Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Seeing that Mercury label from the Def Leppard video Joash-da-man posted made me think about my recent purchase of the Def Leppard 45 of Photograph (with "action not words" on the other side) - I can't believe someone had it on ebay and it's in excellent condition (the seller even included an extra sleeve with a plastic holder and sticker - couldn't thank him enough).

I'm not the biggest Def Leppard fan but I loved them when I was kid and the first record my Mother ever bought me was that one (so weird how cassettes and records were big together) so I bought it again recently for sentimental reasons. My father passed recently as well so I guess I've just been mildly regressing or something.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

​​​​​​​Yeah, I didn't end up buying. I'm just trying to educate myself so I know what to look for. It seems like bootlegging vinyl records would be impractical, not like CDs or DVDs. Do these guys make deals with the manufacturers to buy blemished stock? Most of the neutral or negative reviews indicated issues with warping or other QC areas. This guy has a ton of stock. The record that caught my eye was one of the hard ones to find from this year's RSD and he throws up a listing with a dozen of them at half the price of competitors.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

I bought Cut the Crap. Had to complete the Clash collection.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

And this is one of my main concerns. If they are making deals, how do you know you would even end up getting something that works and I don't like the garbage packaging they would come in.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Got my first transparent splatter platter! Man, this is so cool. It just feels so space-agey! :lol:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...9ddefd6cb.jpeg
Weird thing though ... this is what the LP looked like from the store I ordered it. I mean, it's similiar, but pretty different to me. Is variance in splatter this normal?
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...69ad868ebb.png

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Those are digital mockups - since they weren't pressed at the time of those promo-shots, that was the best they could approximate.
Splatter's the toughest to get "just right", as it's not automatic, and involves a person to actually sit there and apply the splatter during the process, so there's a lot of possible variation.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Ah, that makes sense. Looking at those pics now, yeah, it is kind of obvious that was a mockup. :lol:
Though this album has been out for over a year now, so you would think at some point they’d update their graphics with the real thing. :grumble:

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Yeah, there is rarely any consistency with splatter vinyl, that would be near impossible.

I'm sure it's not easy, but bootleggers have been making albums since at least 1969 and tons were made during the 70's and 80's. Not sure where they got the materials from, but from what I've read, some record pressing plants that would normally shut down during the midnight shift surreptitiously pressed bootleg albums in the off hours (same goes for bootleg CDs, which started showing up in the late 80's).

BTW, the terminology is as follows*:

Counterfeit albums - unofficial releases that copy all aspects of the official releases including music, label and sleeve art, to varying degrees of quality. That's the kind of release you've been describing.

Pirate albums - contains officially released material but does not attempt to look like an original copy, with different artwork, etc. Common in foreign markets where the official album was not licensed for legitimate release.

Bootleg albums - consist of unreleased material, including concert recordings, studio outtakes, radio broadcasts, etc. I have a bunch of these myself, many record collectors are ok with these as they contain material they couldn't obtain otherwise (although the internet kinda made them obsolete).

* at least this is the terminology used in some Hot Wacks books I bought back in the 80's, which attempted to catalog known bootleg releases, they are an interesting read!

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

FWIW, I think what you received looks better, anyway.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Short clip that shows the creation of splatter vinyl in action. Pretty cool.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Yeah, one of the biggest "counterfeit" vinyl records is Tool's Ænima.
Official copies go for around a thousand dollars, and Tool won't get off it's ass and officially re-issue it, so there's tons of unofficial vinyl copies of it, and some of those even fetch a good deal of money.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

I guess that's why I've never been able to find a copy of Ænima. :lol:

Looked it up, and I guess they only released it on vinyl once in 1996.

Hell, I didn't know anyone was still pressing records by then. All of the music stores around me stopped carrying vinyl around 1989 or 1990. Then records started popping up in the early 2000s at places like Hot Topic. The 90s were seemed to be completely dry when it came to vinyl and everyone switched over to CDs. Even the used record/tape/CD stores got rid of their used vinyl by then.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Oddly enough the early-mid 90s is when I started my vinyl collection - largely through garage and estate sales. So many people were dumping vinyl in favor of CDs at that time. Many in the collection I have today are albums I bought for $1 at garage sales in the summers of 1992-1996. Heck, I even remember buying one of my Thorens turntables for $20 back then as well. I debated buying it at the time (not knowing how good it really was) because I needed to walk it several blocks home.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

I'd imagine that the press run of vinyl in 1996 must have been tiny, for the few vinyl diehards that were still around then.


I wish I was smart enough to do that. Instead I dumped most my vinyl (that I bought in the 80's) on ebay around 1999-2000. Some of that shit that I got 15 or 20 bucks back then goes for hundreds now. *headsmack*

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

What I'm also surprised by is the number of young people (teenagers) that are getting into it. I initially got into it because it was cheap (see post above) and I had some exposure to it in our household when I was a little kid. My appreciation for the format and supporting technology grew as I grew older. For kids these days, vinyl is definitely not cheap and there likely was no prior exposure to the format.

I have a 14-yo nephew who recently discovered vinyl and can't get enough of it. He's buying new reissues of older albums (Sabbath, Doors, Alice Cooper, etc.). So 1) I'm glad the new generation is discovering older music I'm fond of and 2) he's one of the few people who honestly loves talking about the format with me and learning more about it as he goes. Our recent discussion was me explaining white label promo's to him and the differences between stereo and mono pressings. He was enthralled which was pretty cool.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Yeah, I went through that, too. Though it was mostly picking stuff up stuff in used record stores where it was a combination of 1) people getting rid of their records and 2) the stores blowing out their existing vinyl at discounted prices. There was a huge window of opportunity there in the early 90s when people were switching over to cassettes (in the early-to-mid 1980s) and CDs (from the late 80s to early 90s) and getting new stereos that didn't have turntables -- mostly boom boxes and ghetto blasters. I was able to put together a large collection of mostly mainstream-y stuff like Queen and Pink Floyd in like-new/mint condition.

By about 1985 or so, all of the kids in my peer group were buying their music on cassettes, so I'm sort of surprised vinyl held out in the stores through '89/'90. I was this one weird holdout who was still buying records. I think Columbia House stopped putting out vinyl around that time, too, which was also around the time I had to start buying CDs because new vinyl was nowhere to be found.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Yeah, it's cool to see, but I've read that only around half the vinyl purchased these days is actually played, it seems many youngsters buy them just to collect, hang on the wall, whatever, and don't even own a turntable. Vinyl is an expensive format to just collect and not enjoy playing, but hey as a collector myself, I try not to judge what people spend their money on, collectibles-wise. :shrug: For me they are a cool thing to collect because you can actually enjoy listening to music from them, multiple times, unlike movies or books, where you may only read/watch once or twice in most cases, or toys where you just put them on a shelf (although I have collected all of these things myself).

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

I freakin’ love Waxwork Records. It’s good to see them pressing their own vinyl now.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Waxwork has put Neil Gaiman to work pressing Sandman soundtrack records!

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

That's when I got into vinyl as well. I was a teenager in the 90s and a lot of the indie bands I listened to released on vinyl - especially 7" records with exclusive tracks that you couldn't hear any other way. I bought a lot of CDs also, but have loved vinyl from the very start of my love of music.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Good point. I definitely fell victim to the whole ebay "bootleg" terminology where anything other than an original is considered a bootleg. I was thinking the ones I was looking would likely be counterfeits if they weren't otherwise being backdoored out the factory, but more likely just defects that were being clearanced out.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

I knowingly bought counterfeit copies of the first two Bathory albums that were needledrops from the original vinyl releases, as the CD and vinyl reissues from the past twenty years or so were crap, as the record label doesn't give a shit. (and original vinyl copies are worth a shitload of money) I don't feel guilty of it because of that, and if someone is actually able to give them a proper quality official reissue someday, I will buy them in a heartbeat.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Oh wow - I believe I've got an original pressing of this one! That'd cover a few other OOPs on my wish list...

https://www.discogs.com/release/2624991-Bathory-Bathory

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Yeah, back in the day a "bootleg" was an unauthorized live recording, but the term got expanded up to apply to any kind of counterfeit stuff like DVDs, toys, and designer clothes.

Back in the 80s and 90s, bootlegs -- usually poorly recorded concerts -- were rare birds, indeed. A few indie stores had them hidden under the counter and charged exhorbitent prices for them. Then the internet came along and the same kind of material is now passed around freely on sites like Youtube.

Another thing that sort of muddies the waters is that there a lot of eBay and Amazon sellers who sell foreign counterfeit CDs, and it can be difficult to know if you're buying a legitimate imported CD or a counterfeit. And some sellers would sell cheap foreign releases/counterfeits as US releases (under the US ISBN number, no less). Those always got returned and I left a negative feedback. Even if some of them were legit foreign releases, they were being sold as domestic releases even if the liner notes were in a foreign language.

Re: The VINYL Thread!
 

Oh nice, first US pressing, I'm jealous! The "Yellow Goat" first Euro pressing is the rarest and most crazy expensive, there's one on Discogs now for $4000.00, I'll have to pass on that one. :lol: Funny thing is that I saw a counterfeit version at a record store in Toronto a few months back. I asked the clerk, "This can't be an original one, right?" and just got a shrug. Of course, the fact that it was practically mint and was "only" selling for $150 told me my answer. Lots of counterfeits of that one floating around, due to the original's price and desirability.

https://www.discogs.com/release/989083-Bathory-Bathory

We used to have a local record store/headshop that sold a lot of bootleg albums, right in the open. I picked up a couple including a live Metallica album (didn't sound great) and a Guns N' Roses one that had a bunch of songs from the Appetite for Destruction rehearsals, that's where I first heard "Don't Cry" and "Back off Bitch", about two years before Use Your Illusion came out. If I recall, they were around $30 CDN for a double album. And then a year later I saw my first bootleg CDs, I picked up a live Led Zeppelin one and another GNR one (this one had early demos of "November Rain", first time I heard that song).

And yeah, you really have to be careful for counterfeits on ebay and Amazon these days. When I picked up The Beatles in Mono boxset I had to make sure it was legit, as there are a lot of counterfeits of that one out there (luckily the Steve Hoffman forum had a lot of tips on how to spot a fake one).