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Post by driver1980 on Oct 5, 2024 9:58:41 GMT -5
This was an ad that caught my eye back in the day (early 90s, I guess):  I never quite understood the ad, particularly that Batman lookalike. Does that mean that console would have featured a Batman game? If so, why not include him in the ad rather than a character who looks very much like him? (And is that a gold version of R2-D2 I see?) |
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Post by rich on Oct 5, 2024 10:11:13 GMT -5
To be fair to them, the UK's Fantasy and Science Fiction Book Club's prices weren't bad at all if you stuck to the sets and book club editions. I didn't rush to cancel the second time I'd signed up. I wish I could find a picture of the UK’s Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Club, but any search I do keeps showing only US book clubs. I also couldn't find an image when I tried... nada.  |
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Post by rberman on Oct 7, 2024 6:00:46 GMT -5
Did anyone ever send in that penny to get 12 records / tapes for 1c?
I heard they owned your soul after that....
I joined the BMG music club in college. By then it was 7 or 8 CDs for a dollar. I waited to buy one at full price until it was the month for “buy one, get two free.” Then I quit the club. Then a few months later they would invite me to begin another cycl, so I did that three or four times. It was a nice way to get greatest hits from lots of classic artists. Counting shipping and handling, I was getting new CDs for about $4 each, which was great for a college student of limited means. |
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Post by tonebone on Oct 7, 2024 12:52:48 GMT -5
Did anyone ever send in that penny to get 12 records / tapes for 1c?
I heard they owned your soul after that....
I joined the BMG music club in college. By then it was 7 or 8 CDs for a dollar. I waited to buy one at full price until it was the month for “buy one, get two free.” Then I quit the club. Then a few months later they would invite me to begin another cycl, so I did that three or four times. It was a nice way to get greatest hits from lots of classic artists. Counting shipping and handling, I was getting new CDs for about $4 each, which was great for a college student of limited means. I read a great article about he Columbia House music club... and how all of their stuff was bootlegged... Apparently, they got so impatient waiting for backlogs of shipments of cassettes of the music they legitimately paid for so they could distribute to the "club members", they just started making their own cassettes, liner notes, etc. But that Culture Club cassette you got from them was of inferior quality, and would soon wear down or get tangled up in your neon green dual cassette deck. Eventually, they would just forego the legit licensing of the music and just pirate the stuff outright. THAT is how you sell a cassette for a penny and still stay in business. |
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Post by rberman on Oct 7, 2024 14:17:24 GMT -5
I joined the BMG music club in college. By then it was 7 or 8 CDs for a dollar. I waited to buy one at full price until it was the month for “buy one, get two free.” Then I quit the club. Then a few months later they would invite me to begin another cycle, so I did that three or four times. It was a nice way to get greatest hits from lots of classic artists. Counting shipping and handling, I was getting new CDs for about $4 each, which was great for a college student of limited means. I read a great article about he Columbia House music club... and how all of their stuff was bootlegged... Apparently, they got so impatient waiting for backlogs of shipments of cassettes of the music they legitimately paid for so they could distribute to the "club members", they just started making their own cassettes, liner notes, etc. But that Culture Club cassette you got from them was of inferior quality, and would soon wear down or get tangled up in your neon green dual cassette deck. Eventually, they would just forego the legit licensing of the music and just pirate the stuff outright. THAT is how you sell a cassette for a penny and still stay in business. I cannot say I am shocked, except that the labels whose content they were pirating were asleep at the wheel and didn't sue to shut that down. Anyway, I didn't use Columbia House, and I'm sure BMG was a totally different story, right? |
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 7, 2024 14:31:00 GMT -5
I joined the BMG music club in college. By then it was 7 or 8 CDs for a dollar. I waited to buy one at full price until it was the month for “buy one, get two free.” Then I quit the club. Then a few months later they would invite me to begin another cycl, so I did that three or four times. It was a nice way to get greatest hits from lots of classic artists. Counting shipping and handling, I was getting new CDs for about $4 each, which was great for a college student of limited means. I read a great article about he Columbia House music club... and how all of their stuff was bootlegged... Apparently, they got so impatient waiting for backlogs of shipments of cassettes of the music they legitimately paid for so they could distribute to the "club members", they just started making their own cassettes, liner notes, etc. But that Culture Club cassette you got from them was of inferior quality, and would soon wear down or get tangled up in your neon green dual cassette deck. Eventually, they would just forego the legit licensing of the music and just pirate the stuff outright. THAT is how you sell a cassette for a penny and still stay in business. How long did they get away with that? |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 7, 2024 14:39:57 GMT -5
I joined the BMG music club in college. By then it was 7 or 8 CDs for a dollar. I waited to buy one at full price until it was the month for “buy one, get two free.” Then I quit the club. Then a few months later they would invite me to begin another cycl, so I did that three or four times. It was a nice way to get greatest hits from lots of classic artists. Counting shipping and handling, I was getting new CDs for about $4 each, which was great for a college student of limited means. I read a great article about he Columbia House music club... and how all of their stuff was bootlegged... Apparently, they got so impatient waiting for backlogs of shipments of cassettes of the music they legitimately paid for so they could distribute to the "club members", they just started making their own cassettes, liner notes, etc. But that Culture Club cassette you got from them was of inferior quality, and would soon wear down or get tangled up in your neon green dual cassette deck. Eventually, they would just forego the legit licensing of the music and just pirate the stuff outright. THAT is how you sell a cassette for a penny and still stay in business. I'd like to see this article. And more importantly, their sources. Music publishers are very litigious when it comes to copyright violations. I'm having a really hard time buying this. |
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Post by Calidore on Oct 7, 2024 18:45:32 GMT -5
I never heard about Columbia House "pirating" the music they sold. I'd be very surprised given they were an old and legit business that profited greatly from good relationships with their licensors.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 8, 2024 2:11:49 GMT -5
I never heard about Columbia House "pirating" the music they sold. I'd be very surprised given they were an old and legit business that profited greatly from good relationships with their licensors. Yeah, the only scam I heard about involving music clubs went the other way around: I'd heard that college students living in the dorms would order the first set of albums for a penny or buck or whatever about a month before summer break - and use a fake name to boot. The package would arrive, the student went home for the summer - never to come back to the dorm - and Columbia House apparently had no way to track that person down. So you'd get 10, 12, etc. albums for almost nothing, apparently free and clear. Like I said, I'd only heard this from others and never knew anybody who actually did it, so I have no idea if people really did do this. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Oct 8, 2024 4:55:20 GMT -5
I read a great article about he Columbia House music club... and how all of their stuff was bootlegged... Apparently, they got so impatient waiting for backlogs of shipments of cassettes of the music they legitimately paid for so they could distribute to the "club members", they just started making their own cassettes, liner notes, etc. But that Culture Club cassette you got from them was of inferior quality, and would soon wear down or get tangled up in your neon green dual cassette deck. Eventually, they would just forego the legit licensing of the music and just pirate the stuff outright. THAT is how you sell a cassette for a penny and still stay in business. I'd like to see this article. And more importantly, their sources. Music publishers are very litigious when it comes to copyright violations. I'm having a really hard time buying this. Yeah, this sounds like one of those urban legends to me. I'd love to see the source for this, but I'd be amazed if Columbia House Music Club were indeed pirating record company and music publisher's stuff and getting away with it. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197
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Post by Confessor on Oct 8, 2024 5:00:34 GMT -5
Growing up in the UK in the late '70s and 1980s, I always understood (rightly or wrongly) that I couldn't order the stuff I saw advertised in U.S. Comics. I'm guessing I got that information from a parent. I was sorely tempted by a lot of the things I saw advertised though. The only things I ever ordered from the back of UK comics were a set of Dennis the Menace and Gnasher badges from the Beano comic...   And the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back from a tiny classified ad for the still-very-young original Forbidden Planet shop in London, in the back of an issue of The Empire Strikes Back Weekly. This would've been circa 1980 or '81, I guess. The badges are long gone, but I still have that original copy of Donald F. Glut's ESB novelization on my shelf today. |
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 8, 2024 5:07:05 GMT -5
Slightly different ballpark, but in the early-to-mid 90s, various Gerry Anderson shows were repeated on the BBC. At one point, Kellogg’s started a promotion where you could collect tokens and send off for Captain Scarlet figures. There is a pic online:  |
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Post by rich on Oct 8, 2024 8:04:17 GMT -5
Slightly different ballpark, but in the early-to-mid 90s, various Gerry Anderson shows were repeated on the BBC. At one point, Kellogg’s started a promotion where you could collect tokens and send off for Captain Scarlet figures. There is a pic online: I enjoyed those shows! I also sent off for various things from cereal cartons  Remember this? This is a repeat from 1992, as the model was so popular. |
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Post by tonebone on Oct 8, 2024 9:28:58 GMT -5
I'd like to see this article. And more importantly, their sources. Music publishers are very litigious when it comes to copyright violations. I'm having a really hard time buying this. Yeah, this sounds like one of those urban legends to me. I'd love to see the source for this, but I'd be amazed if Columbia House Music Club were indeed pirating record company and music publisher's stuff and getting away with it. I got a lot of the details wrong (the article is 13 years old) but it's still pretty shady. link
I believe there was a more in depth article... maybe on Cracked? But I can't find that one, now. It revolved more around the cassette industry. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197
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Post by Confessor on Oct 8, 2024 10:28:18 GMT -5
Yeah, this sounds like one of those urban legends to me. I'd love to see the source for this, but I'd be amazed if Columbia House Music Club were indeed pirating record company and music publisher's stuff and getting away with it. I got a lot of the details wrong (the article is 13 years old) but it's still pretty shady. link
I believe there was a more in depth article... maybe on Cracked? But I can't find that one, now. It revolved more around the cassette industry. Don't think that link is working right. I'm getting an article about Sir Alexander Fleming's original penicillin mold sample being up for auction.  |
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