[ Hypnos Forum ]

Drone On - this starts tomorrow (1/28/13).

While there is no doubt a drop in postal service due to the digital age, this article sums up exactly the problem right now:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/?mobile=nc

"USPS was forced to prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something that no other government or private corporation is required to do."

Not to get political, but this request was a bit outrageous. It's likely that USPS' revenue would have continued to decline regardless but this was a huge blow to the USPS, just made the whole entity fall faster.

That said, I don't know how the USPS is suffering.  I get mail, I send mail, every time I'm at the post office there's a line and most days the little substation in my grocery store that I regularly use has boxes damn near up to the ceiling.  The volume of parcels I see is huge! I'm no expert on the whole system of mail service, but there sure does seem to be plenty of people mailing stuff.

I also agree with Drone On - digital files are not my thing. I've bought 3 digital albums ever and that was because they were only available that way.  Unless you're starved for space, I do not understand the lack of love for a real CD or LP.  I think there will always be demand for the physical product but, obviously, just not as much.  The record stores around here seem to still be doing pretty well... but the post office price hikes could absolutely devastate international commerce, if you ask me.

Edit: Well, in the very article I link to, Ralph Nader had this to say: "As consumer advocate Ralph Nader noted, if PAEA was never enacted, USPS would actually be facing a $1.5 billion surplus today."  So maybe USPS would have been in the black at this point.

Last week I read that the USPS is raising rates on foreign orders as much as 60% - in other words, 1 CD to Australia costs about $6 now, and could go up to about $10.00.  Can anyone confirm this yet? How are other artists dealing with this?  Will people in Europe, Australia, etc. reconsider buying a CD if we have to pass this cost on to them?  I mean, $10 Shipping for 1 CD is really high. This concerns me.  For the past few years I'd say 70% of all my CD sales are to Europe & Australia.        

I'm still a bit new to discogs buying an selling. I didn't know that about the cancellation deal. Thanks!  I was sort of giving the buyer a break because he bought a couple titles prior. The buyer was also from Italy and perhaps there was a language barrier issue when I sent my correspondence to him. Oh well. I'll take advantage of the canceling option on future transactions if necessary so thanks for the tip!

Judd - it was a pleasure to have you and your wife stay here. I'm sorry you weren't able to stay here in Denver. Hope you and your wife are doing well! Say hi from us.

Late to this thread... I'm not a die hard but I do like KJ quite a bit, mostly the 80s synthpop/goth stuff moreso than the more recent stuff.  I liked Pandemonium and Democracy as well.  That said "In Cythera" is a kick ass song.  Kind of the one stand out on the album that the band should have done more of.

Just unwrapped Vols 7 & 8 of the La Vie sets and they're both the all-black CDRs too. Oh well. Listening to 7 now, the opening track is nice.

Re: TD.  I quite like the live 35th Anniversary Phaedra DVD, but could do without the contemporary, I guess you could call it, acoustic stuff with the women and big hair. I skip over that stuff for the most part.  I did pick up "Epsilon Journey" 2-CD set and like about half of it.  Seems like disc two is better IIRC.  Anyway, I find KS and TD to be fun to listen to, but not necessarily "deep".  That's OK with me though.  Sort of like KS & TD is to Steve Roach as R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" is to Sisters of Mercy's "Marian".

 

Drone On - resurrecting this thread because I just picked up Vols. 5-8 recently (still listening to Vol. 5) and had no idea these were pressed on CDRs.  And yeah, the packaging is awesome but what's the deal with CDRs for these!? At least they do not sell for a whole lot online but still, kind of a bummer on that.  I do have Vols 3 & 4 (on real CD) and I want to pick up Vols 1 & 2 and 9-12, but may skip 9-12... of course the completist in me may not be able to handle it.  Speaking of which, any comments on 9-12?

So I picked up a new CD via rarewaves imports on eBay the other day.  Fast shipping (about 7 days) but mailed in a thin cardboard envelope (very thin, like one step up from paper) and absolutely NO bubble wrap, nothing, and the CD wasn't even shrinkwrapped.  It is a digipak and of course the clear tray portion is cracked and broken exposing sharp pieces of plastic and this more or less ruins the value of the package.  It wouldn't be a big deal if it were a standard jewel case but the disc holder is part of the digipak.  Why don't these guys use at lease one layer of bubble?  They offered a 20% refund or I return it on my dime to the U.K. in which cased I'd lose. Not sure how these outfits can justify no packaging and then offer a refund amount that basically nets them nothing while the customer is on the hook for the rest. Don't plan to fight this one.  No energy.

Drone On - it would be great if you would send your grievances and complaints direct to kunaki. Their customer service e-mail is: CustomerService@Kunaki.com

I myself would love to hear their response to you. I'd be descriptive as possible.

There was a stretch a few months ago where I had several complaints of their new ink they use gumming up, some people got discs from me that had no CD in them. Ive had misprinted art, and situations where the cover art was for one title and the back art for another. Also nearly very time I've checked my copies I see fingerprints and scratches on the disc surface. These are very annoying issues for sure and it behooves Kunaki to do a little better at quality control. That all said, I've only had a few complaints that required a replacement. Maybe 1 in every 50.

Let us know if you send them a complaint and what they say.