Ehehe... Bought a Russian Import...

The Iced Earth Melancholy EP... I got a good laugh when I opened it, because right on the sleeve in the front it says "Not For Sale Outside The Russian Federation Without Permission of the Copyright Owner."

Did the ebay say.... Yuriy.... break the law?

Speaking of The Ripper, what an interesting song to cover, considering who their singer is now!

I guess Barlow DID turn his back on The Ripper!

Hey, at least it's a good quality bootleg. The bootleggers are really easy to spot on eBay, though.

Eyesore wrote:

Hey, at least it's a good quality bootleg. The bootleggers are really easy to spot on eBay, though.

I don't know if it is a bootleg. It looks legit. Which, if it is a bootleg... good enough it fools me!

I've had a few albums that I got off of eBay that say that on the side, actually.

Chairman_Smith wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Hey, at least it's a good quality bootleg. The bootleggers are really easy to spot on eBay, though.

I don't know if it is a bootleg. It looks legit. Which, if it is a bootleg... good enough it fools me!

The artwork is the easiest way to tell. Is everything really crisp and bright, or is it sort of dull and look slightly blurry? Also, look at the inside ring on the underside of the CD, does it say something like SONOPRESS? That seems to be used more by the German bootleggers, though. Also, the stock used for the booklet feels a lot lighter, flimsier than normal paper stock used for real CDs.

But they are good quality bootlegs. I just don't know how they'll fair over time.

Those are real Eastern European presses....just for some reason contractually they say "Not to be sold outside of Russia and the Baltic States or Russia and CIS countries"...Somehow this apparently isn't really a problem because I do and have done about half of my business with companies who have been selling these for years. I've never had one problem with them. The artwork is perfect....they have the same quality lyric books you get anywhere and the CDs have always been fine. Sometimes they have bonus tracks the US releases don't have. I shop at Nuclearhell tons and they use these......

I've gotten quite a few very nice out of print classics (often 2 on 1) out of Russia. Never had any problem with either the artwork or the sound quality.

All Baltic CD's have this. They have an agreement to sell Cd's for cheaper there, just because the majority of people are poorer then the Western people, but the agreement is not to seel them out side the Baltic states.

kmorg wrote:

All Baltic CD's have this. They have an agreement to sell Cd's for cheaper there, just because the majority of people are poorer then the Western people, but the agreement is not to seel them out side the Baltic states.

EDIT: Sorry, editted for stupidity