Albums That Defined A&M

[Rudy]

The majority of the picks I made so far are still in print, or not that hard to find. If someone wants to buy Whipped Cream at a high price, no big deal...there are still used copies out there. It was in print continuously from 1988 until just recently.

And one can always "go vinyl" too.

All I can say about half.com and Amazon: report the violations. I, too, am tired of the crap these sellers pull on innocent buyers. Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy, but I'm starting to be a perennial pain in the rear end when I see this kind of thing. If enough of us complain, something will get done.

On half.com, the latest is "condition spamming." Sellers of "brand new" products are realizing that their listings are buried deep among 40 others, so they'll list their product under Like New or even Very Good. I got an e-mail last week saying they'd removed one of my listings because I had a sealed "promo" item under Brand New, where it should have been under "Acceptable." Sorry...promo or not, if it's sealed, unplayed, unopened...its NEW by my standards. I lost out on their technicality...and yet they let these big mega-sellers post their new goods anywhere they feel like. We can see where their loyalties lie.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Maybe they should have a category like the car auction places do for unopened original parts...NOS[new old stock]...but I'm with you...if it's sealed, it's NEW!


Dan

 

[stefandaystrom]

The majority of the picks I made so far are still in print, or not that hard to find. If someone wants to buy Whipped Cream at a high price, no big deal...there are still used copies out there. It was in print continuously from 1988 until just recently.

My point is where can someone still buy it at a LOW price (except on vinyl)? It doesn't matter what was happening "just recently" ifyou're making a list for people to find stuff going forward.

But I think you missed the biggest point because of your bias against female vocalists. How to deal with Rita Coolidge? I think almost everyone would agree that she was a major A&M solo aritist in the later 70s, and that ANYTIME... ANYWHERE would be her definitive non-compilation album. Yet its availability parallels SRO more than WHIPPED CREAM. (And so does the availability of ANY of her A&M material, other than in compilations.)

All I can say about half.com and Amazon: report the violations.

Violations of what? Both places refuse to add listings for titles/editions that didn't have UPCs (or SKUs, or whatever they use to index albums by) or that for other reasons they never had in their database, so there's no other place to list it, yet they promote that you can sell any of your stuff on their sites! It's not about violations as much as it is about limitations in those sites (which the site operators seem to have little interest in the big effort it takes to invest in creating listings for stuff no database exists for except things like vinyl grading handbooks!

On half.com, the latest is "condition spamming." Sellers of "brand new" products are realizing that their listings are buried deep among 40 others, so they'll list their product under Like New or even Very Good. I got an e-mail last week saying they'd removed one of my listings because I had a sealed "promo" item under Brand New, where it should have been under "Acceptable." Sorry...promo or not, if it's sealed, unplayed, unopened...its NEW by my standards. I lost out on their technicality...and yet they let these big mega-sellers post their new goods anywhere they feel like. We can see where their loyalties lie.

Well, here again it's more because of an inadequate system. There's noplace I've found on half.com where I can set my preference to automatically show me 40 items in each quality catogory; that's a click through I have to do EVERY time I pull up an album listing, once per quality category. Also, I only see about three words of the "notes" that good sellers add explaining their item, and without clicking through on a particular item I can't tell BOTH whether it's a promo AND where they upgrade to first class for free. (At least on Amazon once I see the list of all the "used & new copies" I see the full comments with each one.)

 

[stefandaystrom]

if it's sealed, it's NEW!

But perhaps illegal to sell that way!

Here's the rub: Promotional items are sent out (often even stamped) with wording that boils down to the fact that they may not be sold "at retail". That means "new". The workaround is that no one worries that much if they're only sold as "used". Now, you and Rudy aren't big time retailers that the labels have in mind when they set the policies, but Amazon and half are, so I see their point, that promo stuff shouldn't be sold as new.

That, to me, is why the category of "like new" exists. (There, rather than "acceptable", is where I feel a typical sealed promo belongs... but read on.)

And many promos are quite mutilated, despite being sealed. There are holes punched in tray cards or booklets, corners cut off booklets, holed drilled in the jewel box (through the shrink wrap!), notches cut in the jewel box (sometimes in a spot too near the hinge along the top or bottom, which makes the jewel box no longer be able to stay in one piece once the shrink wrap is removed!). Or they may have writing all over the booklet (which you can see through the shrink wrap) or all over the disc itself (which you can't). Given all this, I would say it depends on the specific mutilation method as to whether I would even think "like new" is even the appropriate category for a given item. (I've seen booklet mutilations where some of the text was lost on each page, for example, and I don't find that to be "like new"!)

Still, everything works only if people describe their items correctly. I just bought a CD on eBay where the seller (good rating, but mostly sells things completely other than CDs) listed the condition as "PERFECT SHAPE!", and yet the tray card is totally mutilated (both spines cut off -- persumably because it wasn't stored in a jewel box? -- and the rest of the tray card wrinkled heavily). (To me, who stored CDs in jewel boxes in drawers where I only see the edge, that's BELOW unqualified "acceptable"!) I'm waiting to hear back how he'll handle it.

 

[Ed Bishop]

Tough, isn't it?

What the hell:

1. TJB: THE LONELY BULL--well, the first, and while it didn't sell tons at the time, it did have the label's first hit and, by 1965, really took off when WHIPPED CREAM did. No way I could leave it out!

2. BAJA MARIMBA BAND: HEADS UP--hard to choose just one, but, well, this is the one.

3. WE FIVE: YOU WERE ON MY MIND--folk/rock of the highest order short of the Byrds. A shame "There Stands The Door" was never mixed to stereo or put on an Lp, however.

4. TJB: WHIPPED CREAM--for the cover alone What can I say?
Good news: more great music!

5. BURT BACHARACH: REACH OUT--well, yes, he did.

6. JOE COCKER: MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN--great performances, though no single versions of "The Letter" or "Space Captain"

7. CARPENTERS: CARPENTERS--It's true: Rainy Days(if not Mondays)always get me down.

8. SUPERTRAMP: BREAKFAST IN AMERICA--close call, but this was the biggie!

9. SQUEEZE: ARGYBARGY--"Hour Glass" is my fave Squeeze 45, but this is my favorite Squeeze Lp.

10. AMY GRANT: HEART IN MOTION--Who needs Janet Jackson? Amy does well doing her JJ imitation....

That's just the beginning; more to come...

ED