A fool and his money...

Aaaah cassette tapes...

We've all heard the age-old proverb "A fool and his money are easily parted", well it should probably read "A fool and his money are best parted via the internet", Almost weekly I receive some kind of heads-up notification about something someone has seen on ebay that to them immediately shouts SCAMMER!

And to be fair, 99% of the reports I get from users are probably correct! (I'm probably the 1% that cries SCAMMER when someone actually has something legit)

It comes down to three things, simple economics (there is value to someone in making fakes), ease of creation (photocopy, dub over an old tape, stuff into old cassette box) and ofcourse the final sale (ebay, tshirtslayer, metal trade forums etc)

What does really amaze me is not that people are making bootlegs, but that people are stupid enough to pay - sometimes - big dollars for these items.

Can the market place for these fakes be split into two sides?

- Those that are too ignorant and sheltered to realise that creating a fake cassette tape is as easy as photocopying some paper and dubbing over a cassette tape

- Those that probably don't even think that far but often have way too much spare cash in their pockets - "when I was a kid" paying 50USD+ for a demo tape was completely and utterly out of the question, there was simply a lot less economic incentive for bootleggers to bother because the distribution mediums were a lot more limited

This item http://www.ebay.de/itm/Morbid-December-Moon-demo-1987-Death-Mayhem-Thorn... is currently sailing past the 55USD mark for a bit of plastic and a quick photocopy

It doesn't take long to look at his other items and realise.. fuck me.. all the tapes and paper booklets appear to have the same handwriting and virtually the same age difference (the paper printout is aged but the actual cassette seems to be miraculously unscathed, like he swiped what was left of his mothers bulk-pack collection of blank D90's ready for a Demis Roussos dubbing of god-like-proportions.

So where to from here? Well, I don't personally think there is much that can be done about it - people simply are too gullible and the mediums for sale are too numerous to stop any kind of trade, we can't ban the scammers from the forums, there's really no point in calling The Police to do anything about it (I don't mean Sting, Stewy and friends)

At this point, I'm almost willing to just say To hell with it, if you guys have way too much cash and you probably have never handled a cassette tape before, then too bad to you if you lose probably hundreds of dollars!

Just for prosperity i've included some photos of the other tapes one alleged scammer is selling, you can tell me if there's something fishy or not! Check the similarities in the paper aging process, cassette age etc

...

In summary, ... I really don't have much to say, just be aware that the booklet is just a matter of photocopying /reprinting and that you can still buy any obscure blank tape you could wish for from ebay..

Now I'm no Graphologist but it doesnt take much to figure this one out..
Check out the similarities in the "G" and "E" and "N"'s

Hell, SOMEONE BUY THIS MAN A DIFFERENT MARKER TO USE!

Don't be fooled... Don't trust anything on the internet (not even this article!)