A few days ago I came across a auction on Ebay.
The seller offered a 'original' US Deram mono lp for auction.
In fact it was a counterfeit he was selling.
Long time ago I owned the counterfeit of it and when seeing the scans of this auction I remembered how to spot the difference.
The counterfeit has a label with a ring near the center while originals have a ring that is more towards the outside of the label.
The counterfeit also has a darker photo on the back of the sleeve than the original.
The counterfeit had a plain white sleeve inside.
I talked about counterfeits with Ruud and he said it would be a good idea to have more indept info and good quality pictures on the Discography site.
So let's all help to make the site even more better than it already is.
I can provide high quality pictures and info on the counterfeit vinyls I still own: Roundcover / Dresscover Japanese first edition / Station to station sleeve / Liza jane (2 different ones).
Please provide Ruud with all other high quality pictures and details of things like the US Deram counterfeit.

I have what I understand is a counterfeit cartoon cover MWSTW.

I bought it knowing that is was such.

If someone can remind me how to tell the difference i'll happily scan the relevant bits.

Christian

I was actually already planning on creating a list of all counterfeits with pics and info how to recognize them. I have most counterfeits myself - I will only need some pics of originals

not so easy to scan in this case, as it's the matrix number in the dead wax that is the giveaway: stamped on the original, hand-scratched on the counterfeit. the cover is less easy to identify without a trained eye or an original to hold side by side with it. it's slightly soft looking in comparison to the original but a scan won't help in this case.

thanks Matt,

for the record i'll have a crack at photographing the (presumably) scratched matrix number.

Thanks,

Christian

and fingers crossed it's a stamped matrix and you have an original.

i think the cartoon cover version of TMWSTW i own is an original with stamped matrix numbers. i will post a picture as soon as i can, probably this week end.

Here are some pictures of my 'The Man Who Sold The World' cartoon-cover fake. As I said, I knew it was fake when i bought it 20 or so years ago in Record and Tape Exchange, Notting Hill for 12 pounds. Some money then but clearly not the price of the real deal.

Christian

I see that the train has started rolling. Great !
Maarten please tell what you don't have in your collection of counterfeits so that we can try to make your list as complete as possible.

i've just token these few pictures trying to keep the same view angle as the pics christian took so you can compare more easily. the guy i bought it from swore it was an original, and it seems so.

I have the following counterfeits:

- Liza Jane
- Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola white label
- Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola blue label + sleeve
- Prettiest Star

- Deram US mono LP
- TMWSTW dress cover Japanese issue
- TMWSTW dress cover Italian issue
- TMWSTW round cover
- TMWSTW cartoon cover
- Hunky Dory picture disc
- STS colour cover
- Low red vinyl
- Star
- 1980 All Clear
- An Evening With David Bowie

I only have one version of Liza Jane, so I would need scans of the other version.
I think these also exist, but I don't have them:
- Memory Of A Free Festival
- Bowie Now

Does anyone know of any others?

My idea is to describe and illustrate how to recognize the counterfeit, and if possible do it in such a way that you would be able to spot a fake from a small eBay image.
An example: the round cover counterfeit can be recognized by some scuffing on the top of the cover. What not everyone knows is that you can also see from some of the stars that are cut off on the counterfeit, but not on the original. On a lowres image that is much easier to spot than the scuffing.

Some of the counterfeits (like the Deram LP, TMWSTW cartoon cover and the Ragazzo Solo single with picture sleeve) are quite hard to spot from an illustration of the cover alone, so I would like to provide high quality images of both the original and the counterfeit for comparison.

I don't own all the originals, so I will need high quality scans (and maybe pictures that show matrixes etc?) of most of the items above (and they have to confirmed originals of course). I do have the late 70s RCA promo's in original form.

excellent matrix shot blackbeard, i couldn't get anything legible close up like that with my basic camera. this more than clarifies the differences.

Maarten which one of the Liza Jane do you own?
The one with the small runout groove or the one with the big runout?
I can provide pictures of the one you don't have.

The big runout groove I think (not 100% sure as I can't compare of course!)

I am not a real crack in shooting pictures.
But hopefuly these pictures are good enough to show the big runout and small (like an original) runout groove pressings.
The numbers are both hand scratched one small and the other one bigger handwriting.
It's just a small difference but it is a difference anyway