Where do the Aussies here by CDs from?

[DaHun72]

Didn't know where else to post this but given this could be good exposure for some online retailers.

 

Being an Aussie I look for the following:

- Stock, in-stock and have what I want.

- Price, whilst the exchange rate is OK with the $US we get killed on the EURO, Yen and GBP.

- Shipping costs, can you say rape!!!!

- Ease of use eg. ordering, payment (Visa, paypal etc.) and communication.

 

I currently use the following:

- CDWOW - cheap prices and free shipping.

- Wishing Well - Just placed an order coz of the 40% off discount. Shipping is very reasonable, especially without cases.

- AOR Heaven - Always stocks great stuff. Shipping can be expensive (been a while).

- Sentinel Steel - Stuff not always in stock, payment can be an issue if you don't have paypal but CD prices and shipping are great.

- CDBaby - Used to buy from here because of cheap CD prices and FREE shipping. Was a great way to get the Big Cock CDs cheap. They stopped doing the free shipping and this makes them too expensive now.

 

Would love to hear where the rest of you Aussies buy from and why and who to avoid.

[Ytseman]

Didn't know where else to post this but given this could be good exposure for some online retailers.

 

Being an Aussie I look for the following:

- Stock, in-stock and have what I want.

- Price, whilst the exchange rate is OK with the $US we get killed on the EURO, Yen and GBP.

- Shipping costs, can you say rape!!!!

- Ease of use eg. ordering, payment (Visa, paypal etc.) and communication.

 

I currently use the following:

- CDWOW - cheap prices and free shipping.

- Wishing Well - Just placed an order coz of the 40% off discount. Shipping is very reasonable, especially without cases.

- AOR Heaven - Always stocks great stuff. Shipping can be expensive (been a while).

- Sentinel Steel - Stuff not always in stock, payment can be an issue if you don't have paypal but CD prices and shipping are great.

- CDBaby - Used to buy from here because of cheap CD prices and FREE shipping. Was a great way to get the Big Cock CDs cheap. They stopped doing the free shipping and this makes them too expensive now.

 

Would love to hear where the rest of you Aussies buy from and why and who to avoid.

 

Hey John, the GBP isn't too bad actually these days.

 

Music Buy Mail has been great recently!

 

I always try to order with friends to keep shipping costs down to 1.50 - 2.00 Euro per disc.

 

I'm wishing Rock Candy would have a sale on their older releases!

 

Schmankerl have always had the biggest range and their prices are pretty good as well.

 

It seems AOR Heaven aren't stocking as much back catalogue as they used to. Shame because their service has always been top notch!

[Geoff]

Pretty well covered there. I always liked Schmankerl too. Good sale prices as well as decent case-free shipping costs. Last time I went there, though, they didn't appear to have the huge amount of CDs they usually have for sale.

 

Been using CDWOW and Chaos.com recently for new releases and although they're quite limited in what's available, they are good for the "bigger" releases.

 

I don't know how picky you guys are, but my overall favourite, by far, is still Nuclearhell.com. CDs are Russian pressings so if that bothers you stay away, but they're exactly the same as any other pressings to me. Plus they offer free worldwide shipping and the CDs are only us$12. Only drawback is you have to wait a few months for the new releases to arrive in stock and they don't stock everything that's released, but other than that they're excellent.

 

Oh, and it should be mentioned that as well as Wishing Well (who are excellent), Retrospect Records also offer very fair (cheap ), affordable and sensible overseas shipping rates.

[phaffas]

JB HiFi special bins

NuclearHell (although they never have any specials). I love you Russian pressings. So does Geoff. So does Vince but he wont admit it.

Second Spin if they have a worldwide special

CDWOW

Ebay

Divine Metal Distribution for Christian stuff... awesome business!

Vinceybabe above sometimes gets me stuff from Music Buy Mail and i forget he has them.

Geoff does nothing for me.

Lindsay sometimes does stuff for me.

 

No idea what Chaos is or if its any good.

Ive also bought from Roger before... what a champ!

I also havnt touched CDbaby for a long time... such a pity they changed.

[Geoff]

BTW, is Sentinel Steel just heavy metal stuff? Had a quick look through and couldn't find any melodic rock / AOR / glam / sleaze etc. Is it more for the heavier stuff? Prices look good, though.

[Ytseman]

NuclearHell (although they never have any specials). I love you Russian pressings. So does Geoff. So does Vince but he wont admit it.

 

I have never bought a Russian pressed cd sorry. A store I shopped at for 20 years has starting stocking Russian pressing in the past 5 or 6 years. Very dodgy!

 

I'm in no hurry for new releases and I'm happy to wait a few years until the price drops.

[phaffas]

NuclearHell (although they never have any specials). I love you Russian pressings. So does Geoff. So does Vince but he wont admit it.

 

I have never bought a Russian pressed cd sorry. A store I shopped at for 20 years has starting stocking Russian pressing in the past 5 or 6 years. Very dodgy!

 

I'm in no hurry for new releases and I'm happy to wait a few years until the price drops.

Where have i heard this before?

[glam_junkie]

german site "hangloose records" often has some really good bargains in their sale section. if you can find a hanful in there then the shipping doesn;t matter too much.

[Geoff]

Geoff does nothing for me.

Sometimes I pet your head as though you were a pug.

 

I admit it, though, I'm lazy. And when I do the calculations I really can't see much benefit in shipping to one address here and then sending out CD once they're in Australia. Creeps.

[Guest HeavyMetalMerchant]

You can always try my store we don't do that much AOR but do get some rarities in from time to time.

[cdjunky41]

BTW, is Sentinel Steel just heavy metal stuff? Had a quick look through and couldn't find any melodic rock / AOR / glam / sleaze etc. Is it more for the heavier stuff? Prices look good, though.

 

Only Heavy Metal, but you might find a rarity or two in his used section.

Look under his $5.88, $6.88 and $9.88 sections..

Dennis is a decent bloke to deal with..

[JC_AOR]

You can always try my store we don't do that much AOR but do get some rarities in from time to time.

I've picked up a few goodies from your on-line store in the past.

[JC_AOR]

A few new places for the Aussies to check out:

 

Metal Massacre Online - Started just a few weeks ago. Mainly metal but some Hard Rock / MHR as well. Spoke to them and it seems they may be getting a bunch of Frontiers Records titles soon. Fingers crossed.

 

Soundmass - Aussie based online store, specialising in Christian AOR, Hard Rock and Metal. Mostly metal but I did find a few good AOR titles on there as well.

 

Realm of Kaos is a new store located at 154 Peel St. Melbourne. Haven't been there yet but apparently they have a selection of Hard Rock titles as well as lots of metal.

[Doggy]

Add Radical Records in Dandenong, Victoria to your list aswelll.

I helpout most days, Andre is one customer along with Jules from the Deadthings.They got a website aswell, Radicalrecords.com.au.

[JC_AOR]

Add Radical Records in Dandenong, Victoria to your list aswelll.

I helpout most days, Andre is one customer along with Jules from the Deadthings.They got a website aswell, Radicalrecords.com.au.

 

Radical Records

 

Yeah they seem to have a decent range of new hard rock and even some AOR stuff as well. It would be nice if they listed prices but they state on the website that they can't list prices due to the fact that most of their items are imports, and therefore prices fluctuate. But they do state most items are $29-$39. I think they should have set prices, not prices that fluctuate, that puts me off a bit.

 

It's really good to see more Aussie stores stocking Hard Rock / AOR releases but in all honesty at $30+ per CD plus postage it often still works out more economical to buy the CD's from OS due to the fact that you can wait and purchase a bulk lot of CD's from NEH or AOR Heaven etc. and combine postage costs without cases.

[melodicrockoz]

A few new places for the Aussies to check out:

 

Metal Massacre Online - Started just a few weeks ago. Mainly metal but some Hard Rock / MHR as well. Spoke to them and it seems they may be getting a bunch of Frontiers Records titles soon. Fingers crossed.

 

Soundmass - Aussie based online store, specialising in Christian AOR, Hard Rock and Metal. Mostly metal but I did find a few good AOR titles on there as well.

 

Realm of Kaos is a new store located at 154 Peel St. Melbourne. Haven't been there yet but apparently they have a selection of Hard Rock titles as well as lots of metal.

 

 

before soundmass there use to be a store just outside forrest hill shopping centre on that street that goes up on it called CCM, I dont think there's ever been a better christian music store than CCM in oz. For a while I just couldnt stop hanging out there, sadly they shut shop around 2002. CCM stocked heaps of raities such a gideons army, mastedon, angelica' & had alotta obscure unknowns gems aswell.

 

 

 

Blue Bird record over in Coburg that closed 1999 was another place for AORsters to chill out, they had an incredible range of obscure indy's & rarities in terms of aor / mhr. This store was almost up there with Radical during Radicals heyday

[Ytseman]

Add Radical Records in Dandenong, Victoria to your list aswelll.

I helpout most days, Andre is one customer along with Jules from the Deadthings.They got a website aswell, Radicalrecords.com.au.

 

Great store but it's been 6 years since I've been there!

[JC_AOR]

 

Realm of Kaos is a new store located at 154 Peel St. Melbourne. Haven't been there yet but apparently they have a selection of Hard Rock titles as well as lots of metal.

 

I went to Realm of Kaos while in Melbourne during the week and can highly recommend the store to all the Aussie Hard Rock/Metal fans on this forum. I'm told a website will be up soon but in the meantime you can either visit the store if your in Melbourne or phone them (9329-7447) and the awesome dude who works there will post your CD's for free within Australia. While the product range is probably targeted more toward the metal crowd, there is quite a bit of Hard Rock as well. I saw they had new titles such as the new RATT, Treat, Reckless Love and Crazy Lixx in stock. I managed to pick up a few harder to find classic Hard Rock CD's as well as a few DVD's. I have to say the store is excellent and the owner is a really genuine person who knows his Hard Rock/Metal as well as anyone and is 100% committed to delivering top service. I'll post another message here when the website is up and running.

[melodicrockoz]

yeah they sure had some hard to find gems there, hopefully they'll have more in soon.

[DaHun72]

After the recommendations here I went down to Realm of Kaos in Nth Melbourne, Victoria. I have to say I was stunned at the releases. All of the new metal, power metal releases as well as all of the hard rock releases of late (Treat, Reckloess Love, Crash Diet and so on). Best of all were the rarities at cheaper than JB prices. I grabbed Battle Bratt - S/T that I've been looking for ages but couldn't grab it.

Worth giving them a call if you want to pick up any new releases or old classics to fill gaps in your collection like Icon, Lethal, Barren Cross, King Kobra and much much more.... and a heap of t-shirts as well. I can't comment on the Black Metal stuff, there was a section as well as traditional metal.

 

Their number is (03) 9329 7447 and they offer free shopping nationally. Worth giving them a call if you need something!