Used CD extras. A thread for the bonus items included with used discs, etc.

[Bryn]

I am starting this thread as somewhere to mention those little extras which sometimes come with used CDs, etc, whether bought from charity shops, via online suppliers of from Internet traders.

I will start things off with a copy of the 3 disc version or Solti's Das Rheingold which I got after reading criticisms of the 1997 2 CD transfers which I already had. In the slipcase, was a page from the September 8th edition of L'Humanite (they do not include an accent in the paper's name at the bottom of the page) with a tribute to Sir Georg Solti. Plus, inside the jewel case was a fourth disc, a CD-R of a commentary on "L'Or du Rhin" by Pierre Michot, read by Gérard Courchelle, along with an itemised track listing for that CD-R.

I have also often found picture postcards of artworks included in the packaging from Amazon Marketplace suppliers. So what bonus items have others found when buying used discs, etc.?

[jayne lee wilson]

Some years ago I was overjoyed to find a mint 2ndhand set of the Dvorak Symphonies, the lovely, large claret and blue original 1991 Philips release by the LSO and Witold Rowicki.
I'd always disliked the sound of the Duo releases and sure enough the original CDs gave me all I'd hoped - and more. They were wonderful! I played them and played them, put them near my chair and gazed upon them, for weeks....

But inside there were 2 mysterious Gold CD-Rs. The only ID on them was a handwritten serial no., but one I half-recognised.... in fact they were none other than the 2005 Berlin Phil/Rattle EMI set of the Dvorak Tone-Poems, and very good sounding indeed. I put them in a spare double-jewel case, intending to find a way of labelling them attractively.
Alas, I never did and.... lost them. I think I needed the case for something else, transferring the Dvorak to a temporary home of even greater undeserved obscurity. They must be here somewhere, but....

[gurnemanz]

Some years ago I was overjoyed to find a mint 2ndhand set of the Dvorak Symphonies, the lovely, large claret and blue original 1991 Philips release by the LSO and Witold Rowicki.
I'd always disliked the sound of the Duo releases and sure enough the original CDs gave me all I'd hoped - and more. They were wonderful! I played them and played them, put them near my chair and gazed upon them, for weeks....

By coincidence, as I read the above I had just selected Dvorak 4th with LSO and Witold Rowicki as my early morning listening. (Most enjoyable). Earlier this year I had bought the two Duos of the early symphonies secondhand to get to know them, having not really known them at all up till then. No hidden extras, I'm afraid, and my only possible contribution here is that last week, as a Lieder nut, I snapped up the excellent Eberhard Wächter/Alfred Brendel Dichterliebe for only £1.89 second hand from Amazon. Hardly a bonus item, but I was surprised to see it still had the original shop price sticker of £5.99. It seems a bit odd to me to leave the price label on CDs in your collection. Maybe it was was surplus shop stock that had never actually been sold.

[pastoralguy]

I was lucky enough to buy many boxed sets from an eBay seller who, I suspect, didn't really know what she had. They'd belonged to her late father and she admitted she just wanted rid of them asap. Many 'big boxes' devoted to a single artist for around £10 a pop! I bought 30 of them totalling around 700 discs. (Heifetz, Oistrakh, William Kapell, Maazel, Abbado, Bernstein and Ozawa and the Karajan Opera set which completed my big Karajan box set collection).

Shortly after this huge parcel arrived, I received a small parcel from the lady concerned contained 10 DG Celibidache discs which she'd found! I haven't mentioned this here because I've felt slightly guilty about buying box sets that retail between £50 & £200 for circa £10!

[Lion-of-Vienna]

I had the same experience as Gurnemanz a year ago. I picked up the Paul Lewis set of Beethoven Piano Sonatas in a charity shop for £3. At the bottom of the box was the original HMV price tag for £55. A terrific bargain of a wonderful set of performances was made all the more enjoyable by knowledge of the saving made.

[Old Grumpy]

Not quite in the same league as above, but I bought a used copy of John Etheridge's Sweet Chorus - A Tribute to Stephane Grappelli in Barter Books in Alnwick.

On returning home and examining the CD insert it appears to have been signed by both John Etheridge and Malcolm Creese who features on double bass.

OG

[LeMartinPecheur]

Slightly OT (or perhaps OoT, Opposite of Topic) but somewhere I still have a charity shop copy of the Decca Pascal Roge Ravel solo piano works twofer. When I got it home, one of the discs was as listed. The other was a piano 'lollipops' recital by Moura Lympany

[mathias broucek]

I once bought a second hand LP of DFD singing Ives songs. Inside was a letter from the author of the sleeve notes to Horowitz to whom the former had sent the disc as a gift.

Clearly it didn’t find favour!

[pastoralguy]

Actually, I've bought a few second hand CDs that have been signed! Most recent acquisitions include Arve Tellerfson's recording of the Beethoven violin concerto and a disc autographed by Karajan! My jaw hit the floor at that one!