Hey guys,

I usually don't go after cassettes since they can be copied quite easily but I gave in finally and bid on Vivida Vis and surprisingly won! BUT after reading a few posts on here and carefully looking at it. I am not sure if it is the real deal. Luckily I haven't paid for it yet, so If it IS a fake I will take the hit and get a bad report on ebay rather than pay $250 bucks.

The one thing that scares me is that it's on a Sony HF tape and I know most were on Maxell.

Can somebody help me out?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=280289805437

EDIT: FAKE! CANCEL PAYMENT IMMEDIATELY! This guy is full of shit!

The following is my original reply:
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Well, I don't know really.

1. Impact's discography (http://nofxwiki.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6674&start=0) says that Tom's First Demo was Maxell, and Vivida Vis was Sony.
2. Impact (who's a MAJOR collector/expert) got his tape from the same guy, and is convinced his is legit. Tom verified his copy, and Impact matched the labels to the ones on his First Demo Tape and Crime Demo Tape.

However...

1. http://www.againstmeforum.com/the-band-f1/youngest-pic-of-tom-gabel-i-have-seen-so-far-t2279.htm.
This is like his 3rd or 4th tape sold on eBay. Impact asked Tom, and he said "It's true that this is like the 3rd or 4th tape that this person has sold on ebay. I can't vouch for it's authenticity at all. These tapes would be really easy to fake"
2. The picture that shows the cassette insert is fuzzy, and the other pictures are clear. I think this was intentional so you can't see it's a photocopy or printout.

I'd be very wary if I were you. It's possible this guy bought a couple copies at some shows, and is now selling them off to make some money, but $200 is a lot for a risk. I'd request some high-quality pictures and send them to Tom and Impact before paying. Also, ask the guy if he has any other copies; if he says yes, ask for comparison pictures. If he says no, then you can wait to see if he puts more up on eBay, and we could tag him as a con artist (though it would probably be too late for you).

weve all agreed that the guy selling it is pretty shady but no one can gather anything substantial against him

it just seems strange that hes sold something like 3 or 4 copies so far

And here's a (tiny) picture of andy's copy



No "SONY HF" on that one either.

the guy used the same exact pictures last time (if i can remember there was one of the other side but it was blurry).

good work on getting my pic. haha
i would love to help more but im nowhere near home atm
its very shady though, does it come with the booklet?

EDIT: Nevermind

I am now positive these are fakes. I looked up an old copy of his feedback, and was able to find two other people he sold Vivida tapes to. Here's what I wrote to one of them:

Quote:

Hi there, I'm sorry to bother you, but it has come to my attention that the eBayer you bought your copy of Vivida Vis from might be creating and selling fakes. I am trying to figure out for sure. Please read: http://www.againstmeforum.com/against-me-vinyl-f14/need-help-verifying-vivida-vis-t2351.htm#72091 If you don't mind, could you please take a few pictures of your copy and send them to me? My email is ******. Also, were the pictures on your auction the same as the ones on his latest auction? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280289805437 Thank you for your time, and if you did end up with a fake, I'm truly sorry. - Mike

I'm going to go e-mail Dan, and Tom with the evidence I've found against the selle. It pisses me off so much that these assholes can make a fucking fortune off scamming honest collectors. Unfortunately, this guy knew what he was doing. Even Tom thought that Dan's copy was legitimate. I also have good reason to believe that the seller reads (or at least knows about) this forum, so I'm not going to say here how I found this all out. If he's good enough to fool Tom, I want him to repeat his mistakes if he ever tries this again.

thanks for emailing me and pointing this out. let me know if you end up taking him to small claims court. what a bummer...
here's some pics of mine...I tried to show that theres a >PS< etched into the top left of the plastic cover, anyone else have that?

Mike,

that discography that i created may be misleading as the SONY tapes were just a few copies that i saw that i knew were legit. before buying, i emailed Tom about it and he told me they used a bunch of different tapes and that there was NOT just one brand used.

though, the tape brand from the s/t demo tape i have and the vivida vis tape i have are the same, though there is ONE huge clue that has/had me convinced that mine is legit that I PMed you about.

ive never done any business with this guy, so who am i to say?
but all of this does seem a little fishy to me.
even before impact bought his i thought there was something weird about it.
i dont even know what the evidence you guys are hiding is, but i dont think id trust this guy.


say this guy actually did go to a really early show and got a copy.
what if he were to make copies of the tape and its packaging?
those labels are pretty easy to come by and obviously you can still buy sony brand blank tapes.
he could use the same type of material for the cover/insert that tom used so it looked real.
it seems pretty easy to replicate them.


and what are the chances that he had 3 or 4 of these and none of them have the booklet?




but again, who am i to say?
you know more about the situation than i do.

I am glad all of you have this insight. Unfortunately I sent my payment already.... I DID PM this kid prior to sending money and let him know that I had reason to believe he was duplicating. He then went and emailed me stating that he knew about this forum and said that Tom confirmed the previous tapes he had sold were legit. Being that he said that (and reading the thread) I sent money. NOW I am weary and tempted to file a claim with paypal. (if they will even do anything) can ANYBODY help me officially confirm this is fake so that I dont feel like an ass causing trouble? I just don't want to get shafted on $250.00 bucks that I could be spending on other items for my collection.

All I know is that everything seems really weird about this kid, and you would figure that knowing about this site he wouldn't be duplicating right? We shall see. Again if anyone knows ANY certain things I can look for to tell this is fake, that would be awesome.

I DID notice something while looking at the picture, and that is that the text of the titles are offset (like that on a typewriter) Which we know that a typewriter WAS used for the originals, but then again that can be easily copied from one label to a next (if they were photocopied)

Hope we can get to the bottom of this.

Think I should file a claim with paypal?

id say that if he ends up selling one or two more that its safe to say that hes duplicating