Markevitch Beethoven insanity

[rkhalona]

I picked this box today


http://tinyurl.com/oamk7wd

at Tower records in downtown Fukuoka where I paid 3000 yen (about $29.50 at today's exchange rate). Not bad for 4 CDs with symphonies 1, 5, 6, 8 plus Leonore 3, Coriolan, Fidelio, Egmont, Consecration of the House overtures and a recorded interview with Markevitch, which I had not heard before.

Anyone care to conjecture why such ludicrously high used prices?

RK

[ckho...@ckhowell.com]

Il giorno venerdì 24 maggio 2013 08:45:11 UTC+2, rkhalona ha scritto:
> I picked this box today http://tinyurl.com/oamk7wd at Tower records in downtown Fukuoka where I paid 3000 yen (about $29.50 at today's exchange rate). Not bad for 4 CDs with symphonies 1, 5, 6, 8 plus Leonore 3, Coriolan, Fidelio, Egmont, Consecration of the House overtures and a recorded interview with Markevitch, which I had not heard before. Anyone care to conjecture why such ludicrously high used prices? RK

Used, rare or antique items are worth what people will pay for them. You paid for this one .... so there's your answer

Chris Howell

[Johannes Roehl]

I think many used sellers use computer programs that suggest a price
depending on what other prices they find in the web and how frequently
an item is offered. Sometimes they seem to misinterpret insufficient
data or run otherwise amok... I do not believe that anyone ever payed
this price for the set.
(I have all but the 1st symphony in different incarnations, there is
also a 3rd which was included in the DG "masters" box dedicated to
Markevitch)

[rkhalona]

There are several copies new for less than $60, which is about twice what I paid for my new copy, but why would anyone pay $2K or more for it used when one can get it new for almost two orders of magnitude less. That defies logic, but I understand the market place is not governed by logic.

Listening to the interview right now. The interviewer is Martin Bookspan and Markevitch's voice is almost as disappointing as Karajan's, but he spoke English fluently and has interesting things to say, quoting Monteux and Szell, as well as his composing activities.

Nice set.

RK

[Christopher Webber]

On 24/05/2013 08:36, Johannes Roehl wrote:
> I think many used sellers use computer programs that suggest a price
> depending on what other prices they find in the web and how frequently
> an item is offered. Sometimes they seem to misinterpret insufficient
> data or run otherwise amok... I do not believe that anyone ever payed
> this price for the set.

This is right. Anybody looking at the page for this set would see that
immediately.

There are also cases where people 'try it on' with uncommon sets, where
there is no competition. As soon as there is competition, the price on
such sets drops to a more reasonable level.

Campra's "Idomen�e" is a case in point on Amazon.co.uk. For years a
seller was quoting a 'used' price well in excess of 100 GBP, but since
competition came along it's down to under 50 GBP. Still higher than
you'd expect to pay on Ebay for the set, but reasonable for anyone who
wants to be certain of getting it quickly.

[Alan Cooper]

rkhalona <rkha...@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:0a75640c-931f-4bf2...@googlegroups.com:

I hadn't realized how many Japanese sellers were making recordings
available via Amazon US. The guy trying to sell the used copy probably
isn't aware of it either, and thinks he has a rarity on his hands. How are
the performances? Are they the same as the ones previously issued, e.g.,
in the Original Masters box (3, 6, and Leonore #3)? The Lamoureux 5/8?
(Nice to have them all together, of course.)

AC

[David Fox]

There's an obvious answer: the Japanese sellers are entering Yen prices
in US Dollar fields, or Amazon's Japanese seller interface is failing to
convert properly.

DF

[Mr. Mike]

A more likely scenario:

Some seller has what he thinks is the only copy on the entire
Internet, so he enters it at a P.T. Barnum price which is totally
ridiculous.

Because this person created the listing, he then made it possible so
that others could compete against him.

So seller #2 comes along and undercuts him by a few cents.

Seller #3 comes along and decides to undercut both of them
dramaticdally.

This hasn't turned into a typical Amazon price pissing war because all
sellers involved don't have the software which can do this
automatically.

[David Fox]

In trading markets, the only prices that are relevant, in descending
order are:

- Actual transaction prices;

- The "inside" market (the highest bid and the lowest offer);

- In an auction setting, the winning bid and the "cover" (the
second-place bid). The relevance of the cover bid is to reveal the
degree to which the winner may have overpaid. If there is a huge gulf
between the winning bid and the cover, some interpret the true market
price as one penny above the cover and the rest as the misjudgment of
the buyer. If there is a tighter distance between the cover and the
winning bid then the winning bid is considered to be the market price as
the cover price was not good enough to purchase the item.

By these benchmarks, bids and offers that are way off-market are
completely irrelevant. Whatever thought processes that may or may not
go into them are immaterial They are merely glimpses into the private
fantasy worlds of the participants.

DF

[Fymido Lenito]

Looking at the pictures on the listing, this is the only instance I know
of where a conductor was able to fit 3 beethoven symphonies on one disc.
Any other discs like that in existence?

[Steve de Mena]

They typed in Yen by mistake instead of dollars....

Steve

[Johannes Roehl]

Not any I am aware of, but with some skipped repeats (like the one in
the finale of the 5th that is not frequently observed) tempi do not even
have to be very fast to fit 1,5 and 8 on 80 min. (I have the older issue
of 5+8 which runs to 56 min.)