Fake Test pressings
Or how I was stupid enough to get ripped off on Ebay


Since I published the story below in 2008 I have received several mails from people who also have been ripped of by various con artists on Ebay, especially Vinnie Reed alias aliasthecompass (vinnies wife) alias plasticplatter. Here is one of the stories. And in September 2010 it seems like one omenhexx tried to sell several test pressings on Ebay, see notes on Greek Iron Fist.

My 2008 story begins here:
Lately there have been a lot of fake white label auctions on Ebay. I want to inform you about my experience from this. The following persons have all sold fake white label pressings to me:
bluepyevinnie
aliasthecompass
plasticplatter.

All those three are the same person. The fourth is a seller who claims he is located in Spain. He is
ariadnar2006.
A fifth highly suspicious seller is also located in Spain and could be the same as ariadnar2006. He is
didac20050.

They take ordinary stock copies and have discovered a way to bleach the labels and remove the print. Bluepyevinnie also colours the labels sometimes and ariadnar2006 puts a small sticker on the labels over the parts that he does not manage to bleach very well. There are also a lot of scratches visible in the run off groove and other traces on the vinyl. Bluepyevinnie is not that clever because if you look at the stuff he has bought for himself you can find stock copies of the records he later tries to sell as white labels. He also makes most of his auctions private which makes it hard to track the buyers. So why has he so good feedback? Well, as the blubyevinnie he at last got a lot of negative feedback after several years. So he made all his feedback private and stopped doing business as bluepyevinnie. Instead he started up a new alias, plasticplatter. And if someone complains about his stuff he says he has sold them in good faith and offers a refund. So he manages to get good feedback. And then, of course, he sells and buys a lot of stuff that is ok. But check out the following link:

http://curiousgoods.yuku.com/topic/380/t/real-or-fake.html

Ariadnar2006 and didac20050 are quite stupid compared to bluepyevinnie (or aliasthecompass or plasticplatter). They only offers test pressings. And when asked why Ariadnar does not seem to understand the question. Could they (or he because it is probably the same person) have connection with someone who has been working in the record industry or maybe they have been working in the industry? Well, check out their stuff and make your own mind up if you find that likely.

Anyway, they have managed to trick me. With bluepyevinnie I did not discover the obvious traces on the white labels until I had bought several of his stuff so I have lost a lot of money (about GBP 400). But I have the records still and have made pictures of the labels where it is possible to see traces of the stock labels. With ariadnar2006 I bought a record from him in the beginning of 2008 and was verys suspicious since he had so many test pressings for sale so I examined it very closely when I received it. And, just as I thought, you could see that the label was an ordinary stock copy that in some way had been bleached.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
Ariadnar2006 and didac20050


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