Boots

I don't want to condemn an entire populace, but are there any legit sellers from there. I find it hard to believe a seller when they advertise nothing but rare Metal albums from the '80's, have multiple copies for sale (and have already sold multiple copies), and also have different prices for the same album in two separate auctions. Why would you sell a copy of Keel's "Final Frontier" for $25 buy it now and then start an auction for a copy of the same album at $.99? I don't get it.

I personally don't trust them. If it's shipping from Greece, I'm going to assume it's a boot, just for the exact reasons you stated. And their shipping rates are usually too high for me as well. Not just Greece, but any international sellers anymore.

Unless I'm buying directly from a label, like High Roller from Germany for example, I don't trust that I'm getting a legit version. I have a few times in the past, but no more. There isn't anything I want that bad anymore.

Yeah. The last time I bought from an international seller (I got the first 2 Malice albums, the Wounded Bird label remasters) he tried to hold the discs hostage for more money for shipping than the agreed upon price (stated in his shipping rates!) until I threatened to report him to Ebay.

It's not fair on people who pay for legit copies but things really are desperate in Greece so I guess it's to be expected.

I have to admit I am tempted when I see something rare that I want and it's ridiculously expensive and a boot is real cheap. But, I pass b/c I don't want to feed into the root of the problem. I have never agreed with the argument (that a few buddies have made) that it's okay to buy boots or download illegally b/c the owners of the material are charging too much money.

I buy them if it's something I really want on physical format. I know that what I am getting is a bootleg so I don't mind. Some of them are very high quality, but many of them are total crap.

I have a handful of boots of rare/hard to find albums, but in each case I knew upfront what I was getting.

If you're paying big $$ for what you think is an original copy on eBay and you end up with a crappy counterfeit, though, that's a whole 'nother ball o'wax.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I have a handful of boots of rare/hard to find albums, but in each case I knew upfront what I was getting.

If you're paying big $$ for what you think is an original copy on eBay and you end up with a crappy counterfeit, though, that's a whole 'nother ball o'wax.

When I was trying to reacquire the long-OOP Hanging in the Balance, original copies were outta sight with their price. Lo and behold, I ran across a two disc package of Balance and Live for only 30 bucks--from Greece. I figured, what the hell with that price, and pulled the trigger. Glad I did. The matrix/runoff shows them as boots but I can't even tell. They were perfectly reproduced.

But yeah, 30 bucks is about all I'll spend on anything Grecian.

I sometimes wonder, if pressed, these guys would actually just fess up and say "yeah of course it's a boot, did you really think I was selling you an original for $7?" Lol.