heavyharmonies

It's public information that anyone can look up, so I don't have a problem with it. IF SSNs or credit card numbers were posted, that would be a different matter. -Dan

Sam, I deleted a line from one of your posts and all the responses to it. This is neither the time nor the place to be plugging your record label. Please do not do it again. This is far too serious an issue... Thanks, -Dan

I've deleted a couple of posts. Let's keep personal/physical threats out of this, ok? Thanks, -Dan

It's called greed. That transcends all emotions, loyalty, or comradery. In a way, fan sites like this and melodicrock allow predators to prey upon the passion of ardent fans. We, as music fans, *WANT* to believe that music we love is getting officially reissued, rather than the seemingly normal bootleg state of affairs, so we're more willing to believe. What hurts though, is that it's a longtime member of the community, an "insider" so to speak, that did this. Not some nameless entity from the outside. *sigh* -Dan

Just got off the phone with another friend in the industry who contacted Kelly Hansen about these reissues: He'd never heard of them. Also, there's no record of the record label with Navarre Distribution. Looks like it's all bogus, folks. -Dan

In light of all that has transpired thus far, I urge everyone to not only file a PayPal dispute online (file the claim for nonreceipt of merchandise) and immediately escalate it to a claim, but preferably phone PayPal as well. Their attention level needs to be raised on this issue. If, however, this was intentionally orchestrated (as it is appearing more and more likely to be the case), he's probably long emptied the PayPal account, in which case recovering funds is unlikely. Some of the dollar amounts are high enough that they may rise to the level of getting the federal authorities involved. If he withdrew the funds to his bank account, bank fraud is a possibility as well. Those of you who funded their payments with credit cards will still have recourse through your credit card companies. I honestly don't know what to recommend to Adriano and Georg, since they are not located within the U.S. Hopefully they funded their payments by credit card as well. The music industry is a cesspool. -Dan

Regardless, Dave, I'm glad you and yours are ok. Vans can be replaced, people not so much. I hope Lon is ok, both from a physical and psychological standpoint. I've received some communication behind the scenes that tells me we need to get to the bottom of this ASAP. I have PM'ed Lon/David to either post or email the specific hospital information, including room number, both for those who wish to send their best wishes, and to verify that this is indeed what's going on. -Dan

If it's that much of a problem for you, you could always change your Ebay settings to not allow bidders from countries that you don't ship to, select U.S. only, and that fixes the whole problem. -Dan

UserID: heavyzoto Block this pinhead. He just filed a PayPal dispute against me for nonreceipt of merchandise... less than 5 days after sending payment! Better yet, this idiot is in Germany. He expects to have CD in hand overseas in less than 5 days? As I've put in the PayPal dispute: "I'm sorry that I cannot arrange for faster shipment from the USA to Germany, but MY TELEPORTER IS BROKEN." Idiot. -Dan

I can't speak for Sam, since I don't know who he uses for replication, but when I've gone out for bids on CD replication, you save virtually NOTHING by pressing 500 instead of 1,000. While some replicators may have a 500 minimum, they really want to encourage you to do 1,000+. You might pay $1,200 to press 500 discs, and $1,300 to press 1,000 discs. The extra 500 discs are costing you $0.20 per unit (plus shipping). I honestly think that 1,000 units is a stretch for this title. I think 500 is doable, *IF* the discs are made available to other retailers and wholesalers, but I know Sam has been reluctant to do this on many of his titles. Sam, where do you stand on this issue these days? For some of your titles it could make the difference on whether or not you replicate or duplicate... -Dan

Well... glad we got that all settled then. -Dan

Umm, take a deep breath man; your ego is about to explode. This thread wasn't even about you... until you decided to make it about you. I know you want the attention and publicity and things have been kinda slow here lately as far as discussion about Retrospect is concerned, but this is a bit of a reach in order to get attention... -Dan

Methinks someone is seriously fucking with you. Look at the first 2 Ebay userIDs: luck313 0313ja Two supposedly random bidders interested in the same item, and both have "313" as part of their username? I betcha it's the same person behind both... -Dan

Ok, so I was correct, thanks. At least we're clear. -Dan

S'ok. You just gotta be careful whom you're quoting, because it looks like that is the person whom you are addressing. -Dan

Please reread this thread and to whom I was responding. I am not replying to the original poster. -Dan

Sam, this comes across as incredibly defensive... and I really don't get it, since no names were mentioned in the posts up until this point. I'm trying to understand your stance on bootlegs, and it just doesn't compute. On the one hand you post here about how anyone caught bootlegging Retrospect titles will be pursued via VERO and be shut down, but on the other hand you say here that anyone worried about bootlegs needs to get a life, i.e., don't worry about bootlegs. Maybe it's just me but those two standpoints seem diametrically opposed to one another. They don't jive. What am I missing here? It honestly seems like you're in favor of bootlegs when it's in your financial best interest and against them when it's in your financial best interest. If that's your stance, then fine. Just be candid about it. Throw away all the "it's for the fans" stuff, clear away the fog, and let's get down to brass tacks: it's about the money. Period. You wouldn't be the first to take that business approach, and you won't be the last. But let's just clear away the bullshit and call a spade a spade. It's not like anyone here could do anything about it anyway... *shrug* -Dan

Those wacky Greeks...

Mmmm.... Cassiopea... She was a hottie.

Well after receiving a rude, insulting, and barely decipherable PM from FAKEPOLICE, I've decided that he will no longer be joining us here on the board. I have no patience for his crap. -Dan

I'm your huckleberry...

Repeat after me: There is no correlation between scarcity and quality. (In fact, one might even postulate that there is an inverse correlation, because if a given disc really is that phenomenal it would have been pressed in larger numbers or reissued, or the band would have been signed to a larger label to begin with). -Dan

Yeah, you also see that reaction to some of the Christian heavy metal acts that have a thrash or death metal style. Deliverance and Vengeance Rising got that alot back in the day. -Dan

I went through a phase of digging their stuff. Definitely off the beaten path. VERY Goth. I have a DVD of one of their live performances somewhere... I think... I'll have to dig it up. -Dan

Too expensive, even at opening bid. There's a lot of crap in there. $4.50 per disc? No way. Also way too low feedback to consider buying from...