Some General questions regarding J-Pop CDs

[EternityOfPain]

I recently have gotten into buying J-pop CDs and have a few questions. If you can assist in any of the questions please do. Thanks!

1) What is the difference between first releases and 2nd releases? From what I have seen it seems first releases are more expensive. What is the difference?

2) What is an "obi" I have noticed some CDs have them some dont?

3) how can you tell if the CD you got is a bootleg or not (please dont say "dont buy off ebay etc") what I am looking for is how you can physically tell (like CD in hand) if its a bootleg or not (if possible).

4) Where do you generally buy for J-pop CDs from?

I appreciate your help!

[Soluzar]

1) What is the difference between first releases and 2nd releases? From what I have seen it seems first releases are more expensive. What is the difference?
As far as I know, a first pressing will be more collectable, and that's the main difference. Sometimes they may vary the art on the packaging as well, for subsequent releases. There could be other differences I just don't know about.

2) What is an "obi" I have noticed some CDs have them some dont?Spine card. They are folded around the spine of the CD jewel case, and are utterly useless, but look pretty. Japanese CDs are way more collectable with these intact.

3) how can you tell if the CD you got is a bootleg or not (please dont say "dont buy off ebay etc") what I am looking for is how you can physically tell (like CD in hand) if its a bootleg or not (if possible).
They sometimes put their names on the CD someplace. SM (Son May) is a damn good name to avoid.

[Gibb]

1) I'm not positive but I believe First Pressing albums have bonus tracks on them. For example the Do As Infinity - Do The Box - collection supposedly has first pressings of all the albums, and includes all the bonus tracks from those albums.

3) I dont know in regards to Jpop albums, except to buy from trusted sources. In regards to game/anime soundtracks, I know to avoid Son May, Alion, and EverAnime.

4) I buy all my Jpop from either YesAsia.com (http://www.yesasia.com) or Play-asia.com (http://www.play-asia.com). There's also CD Japan (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/) that alot of people I know order from. I pretty much completely trust yesasia and play-asia to give me legit stuff all the time. I usually try to find a Korean version of whatever album I'm looking for because it's half the price of the Japanese version. It's still legal, just cheaper because it's made for outside of Japan. Korean versions are also identical to Japan versions, they just come with an extra booklet in Korean.

[tenshi_a]

1) Sometimes 1st pressings come with extras. The pre-sale is very important to an album, you see. Collectable cards, sometimes a poster, all sorts of things.

2) The obi is the insert card, they've been using them in Japan since vinyl. Most of the time they're useless, but sometimes it's the only place with the tracklisting, and sometimes there's a cute picture on the back of them. ^_^

3) Aside from recognising the names of the culprits other people in this thread have listed, you can look up the catalogue number on the internet, find out who published it. Find out who published the original. Bootleggers seem to use their own catalogue numbers.

4) Aside from the ones listed above, also amazon japan, and sometimes I buy them 2nd hand from ebay.

[EternityOfPain]

^ Thanks for all the info guys ^_^

[Soluzar]

Oops, looks like I was wrong about the Obi. Beg your pardon. Those little spine-card things are valuable too though. If you ever plan to re-sell your j-pop, it will be worth more with that card intact. Japanese videogames tend to come with them too.