What Are The Alternatives to Berkshire Record Outlet
Sean Avery
at Berkshire. Ok, so what are the alternatives for very inexpensive
CDs with a large selection? I don't know of any myself as cheap as
BRO.
Arthur La Porta
In a word, no, not on the internet at least. Academy and the Tower
outlet are great sources in NYC, but BRO's price and selection for
out-of-print, overstock, cutout, etc, classical CD's is unmatched.
If you have patience and realize that you are dealing with a very
high-volume, low margin outlet that can't affort a lot of customer
hand-holding you will do fine. I have placed many orders with them, and
have on a few ocasions needed to contact them to make an inquiry and I
have never had a problem.
David7Gable
There are none.
-david gable
Jeff Lipton
with their service - they've in fact improved their speed of delivery this
past year.
Jeff
Matthew B. Tepper
news:df1a00d2.02032...@posting.google.com:
> I have tried to read through the recent thread regarding poor service
> at Berkshire. Ok, so what are the alternatives for very inexpensive CDs
> with a large selection? I don't know of any myself as cheap as BRO.
Your only alternatives are paying more, or doing without.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Top 3 worst UK exports: Mad-cow; Foot-and-mouth; Charlotte Church
John Putnam
"David7Gable" <david...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020325004726...@mb-fx.aol.com...
>
> There are none.
>
> -david gable
I agree with David and Matthew. Two of their features that I especially
appreciate are:
1. Ability to browse by label.
2.Ability to peruse by price point.
The latter feature is great for someone on a small budget that must have
his/her "fix". Gives one a chance to purchase items and discover works that
one could't always afford at DGG, Decca, etc. full price. Of course one
takes a chance on performance, sound and so forth, but I've been quite
pleased with most of my selections. Luckily, no problems in 2 years.
Regards, John Putnam
TomD
> I have tried to read through the recent thread regarding poor service
> at Berkshire.
Such flaps often arise. I've never had any unpleasant experiences with
Berkshire. If something horrible happened to me, I might bag them, but
I'm not the type to call on the phone and whine, so that's unlikely.
> Ok, so what are the alternatives for very inexpensive
> CDs with a large selection? I don't know of any myself as cheap as
> BRO.
Considering price and selection, nothing comes very close. Some
Internet alternatives I've used:
www.cybermusicsurplus.com : Allegro's "warehouse outlet". Good stuff
from time to time, can search by label. Free US shipping for orders
over $30. I got all of Sergey Schepkin's Bach discs here, for
instance.
www.salemusic.com : Daedalus. Occasional decent cutout/overstock buys.
Favorable shipping rates for large orders, especially if you mix in
cheap books (the salebooks.com side of the site).
www.qualiton.com : Qualiton distributors recently had an excellent
clearance sale. Selection was hit-or-miss, but Agora discs were $2.95
and Ricordis $3.60, for instance.
I've recently bought some cheap CDs from Amazon.com, through their
"Amazon Marketplace Sellers". One of the sellers was www.spun.com,
which may be worth a look.
People have mentioned www.cdchoice.com for used CDs, but I couldn't
find a search engine, and the site was too hard to navigate.
W. J. McCutcheon
TomD <gee...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
>
> People have mentioned www.cdchoice.com for used CDs, but I couldn't
> find a search engine, and the site was too hard to navigate.
It's at the bottom of the opening page ... works pretty well, too.
-- Bill McCutcheon
Michael daSilva
Maybe not in the USA, but the internet gives us many more possibilities
overseas. I have been very satisfied ordering from www.zweitausendeins.de
and www.jpc.de (both German mailorder outfits.) In fact it is possible to
get the Brilliant Classics box sets (complete Shostakovich symphonies,
complete Bach cantatas, etc.) much cheaper than ordering from BRO which
charges about $2 per CD. I think I paid $1.25 - $1.50 per CD for this label
from JPC and/or zweitausendeins and that includes shipping. If you are a
collector and place large orders at a time, say $200-$300, the higher shipping
costs become irrelevant. The exchange rate of the USD against the Euro also
helps, although that may be changing for the worse. Both houses run specials
on all labels and JPC offers low prices on selected titles on the CPO label.
I could not find the Naxos historical series cheaper anywhere else.
I have also received good service from Daedalus books/cds.
I had reason to e-mail both outfits about problems with previous orders
and got back very polite replies. Zweitausendeins asked me to mail back
the defective items and also enclose my shipping charges which they would
refund. JPC speedily reshipped a couple of CDs which the U.S. postal service
had lost and sent me a couple of dozen CD cases to replace cracked or broken
cases. If there's any drawback, it's that their packing cases and insulation
seem to not hold up very well to the pounding that the U.S. postal service
puts them through. I suspect USPS is screwing around with overseas packages
(possibly because of the anthrax scare.)
I am a longtime BRO customer and will probably continue to be one in
the future, but frankly, I hesitate to return defectives/duplicates because
of curt or sardonic responses. In short, there are plenty of alternatives
out there for our money and the more competition the better.
Mike
Frank Berger
TomD wrote:
> seanav...@hotmail.com (Sean Avery) wrote in message news:<df1a00d2.02032...@posting.google.com>...
> > I have tried to read through the recent thread regarding poor service
> > at Berkshire.
>
> Such flaps often arise. I've never had any unpleasant experiences with
> Berkshire. If something horrible happened to me, I might bag them, but
> I'm not the type to call on the phone and whine, so that's unlikely.
Ah, yet another person who, for some reason, chooses to discount the many apparently valid complaints posted here,
and attribute the problem to "whining."
>
>
> > Ok, so what are the alternatives for very inexpensive
> > CDs with a large selection? I don't know of any myself as cheap as
> > BRO.
>
> Considering price and selection, nothing comes very close. Some
> Internet alternatives I've used:
>
> www.cybermusicsurplus.com : Allegro's "warehouse outlet". Good stuff
> from time to time, can search by label. Free US shipping for orders
> over $30. I got all of Sergey Schepkin's Bach discs here, for
> instance.
>
> www.salemusic.com : Daedalus. Occasional decent cutout/overstock buys.
> Favorable shipping rates for large orders, especially if you mix in
> cheap books (the salebooks.com side of the site).
>
> www.qualiton.com : Qualiton distributors recently had an excellent
> clearance sale. Selection was hit-or-miss, but Agora discs were $2.95
> and Ricordis $3.60, for instance.
>
> I've recently bought some cheap CDs from Amazon.com, through their
> "Amazon Marketplace Sellers". One of the sellers was www.spun.com,
> which may be worth a look.
>
> People have mentioned www.cdchoice.com for used CDs, but I couldn't
> find a search engine, and the site was too hard to navigate.
I've used cdchoice for years and have no problem with their search engine. It seems so obvious, I can't begin to
imagine how you could have a problem. The home page is www.cdchoice.com. Right at the bottom of the screen is their
search menu. You can discriminate between new and used, if you like, and can jointly search for composer and
conductor/artist.
You can separately list recent entries to the used database (near the top of the home page, "recent used additions:
classical."
TomD
> Ah, yet another person who, for some reason, chooses to discount the many apparently valid complaints posted here,
> and attribute the problem to "whining."
I've had 2 problems with Berkshire shipping incorrect discs. Addressed
1 on the phone and the other by e-mail, and the counterparty was
helpful and polite both times. No doubt some of the complaints are
valid, but there *is* an awful lot of whining on this ng. The day BRO
offends me, I'll pull my business post haste.
> I've used cdchoice for years and have no problem with their search engine. It seems so obvious, I can't begin to
> imagine how you could have a problem.
Right. I was hallucinating. Must have confused CD Choice with someone
else. Searched for certain composers there a few times, but they never
had any used inventory.
jimsumner
inventory is limited but I've always received courteous and very
prompt responses. Merchandise is usuall in my mailbox 3-4 days after
placing an order.
Bob Lombard
(jimsumner) wrote:
I'm a longtime customer of CDChoice; all you say is true.
Plus I send my culls to them for "webstore credit". The used
CDs also include OP issues, which BRO usually doesn't have.
Unfortunately, browsing the used CD database usually brings
up CDs for which CDChoice is charging more used than BRO is
charging for new. CDChoice is not an 'alternative'. More
like an adjunct.
bl