Beatles Store website. My thought was that whichever came first, I'd cancel the other.

The copy through my friend's store shipped first, but had to come from Montana to Pennsylvania via UPS ground. When I then went to cancel The Beatles Store order, I got sucked into an Internet black hole where my cancellation wasn't recognized. Searching for a phone number proved difficult - as it now seems in the Internet age - but I did find one, and spoke to a representative of The Beatles Store.

Their information was not only that the order must've been successfully cancelled, but they had no record of my purchase in the first place. So, relieved, I eagerly awaited my mono box from my friend's source.

This wouldn't be a story if something weird didn't happen. It did. Days after I'd gotten the mono box set, a second copy arrived. This had to be the one from The Beatles Store, yet when I tried to access ANY information on the website, the website itself had gone down and was weirdly unresponsive. I think the craziness of shut-out fans may have had something to do with that.

Anyway, I called the phone number again, got runarounds of employees who hadn't a clue what I was talking about, and finally was assured by them that they had no record of my having received a box set from them. Basically, they were uninterested in my executing any kind of return. Somehow the cancellation must have gone through on their flaky website, while another arm of their company shipped the order to me.

So in frustration, I awaited the inevitable bill to come in, figuring I'd use the credit card company to execute a return and negate my charges. Bills came and bills went, but I was never charged for this second mono box.

So, more than a year later, here I sit with a second, unopened and genuine BEATLES IN MONO box, still housed in the bubble envelope in which it was shipped. After seeing the results of the "ruined" market by the counterfeiters, my hopes of perhaps someday scoring big have been dashed. If I were to put it on eBay, everyone would think it's a fake. I don't know what to do with it. I guess I'll wait a little longer.

Harry

 

To echo others' opinions, The Beatles In Mono is still $129.99 on Amazon in the US. (Both box sets were at this price point a few weeks ago. Evidently, the stereo box must have sold well & it's price went back up (to $147.99).

Yes, many of us fell for the "limited" panic last year, me included - but I don't regret buying it when I did whatsoever - even though I paid more for it than I might pay now. I've had a year to enjoy it. (As a good friend of mine said, "you pay more to be first!")

I believe that "technically" it is a limited set - unless someone knows otherwise, I don't believe that they've ordered a third run after the debacle last year. The way they botched the communication on this set is basically what caused the over-stock situation they have now. Eventually, they'll be gone. How long that will be - who knows? Could the price go lower? Maybe - who knows?

But IMO, 130 bucks is a good price - especially if you want to guarantee that you get a legitimate copy & not a fake.

Dexter

 

As weird as that is, HGN2001, it's also pretty damn lucky, even if you can't really do anything with it. Perhaps you could pass it on to your children, or use it as a time capsule to preserve the 20th century's greatest achievements?

I guess you could say I fell for the whole limited thing as well. I figured that I was never ever going to get a copy of the set with all the obsessive Beatles fans out there in the world, so I went for the stereo remasters instead.

Cut to February, my birthday's coming up, and Amazon still has them for sale at a much better price (around the $200 mark I believe). No brainier. Now that I have the box, I can say that I probably shouldn't have bought a few of the stereo remasters (the first two albums and the two remixed ones in particular), as I rarely listen to them now that I have the mono/old stereo mixes. If I knew the box would be readily avaliable in a few months at a much lower price, I probably would have waited it out and gotten less of the stereo remasters.

Back on topic, I remember some people saying that the real boxes are odourless while the fake ones smell of ink. My box, ordered from Amazon itself, does have a very noticeable smell, but I find it quite pleasant. Too bad you can't use graphs to show smell, so we can know what an authentic box should smell like.

 

There is the Beatles Mono Box Price thread where I should tell you as of this minute you can get it at Bull Moose Music for $99.97

 

I got a Mono Boxset on Dec 6 from Barnes and noble online. It was a one day sale for $120. I compared it to a friend's who got his last year and all appears identical. Hope that means it's legit.

 

Do all the matrix codes on these mono CDs end with either a 1 or 2?

Can someone post the full matrix for a legit mono Revolver disc?

 

You're talking about the numbers around the hub, right?

REVOLVER (mono) - 6994582 2 A2 IFPI L153 (IFPI 2885 on inner ring)

Harry

 

Does anyone's mono Revolver say 6994582 M31?

 

Have you been reading this thread???

 

Barnes & Noble Boxes Defective

I bought the box from bn.com (direct from them, not third party) for $150. It arrived with a partly torn shrinkwrap, missing black back contents sheet and scrapes and black smudges on the box itself. The contents looked fine and genuine. Nevertheless, I e-mailed them and got an exchange going. Today, a new box arrived, from a different warehouse. This time it has intact shrinkwrap and the cover sheet, but the black smudges are there also. What the hell? Are they selling salvage from a sunken freighter?

Has anyone else got it at bn.com? Was it OK?

This is the first box:


This is the replacement that arrived today:

 

That first box is a fake.

 

Just look at the apple on the front of the box. The fake has the apple cut in half. The real product has a whole green apple.

 

Doesn't the genuine box have a whole apple on one side and cut apple on the other? The second box may have a cut apple under the contents sheet, I have not opened the shrinkwrap on it as I am planning to send it back also.

The first box did not have a contents sheet, and I took a picture of the more damaged side only.

Is it likely that Barnes & Noble themselves would be selling fakes? I don't think so...