Almost everyone is familiar with the classic Gold album highlighting a particular album or artist.  What most people don't know is that there are "official", genuine Gold (and Platinum) albums with the rest being knock-offs or otherwise unauthorized copies.

Gold and Platinum (these are actual trademarks of the Recording Industry Association of America or RIAA) records were started almost 50 years ago to honor sales achievements in the record industry.  In the United States a Gold album commemorates sales of 500,000 records.  In other countries around the world the level of sales to achieve Gold status varies.  About 30 years ago, with bigger artists, bigger marketing and greater sales, a Platinum album was introduced signifying 1,000,000 units sold.  Today there are multi-platinum awards and even Diamond awards for sales in excess of 10,000,000 albums!

These albums were very prized and were generally issued to the artist, producers, major executives and songwriters affiliated with a particular album.  As knock-offs and bootlegs began to permeate the market, the RIAA took security measures including a hologram logo and other safeguards.

The RIAA used to have authorized fabricators who were authorized to manufacture the sales awards for appropriate parties.  However, this too was abused.  Many authorized manufacturers began side businesses that sold non-RIAA awards for less money.  Many of these "fakes" were incredibly colorful, glamorous and creative in display making them collectibles in their own right perhaps.  But they are nevertheless unauthorized by the creator and owner for the Gold and Platinum trademarks.

Today, the RIAA no longer authorizes fabricators to deal with requests directly.  All requests for awards must go through the record label/distributor of the particular artist and such requests are thoroughly vetted to make certain the requester has a legitimate claim to receive such an award.  No fabricator is authorized to proceed without the permission of the distributing label.

So when you are shopping for true collectibles in this area understand that non-RIAA certified awards are NOT the symbol representing half a century of record sales.  They may be beautiful, innovative designs, but they are NOT the standard recognized by the record industry.  If this is a concern, you should certainly ask your seller whether the "award" for sale is RIAA certified.