stormspell

As we all know, my Ninteen88 CD must have been lost 5-10 times. 

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LOL, I remember this story, yes!

There is something going on with the USPS these days! My CD to melodicrockoz which was sent quite a while ago via Global Priority is still somewhere out there too!

Cheers to everyone who bought OFFROAD and other stuff from me recently.

All great guys, thanks everyone!

cdhound859 terminated

okay, before I plunge and download some CAUTERIZE out of sheer curiousity, would you mind telling me if it is grunge/alterantive/nu metal, please?

Please be honest

Yeah T-Bone, I already did that the minute I saw he screwed my SDI auctions!

EvilBAY people knows him very well I can bet. Why they dont write a simple quiery which will prevent him re-registering in their database is something I dont understand... maybe they enjoy him screwing people around and thus accumilating insertion fees (when James screws your auction you get your final value refunded, but NOT the insertion fee, you suck on that as your loss)

EvilBAY knows how to make money and James is working very hard for them! They should put his picture on the "Employee of the month" board!

The bloody fuker just bought 3 CDs off me

Hey James, the day someone finds your slimy carcass rotting in a shallow ditch wont come soon enough!

cdhound859

Are you missing the fact that Sam starts all auctions on eBay for 99 cents?  Therefore THE MARKET decides what a cd is worth and not a distributor / record company.

 

I think that's about as fair as it gets , don't you?

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What about if the market knew those are cdrs when bidding up to $50+ ? For me this is the most relevant factor which would KILL the sale if present

P.S. I see the topic got exausted already, so please consider this my last entry too, sorry.

If you look at the buyers , they are mostly repeat buyers.  I believe you are over-analyzing how many people care about silver discs.  To each his own.

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It could be. This is just my personal opinion anyway, and I do not pretend to be the best analyst around for sure

One more thing, I would be shocked if ANY of Ryan's releases over there at Metal Mayhem sold 1,000 units or more.

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I dont know about Ryan, but can tell that all 3 re-releases of GRAVESTONE Stefan did 6 months ago (Karthago Records) sold out already.

1000 copies silverbacks, average retail $15, so it is possible to sell underground stuff.

I don't believe for a second that Friction or Rock Boulevard will sell 1,000 units....in any format.

 

The test will be Manila Thrills and Mariah , both of which are apparently being pressed as silver discs.

 

Mariah has members of Tyketto , Britny Fox , Waysted and Lynn Allen....not to mention that Retrospect is releasing 3 of their albums , one being produced by Steve Brown of Trixter and another one having a song co-written with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. 

 

If that doesn't sell in droves then I guess Sam IS doing the right thing.

 

I don't see anyone complaining about the Bittersweet 2 disc set being cdr's. Why is that?

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See, the test maybe a bit too late. The news travel fast and the majority of the repeated eBay sellers lerned already that Retrospect = cdr, so it could be hard to gain people's respect back.

I dont know if Sam does the right thing or not. I simply dont care anymore, and it is Sam business' decission anyway. All I know is that he wouldnt have sold so many cdrs on eBay if they were properly described, that's for sure. Essentially he targets "one-timers," people that would buy, find out it's cdr and never to return again. It is a good way for making some fast bucks, the bad thing is that the melodic metal community is not so big market, and news travels fast, so if he denies any outside distribution and rely solely on his own eBay sales, the sale figures probably would start to decline - it is only natural to happen so. *me shrugs*

Looks as if Mr. Spell and myself are of similar mindsets...

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Sam has a choice - print 1,000 silver discs for $1300 OR 100 green "diamondbacks" for $250

 

Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that's over a $1000 difference in investment for a band that you don't know will sell 10 or 10,000. 

 

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C'mon man, are you triyng to tell me that a decent official silverback issue of Rock Boulevard would not sell in 10 copies if the original goes for $1000?

If Rock Boulevard, or Friction dont deserve a mere $1300 investment, what band does?

Of course you probably will have problems selling all 1000 if marked at $50 retail, but if sold at reasonable price like $14.99 or thereabouts they will sell, oh yeah

I think I'd rather pay $50 for a re-issue than over $1000 for an original.   This is old news though.

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Kewl man, if you collect all 4 reissues (comes on green, blue, red, and diamond-tinted cdrs) Sam will give you a free bonus.

I know, I know, sorry, couldnt resist

Believe it or not, Arwine actually paid me for his CHEEZBOY CD yesterday. BUT... I had already offered it to the second high bidder who accepted. Even though the second high bidder has yet to pay for the CD, I'd rather give it to him than Arwine whose shftr2nd46 alias-of-the-week was banned, sort of nullifying the transaction anyway.

 

I refunded Arwine's Paypal payment. I suppose it's a rare occasion to see any Arwine money coming in, and I should have printed, laminated and framed my copy of his Paypal payment because it's probably a one-of-a-kind. But my instincts told me to decline his payment, as he has declined so many invoices and payment requests himself over the years.

 

Now, hopefully, he'll know how it feels to expect something... and never receive it. And if sour grapes make a bitter Ar-wine, then so be it.

 

koogles

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I bet my 2 cents that if you havent refunded his PayPal payment, it would take him less than a week to file a dispute

The question is what happens if you implement protectionistic policys. In Germany there is a lot of protectionism and the answer is simple. People go over the borders to buy petrol, medicin and anything else that they can find cheaper. Not only that but the price of 'home grown' goods goes up and in the long term you lose out. 11 percent unemployment.

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Tell me about it!

The health care/medicine prices in USA are the WORST in the whole world EVER!

They even have TV commercials trying to brainwash people how "dangerous" it is to purchase medicines from Canadian online stores, like Canadians are some sort of 3-rd world country or drug smuglers...

There is a big argument going on about Walgreens right now. Apparently they donated some money to a gay eventn and some Evangelists made a fuss about it, so Walgreens used the opportunity and tried to get the support of the local homosexual population having their "street members" spreading support letters and forum messages all over the internet.

It's a standard advertising practice in this part of the world really, except for the fact that almost everyting in Walgreens is "Made in China" and it was the very conscious company's politics to move their operation abroad for the cheaper labor cost...

That would be ideal of course, but all we know it never will happen because the minute the seller indicates it is Russian no one wants to buy it

CD-Maxumim, Irond, and Soyuz are the leading Russian labels and their releases are pristine! Especially all Butterfly Temple releases on the Irond label are the ultimative state of the art releases and my personal example of how a CD should be released! Absolutely fabulous all around! the graphic designer who did them will instantly get ANY job here if shows them in his portfolio.

Soyuz even include OBI strips on their domestic Russian bands

BTW a lot of western companies started to recognize the Russian designers because of those "imports" and Blind Guardian already hired a russian guy.

The new Demons and Wizards CD was done by Russian guy too! He did also RAGE and ICED EARTH covers.

Storm,

 

Your absolutely right, sellers should be stating the items they are selling are Russian pressings, and not just use the word "import" in the listing. Im really shocked to read elsewhere on the net that people really dont give two hoots in hell if the disc is a Russian pressing, as long as they are getting it dirt cheap. This really hurts the US seller who obviously cannot compete with those prices, considering like you mentioned a Nuclear Blast US issue is $8.50 wholesale here in the states. I would be very curious to see what all these sellers on ebay are paying for these bad boys at wholesale. Probably a real steal.

 

People are popping up everywhere on ebay now selling these things..As you stated, smart to always dig through a sellers feedback to look for buyers who were not happy about a Russian pressing..

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I think they wholesale for $2.50-4 each, but that's only for domestic CIS wholesalers. The Russian companies are very strict and would not even consider your request, so you have to contact the Russian skinners and get them for like $4-5

Check Irond site, if I recall correctly they should have excel spreadsheet with their domestic wholesale prices for download on their site.

Now, it was the US/European cartels like Nuclear Blast/Century Media who sold the licenses to the Russians, so they should have known better this will happen with such big difference in the prices! Not to mention that the Russian pressings often come with better packaging AND bonuses!

In some extend I'm glad those pop up on the market here, because this could eventually act as competition and push the cartels to lower the prices a bit.

I just received the new Heronymous Bosch CD on CD-Maximum label and it came with MONSTROUS 28-page glossy booklet! I had to pay arm and leg on shipping as the booklet alone weight one pound itself! imagine!

I dont remember seeing such booklet on western release, or if there was it probably would have been called SUPER-DUPER-LUX and cost $20+,

this Heronimous Bosch as it is costs like $5

Those are supposedly licensed CDs for the Russian market. They arent particularly bootlegs, but rather graymarket if imported outside CIS, as they are designed as "lite" cheaper edditions accordingly to the lower life standard in that region of the world.

Funny thing is that because the production cost there is way much cheaper, they are usually superior to the originals package-wise .

You have to decide for yourself if you have been cheated or not. Many collectors dont like them as they arent "the real deal", plus the fact they cost like $4 retail in Russia adds some insult to the injury if you have paid a full price for it and hasnt been notified by the seller it is a "Russian edition"

I personally feel offended when the seller convenietnly "ommit" to mention those are Russian edditions, so I very carefully check seller's feedback for such indications. If I get cheated and buy one of those, I just leave neutral feedback stating what they are, so other buyers like me would know.

Easy way of determining is to look for "buy it now" prices of about $6.95 for MAJOR recently released stuff. There is no way anyone can sell the brand-new Nuclear Blast/Century Media, etc releases for $6.95 and make profit out of it!

Voldemart has been known for one of the biggest wholesale "Russian" sellers on eBay for long time, I'm a bit surprised there would be people not knowing what they are buying from him by now.

That's a good idea !! Thanks ! I will have to work out how this works over here, though.

I will wait until he is back and and then see what happens.

Go check his eBay profile, I bet he got some new stuff for sale he posted on the wireless connection while on the airplane

Right at the moment I am trying to get my "New Frontier - S/T" exchanged for a new one. I bought it on eBay and it arrived all scratched, allthough the description said NEW.

 

I don't intend to take this bull.... ! 

 

But the seller sent me an email saying he is basically on his way to Australia for vacation and I should contact him again in mid november.

 

... I don't have a good feeling about my success ! 

 

But this is the first time this happened to me.

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Hahahah,

go ahead and file PayPal dispute! You will be amazed how fast he will swoosh back from down under

Ok just to settle the argument.......hahahaha.....I say give it to Ryan @ Metal Mayhem, that way we have everyone in the world involved.......Sorry for my ill-witted humor......hahahaha....

 

Later

Lon

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Yeah, and give the distribution to Davesmetal

Seriously, I dont care much who will release it, if it is proper release for reasonable price.

So guys and gal...what do I do?

Do I tell Michael he will sell more if the reissue is on a silver pressed cd?

Do I tell him to stick with plan 'A'?

I'm confused here. Need help.

I'm not sure what kind of a deal Sam gave to Michael, and frankly it's none of my business. I'm not an expert at this by any means. ANY help is greatly appreciated. Give me some suggestions to pass along to Michael, and I will do just that.

Give me some record company names that will do a good job for him.

Give me some contact names....give me something. We still have time before the mastering is done.

I completely understand about the whole Sam, Retrospect, CD-R thing. Can we please FINALLY get beyond all that, and concentrate on what is important here?

Thanks,

M.

I think it is between Michael and Sam at this point, and Michael has to decide for himself what will suit him best. The only thing you can do is let him know about the CD-R issue, so he can work it out with Sam.

Those are my 2 kopeek on this issue

Well....my point in shutting my mouth is that this whole Retrospect issue has been beaten.....and beaten......and beaten........and beaten.......and beaten............get it?    We all know the story.  We're all adults here, and can make up our own minds.  WHY continue to beat that dead horse????? 

 

Sorry....it's just that every time Sam's name, or Retrospect's name is brought up......this same................old...................issue comes out again.  In every thread.  I don't want to read about that.  I wanted to read about MANILA THRILLS.....and the progress of the issue / re-issue.......whatever.

 

Tired

 

But........like I said........I shut my mouth..........I'm out.

I apologize for upsetting all of you.

I felt the same way like MJ when reading Brian's posting, just didnt get around editing my mouth shut, that's all. sorry