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For The Selena CD Collector:
For many fans, including me, collecting Selena CDs is the ultimate way of remembering Selena. While there are the "real" albums (i.e "Alpha", "Ven Conmigo", and "All My Hits - Todos Mis Exitos" to name a few). Hundreds of bootlegged titles have cume up for sale internationally, most claiming to be new "Greatest Hits" releases.
Top L: "Selena" (1989) and "16 Super Exitos Originales" (1990) are now out of print CDs and are hot items on collector's lists.
Top R: Legitimate Mexico CDs have a holographic "FLAP-F" label indicating it's authenticity.
First thing a person must do to check if a CD or Cassette is a bootleg, is to check if the item has the logo of any of the following record labels: EMI Latin and Q-Records, these are Selena's primary labels. And EMI subsidiaries such as: Cema Special Markets, EMI Special Markets, EMI Mexico. There are also Selena albums on Freddie, RP and GP Records. All of which are real Selena albums.
Bootlegged albums can still sometimes have the record label logo, if this is so, most of the time a person can tell if the cassette or CD is fake, by checking the quality of the ink that was used to print the art work (cover). Bootlegged items usually have faint, cheap quality printing vs. the dark, deep and solid colors on legitimate CDs. In Mexico, fans should look for the Holographic "FLAP-F" label which indicates that the album is a real CD.
Fans should try to buy legitimate CDs of Selena, so her sale point keeps going up, as of March 1999, she has sold 15,000,000 albums worldwide in just 4 years. Bootlegged CDs steal from Selena sales, just as they did when she was alive, which is why fans should steer clear of cheap bootlegs.
Above: Two of the many rare Selena Promotional CDs that collectors have been able to obtain.
There are also dozens of Selena Promo CDs out there. These CDs are typically promotional-only and are distributed to Radios and other media to promote the artist latest single. However, certain music collectors have been able to obtain some of these titles and place them for sale when they are no longer in use. Promotional CDs are very rare and very collectible if they are in good condition and you let them stay that way.
I personally use Japenese CD Resealers which prevent the CDs from getting Dusty and/or Scrathed. These are available at any collector supply stores and on some online music stores.
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