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Feb. 17th, 2007 04:11 pmI ordered two cds from a guy on Ebay. These are goth metal bands like I'm into -- in this case, Arwen and Xandria. (Maybe I was trying to go A-Z in two cds and came up a couple of letters short?) There are several guys on Ebay who offer metal cds at very cheap prices, and this guy is one of the largest of the group, offering a wide range of brand-new cds that are, as he puts it, "not promos, not Russian, not cheap CD-R's, these are brand new authentic cds still sealed".
He offers them typically for something like $5.00 plus about $6.00 postage. Some come in below $10.00 total -- one for $4.90 plus $4.50 postage, another at $5.49 plus $4.00 postage. Anyway the resulting price of around $9-$11 or so including postage is VERY cheap. Even buying used off Amazon I probably rarely find stuff that cheap, after postage is figured in.
I've been trying to figure out what his angle is, because nobody has that many new cds just lying around. He has a supplier somewhere, a place where he can apparently get cds very cheap. He's in the United States (some of these guys are in Europe) and I've wondered if he had special connections in the music industry, or was selling stolen merchandise, or what.
Today my two cds arrived, and I figured out a part of the puzzle. Both cds are on license to Scarecrow Records. I didn't know who Scarecrow Records was, but one of the cds had a helpful flyer on the label. They're based in Mexico and have a licenseing agreement with a bunch of metal labels such as Century Media, Napalm Death, Nuclear Blast, etc.
So that explains where the cds come from. Interestingly enough, nothing on the flyer specifically indicates how you can order anything from them. It lists the product label for each cd, but not a price, and lists the company's snail mail address, as well as their web address and an e-mail address. Their web site is also not set up to allow anyone to order these cds, but it does list some prices... many of the cheaper ones are listed at $120, which assuming that's in pesos, comes in at under $11 US on current currency exchange.
So I'm guessing they're not supposed to sell outside of Mexico, and that our Ebay friend gets a decent discount on bulk orders and postage.
Anyway, that's the mystery. The cds are otherwise just as advertised -- legitimate pressings, good quality, with all of the proper packaging, nothing printed in Spanish even.
He offers them typically for something like $5.00 plus about $6.00 postage. Some come in below $10.00 total -- one for $4.90 plus $4.50 postage, another at $5.49 plus $4.00 postage. Anyway the resulting price of around $9-$11 or so including postage is VERY cheap. Even buying used off Amazon I probably rarely find stuff that cheap, after postage is figured in.
I've been trying to figure out what his angle is, because nobody has that many new cds just lying around. He has a supplier somewhere, a place where he can apparently get cds very cheap. He's in the United States (some of these guys are in Europe) and I've wondered if he had special connections in the music industry, or was selling stolen merchandise, or what.
Today my two cds arrived, and I figured out a part of the puzzle. Both cds are on license to Scarecrow Records. I didn't know who Scarecrow Records was, but one of the cds had a helpful flyer on the label. They're based in Mexico and have a licenseing agreement with a bunch of metal labels such as Century Media, Napalm Death, Nuclear Blast, etc.
So that explains where the cds come from. Interestingly enough, nothing on the flyer specifically indicates how you can order anything from them. It lists the product label for each cd, but not a price, and lists the company's snail mail address, as well as their web address and an e-mail address. Their web site is also not set up to allow anyone to order these cds, but it does list some prices... many of the cheaper ones are listed at $120, which assuming that's in pesos, comes in at under $11 US on current currency exchange.
So I'm guessing they're not supposed to sell outside of Mexico, and that our Ebay friend gets a decent discount on bulk orders and postage.
Anyway, that's the mystery. The cds are otherwise just as advertised -- legitimate pressings, good quality, with all of the proper packaging, nothing printed in Spanish even.
