OFF: online CD prices

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On mån 7 jun 1999 21.27 +0100 "nigel.kew" <nigel.kew at VIRGIN.NET> wrote:
> Are online CD stores really that much cheaper and can you recommend a good
> one ??

Well, I haven't ordered many domestic British CDs, since I plan
on getting the cheaper US releases when I return to the US. Many
of my friends at Cambridge, however, regularly mail-order from
the US, since even the likes of CDNow let them shave a few quid
off the price (even after postage) and have a better selection
than Cambridge shops (admittedly, not hard!).

Recently I've concentrated on various European releases which
are hard to get in Britain anyway, but are still usually cheaper
coming direct from Scandinavia than from a British importer. Who
needs a middleman, after all? :)

But unless a shop is having a special sale, I've never seen a
shop (in the UK, at least) selling for less than on-line
businesses. Sometimes, postage on small orders will negate
the savings--you don't want to buy 3 separate CDs on 3 separate
days, you need to group orders--but, well, on-line places don't
have anything like the over-head that a shop does, so it would
be pretty amazing if they didn't cost at least a little less.

There are more second-hand places coming online as well.

As for good places, well, I've ordered some things *dirt*
cheap from Zweitausandeins in Germany. A somewhat idiosyncratic
selection, but excellent prices. I have friends who regularly
patronize on-line places in the Netherlands, but I've not
gone hunting for them.

Ah, how many here remember the days of Ranjit's prog mail-order
service? Great times ....

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/