Oldies.com has huge Fantasy CD sale-Blowout-Exceptional Deals!

jqp · « **Reply #40 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 01:45 am »

Quote from: jazzcourier on 22 Sep 2009, 05:21 pm

My order was placed the day i started this thread,the 10th.I got an order shipping confirmation on the 17th and today my order is in Billings,Montana.Looks as if this order is going by burro,stopping at every class "A" baseball park 'tween the east and So Cal. Not complaining....file this under "you get what you don't pay for" Free shipping!
I am now glad when they said "free shipping" they didn't mean via the Panama canal.

My order arrived today - complete with insulation (pulverized paper?) and advertisements for cigars and watches (with free sunglasses!) - it took 12 days.

It's a shame they had to notch brand new CDs - is it a business agreement with the record companies?

jazzcourier · « **Reply #41 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 03:00 am »

Commonly known in the music biz as a "cutout"- hence the nick.This has been done for as long as i have been buying music, since the mid sixties.Everybody does it a little differently and some not so cleanly.This is done at the label or whoever is "liquidating" the stock.This is so those retail weasels don't buy a "remaindered" product and try to retail it at full price.Which,as many would probably agree,does not stop the "retail weasels"- as the item in question now becomes "out of print" and EVEN more valuable.I will share with any who care the most exciting moment of my youth-going to a cut-out warehouse in L.A. in 1968 and seeing mountains of records for a quarter wholesale! At this point in time the Chess label had been sold and all the Chess lp's were being dumped -Muddy Waters,Little Walter,Sonny Boy Williamson,John Lee Hooker-all the original lp's.I still have many of those records in my collection.
Those records probably retailed for 98 cents.We used to go and search all the drug stores and the like for records.They all sold records-cutouts-for 98 cents each.I swear to god and all that is sacred-it was a mountain of records! If they just nicked the case you can always replace the cases.

srb · « **Reply #42 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 03:05 am »

Which brings a question to those that have received their order. Does this notch just affect the jewell case, or does it also partially mutilate the printed insert?

Steve

mjosef · « **Reply #43 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 03:13 am »

My two orders placed 9/11 and 9/14 were both shipped on 9/18 and got here 9/21...I have yet to stop by the PO for pick-up.
Pretty fast I think.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #44 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 04:14 am »

Quote from: srb on 24 Sep 2009, 03:05 am

Which brings a question to those that have received their order. Does this notch just affect the jewell case, or does it also partially mutilate the printed insert?

Steve

It's just a small (1/8 of an inch) notch in the left side of the case...effects nothing. All my orders have arrived (3 orders-59 cd's delivered) pretty quick - from PA to NY...

Just a few were out of stock....they must be selling fast.

Cut out LP's (from the old days)....that was fun...many good buys, way back then !!!

rockadanny · « **Reply #45 on:** 24 Sep 2009, 11:11 am »

Crappy notch does cut the back inserts, but worse it leaves tiny, sharp plastic bits everywhere, including ON the CDs. So you should blow off the CDs and inspect them before too much handling. And ditch the case as it is difficult to clean up the crappy notch. A couple of mine did not show up so I assume they are on back order even though the web site says they are in stock. I could not get a useful answer from them via e-mail. All they did was reply with their policy found on their web site and did not address my specific missing CDs. I guess for $4 for new CDs you don't get the greatest service. But for the price I think it is worth the hassle.

jqp · « **Reply #46 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 04:04 am »

Quote from: srb on 24 Sep 2009, 03:05 am

Which brings a question to those that have received their order. Does this notch just affect the jewell case, or does it also partially mutilate the printed insert?

Steve

More like 1/4" on mine - So nearly all of the spine part of the labels are cut in half, often it cuts a little into the back label - others not touched - it depends on the case layout. I would say you could usually replace the case and it would look normal. It is a real pain, luckily I have several old Kodack blank CD cases from the 90s, probably will eventually order some quality jewel cases to replace some of my cheap and broken ones. If you sell one of these to SecondSpin someday I would think they would not care as long as the case was replaced, but don't know.

SecondSpin does not do the cutting, they just put a stickers on them that just peel off. Try them, they have lots of stock.

srb · « **Reply #47 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 04:34 am »

i've only now today just received one of the CDs I ordered. I'm not real happy about the notch, more so that they chose not to reveal this fact.

I cleaned away the plastic microbits as was recommended (they could conceviably mess with a player), and replaced the back of the jewell case. I turned the back insert with spine titles upside down, so that I had an unmutilated spine on the left side.

Not all spine titles are printed in opposing directions , so it could be that turning the back insert upside down in the ones to come, may or may not result in the spine reading correctly, but we'll see.

Not the end of the world, I just think they could have come up with a better solution, and at least revealed that they were notched and the spine mutilated - and I told them that.

Steve

jqp · « **Reply #48 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 04:41 am »

One of mine from SecondSpin had the center hub disintegrated and the CD was loose inside - luckily not damaged.

I think I am pretty much through with retail CD purchasing - the best place in town, Borders slashed inventory to about 1/10th, and CDs are about $18 there.

So I guess we will have to live with it, for CDs from $2-8

Zero · « **Reply #49 on:** 25 Sep 2009, 08:20 am »

First and foremost, thanks for giving all of the members here a heads-up on this deal!

I should have pounced on the deal the moment I was made aware of it! Instead, I waited a couple of days to make sure I had the funds to make the purchase. Once I got the go-ahead, I placed an order for roughly 13 or so CD's. Of those 13, only 5 arrived to my abode. The rest were apparently out of stock. Oh well, I can't complain. Though it would have been nice to have received everything I ordered, at the end of the day, I got some good music on the cheap. Oh yeah, and they shipped those CD's out to me VIA: UPS Ground (for free, no less). Nope, I can't complain at all.

Thanks again for the heads-up!

rajacat · « **Reply #50 on:** 2 Oct 2009, 12:05 am »

I received my order today and despite the cut-outs in the CD cases I'm very happy. After all, it's just about the music, eh?

Soon they will be on my hard drive so I won't have to mess with the media.

13 out of 15 arrived and they said that they'll send the missing postage free when they're back in stock. Only billed for what was sent.

In general I'm very happy with the sound quality of my selections.

Another shipment of 13 should arrive any day. Now I'm considering ordering a third of about 15.

--Roy

jazzcourier · « **Reply #51 on:** 2 Oct 2009, 03:20 am »

It was 20 days from ordering to arrival and i received 33 of the 36 i ordered.Whether or not those other 3 will ever show up...........That is quite a nick in the case,at least i have only found one broken case. It would be nice if they would update the list as to what is sold out.I ordered a bunch of things i have on vinyl,such as all the Coleman Hawkins cd's on Prestige and the one on Riverside,they are just so good! They are monuments to his effortless creativity as he moved on his life. His tone is always rich,full of passion and every note sounds like it was picked out after much scrutiny.Full of wistful romance on the ballads,turning the corner on three wheels on the swingers and a little dangerous on the Blues.He is also on the Riverside session "Monk's Music" with Coltrane.I love that record and got the 20 bit version.Hawkins is in a fiery mood and sounds like someone sat on his hat.His tone is downright carnivorous.This is the session that Coltrane was nodding on,right before his solo you hear someone call "John Coltrane" and he his up and running.To hear the two on the same session is something else! As long as i am mentioning Tenor players let me put a word in for Jimmy Heath-all those Riverside recordings on the list are just sooooo good! I believe he would have garnered much more attention had he signed with BlueNote as he was planning,but they would not give him the publishing rights to his works and Riverside would.A smart choice because Riverside just let him do what he wanted,put the bands together,write arrange and showcase his feisty tenor syle.I venture to say these are some of the best records of the end of the 50's into the early 60's.He really came out of the BeBop era but flowered in that post-"Bop" style.
I was very pleased to get the Duke Ellington Pablo "The Ellington suites" on 20 bit k2 super encoding.The first time release of his self recorded "Queens suite" is stunning.The later work from '71 and '72 is also very good.The sound is marvelous,the bands all superb and The Ellington mind is majestic.This is not an revival of past glories.Even,sometimes especially,in the last years of his life Duke brought the sirens of song together like no other.He earned the "beyond category" moniker each time he sat at the piano.
Finally,a sleeper, 'Karrin Allyson" "In Blue" on Concord. This woman has a voice that starts out with a touch of satin and ends with a whiskey edge.a real musician and someone who can get around a song like you would walk around and admire a fully restored 1971 Cadillac,two door,soft top.She has some great players on this session {Mulgrew Miller,steve Wilson} and touches all the bases of the Blues with some great tune choices.Why is this woman not more well known is a mystery.The great sound on this disc matches her artistry.Which reminds me of a Duke Ellington story passed down through a few friends and fans,his comment to a fetching female would be "My dear,you make that dress look good!" I can say the same to Karrin,her voice her songs,her little bit of Johnny Walker Red at the end of her phrases.She makes those tunes live.
As for me,i think i will take another look at that list.

rockadanny · « **Reply #52 on:** 2 Oct 2009, 11:04 am »

jazzc - Karrin Allyson is wonderful! Not sure if Oldies has it but check out her "Imagina: Songs of Brasil" release. Really excellent. And what a seductive voice - makes you melt. aa

srb · « **Reply #53 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 04:34 pm »

I was a little disappointed to find out that half of my order was backordered, then to find that the backorder on those items expires after 30 days. I called and was told they were not available (and as luck would have it, the albums I really wanted). Oh well.

The other thing was that I later received (as I assume everyone else did) a rather thick newsprint catalog that I'm not going to read, and unfortunately it went directly into the recycle bin. The folks at oldies.com had no problem in issuing a "catalog kill", but let me know that as soon as I place another order, the catalog mailing will be reinstated!

Steve

turkey · « **Reply #54 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 05:18 pm »

I just saw this thread and wound up ordering a bunch of Telarc classical stuff. I hope they're actually in stock and arrive in good shape.

Thanks for the head's-up jazzcourier!

mdconnelly · « **Reply #55 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 06:33 pm »

You can't beat the great pricing on so many very good CDs! But... I found having part of my order back-ordered and then dropped (even though their site says the unshipped CDs are available) a bit frustrating. More so, any attempt to communicate with them via email or links on their site simply go ignored.

Lastly, and perhaps the most frustrating, is that the last couple tracks on the Karrin Allyson CD, In Blue, that I bought from them are unplayable and unrippable. I've tried contacting them about returning it with no response.

mjosef · « **Reply #56 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 06:36 pm »

Yeap, they don't know the meaning of customer service. I got no response from them regarding a wrong cd they sent me. I have been hesitant to place another order, don't want to feed the bad piggies.

srb · « **Reply #57 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 06:38 pm »

Quote from: mdconnelly on 26 Oct 2009, 06:33 pm

More so, any attempt to communicate with them via email or links on their site simply go ignored.

...I've tried contacting them about returning it with no response.

I have contacted them twice via their 800 number and both times waited < 5 minutes. And they were kind and helpful, even though I'm not thrilled with their non-realtime inventory structure and 30 day automatic backorder cancellation.

Steve

mdconnelly · « **Reply #58 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 07:02 pm »

So here is perhaps a dumb question -- what exactly does the cutout mean? No royalties back to the artist? A fundamental flaw in the disk or casing? An overzealous packer with a saw?

I know that the concept of cutouts has been around forever and I use to pick up cheap vinyl this way as well, but I never really understood what caused an album or CD to be a cutout.

rajacat · « **Reply #59 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 08:01 pm »

I see no reason to complain. If you want pristine CD boxes go pay regular retail elsewhere. If you want perfect customer service the same applies. If you want the perfect CD cases so you can resell on the used market after you copy them then that's your problem.

I'm just happy to get these excellent vintage jazz albums at low and fair prices. I always thought that $15 was too much to pay for CDs and 5 bucks or so is what they should be priced so that the consumer benefits from the $'s saved with the lower costs of production and shipping when compared to LPs.

-Roy