Article by: SPfreaks
Article written by Arthur van Pelt and Derek Miller
The last few months we get more and more reports that a bootlegged vinyl release of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is slowly flooding the markets all over the world, starting from Europe. In this case the bootleggers are making huge profits out of it, as collectors are willing to pay very high prices for it. And who can blame them, it looks almost like the original… But we advice you: stop spreading the disease! The bootleg vinyl is of lower quality, it is not genuine, it has no Smashing Pumpkins history, and it is way too expensive. Find more info on our SPfreaks Forum here and here!
So, how can you determine if the Mellon Collie vinyl you are about to buy is fake? Easy.
A bootlegged Mellon Collie vinyl release is unboxed and unnumbered on the front of the sleeve, just like the image below. The little white box, with or without the number, should be down-right, between the tips of the star.
Besides that, it doesn’t have the HUTTLP 30 matrixcode at the end of the running area on the vinyl (look for it closely!). More detailed info about this unofficial release here. Another thing is, the bootleggers made a black vinyl, a yellow vinyl and more recent, a red vinyl version.
Mellon Collie was NEVER officially released on yellow or red vinyl!
Below is a picture of the sleeve of a genuine Mellon Collie vinyl release. Notice the beautiful blue color and the white box with “No 12692” inside it? The 1996 black vinyl release has a number that can run into the 18000, the 1998 black vinyl re-release has this same white box, but is not filled with a number. Some more detailed info about this official release can be found here.
If you have any questions or concerns about this or other vinyl releases, or Smashing Pumpkins bootlegged releases in general, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
UPDATE 2012/09/16: a brown bootlegged vinyl has appeared on the market too. We think since 2011. The pic below is from a 2012 eBay auction.
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