On-line Stores & Sellers

[JBS]

It seems like something is up with on of my favorite vendors, importcds.com. Their main page just changed and refers to alliance entertainment. Also, an order starus email I recently got from them contains a broken link to an image from deepdiscount.com (not the same vendor in the past). Seems like there has been some sort of realignment of ownership. I hope things don't change. My purchases these days are almost entirely artist boxes, and they have often had the best price on that sort of thing.

Alliance does the shipping for Arkivmusic, and in the past items I ordered from Amazon MP vendors were shipped via Alliance; I don't remember if ImportCDs was one of them. I had no real complaints about service with Alliance, but of course that would have no bearing on how they decide to price items.

[Spotted Horses]

Alliance does the shipping for Arkivmusic, and in the past items I ordered from Amazon MP vendors were shipped via Alliance; I don't remember if ImportCDs was one of them. I had no real complaints about service with Alliance, but of course that would have no bearing on how they decide to price items.

The fact that the banner of the importcds.com site now says "an Alliance Entrtainment company" suggests to me that importcds is now owned by alliance, rather than using alliance as a fulfillment service. When companies gat bought out things are normally the same, until they're not.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

It seems like something is up with on of my favorite vendors, importcds.com. Their main page just changed and refers to alliance entertainment. Also, an order starus email I recently got from them contains a broken link to an image from deepdiscount.com (not the same vendor in the past). Seems like there has been some sort of realignment of ownership. I hope things don't change. My purchases these days are almost entirely artist boxes, and they have often had the best price on that sort of thing.

This is interesting. I've bought a lot from ImportCDs through the years mainly through the eBay and Amazon MP. I've had a few issues during the 25 years or so I've used them, but they were always cooperative (for the most part) and sending an item back had never been an issue. It sounds like they have been acquired by a larger company and, hopefully, for those that still buy the physical media this will continue to be business as usual.

[Brian]

As it happens I have had some dealings with ImportCDs over the last few months. I ordered the Dorati/Philharmonia Hungarica box in early March, and they created a shipping label but then lost the package in the warehouse before it was tendered to USPS.

At that time, ImportCDs did say it was an Alliance Entertainment company and list AENT's stock listing on its homepage. I knew it was also the same company as Deep Discount for some time as well, and they fulfilled orders for just about everybody from their Shepherdsville, KY location. This year-old Reddit comment suggests they have long been an unofficial "front" for AENT.

The main thing that seems to have changed a lot this week is they redesigned their website and the new redesign makes this more prominent.

P.S. After two emails and several weeks, they did finally ship a replacement of the box and it's supposed to arrive tomorrowish.

[Kalevala]

From an article of the BBC:  'DHL Express is suspending deliveries to the US worth more than $800 (£603) because of a "significant increase" in red tape at customs following the introduction of Donald Trump's new tariff regime.

The delivery giant said it will temporarily stop shipments from companies in all countries to American consumers on Monday "until further notice".

It added that business-to-business shipments will still go ahead, "though they may also face delays".'

The complete article is here:  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jx9ep5l63o

K

[JBS]

From an article of the BBC:  'DHL Express is suspending deliveries to the US worth more than $800 (£603) because of a "significant increase" in red tape at customs following the introduction of Donald Trump's new tariff regime.

The delivery giant said it will temporarily stop shipments from companies in all countries to American consumers on Monday "until further notice".

It added that business-to-business shipments will still go ahead, "though they may also face delays".'

The complete article is here:  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jx9ep5l63o

K

Better not place any big orders with JCP (I believe they use DHL).

I wonder how this will effect ordering CDs from UK/EU:

But the White House is set to clamp down on deliveries under $800 - specifically those sent from China and Hong Kong - on 2 May when it closes a loophole allowing low-value packages to enter the US without incurring any duties.

The removal of the so-called "de minimis" rule will impact the likes of the fast-fashion firm Shein and Temu, the low-cost retail giant.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

From an article of the BBC:  'DHL Express is suspending deliveries to the US worth more than $800 (£603) because of a "significant increase" in red tape at customs following the introduction of Donald Trump's new tariff regime.

The delivery giant said it will temporarily stop shipments from companies in all countries to American consumers on Monday "until further notice".

It added that business-to-business shipments will still go ahead, "though they may also face delays".'

The complete article is here:  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jx9ep5l63o

K

Better not place any big orders with JCP (I believe they use DHL).

I wonder how this will effect ordering CDs from UK/EU:

Looks like I picked the right time to stop buying CDs.

[Kalevala]

Better not place any big orders with JCP (I believe they use DHL).

I wonder how this will effect ordering CDs from UK/EU:

Well, we'll find out! 

K

[Spotted Horses]

...
At that time, ImportCDs did say it was an Alliance Entertainment company and list AENT's stock listing on its homepage. I knew it was also the same company as Deep Discount for some time as well, and they fulfilled orders for just about everybody from their Shepherdsville, KY location. This year-old Reddit comment suggests they have long been an unofficial "front" for AENT.

The main thing that seems to have changed a lot this week is they redesigned their website and the new redesign makes this more prominent.

I had noticed that DeepDiscount and ImportCDS.com and others (blowitouotahere?) shipped from the same fulfillment center. I had the impression that the fulfillment center was an independent entity and that multiple vendors used it.

But despite their being owned (apparently) by Alliance Entertainment, they are not identical. I did a spot check. The Kempff "Decca Legacy" set is about $55 on deep discount, $46 on importcds.com. Either the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, or they have different marketing strategies on different sites. Maybe then market deep discount more heavily for suckers and the cheapskates know about importcds. Getting different people to pay different prices for the same product is the fundamental goal of modern marketing.

[Kalevala]

I had noticed that DeepDiscount and ImportCDS.com and others (blowitouotahere?) shipped from the same fulfillment center. I had the impression that the fulfillment center was an independent entity and that multiple vendors used it.

But despite their being owned (apparently) by Alliance Entertainment, they are not identical. I did a spot check. The Kempff "Decca Legacy" set is about $55 on deep discount, $46 on importcds.com. Either the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, or they have different marketing strategies on different sites. Maybe then market deep discount more heavily for suckers and the cheapskates know about importcds. Getting different people to pay different prices for the same product is the fundamental goal of modern marketing.

...and the cheapskates know about importcds.

It's called "being thrifty", dear.   

K

[Brian]

I had noticed that DeepDiscount and ImportCDS.com and others (blowitouotahere?) shipped from the same fulfillment center. I had the impression that the fulfillment center was an independent entity and that multiple vendors used it.

But despite their being owned (apparently) by Alliance Entertainment, they are not identical. I did a spot check. The Kempff "Decca Legacy" set is about $55 on deep discount, $46 on importcds.com. Either the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, or they have different marketing strategies on different sites. Maybe then market deep discount more heavily for suckers and the cheapskates know about importcds. Getting different people to pay different prices for the same product is the fundamental goal of modern marketing.

A common discussion point on the Steve Hoffman forum is the fact that ImportCDs also has different prices on the named 'ImportCDs' store hosted by eBay, so I think your marketing theory is correct. (That, and they're trying to mitigate the "take" that eBay collects.)

There definitely are other companies not owned by AENT that use its fulfillment center. I recently received a box of Criterion Collection movies from that address.

[DavidW]

Mozart, Divertimento K63, Kuijken



I'm going through all of Mozart's serenades and divertimenti, and didn't have high hopes for this juvenile work. But the Adagio is striking in Kuijken's recording (dull as dishwater under Marriner).

I think you posted this on the wrong thread!

[Que]

I think you posted this on the wrong thread!

Still a great recording! 

[Brian]

Europadisc added online sales of used CDs.

[Kalevala]

Europadisc added online sales of used CDs.

Wow! 

K

[Madiel]

Europadisc added online sales of used CDs.

I've got eBay for that.

And of course lots of people have got Amazon for that, though I find eBay far preferable.

[Que]

Europadisc added online sales of used CDs.

Interesting!  Pity they are in the UK ergo outside the EU though...

My go-to for used are the EU Amazons, medimop.de (aka Momox) and Discogs.com.

[Spotted Horses]

I've bought FLAC downloads from Presto, Qobuz, eClassical. Are there other good options? Looking for a download of Maconchy String Quartets which I can get from amazon in MP3 format (Treasure Island label), but I don't see a FLAC (or ALAC) option anywhere.

[Brian]

Aside from the three you mentioned, the only other store I'd used was Chandos, which has closed its download shop down.