On-line Stores & Sellers

Started by Expresso, July 02, 2007, 09:09:12 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

The new erato

Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2020, 06:39:32 PM
Has Europadisc been down all day for everyone else? I hope they don't pull an MDT - I had $7 in store credit...
I am worried as well. The online options are shrinking..... Hope it is only a technical glitch.

Brian

Quote from: The new erato on January 19, 2020, 08:02:17 PM
I am worried as well. The online options are shrinking..... Hope it is only a technical glitch.
The number of retailers is shrinking too quickly. In Europe you have JPC and Presto; here we have the somewhat untrustworthy Import CDs; and everywhere the all-consuming beast that is Amazon. Amazon is devouring the competition...which is a pity because its prices on classical CDs are rarely competitive.

Ratliff

Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2020, 06:39:32 PM
Has Europadisc been down all day for everyone else? I hope they don't pull an MDT - I had $7 in store credit...

...and Crotchet.co.uk before them..

I still remember some of the defunct online vendors I used to buy from, cdworld.com, cdnow.com.

Ratliff

Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2020, 08:30:46 PMAmazon is devouring the competition...which is a pity because its prices on classical CDs are rarely competitive.

At least amazon marketplace sellers can be competitive.

I never had any problem with importcds.com.  Berkshire record outlet has risen from the ashes. I used to send them big orders but not for a long time.

Madiel

eBay is now superior to Amazon. There are businesses that operate off there very nicely.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mandryka

#1265
My experience is that when it comes to books, music and indeed electronics,  Amazon is rather good and often competitive.

Amazon prime is interesting because it provides some assurance about delivery timescales, I'm often prepared to pay a premium for that, though maybe less so for CDs than for other items.


Clearly amazon downloads and streaming is utter shit.


On the other hand, in my experience eBay customer service is impeccable, and I greatly value PayPal buyer protection. I feel totally confident about buying items for many thousands of pounds from eBay, I know that if there's a problem PayPal will support me. Unfortunately PayPal is about to be replaced . . . I haven't explored the buyer protection policies which will then be applied.

Both amazon and eBay seem infinitely superior to any physical store, easier and safer to deal with, and often better value for money. If I have a problem with an item in a bricks and mortar store I may have to take the store to court, which is boring and time consuming and incurs a cost and is uncertain (will the courts be able to recover?) . . . All that just doesn't need to happen with PayPal.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

The new erato

#1266
Europadisc up and running.

steve ridgway

Perhaps those of us wanting to have our own copies rather than monthly subscriptions will end up buying FLACs etc. from the individual record labels and distributors like Amazon will be cut out.

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2020, 08:30:46 PM
The number of retailers is shrinking too quickly. In Europe you have JPC and Presto; here we have the somewhat untrustworthy Import CDs; and everywhere the all-consuming beast that is Amazon. Amazon is devouring the competition...which is a pity because its prices on classical CDs are rarely never competitive.

Now that I rarely buy a CD, I do most of my business (FLAC downloads with PDF booklet) with Presto. Actually, Chandos' own website is very good too, most single 'disks' are 9.99 GBP, and unlike Presto, they rarely don't have the booklet. Lack of a booklet is a deal breaker for me pretty much. They don't lack the balls to charge you full price, but they don't provide full value. >:(

Fixed your quote above, Brian...

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Brian

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on January 20, 2020, 09:43:00 AMThey don't lack the balls to charge you full price, but they don't provide full value. >:(

This is why I also like eClassical's model of charging different prices for different lengths of album (and they always have booklets).

Mandryka



eclassical want to charge $20 for this CD -- CD quality mp3 -- no booklet I bet. Qobuz charge £12 for FLAC.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: Brian on January 20, 2020, 09:46:32 AM
This is why I also like eClassical's model of charging different prices for different lengths of album (and they always have booklets).

Yes, I also buy from them. They seem fair and square. They don't have everything I want, but then, no one else does either. They have BIS though, one of my favorite labels. They even ripped a disk for me once that they didn't have as a download, which I thought was a nice gesture. :)

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

JBS

Quote from: Brian on January 19, 2020, 08:30:46 PM
The number of retailers is shrinking too quickly. In Europe you have JPC and Presto; here we have the somewhat untrustworthy Import CDs; and everywhere the all-consuming beast that is Amazon. Amazon is devouring the competition...which is a pity because its prices on classical CDs are rarely competitive.

Arkivmusic has gone back to being reliable, but their prices are often not competitive.  Amszon MP is usually reliable and competitively priced on new stuff, and on some things Amazon itself can be the lowest price, but their shipping is not always the best.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

71 dB

#1273
Quote from: Madiel on January 20, 2020, 12:25:54 AM
eBay is now superior to Amazon. There are businesses that operate off there very nicely.
eBay sellers are frustrating in the sense that when the item price is low, the shipping is high and vice versa. Oh, the CD is only 5 €, but the shipping is 10 € or the CD is 13 € and the shipping just 2 €. So you pay 15 € anyway. :P

Amazon (all of them: US, UK, DE,...) has had red text "This item does not ship to Finland" now for a week on almost all products, but people say it doesn't mean anything and ordering to Finland works as before so it can be ignored. The first time I saw it I almost got a heart attack and thought it's Amazon.co.uk prepairing to the Brexit. On a Finnish discussion board somebody told he had contacted the customer service about this, but only got a "generic" nonsense answer. They are completely indifferent in the firm.  ::)
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: JBS on January 20, 2020, 10:38:35 AM
Arkivmusic has gone back to being reliable, but their prices are often not competitive.  Amszon MP is usually reliable and competitively priced on new stuff, and on some things Amazon itself can be the lowest price, but their shipping is not always the best.

Well, I have Prime, so shipping is a non-issue. It's just that their base prices are nearly always full manufacturer's suggested retail (I don't know about non-Classical). Oddly enough, if I'm not in any rush, which I am usually not, I can often find what I want at a great price from the Marketplace vendor Momox, which is in Germany. Their shipping is usually quick (for overseas, that is) and their quality is always better than what they say. So if it is listed 'Very Good', usually it is really 'Like New'. I have ordered ~100 disks from them over the years and never been unhappy.

Even when you are trying to avoid buying CD's by getting flac downloads, there are some things where that just isn't going to happen. :-\

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Ratliff

#1275
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on January 20, 2020, 10:30:38 AM
Yes, I also buy from them. They seem fair and square. They don't have everything I want, but then, no one else does either. They have BIS though, one of my favorite labels. They even ripped a disk for me once that they didn't have as a download, which I thought was a nice gesture. :)
My understanding is that eClassics is BIS
8)

JBS

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on January 20, 2020, 11:46:03 AM
Well, I have Prime, so shipping is a non-issue. It's just that their base prices are nearly always full manufacturer's suggested retail (I don't know about non-Classical). Oddly enough, if I'm not in any rush, which I am usually not, I can often find what I want at a great price from the Marketplace vendor Momox, which is in Germany. Their shipping is usually quick (for overseas, that is) and their quality is always better than what they say. So if it is listed 'Very Good', usually it is really 'Like New'. I have ordered ~100 disks from them over the years and never been unhappy.

Even when you are trying to avoid buying CD's by getting flac downloads, there are some things where that just isn't going to happen. :-\

8)

My complaint was about their shipping procedures. For instance, the Naxos Johann Strauss box was supposed to be delivered to my local Amazon Hub today. The most recent tracking update shows it at a NW Miami facility yesterday, no indication that they did anything to move it the final 5 or 6 miles today. (My guess is the holiday is involved, but that's jusr a guess).

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: Ratliff on January 20, 2020, 12:17:34 PM
My understanding is that eClassics is BIS

I believe that is true, but they also carry a ton of other labels, including Accent and Arcana, for example, which are high on my list too. Really, it's no different doing downloads than it was buying CD's: you have to hunt around a lot to find what you want and are willing to pay for.  :)

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Gurn Blanston

Quote from: JBS on January 20, 2020, 12:52:24 PM
My complaint was about their shipping procedures. For instance, the Naxos Johann Strauss box was supposed to be delivered to my local Amazon Hub today. The most recent tracking update shows it at a NW Miami facility yesterday, no indication that they did anything to move it the final 5 or 6 miles today. (My guess is the holiday is involved, but that's jusr a guess).

Yeah, that's frustrating. It isn't just Amazon though. 2 weeks ago, I ordered 2 used disks from 2 different Amazon vendors. The one from Oregon showed up in my mailbox in 3 days. The one from Houston, TX, about 150 mi. south of me, took 9 days. Our local PO is supplied by North Houston Distribution Center. This packet went from there, to Dallas, sat for 3 days, then went to every little PO on the way down (200 mi.) before it finally ended up in the mailbox. Point being, the shipping/delivery companies can screw up all they want, the sender has little control over it. :-\

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

JBS

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on January 20, 2020, 04:38:49 PM
Yeah, that's frustrating. It isn't just Amazon though. 2 weeks ago, I ordered 2 used disks from 2 different Amazon vendors. The one from Oregon showed up in my mailbox in 3 days. The one from Houston, TX, about 150 mi. south of me, took 9 days. Our local PO is supplied by North Houston Distribution Center. This packet went from there, to Dallas, sat for 3 days, then went to every little PO on the way down (200 mi.) before it finally ended up in the mailbox. Point being, the shipping/delivery companies can screw up all they want, the sender has little control over it. :-\

8)

Quite true. But in this case Amazon is both vendor and shipper.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk