Here is an e-mail I received from a fan named Alexander regarding some artbooks he purchased that turned out to be very clever bootlegs. He describes the differences between the authentic Japanese artbooks and the bootlegs he ended up with. I have made some changes for grammar.
The seller, who sells these bootlegs at ebay is ezstore: http://myworld.ebay.com/ezstore. A lot of people have bought from it. I contacted many of them. All of them had fake ones. Also many of these artbooks are sold again at ebay, so after two weeks or so I contacted the seller to be sure of bootleg or not. Some lots already had "bootleg version" caption on it.
So, the differences: (see files attached!)
0) Bootlegs exist for Vol.1-Vol.4 and PROBABLY for Materials Collection (I found the shop which previously sold the Vol.1-Vol.4 bootlegs also had Mat.Col, so probably MatCol was also a bootleg.)
1) All the bootlegs are hardcover (!), but the paper is even thicker than that of the originals (bootleg_sailormoonset.jpg)
2) Color of the caption "Sailormoon" on the cover is relatively dull compared to "golden" in the case of original vol.1-vol.2 and "silver" in the case of vol.3-vol.4. Also originally this caption is reflective, so when making a photo with a flash - you get black-looking symbols (image), but NOT in the case of bootleg: example. Otherwise, golden/silver! example Bootlegs never have same effect, because they are more dull.
3) The first page of every original artbook is made of special SOFT semi-transparent paper with the caption "Sailormoon" on it. Bootlegs have only regular paper with the scan-copy of that caption. (ORIGINAL photos: ORIG_vol1_open_p1.jpg - ORIG_vol1_open_p4.jpg, bootleg's: bootleg_vol1_open.jpg ) This is VERY crucial difference for easy distinguishing! Just ask a seller to provide photos of the first pages!
4) Bootlegs are scan copies, that's why when you take a closer look at any caption INSIDE the book (small caption with names of the heroes or publishers), you'll DEFINITELY notice them 'made of dots', like you usually get captions on a printer. (ORIG_vol1_end.jpg) But original artbooks are produced in such a way, you can see each symbol as a SOLID, so you can read even small symbols, like furigana (captions of how kanji are to be pronounced). In the bootlegs it's very difficult to read furigana, because it's made-of-dots, so it's troublesome to find out what the character is.
5) Advertisement-paper (ad-paper), which usually covers the 1/4th lower part of the cover, is made of a scan of the first ad in the case of the bootlegs. So all ad-papers for bootlegs look alike! If someone can read kana, they can easily find out that it's written "Dark Kingdom" on the ad-paper of the Vol.2, which is obviously a MISTAKE! (bootleg_vol2.jpg). ALSO in the case of Vol.1 and Vol.2 they made a mistake in the kana of name Sailormoon (take a look at ORIG_vol1_with_flash.jpg ), so this is our chance to distinguish them by looking at the ad-paper (if ad-paper still looks similar in the case of vol.1 and vol.2)
Compare to ORIGINAL different-looking ad-paper (especially in the case of vol.3 and vol.4: ORIG_vol1_caption.jpg - ORIG_vol4_caption.jpg )
6) Sometimes bootlegs can have unprinted areas (bootleg_vol2_missing.jpg).
MINOR DIFFERENCES:
7) The cover of vol.1 and vol.2 lacks the bordrline around the books' number. (ORIG_vol1_border_up.jpg and ORIG_vol1_border_down.jpg)
Conclusion:
Because the bootlegs are scan-copies they look rather similar, but they can't bring the same effect to buyer, because if you can read Japanese, it'll be difficult for you to understand most captions of the bootlegs because of their priniting quality.
But for those who prefer to watch pictures, these bootlegs are a good
variant. But don't pay too much for them. They aren't worth it!!
MINI-BUYING GUIDE:
1) if vol.3-vol.4 have an ad-paper and it's yellow/brown-like, than it's a bootleg! The colors of the ad-paper should match photos: ORIG_vol3_caption.jpg, ORIG_vol4_caption.jpg
2) if vol.1-vol.2, take a closer look at the caption on the ad-paper. If it contains the wrong symbol in "sailormoon", then it's a bootleg! Also in the case of vol.2 - take a look at villains' name on the ad-paper.
3) ask seller to provide photos of the opening first page with the caption "sailormoon" on it!
