Old Recordings and Astonishment

[Kriton]

Not really sure where this belongs - in the 'New Recordings' or the 'Problem' section? - but I'll give it a go here.

I always used to buy my CDs physically, so to speak, and it is only since a couple of months that I started ordering on line. I know, I'm probably old-fashioned, and was able to get a lot of rare recordings via contacts, but I acknowlegde the advantage that the internet brings as well. I just don't like waiting for the mail(wo)man...

One thing that really drives me crazy (and I can hardly exaggerate here!) is that some CDs that have been deleted - even if only for a few years - and that I do not even consider to be important recordings, I find for prices circling around 200 or even 300 euros/dollars/pounds. Only while they've been deleted? Are there people insane enough to pay such amounts of  money?

Just to be clear: I'm talking about SINGLE CDs, which originally didn't cost more than 15 eu/d/p... I'm thinking: if the CD is worth that much to you, why sell it? I have a hard time believing it's worth that much for others...

Am I going insane, or is it just the world around me?

(Or am I missing some kind of NB that's telling you can start the bidding at 10 eu/d/p?)

[mbhaub]

I know what you're talking about. I was trying to collect the Glazunov cycle on Warner with Serebrier. But I got started late, and wouldn't you know it, the cd with the 5th was not available. I tried all the usual outlets -- out of stock. Then is was Out of Print, even though they were still producing the other disks in the cycle. Fortunately, I got an illegal copy from a collecting friend, but there's something about that, and also owning the real thing that bothers me. So I started looking on Ebay and prices were going from $30 on up to $100! I refused to pay that price. Luckily, Arkivmusic came to the rescue and now offers it as a legal reprint -- and I did buy that.

One of the saddest cases for me from several years ago was the release of Harnoncourt's recording of Franz Schmidt's Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln. I first saw it advertised in Gramophone, and I can live with the fact that many releases hit Europe long before they come to the US. And given the cost of ordering overseas I decided to wait...and wait...and wait. It never even showed up at Amazon or HB or Arkiv -- nowhere except Berkshire, which sells cutout cds at a bargain price. How insulting! Music that I dearly love was ignored so much that in the US it went straight to the discounters, never even given a chance. At least I got it for a really low price.

I have resisted online buying for quite some time, but the possibilities of it are exciting to say the least. I did purchase the mp3 file for Schmidt's 4th symphony with Rudolf Moralt, finally retiring my well worn LP copy. And there are some tantalizing things out there, such as the NY Philharmonic traversal of the Mahler symphonies with Maazel. But the download costs are exorbitant in my opinion. $9 for a symphony that would fit on a single cd, and $18 for a double! For a download? Are they nuts? And it's not even sacd.

[Kriton]

I couldn't resist asking the seller why.

This has crossed my mind in some cases as well, but I think I shouldn't. I could end up saying things that would severely pollute the internet...

[Jonathan]

I noticed today Marcus Becker's 12 CD boxed set of the Reger Piano music is on Amazon for £1,187.23.

I'll have 3 copies!   

[Gareth Vaughan]

My experience has been that if you ignore the silly prices asked by some online retailers, but register your interest in the CD on Amazon, indicating a sensible price, sooner or later an affordable copy of your disk will come along. That has happened to me many times - one disk I wanted was, for a long time, available from only one seller at £150; eventually Amazon notified me that I had got it for less than the maximum I had said I was prepared to pay (i.e. £16) - got it for £8.99. I waited 2 years - but acquired the music in the end.

[eschiss1]

I noticed today Marcus Becker's 12 CD boxed set of the Reger Piano music is on Amazon for £1,187.23.

I'll have 3 copies!   

Ouch.
This is where I am glad there are still libraries. And Worldcat.org. &c. (I do have a hankering to hear his 4 sonatines op.89 (William Newman writes interesting things about them in The Sonata Since Beethoven...) one of these days, and don't know if anyone else is going to record them. Ah, who knows.)
Eric

[Jonathan]

Hi eschiss,
I have 2 of them on CD, recorded by Ulrich Urban on a Koch-Schwann disc so there is another recording available, if you can find it cheap anywhere!

[thalbergmad]

I actually saw a book offered used by a seller for about $150.00 when you could get the same edition new from any major retailer for $25.00.  I couldn't resist asking the seller why.  He replied, very testily, that his was a first printing.  I pulled my $25.00 dollar Barnes and Noble copy off the shelf.  So was mine.


Strange, eh?

This is my favourite.

   http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1338127787&searchurl=bt.x%3D74%26bt.y%3D12%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3Dpiano%2Bconcerto                                                                                               

Amazed they have not sold it.

Thal

[Ilja]

This is my favourite.

   http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1338127787&searchurl=bt.x%3D74%26bt.y%3D12%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3Dpiano%2Bconcerto                                                                                               

Amazed they have not sold it.

Thal

I have a Karajan Beethoven CD here that you may have for the same price.

[Kriton]

Amazed they have not sold it.

Perhaps it was signed by the housekeeper of the best friend of the granddaughter of Tchaikovsky's alleged son...

Such a price for such an issue is as ridiculous as it is sad - if one could even take it seriously, that is. It's nice to see, though, that I'm not the only one scratching his head about these abnormalities...

[JimL]

Maybe we could copy this whole thread and e-mail it to these goofballs.

[Ilja]

Seriously, this does happen quite often. I once saw a book I bought for 35 USD at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia advertised on Bookfinder for well over 350 USD. Excluding postage and handling, of course.

[thalbergmad]

Like anything else in life, I guess something is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it.

To offset some of the absurd prices one sees on e bay, Amazon and Abe, it is also possible to get absolute bargains and I am sure we have all had some of those at some time.

If someone is prepared to pay $1,000 for a Dover Edition, then they must have more money than sense or a screw loose. I would want a first edition or signed manuscript for that.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

Just been on to e bay and found the following:

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Piano-Concerto-3-Op-37-C-Min-Ludwig-Van-Beethoven-/140399429653?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item20b0754815                                                                                                   

I am going to send an e mail. He must have the decimal point in the wrong place. This is a top rated seller.

Has the World gone mad???

Thal

[Gareth Vaughan]

OK - just take a look at this:

Here's the Dover edition of Tchaikovsky's 1st PC at Amazon - even more than the one on Abebooks!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piano-Concerto-B-Flat-Minor-Score/dp/0486413934/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276689617&sr=1-7

Now here's the Dover edition of the complete PCs of Tchaikovsky in full score at Amazon.co.uk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Piano-Concertos-Full-Score/dp/0486273857/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276689648&sr=1-17

And a propos of Thalberg's example from ebay, here you can buy the Eulenburg study score for £6.99 inc. delivery:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concerto-No-minor-op-Orchestra/dp/B000E97UUU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276690547&sr=1-4

One could go on...

Totally crazy!!!!!