Big Box Sets and Duplication

[Barbirollians]

I understand the benefit of say these big Icon boxes and the Boult box where we get large boxes at cheap prices of long deleted records. Though frankly Jochum's Bruckner could have been safely left out of his icon box as it has been reissued so many times but sometimes the lack of single bargain CDs is becoming a pain .

For example , to get hold of Barbirolli's EMI Enigma, Falstaff . P & C marches and Froissart - one has to buy his Elgar symphonies , the Cello Concerto and Sea Pictures , the Sinfonia of London I and A - all over again !

I do wish they would be a bit more discriminating - then again £9 for 5CDs of superb performances ...

[mathias broucek]

Agreed. I want Sinopoli's recording of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony but you can only get it in a huge box of concertos(!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Agreed. I want Sinopoli's recording of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony but you can only get it in a huge box of concertos(!)

Or (presuming you mean the First Chamber Symph, mathias) second-hand:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00013UTD4/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[BBMmk2]

Well, what ive done in the past, with these box collections,(the single cds etc), I sell them off to a friend of mine who is always glad of recieving them!

[akiralx]

Well, what ive done in the past, with these box collections,(the single cds etc), I sell them off to a friend of mine who is always glad of recieving them!

Reminds of that Woody Allen line about his grandfather on his deathbed selling him his gold watch...

[Petrushka]

I can accept a certain percentage of duplication but what gets me about all of this is when a much loved set is reissued in a greatly improved remastering prompting an agonising debate within ones mind whether to buy or not. I eventually capitulated and bought the remastered Kondrashin/Shostakovich and Bernstein/Mahler sets and haven't regretted it.

Trouble is, the duplications are still here taking up valuable space. If anyone wants them...otherwise the only recourse is the charity shop and I'm not sure that the demand is there in this area.

[Parry1912]

otherwise the only recourse is the charity shop and I'm not sure that the demand is there in this area.

Why not ebay?

[Petrushka]

Why not ebay?

I've never tried e-bay. Is it easy to do? It'll need to be for a technophobe like me!

[Dave2002]

I've never tried e-bay. Is it easy to do? It'll need to be for a technophobe like me!

I've not tried it as a seller either, though I've thought of it often enough. I have bought quite a lot from ebay though. I think I have an account which I can use to sell as well as buy, but have always been too busy to try it.

I think time is a factor. As far as I can see, if you sell stuff, you have to put a photo and description up - and specify the end time/date and how it's going to be sold - there are a few flavours. It's possible to set reserve prices - though that might put up charges. The biggest deterrent for me re selling is the need to package everything up and take it to the post office within a reasonable time of the end of each auction. Most of the sellers I've dealt with have been great - indeed really all of them have been OK, though I've heard of friends who have had problems with sellers. I wouldn't want to end up as a bad seller, simply because I found the effort of sending things out to be too big a strain. I think most buyers expect goods to be despatched within a few days, though I have had dealings with sellers who have apologised for lateness in advance for various reasons - perhaps because they're on a trip when the auction ends. It's never been a problem for me.

I'd recommend trying ebay as a buyer first - though take care as you may end up buying more than you expect. I've had all sorts of things, CDs (some new, some second hand), LPs, electronic kit, books etc.
As I recall I started when I really needed a replacement for something rather rare, and it took months to get that. Also, as a buyer you may have to bid, which means you don't always get what you want, or alternatively you may get the goods but pay more than you really thought you should. However, many sellers are now selling items at either fixed prices, or at prices which are never going to go astronomically high.

I know some people do make a profit on ebay - for example by buying stuff in, then selling it on at higher prices. This may not always be unreasonable, as items bought and sold in this way may be renovated/repaired/serviced by the person who does this. I think that making serious profits is hard, and anyone who does it a lot might be considered to be running a business by HMRC, and then requested to pay tax. I don't think HMRC cares much about people who only make small sums, and mostly on second hand items, as they probably realise that it's more trouble than it's worth to worry about small matters, and would probably result in people disposing of items via the local tip, rather than passing them on. Anyone thinking of making a business out of ebay might realise it's not that easy. I thought about buying and selling LPs and CDs found in charity shops for example, and very quickly realised that it's very unlikely that any serious money can be made that way. Typically you can buy charity shop items for £1-£2 say, but when you sell on ebay you are probably not going to get much more back unless you really strike lucky, and you then have all the faff of distribution.

Better to stick with the day job, if you've still got one.

Good luck.

[BBMmk2]

I've never tried e-bay. Is it easy to do? It'll need to be for a technophobe like me!

It's easy as pie to do! Use Paypal for your selling. You get insurance there for your sales, or purchases!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...otherwise the only recourse is the charity shop and I'm not sure that the demand is there in this area.

I think that the larger Charities (Oxfam, BHF, AgeUk) have a central station to which "interesting" items are sent so that they either go onto their online site or are forwarded to the larger shops.

But even if it's a smaller charity, give them your "superfluous" CDs: there's always "a demand" for "classical" CDs. It's the Charlotte Churches, Jennifer Lopezes, Joachim Inglesises etc that gather dust, as unloved and unwanted as the chinos with the broken zip on the shop shelves.

[mathias broucek]

Or (presuming you mean the First Chamber Symph, mathias) second-hand:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...condition=used

Thanks FHG. I've got that one - it's the BPO/DG one I want. At least the Dresden one you link to is in a logically compiled box. The DG one is mixed up with lots of rlatively popular concertos.

[mathias broucek]

I've never tried e-bay. Is it easy to do? It'll need to be for a technophobe like me!

I have my own "store" on Amazon. I found it easy to set-up. They take a cut of the proceeds including the postage charge.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks FHG. I've got that one - it's the BPO/DG one I want. At least the Dresden one you link to is in a logically compiled box. The DG one is mixed up with lots of rlatively popular concertos.

Ah, the one coupled with the Manzoni Masse - Omaggio a Varese with Pollini? A bit pricey and second-hand from the USA:

http://www.amazon.com/Giacomo-Manzoni-Orchestra-Schoenberg-Instruments/dp/B00000E3ZA

[mathias broucek]

Ah, the one coupled with the Manzoni Masse - Omaggio a Varese with Pollini? A bit pricey and second-hand from the USA:

http://www.amazon.com/Giacomo-Manzon.../dp/B00000E3ZA

That's the one. Am off to the US in a few weeks so may order it there and have it shipped to our local office where I'm going. Should have thought of that: thanks for the prompt.