heavyharmonies

Fair enough. I think Sam realizes though, that ultimately he'll have to press these at some point. Why? You said it yourself -- people don't see the same "value" in a CDR as in a pressed disc and are more likely to trade them than buy them. That's just the nature of the beast. When people are paying a premium price (and yes, I consider $50 to be "premium" even if it is less than $1,000) the vast majority want a real disc. I'm sorry if that offends some people, but it's true. Some people are willing to pay $50 for a CDR, but in my opinion they are the exception rather than the rule. No argument with Sam's approach, and he's entitled to do what he wants, but I think there is a fairly large sector of the collecting population that just won't shell out for a CDR... -Dan

Aaron, You're misinterpreting my post. I was asking where figgy was getting his information from, when in fact Sam has had the Rock Boulevard CD on his site for a LONG time. If figgy has just now found that out now, that's one thing. No problem at all. If, on the other hand, there's now a reissue of the reissue, that would run counter to what even Sam has said. The high price ($49.99) for this reissue was supposedly because there would only be 100 released. I'm simply wanting more information. That's all. True, but we're talking about 2.5 times that amount... $49.95. That's a fair amount of money for a CDR reissue no matter how you slice it. -Dan

What do you mean "going to release"? It's been on the Retrospect website for $49.99 for months. I thought the whole point of the higher price was that there would only ever be 100 copies and that was it. No reissues of the reissues. Where are you getting your information? -Dan

I'll repeat what I just sent in my PM. I don't mind you using HH for this, but it won't do any good. Petitions never work. To Ebay it's just noise and whining. If you want to get this guy removed, you need to come up with CONCLUSIVE proof of his activities. Even then, there's nothing to prevent him from creating a brand new UserID... -Dan

Yep, things seem to be looking up over at Retrospect. Actually, believe it or not, Sam and I have had a few reasonable exchanges by email about Retrospect and the reissues. Also, several of the Retrospect releases *are* available now at flat rate prices at the web site. Definitely a positive move! -Dan

As I mentioned in my email, if XYZ (or any other artist for that matter) is fully aware of the manner in which their CDs will be sold, and they have no problems with that, then more power to both Sam and the artists... It makes no sense to me, but that's their prerogative. -Dan

I sent the following email to XYZ: While I did not receive any response from the band, I did receive the following from Sam: I see that Sam's the same personable, professional guy as ever... I'd be proud to have him representing my band. -Dan

Didn't you know? Sam has legal reissue rights to every single album that has ever been released... looking forward to those Peter, Paul, & Mary reissues coming out on Retrospect. Not real happy about the $67.83 MSRP though... -Dan

Post deleted. Thread locked. Enough with this. -Dan

Spend some time reading here on the board. It's abundantly clear what Retrospect Records is. -Dan

I think you mean "Delivery Confirmation." Registering a package is $7.50 in addition to postage. Also, in his case, since the buyer was in Italy, Delivery Confirmation is not an option, and PayPal does not consider a Registered Mail signature to be proof of delivery (why, I have no fucking idea). -Dan

Dan's simple rules of Ebaying: As a seller: 1. Buyer in the U.S.? Only accept PayPal, BidPay, cash via registered mail, or USPS money order. 2. Buyer outside of the U.S.? Only accept BidPay or cash via registered mail. 3. When accepting BidPay, do NOT rely on emails supposedly from BidPay telling you a money order is en route! Scammers can forge those emails. Always log into your BidPay account and verify that payment has been made. Under NO circumstances do you ever ship the merchandise before receipt of the money order. 4. Absolutely NO third-party transactions whatsoever ("Send the merchandise to my buddy, who will send it to me" or "I owe so and so money. I'll send you a money order/certified check for more than what you're asking, keep $XXX as a fee and send the rest of the cash to my friend and the merchandise to me."). All bogus. All scams. By the time the money order/certified check is found out to be bogus, both your money and merchandise are long gone. As a buyer: 1. When paying via PayPal for anything over $50, ALWAYS fund it with a credit card. Not your PayPal balance (drain the balance to your bank account first if necessary) and not your bank account. Why? When PayPal's "Buyer Protection" comes up squat and leaves you holding the bag (they find in the seller's favor or the seller has flown the coop after draining his account so there is no money to recover), you can file with your credit card company and they will hit PayPal for the amount. 2. Be VERY wary of items that have large shipping costs, whether it's due to large/heavy items within the U.S., or the insanely stupid shipping costs charged by most European sellers (why is that European sellers always want to charge me twice as much to ship to me as it would be to ship the same item to them? With the poor dollar, it should be exactly the opposite), you want to be REAL careful of the relative cost of shipping to the item in question. Why? In the event that you either need to return the item, or it is damaged in shipping, or it was "not as desccribed" both PayPal and most credit card companies require that in order to pay your claim, you must return the merchandise to the seller AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE. If the shipping charges were large to begin with, you may almost be as well off just eating the purchase rather than paying out-of-pocket to return the merchandise. This is ESPECIALLY true with PayPal, since they want you to return the merchandise BEFORE they attempt to recover funds, and there is never a guarantee that they can recover any funds, so you might end up being out (1) what you originally paid, (2) the cost to ship the merchandise back, and (3) the merchandise iteself. It's a minefield out there... -Dan

Yep. I've been getting bunches of those too. The phishers and scammers are coming out of the woodwork. There are also variations on this that go like the following: 1. (when you are selling a large-ticket item, in my case electronics or musical instruments). Email comes from a prospective bidder offering to buy the item outright, usually for more than what you are asking. It's usually from a 0-feedback bidder overseas, most frequently in the UK. They offer to send you a certified check for a huge amount and have you send the balance to their "agent" and give you some extra for your trouble. The problem is that the certified checks are bogus. Buy the time it is discovered, you've already sent the merchandise and the cash, and are out both. NEVER do 3rd-party transactions. 2. (when you're an underbidder on a fairly expensive item). You receive what appears to be a valid second-chance offer to buy the item. While second-chance offers do exist, ALWAYS go back to Ebay and contact the seller directly to make sure that they are indeed making the offer. 99% of the time it is a scammer doing a "Contact Ebay Member" representing themselves to be the seller. The last bogus one I received was for an item that I had bid on where I was the 5th underbidder, not even the 1st underbidder. Be VERY careful. -Dan

Nothing new there. Same ole' Sam stuff. It's getting old now. JLPRocks and Recordjnky, I'm going to respectfully request that you no longer post on Sam's behalf here. It's the same old namecalling and childish "I won't let you guys buy my CDs because you're not nice", just routed through you instead of him posting it. This discussion serves no purpose other than to give him free publicity, and he doesn't deserve it. -Dan

JLPRocks, You've stepped over the line now. Everyone was keeping the tone, if not hugs and kisses, at least civil. Now you've started in with namecalling. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear Sam was posting using your username. It's exactly the type of tone he would post with. When you start in with the "you jackasses..." you're painting a lot of people with that brush. As I tried explaining to Sam, and he never could comprehend, people can disagree strongly without resorting to profanity and schoolyard namecalling. If that's the approach you wish to take, so be it, but it will be elsewhere. Ok? -Dan

In all fairness, Sam cannot post, because I banned him after the last fiasco. Given his propensity to spew venom and filth, I'm not likely to rescind that ban. Anyway, he's got plenty of mouthpieces speaking here on his behalf. Sam can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants. His actions speak for themselves. EOD. -Dan

JLPRocks, I'll be honest: I can't make heads or tails of some of the reasoning in that lengthy post. It's not making any sense. Rather than try to address each point and wade through it all, I'll try one last time on a few of the points: 1. By deliberately only selling one copy at a time on Ebay, he is not "making these available" as legit labels do. He's intentionally counting on collectors playing against one another to boost the final price. There's not a single legit label out there that operates that way (note: there are plenty of SELLERS that do, but not labels). 2. I don't buy the whole "well maybe once he figures things out he'll sell them at a flat rate" notion. That is a cop out. Sam's been doing this for ages, and he knows what his costs are. Instead of talking about what he "might do" the proof is in what he "is doing." 3. "Huge cashflow burden" to press the CDs. He owns a CD plant in Russia and it costs him pennies on the dollar to get CDs pressed. He has CDs pressed by the thousands for his run-of-the-mill Ebay sales and all of a sudden THESE reissues will upset the apple cart? He has to sell these for astronomical prices because the pressing costs are too high? Sorry, can't buy it. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what you or I think. He'll get his lofty prices, and the bands and fans will be the ultimate losers, because so many more units COULD be sold. Sam's certainly entitled to conduct his business the way he sees fit, and he's definitely successful at it. But don't try and deceive people by calling this endeavor a legitimate record label. A legit label would have set wholesale and retail pricing for its merchandise... it would NOT intentionally have its customers competing with one another to drive up the price. -Dan

You're missing the point. A private party doing this with a hoard of discs they obtained back in the day is one thing. A record label doing this with NEW RELEASES is dirty pool. And yes, it is at the fans' expense. Come again. Where did I say it would upset me? I know you're the officially annointed SamDefender™ here on the board, but please stop trying to compare PJ or Del selling used single CDs and letting the market set the price, with a (supposedly) legit label using the same approach for new releases. It is NOT the same. If you read back through Sam's very own comments here, he kept going on about how his bootlegs were all for the fans, and that it was important for the music to be available to those who want it, etc. Now, when push comes to shove he's using a selling approach that maximizes the dollar in his pocket and minimizes availability to the fans. Which is it? -Dan

Agree 100%. Until these are available somewhere for outright purchase at an advertised flat rate price, it's the same old shit. It's not doing anyone any good except lining Sam's pockets at the expense of the fans. If I start seeing them at NEH Records, or AOR Heaven, or Schmankerl, or Perris, or on Ebay with $14.99 BINs, then I'll retract the above. Until then it smells like a rat. -Dan

You and me both. I've started using a "No PayPal from non-U.S. buyers" policy. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'm a "bad American" who is prejudiced against non-Americans, blah, blah, blah. Well, until PayPal actually steps up and protects U.S. sellers on international transactions, it's cash, USPS money order, or BidPay. No likee? Too bad. -Dan

I figured most people would go for Cherone, and I was tempted to, but Iron Maiden without Bruce was just putrid, so I had to place my vote there...

Looks like record labels don't have the monopoly on screwing people over... From today's AOR Heaven newsletter:

Agreed! Start over. -Dan

Denis, I edited your post to remove your personal information (address, phone numbers). Not a good idea to post it on any message board for spammers and frauds to harvest... -Dan

Most of the leagues around here favor 301 or 501, but my fave has always been Cricket. The thing that galls me is that only one or two of the leagues play no-slop (which is the correct way to play IMO). Most are happy to play slop. Ick. Then there's the matter of strategy. Most start with the trip-20, whereas for some reason I always do better going after the bullseye first; there's something about the height of the 20 that throws me off. What? That's not what we're talking about? -Dan