How does someone tell the difference between bootlegs and real?

[Mari-chan]

Oh... the Bootlegs. WEll.. I also tried someday to buy Ayu CD's on Ebay.
Mostley, you can buy there CD's from Miya... so.. Bootlegs.
So.. I gave up searching there.
I also know about Yesasia and so on. But.. to transfer money from Germany to abroad, is really really expensive.
And I never found a shop with an german account. (-.-)

I remember a special member bought the Daybreak CD+DVD bootleg.

Originally Posted by Lee_410

I remember a special member bought the Daybreak CD+DVD bootleg.

The sad thing is, there is no Daybreak CD+DVD.

I love it when bootleg covers have completely random and odd pictures. I love it even more when song titles are misspelled. e.g. CAROLS - CARLOS.

[gothicayu]

hahahaha thats a funny title . i hate booklet because of the random tracklist who doesnt make any sense and low quality music not even to mention about the picture where sometimes you can still see the pixel . i never buy booklet .

im a collector too but i really dont like those overseas version ; if i had to choose i rather a used japanese one and a brand new os version i guess because japanese version are the first published and the " original " (if i can say that ) .

ebays have tons of fake and very few trusted seller . honestly i rather just order from a trusted website than from ebay . i rather spend a bit more money and get quality and not worry if my cd if fake or not .

[lfe.]

A good guarantee for a real is the Obi, the CD Case strip that comes with Asian (or just Japanese) music CDs. Some argue that an obi could be fake too, but its hard to duplicate the obi to pass off as the real thing so I would say its a pretty good guarantee.

Another guarantee is the CD manufacturer. Make sure that the manufacturer says AVEX TRAX. Users who are trying to sell the real thing will mention it. Users who are not will try to avoid the question. Remember that it is business and ask the seller about it. I have come across the response "It is made in Japan" often but do not let that response cut it. If it is made by Miya Records it is a fake. It is a very popular manufacturing company of bootleg Japanese music CDs. The quality is quite high and almost up to par as the original, but regardless still a fake.

The strongest guarantee is packaging. Some are used and some are brand new and not opened. A sealed, brand new Ayu album is by far the best guarantee for a real. You can duplicate a lot of things even the plastic, but you can't really duplicate all the little stickers on the CD and especially the plastic wrapping. It may take time to find one but if you are an authenticity freak like me, its worth the wait for an authentic album

[mikecavs11]

i just went to this store in vancouver today, that sold a lot of bootlegs. They had bout every ayu, koda kumi, and utada hikaru, and other japanese artist cds and dvds. at first i was like WOW i found the perfect store. but then i remember reading this thread so i looked around the cases. and all of them were from the same record company, "MIYA Records." Everything was well packaged, except they cases were slightly different from the real ones. If you own some of them you can definitely tell its not the same, but most were pretty close to the real ones. The covers were well printed. They even replicate the ones like arena tour 2005 My story.