How can I tell if my CD is a fake

DaveAshton

Wow, you bought something on PriceMinister and it actually arrived.

I thought people just listed stuff there then forgot about it

fuzzybear01

Well after reading a very good Ebay guide I am convinced it is fake. I smeared the cd label with a tiny bit of water and the print has smeared around. That has never happened with any genuine CD!

nutsohazelnuts

Thank you all, this has been very educational.

Millionaire

pitkin2020 wrote: »

sorry but all the advice you have given is way off the mark.
The plastic aorund the centre hole can contain a letters/numbers mixture of both or be absent in original disks from the publishers or aftermarket cd-/+ R.

Secondly the dye on the underside of the disk again can be any colour dependent on the disk, from a solid black, blue, purple, green or a mirror finish )plus colours in between) and again thats irelvant to telling if its a fake.

Please dont get confused or believe the publishers of music use disks that are different from what is available on the open market for anyone to buy, they are the same. The only way to tell if it is truly fake is to look for either a hologram, or look at the print quality for any flaws and you can also put it in to a computer and see if the track listings come up with there proper names rather than just 1-10, if the person copying was too lazy to type or get the names correct. Even then its still hard to tell if its fake.

Whilst the Manufacturers may be the same the process and disks are different.

Genuine Cd's are pressed from a master copy whilst fake's are normally 'Burn't(thus the Dye makeup is different).' In general you'll find most Genuine Cd's have a Silver colour but they can vary as you say ( I have a Special Edition red one)

It is possible sometimes to tell a fake by just looking at the underside.

squack

its a shame it didn't come with proper cd case ... in the eventuality that the fake robbie cd gets lost in the post on the way to france , would it be morally wrong to copy the disc before sending it back?

pitkin2020

fuzzybear01 wrote: »

Well after reading a very good Ebay guide I am convinced it is fake. I smeared the cd label with a tiny bit of water and the print has smeared around. That has never happened with any genuine CD!

thats a good way as the ink used is usually from an inkjet which is doesn't like water

pitkin2020

Millionaire wrote: »

Whilst the Manufacturers may be the same the process and disks are different.

Genuine Cd's are pressed from a master copy whilst fake's are normally 'Burn't(thus the Dye makeup is different).' In general you'll find most Genuine Cd's have a Silver colour but they can vary as you say ( I have a Special Edition red one)

It is possible sometimes to tell a fake by just looking at the underside.

i appreciate that but the point i was trying to make is you cant tell if its a fake by solely looking at the dye colour, yes there are differences that can be distiguished most burnt copies do not fill the entire disks surface so you can see where the burning has ended, where most master copies use the entire disk as its padded out so you wont see the line (ring) but you cant say a purple disk is fake, thats like saying all red vauxhall astras are cut and shuts!!

Millionaire

pitkin2020 wrote: »

i appreciate that but the point i was trying to make is you cant tell if its a fake by solely looking at the dye colour, yes there are differences that can be distiguished most burnt copies do not fill the entire disks surface so you can see where the burning has ended, where most master copies use the entire disk as its padded out so you wont see the line (ring) but you cant say a purple disk is fake, thats like saying all red vauxhall astras are cut and shuts!!

That is what I was referring to when I said that you can sometimes spot a fake by just looking at the underside. Most CD-R's also tend to have a light 'lime green' colour compared to most Genuine copies that tend to have a silver underside.

I have between 700-800 Cd's and I would say about 99.9% of them have a silver underside, although I haven't purchased any for the last few years as I just download music now.

Out of curiosity which CD's that you recently purchased have a Purple surface? or were they DVD's?

pitkin2020

most retail disks are silver or have been for the last few years but more recently last 2-3 years various colours are emerging.
The disks i bought were house music disks, cant remember title now i was flicking through my cd wallet in the car the other day and noticed them, and sadly reminded me of this thread.

bylromarha

Contacted seller regarding the DS game and told him printing misaligned and poor, official logos printed wrongly and that I didn't think it was genuine.

The response? It's from the US...

In the post on its way back as we speak!