Ayu (are you) Knocked Off? Bootleg hater thread

[HarukaKamiya]

Yeah, my first Ayu purchases, minus two albums off eBay that I was THANKFUL were legit Japanese presses (Duty and I am...): MY STORY, (miss)understood, A BALLADS, and, one year later, Secret, were MIYA RECORDS bootlegs. I didn't know they were bootlegs at the time, although I found the CD labeling kind of odd for the latter three. When I did find out they were bootlegs, I was PISSED. I immediately gave them away to a friend of mine.

On the note of buying things from China, you CAN get legit Chinese pressings off eBay. The Chinese presses of Ayu's albums have a red square logo for China Record Shanghai Corporation, the official Chinese distributor. They are cheap as hell, and it is obvious from the way they're printed and manufactured, but still legit.

[Chibi-Chan]

I bought a bootleg 5 years ago when I was new to J-Music and hadn't known of bootlegs. Now I buy only about YesAsia or about ebay shops witch high rated.

[happiholic★]

I think my copy of RAINBOW may be a fake or an overseas version. My best friend bought it for me from somewhere here in Toronto, so... I don't have the heart to tell her, either.

[erika_ayu]

wow that Together When bootleg is gorgeous XD
but most of the bootlegs that I came across were just really badly manufactured

[Earth_maiden]

I have a few bootlegs that I bought back when I thought it was okay to buy bootlegs...

But I'm slowly trying to replace them with legitimate versions. Still have about 4 DVDs to replace.

[TeamAyu2004]

I hate getting bootlegs.. I'm always ify about the ebay stuff, but everything I got off it is real. I got the obi and everything... so unless there really GOOD fakes, then... bla!

[toniayu]

How to know that one copy is fake?All my ayu things are from yesasia or cdjapan but i bought a complete all singles this summer on ebay the seller was headynana and i'm so worried now...

[HarukaKamiya]

Originally Posted by toniayu

How to know that one copy is fake?All my ayu things are from yesasia or cdjapan but i bought a complete all singles this summer on ebay the seller was headynana and i'm so worried now...

headynana sells legit copies of Japanese albums. I've bought a few things from her store a few times before, and I can vouch for her promise that they're legit Japanese presses.

[toniayu]

^ thanks ^_^

[Andali]

Alion is also a fake one too, like the miya ones. Compare your supposed fakes to your real ones. There's text on the spines like ATVCD etc. Some fake ones say fml and others have none at all. The quality is usually not that good like duller. I'm thinking of doing a name and shame blog and showing people how to spot a fake.

[Eewyi]

Please don't be so tough to overseas [aka Chinese and Korean, Taiwan etc.] presses. As I own many overseas versions myself, [I usually buy em if I don't need DVD version, or if there isn't one] I can say that their quality is as good as Japanese ones. They even have same first press extras as Japanese ones, the only difference is that they might have Ayu's name in their own language [LOVEppears for example, however that one has quite big one in the cover..] and a translation sheet.

I made good deal on eBay this Christmas, since I got many brand new and first press remix OS albums from Ayu. However, when buying from eBay, you must be pretty careful. There might be many bootleg ones. So, when shopping something from eBay:

1. The first thing is to look at the information the seller gives about album. If there is some mistakes in the names etc. You might want to skip that one. If the seller gives wrong information for the album, it has high change being a bootleg.
2. If the seller doesn't have any picture, or has wrong or odd looking picture of the album, don't buy from them at all.
3. One of the most important ones: look who is the distributor.
Official distributors of China:
China Record Shanghai Corporation [has red square on the cover]
or
Avex Asia Limited (Hong Kong)
Official distributors of Korea:
S.M Entertainment [has their logo and silvery sticker on the cover]
I don't know any other official distributors myself, but if someone knows please let us all know about them!
Please notice that all OS presses should have Avex logo(s) somewhere in the CD.
Known bootleg distributors:
AnimeCast
MIYA Records
Some others? Those two are at least the most famous ones.
4. Look at the feedback the seller has got. If it's good, it's usually okay.
5. Look at the other items in the seller's store. If there are any bootlegs, stay away.
6. Look at the location. Yes, I have got myself many 100% legal OS presses from Chinese sellers. But you never know...
7. If the CD has DVD or is DVD, check the region code. There isn't any official release from Ayu which is "All region". [Usually the DVD is region 2 or 3]
8. When getting the CD, check that everything is okay. If there is even a little mistake or missing information, you might have bought yourself a bootleg.
[Check http://eneabba.net/ayu/]

All of you can add something to this list if you wanna ^_^
I can take some pictures of my CDs I got from eBay if someone wants to see them~
Luckily for me, I haven't got any bootlegs. Yet...

[Sugichan]

I made a lot of purchases online and this has never happened with me with Ayu however there was a website (not Ebay or an auction site) that I ordered a Gackt DVD on and when it arrived I was horrified to notice it was a bootleg. The song tittles were misspelled and besides the DVD cover the the whole thing was obviously homemade. This is why I mostly shop at Yesasia or Amazon and try to avoid third party sellers. I never want this to happen with an Ayu CD or any other Artist for that matter.

[rusuke]

Originally Posted by Sugichan

I made a lot of purchases online and this has never happened with me with Ayu however there was a website (not Ebay or an auction site) that I ordered a Gackt DVD on and when it arrived I was horrified to notice it was a bootleg. The song tittles were misspelled and besides the DVD cover the the whole thing was obviously homemade. This is why I mostly shop at Yesasia or Amazon and try to avoid third party sellers. I never want this to happen with an Ayu CD or any other Artist for that matter.

Fortunately, I haven't bought a bootleg copy of any Ayu CDs but it happened to my GACKT DVD too! I wasn't so careful that time and I'm so crazy to get any GACKT stuff that time and when the DVD came I was horrified and devasted when I received a MIYA RECORDS copied of SDSN concert. And it happened to me TWICE of the same item!

like picaflor, my father loves bootleg DVD too!!! Even though we (me and my sister) keep telling him it's not good he would still buy it (and we'll watch them too!!!hahaha)

[Kazeyomi]

^
You made a useful e-buyer guide .
When I was new to j-pop, I bought some Ayu cds and DVDs from local sellers in anime-conventions. And they were all MIYA records bootlegs =_=;.
I highly recommend to see the eneabba site Eewy linked it's really useful.

However, e-bay it's a great site and not so untrustworthy as most of people think. You should be just careful when you buy. Usually I buy from headyana and Dora's store. I always recieved stuff in good conditions and not from strange records companies.

[JackieRos]

when a cd says "only to be sell on signapore, korea, china blah blah" and it doesn't mention japan does it mean is fake?

[Eewyi]

Originally Posted by JackieRos

when a cd says "only to be sell on signapore, korea, china blah blah" and it doesn't mention japan does it mean is fake?

No. That's a "warning" which is given to all CDs and also games in all parts of the World. [For example, Japanese press of Ayu CD says "Only to be sell and use in Japan" or something like that, and my USA version games says "For sale, rental and use only in USA, Canada, Mexico and Latin America"]
It's the way to control local sales I guess.
So it's not fake ^_^

[Queen Bee]

^Nope. All of Avex's overseas versions say that on their DVDs and I believe CDs as well.

[isthisLOL?]

I got a miya records A Museum sold by a GERMAN shop, and not just an ebay shop, but an actual DVD-store in Hamburg that also sells over ebay!

[Kanzaki]

^
Then I think you've been had Maybe they themselves don't even know, lol.

[Heavenly]

I bought A MUSEUM DVD from a member here few months ago, and it's a MIYA Records... I was so pissed... >_<