Shopper's Alert! The Thread

flowersofnight

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flowersofnight

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Laurence02

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Here's an oddity: yet another copy of that DIE RAUM KUNST demo tape
https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m61744291119/

Somebody must be mass-producing these, and I have no clue why.
This particular seller seems to be plugged-in though, he recently sold a copy of the Vintage Bar 1996 omnibus featuring Er - and quite clearly knew what he had.
https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m15735632487/

You don't think it's just one of those years where stuff surfaces? I have a hard time seeing someone painstakingly copy a tape insert, dub a tape... and then return to the copier to reproduce two extra artist photos... of Die Raum Kunst, a goth unit with ties to another goth unit with ties to a goth band with ties to a well-known metal band and a previous band of a MM vocalist.
 

flowersofnight

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You don't think it's just one of those years where stuff surfaces?
It's you, isn't it, you're the guy ::meev::

I dunno, I find it hard to believe 5 or 6 original copies suddenly surfaced over the past year. In fact, having heard the tape, I find it hard to believe 5 or 6 copies ever sold to begin with, let alone survived to this day XD

My copy didn't come with the photos, for what it's worth.

EDIT: but on a more general note, Japanese sellers seem very willing to go to all that trouble for very little money, look at all those 5000Y fake X-Japan demos out there.
 

Wandering_Fox

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flowersofnight wrote:
Japanese sellers seem very willing to go to all that trouble for very little money, look at all those 5000Y fake X-Japan demos out there.

I remember buying one of those massive sacks of demo tapes back in the day and someone had included a bootleg copy of Velvet Eden's 'Fanletter Kurenai' that had bad recordings of a couple random songs. I'm a bit surprised we don't see more fake Malice Mizer demos, or even the Matenrou demos (Which you can get at the bargain price of 99,999Y on Mercari right now!)

Still waiting to hear that new X-Japan album that Yoshiki has been supposedly working on for the last 10 years... If social media is to be believed however, he seems to have been too busy these last 5+ years hopping on planes and meeting random famous people at parties.
 
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ketsurui

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Still waiting to hear that new X-Japan album that Yoshiki has been supposedly working on for the last 10 years... If social media is to be believed however, he seems to have been too busy these last 5+ years hopping on plans and meeting random famous people at parties.

Not sure how many times this supposed album can be "done mastering", but it has been a few times in the last couple years. Yoshiki just can't focus long enough to finish a project, and it definitely doesn't help that he's a perfectionist. On June 29th, 2007 at the end of the SKIN concert, both Gackt and Yoshiki made claims that they "would be back", and that we'd see some form of release by them. 13 years later, there's still nothing. In fact, SKIN's music has now been recycled into "new" X Japan music that seemingly will never be properly released. But when you can recycle and regurgitate the same 20 songs over and over again to make millions upon millions of dollars, why put effort into doing something new? It's sad, but all of these artists are aging, and realistically speaking X Japan is bound to lose another member before this mythical album sees the light of day.
 

Laurence02

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It's you, isn't it, you're the guy ::meev::

I dunno, I find it hard to believe 5 or 6 original copies suddenly surfaced over the past year. In fact, having heard the tape, I find it hard to believe 5 or 6 copies ever sold to begin with, let alone survived to this day XD

My copy didn't come with the photos, for what it's worth.

EDIT: but on a more general note, Japanese sellers seem very willing to go to all that trouble for very little money, look at all those 5000Y fake X-Japan demos out there.

I'm innocent, I promise..! :P

Sure, it might be implausible but again, who would do it and why?

As for the edit, X Japan is much more lucrative that a random 90s/00s goth unit. And someone is spending a lot less effort on them, just check the cover designs!
 

flowersofnight

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Sure, it might be implausible but again, who would do it and why?
I guess there's one other possible explanation: maybe one of the original members recently found a stash of unsold tapes and dumped it on the market.

As for the edit, X Japan is much more lucrative that a random 90s/00s goth unit.
I don't know about "much more", the fakes are currently down to 13800Y:
https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m13682911653
I could've sworn I saw some going for 5000Y, but can't find them now. 5000Y will also get you a fake of any of Dir en grey's previous bands. There really are guys out there who find it worth their time to fire up the tape deck, copier, etc. for that price.
 

Laurence02

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I guess there's one other possible explanation: maybe one of the original members recently found a stash of unsold tapes and dumped it on the market.


I don't know about "much more", the fakes are currently down to 13800Y:
https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m13682911653
I could've sworn I saw some going for 5000Y, but can't find them now. 5000Y will also get you a fake of any of Dir en grey's previous bands. There really are guys out there who find it worth their time to fire up the tape deck, copier, etc. for that price.

That's plausible!

I meant, in terms of potential buyers because X is much more well-known in a sense.
I personally think that all these old fake demos (not qld96) are old shop stock which people bought a long time ago as fakes, and that they are trying to cash in on the revival of old bands (or people are selling off their collections of their youth). I believe that these were sold much cheaper when stuff actually was dubbed (read a thread or so on Twitter about that). But yes, I get your point.
 

flowersofnight

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By the way, is anyone here interested in cataloguing tapes? If we put together a list of what brand/color of tape and pack-ins (lyrics, photos, etc) came with known good (or known fake) releases, we could get more of a handle on the "real or fake" questions.
 

Laurence02

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Not sure how many times this supposed album can be "done mastering", but it has been a few times in the last couple years. Yoshiki just can't focus long enough to finish a project, and it definitely doesn't help that he's a perfectionist. On June 29th, 2007 at the end of the SKIN concert, both Gackt and Yoshiki made claims that they "would be back", and that we'd see some form of release by them. 13 years later, there's still nothing. In fact, SKIN's music has now been recycled into "new" X Japan music that seemingly will never be properly released. But when you can recycle and regurgitate the same 20 songs over and over again to make millions upon millions of dollars, why put effort into doing something new? It's sad, but all of these artists are aging, and realistically speaking X Japan is bound to lose another member before this mythical album sees the light of day.

A posthumous X Japan/Yoshiki album. Imagine it.

By the way, is anyone here interested in cataloguing tapes? If we put together a list of what brand/color of tape and pack-ins (lyrics, photos, etc) came with known good (or known fake) releases, we could get more of a handle on the "real or fake" questions.

Yes! But where would we begin?
 

Wandering_Fox

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flowersofnight wrote:
By the way, is anyone here interested in cataloguing tapes? If we put together a list of what brand/color of tape and pack-ins (lyrics, photos, etc) came with known good (or known fake) releases, we could get more of a handle on the "real or fake" questions.

That's a really good idea, I could help with a couple things I've got. I've got a bunch of VE tapes, and I could help cross reference with other tapes other people have. (I'm also curious about the Girl'e tape I have. I've never been 100% sure it was authentic, truth be told.)
 
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