Fakes And Counterfeits On eBay
As most record collectors can attest, there are certain titles from your “most wanted” list that will never find their way into your favorite local shop. When this happens, it’s only natural to expand your search beyond the brick-and-mortar retailers to online destinations like Discogs and eBay.
If you are thinking about buying sealed vintage albums, particularly on eBay, be very careful. There is currently a rash --more accurately, a plague— of carefully faked “original sealed” LP’s, many with allegedly “rare” stickers, selling for very high prices. We’ve recently had the opportunity to examine some of these eBay fakes, and have found them to be clean used albums that have been re-sealed with new shrink wrap, and with modern laser-printed counterfeit song-hype stickers.
Beatles - Rubber Soul w/ StickerExamples of both fake (left) and real (right) song hype stickers on a shrink wrapped copy of the Beatles' "Rubber Soul" LP. The fake one fooled us until inspected under a very bright light, which provided evidence that it was a high-quality, laser-printed forgery.
Perhaps you’ve been searching for that elusive sealed Beatles White Album with the rare track listing sticker, or maybe a sealed Led Zeppelin IV with the “Stairway To Heaven” and track listing stickers, or perhaps a copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico with a perfect, intact banana. Or maybe that incredibly rare Bob Dylan portrait insert in a sealed copy of the Highway 61 Revisited LP. Perusing eBay, you might conclude these elusive gems have never been easier to acquire - or so it would seem, with the quantity being offered by certain eBay sellers. And how about the seemingly endless array of incredibly rare, even previously-unknown 'song-hype' and ‘title' stickers affixed to perfect "vintage sealed" LP’s? All of these can easily — and miraculously! — be found on a single eBay seller’s listings. Isn’t it unusual (and alarming) to see them offered over and over again, nearly every week?
Elvis - Fake Mono PromoElvis Presley Special Palm Sunday Programming Counterfeit version of rare 1967 RCA radio show LP which has etched matrices. Genuine examples have stamped matrices.
The sheer number of allegedly sealed vintage albums with rare stickers, original acetates, white label promos, and gold and platinum record awards from major artists make these items look relatively common. In the real world, they are definitely not. Most of what we see on eBay are modern reproductions and counterfeits, made by unscrupulous sellers looking to make a quick buck from passionate and novice collectors alike.
In nearly 40 years of selling rare records, the number of Velvet Underground & Nico LPs we've had with fully intact banana stickers is shockingly small. Genuine Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd acetates or record awards are incredibly scarce. You might not get that impression from the results you see on eBay or Popsike.com, but that doesn’t change reality. It’s hard to tell a collector their treasured acetate or sealed album with rare stickers is a worthless, modern day fake. Unfortunately, we have to do that far too often.
Fake Elvis AcetateElvis Presley "That's All Right" Acetate Fake version of 10" metal acetate of 1954 Sun Records 78rpm with forged Elvis signature. This is one that we believed to be genuine when we acquired it in the late '80s. Due to our later investigation, it was determined that this was a clever fake likely made in the late '70s. It looked so amazing at the time, that we bought it for a lot of money. This proved to be a very expensive (but valuable) education.
The old adage remains true: If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Our advice? No matter where you choose to shop, buy from a trusted seller who will offer a money back guarantee, with no time limit. If a seller won’t indefinitely stand by the products they claim to be genuine, ask yourself why…and steer clear. Good luck, and happy hunting!
- Rockaway Records
