stormspell

Thought I would share this email I received the other day. I was one of several people to bid on a Tarzen cd on Ebay and I was sent this email soon after the auction finished.....

 

Just wondering what people think......

Reporting to eBay doesnt do anything. Advise this Danny to register for VeRO and nuke all bootleg sales - that's the only effective way of handeling this.

Good idea! Here comes a $10 from me,

LAZARUS is indeed ex-LAZARUS SIN, the traditional 80es Christian metal band from Oregon. Please be sure you dont sell the Greek bootleg as the band will be releasing an official re-issues soon

Well the 4 cds that I just picked up from Nuclearhell all had full booklets, (8, 12,12,16 pages). So if I'm hearing you correctly, I received pretty much the same releases that I would have got if I had bought them outside if the Russian region.....at a fraction of the cost......not a bad deal....

Good for you. I just wanted to be informative and let people like vandervelde know why they should not be picky.

It is legal for sure despite fact that russian firms paid smaller fees (so they can charge only 9.99 for CD), but in other way....a lot of releases for instance of italian Frontiers is in diffrent content than this sold outside Russia.....one has 12 pages booklet, second only 2 pages...in my case it's a roulette...don't buy there newest Nightwish...2 pages of booklet only...like a fookin CD'R

First of all, Russian companies never suggest retail of $9.99 but a lot less.

Second, Russian market itself is divided in two: the big cities like Moscow and St. Petersbourg where the standard of living is higher, and the rest of the country where everyone is bloody poor. So some Russian labels (CD-Maximum most notably) always print TWO editions of every release: Podarochnoe with fat booklet and sometimes glossy slipcase - intended to retail for $6-7 in the cities, and Uproschennoe with simple one-fold insert which is intended to retail for $4-5 elsewhere in the country.

And as you can bet, all those Russian smugglers which buy the CDs from the labels on wholesale (signing petition NOT to import outside CIS and then breaking it out) always prefer to buy the cheaper release so funky stores like nuclearhell will have those when possible. But then again those CDs are gray market when imported outside their designated region for sale, so you cannot really complain - you get what you pay for

If you want better release, dont be a shmuck - go buy the original

I wouldnt call a time period from May 2006 to June 2007 a "few weeks"... it may look like that throught the bottom of a drinking glass, but to me it is an YEAR AND A MONTH

Anyway, if the mysterious ex-Monstrosity member is Jason Gobel (Cynic) as I suspect this could sparkle my interest, but I'm not really holding my breath over it nor I'll be preordering it anytime soon.

That's sort of what I thought. I have not heard of any of it. Seems like someone's private boot-to-CDR collection.

No, I believe those are factory-pressed silverbacks like Crimson Glory - One Night in Japan 1989 or Agent Steel - Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1987. They all originated from Peru, Chile, or thereabouts. The sound quality has a lot to be desired though... not worth more than $5-10 at most for comlpetists only.

Moving to Boston to avoid prosecution in Arkansas?

Actually there is BOSTON in Arkansas:

Boston, Arkansas (AR), Madison County

Land area: 66.4 sq. mi.

Water area: 0.0 sq. mi.

Population: 202 (all rural)

Occupied houses/apartments: 202 (185 owner occupied, 17 renter occupied)

I hope to meet you at the festival, so we can talk eye to eye. I can´t wait for july, 13.

Adriano, I hope you meet him at Rocklahoma. Don't talk to him, just beat the shit out of him and walk away with bloody knuckles and satisfied smile on your face.

I feel sad for this dude. How big bum you have to be to go to the local motel to download coz you cannot afford decent internet at your home at the age of 41... incredible

There are definitely people out there who care more about cd value than the music. That's the truth.

That's why it is called collecting man. There's areason for it. You dont really expect a stamp collector to have xeroxed photocopies of stamps in their collection, isnt it? Its the same with collecting CDs - it is just a hobby like any others I guess.

He must have put out an auction with something "hot" on someone's Naru watch list and got nuked completely off eBay promptly...

Many of those he's listing say Time Warp records and Rock-It Records out of Italy...

 

Not to mention Retrospect Records...

 

Sam, did you start a reseller/affiliate program?

 

-Dan

I was about to say the same thing, coz the entire description of S/T is written word for word in the style vegascds write their auctions:

THIS JOKER CD SELF TITLED "JOKER" WAS RELEASED IN 1990 BY RED LIGHT RECORDS

THERE ARE 10 SONGS ON THIS CD. THE CD/CASE/INSERTS ARE STILL SEALED!!

EXTREMELY HARD TO FIND , THIS CD IS RATED AS ONE OF THE BEST HAIR METAL / MELODIC HARD ROCK INDIES EVER. MASSIVE CHORUSES , SMOKIN SOLOS AND A NICE FAT PRODUCTION MAKES THIS AN ESSENTIAL ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION. VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Haha, yeah!

Seems they also pruned off T-bone's posting too

Oh well, I'll be watching with interest their board to see how Lovid will screw them, then have a good laugh.

I see Mr. Honesty is at it again...oh and love this post of his:

O yea, sharing rare music and hooking everyone with free CDRs - sounds familiar?

I wonder what his next stunt would be...

But before bidding, I asked him 3 times about the condition of the item. Didn't receive any answers from the 3 questions. I bidded anyway...

Well, I'm not defending the seller, but if asked and then bid without hearing from them you take your own chance, which has very predictable outcome...

Always, ALWAYS update your address with eBay and PayPal - it takes 2 minutes to do so and will help you avoid mishaps like this. Many sellers print labels ditectly from ebay - especially the big volume sellers and its easy to overlook an instruction.

That's messed up. I would be willing to pitch up for the "gas money" fund. This guy needs to be taught a lesson.

Yeah, count me in with $20

zThere's quite a difference between OWNING 65000 CD's and copying and burning 65000 CDR's Bob

65000 CDs x 10 songs each x $750 RIAA penalties for pirated mp3 = $487,500,000

The point to this thread is not to convince anyone to buy or not to buy, but simply to keep informed the people which do care what they buy. If it is a mute point of no importance to you, just dont look here

So can artists fill out these forms ahead of time or do they have to wait until one of the bootlegs is actually being sold on ebay?

No need to wait, you can do it at any time. See how below:

How to report a listing to eBay

 

Step One:

 

If you have a good faith belief that a listing on eBay infringes your copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights, all you need to do is download our Notice of Claimed Infringement (NOCI) form, fill it out, and fax it to eBay.

 

Download eBay's NOCI form: H E R E

 

Note: You will need Adobe® Acrobat Reader to view and print our NOCI form. You can download a free copy at Adobe's Web site.

 

Step Two:

 

After we receive your first NOCI, eBay will send you an electronic version of our NOCI form as well as instructions on how to submit future reports electronically.

 

Step Three:

 

We encourage you to educate eBay users about your products and legal positions by creating an "About Me" page. We have found that many of our users cease listing potentially infringing items when presented with such information.

 

Learn how to set up your About Me page. Once you have posted your About Me page, send us an email and we will include it in our list of Intellectual Property Rights Owner About Me pages.

As you see it is quite easy to register to VeRO and it does not require you to be corporate biz to do so, every intelectual rights owner (musician, painter, etc, etc,) can do it.

Once eBay verify and set you up as VeRO owner it is very easy and straight-forward process of reporting and automatically removing listings that infringe your copyrights.

Hope this helps.

#1 you can't get in on the fun because you do not own a corporate label .

That's not true, everyone who owns copyrights can sign to VERO. All they have to do is to print out the forms, sign them, fax back, then eBay calls to verify verbally on the phone with you and that's it. You get direct e-mail "hotline" on which you can request auction termination and they do it no questions asked... However, that doesnt mean if you abuse your rights they cannot investigate and take action against you, so take it easy on the nuke button.

Up to $102.50 already, wow!

In reference to another poll, how about some Stormspell Records polo shitrt??? Or maybe some, not too elaborate t's?

Maybe one day when the label generates enough return to afford it... anyway, lets not make offtopic about my label in this forum section.

I beg to differ here. Shirts can be made quite cheap, yet not cheap looking.. just check http://www.myspace.com/wwmerch Those guys are one of the best "DIY type" of shirt printers in the States. Of course you shouldnt press 100s of shirts for the smaller bands.. The profit margin may be smaller than in the CDs, but they can also be seen as a promotion item if you add a label logo on the design.

"Quite cheap" is a releative term. The prices you show at your link are good. But you have to consider four things:

1. please note the last row in the T-shirts table, the one that says "*f/c" - this row is for "full color reproduction printing", in other words it is for process color pictures - the majority of full-color album coverartworks fits straight into that category (or MINIMUM 6 colors, and that would be a compromise)

2. Note how the T-shirt table does not specify the color "black" - I bet those prices shown in the table are for white and light color shirts, and for black the prices would be +$1 , ALL places do that separation.

3. If you want it double-sided with print on the back - you have to add $0.50 first color, +$0.25 each additional color

4. Unless the company is local to you and you can pick up the shirts you have to consider at least another $0.50 per shirt for shipping costs.

So all in all, if you make 144 full-color double-sided black shirts, you should be lucky if you can manage $7 ea. production cost - which is $1000 locked in merchandise... or in other words if you target to sell them for $14 you have to sell 72 just to break even... and by the time you have sold 72 you most certainly will be out of some sizes and by Murphy's law every next customer will want THAT size ...and if this is not enough already you will discover that out of every 7-8 people which will buy the CD only ONE will buy a shirt along with it, even with the combo discount and such...

The alterantive is either to make a compromise and make 144 one or two color logo/line-art shirts, which is tricky to do coz if not designed good it will scream "cheap" all over and no one will want to buy it... or to find a place that will silkscreen 50 or 25 shirts and do them on demand only. There are such places around which will make such small qunatities, albeit expensive.

To say the truth shirts are bitch. The good full-color double-sided silk-screened ones are very expensive to make - especially in quantities under 100, you never can predict correctly the size breakup, and they sell very poorly compared to the CDs.

I'm telling this from a personal experience as I already made two models (Vectom & Arkona). I already broke even on Vectom, but it took me long time to do so... and for the underground AOR bands I foresee a disaster... not worth imo.

I voted for the second choice (choice #4 is a good one too). The idea is good, but since it will be a label shirt I see it more like promotional tool and doubt many people will be willing to buy it. It surely will make a very nice free token of appreciation for big orders though.