Tag Archives: Amazon

Jul 18 2012

CD Scavenger Hunt (June update)

Finally! Once I post this update for June then I’m all caught up! June was a good month with a ton of new releases so I spent some extra dollars…..

Newbury Comics

Rush – Clockwork Angels (2012) – $13
Meshuggah – Koloss (CD/DVD) (2012) – $12
Kreator – Phantom Antichrist (CD/DVD) (2012) – $14

My first trip of the month to Newbury Comics was pretty uneventful. I went in to pick up the new albums by Rush, Kreator and L.A. Guns but the store never got in the new L.A. Guns. Why? Because they were moving locations and their shipments were minimal. I got the Rush and Kreator albums no problem, and I was willing to wait until the next shipment for the new L.A. Guns rather than go to another store, so I started to browse. With the staff boxing up inventory, some of the selection was a little thin but I did manage to find the deluxe version of the new Meshuggah album, KOLOSS, for a sale price of $12. The other couple of copies were regular price around $18 so I decided to grab this while I could still get it a little cheaper.

L.A. Guns – Hollywood Forever (2012) – $9.50
Lita Ford – Living Like A Runaway (2012) – $10.30
Malice – New Breed Of Godz (CD/DVD) (2012) – $15.20
U.D.O. – Celebrator (2012) – $9.50
Mantas – Death By Metal (2012) – $8

My second trip into the North Attleboro Newbury Comics came as the store started their moving sale — “Everything 20% off”. I immeadiately hit the new release rack for the new L.A. Guns (finally in stock!), the new Lita Ford (I hope it’s better than her last album!) and the new U.D.O. double disc package with all the unreleased/bonus/special material. I had great sale prices of $12, $13 and $12 respectively but knowing an additional 20% off was coming at checkout I knew I could buy more! I read about the new Malice album but never wrote down the release date so I was surprised to see it in the rack, unfortunately it was $19 regular price. A new album on Frontiers Records with a bonus DVD is always going to cost a little more but the 20% discount made it a little more manageable price wise. I calculated that I was going to save about $10 with the extra discount so that meant I could buy another new CD! I decided to buy the Mantas album because it is Chuck Schuldiner’s pre-Death band and I wanted to hear these demo recordings. I’m starting to get into more extreme forms of Metal and I like Death so I figured the extra savings made this CD free in theory.

Venom – Metal Black (2006) – $4.80
Brand New Sin – Recipe For Disaster (2005) – $1.60 used
Eidolon – The Parallel Otherworld (2006) – $3.20 used

Last trip into the old store before they closed the door and the inventory was all but gone. Everything was still an additional 20% off so it was still worth the trip especially since I had been watching the Venom CD and a Superjoint Ritual CD for a while. Unfortunately the Superjoint Ritual album was gone (it was only $4) but I was able to pick up the Venom CD new and two used discs from Brand New Sin and Eidolon. The prices were a cheap $6, $2 and $4 respectively so I was spending under the regular price of a normal CD as it was but getting another 20% off on top was icing on the cake.

Sleep – Dopesmoker (2003/2012 reissue) – $10

Well, the new Newbury Comics store opened in the Emerald Square Mall about a half mile down the road from the original location and they opened a day early. I checked the North Attleboro store’s Facebook page and saw they were open so I went down with the family to check it out. It’s a little smaller than the old store but it’s in a great location in the mall and there seemed to be a ton of foot traffic so maybe this store won’t go the way of other independent chains! I had to make an inaugural purchase so I decided on the DOPESMOKER reissue because it was cheap. I’ve heard the edited version of ‘Dopesmoker’ (titled ‘Jerusalem’) only once but the original 63 minute song continues to be a benchmark of Stoner/Doom Metal. The full album is one song, recorded in 1996, and released four different times without band authorization…..the 1999 release was re-titled JERUSALEM with an alternate cover and an edited song losing about 10 minutes. This new reissue is fully authorized by the band and I’ll bet that the other versions price and collectibility goes down.

Music Box (Newport, RI)

Pop Evil – Lipstick On The Mirror (2009) – $2.50 used

I caught Pop Evil a few years ago opening for Judas Priest so I’ve always had the band name in my head but I never got around to buying any of their albums. My family and I went to Newport for the day and we took a walk through the Brick Marketplace and I had to make my way to the long time Newport record store Music Box. There’s never anything exciting in there because I either own it already or it’s your basic run of the mill inventory but, one thing I’ve learned over the years, there’s always a treasure somewhere and sometime! This time I checked the cut-out/used bin at the very back of the store and found this Pop Evil CD for less than $3. It’s a promotional CD but it’s intact. I compared it to a regularly priced copy that was $15 and it looks exactly the same.

Amazon.com

Saxon – Heavy Metal Thunder Live: Eagles Over Wacken (2 CD/DVD) (2012) – $18.20
Great White – Elation (2012) – $10
Kill Devil Hill – s/t (2012) – $10

I went into my usual record store looking for the new Saxon limited edition set with the DVD and double CD but they didn’t have it in stock with no idea when they would have it. They did have the regular double CD but I wanted the DVD. As soon as I got home, I went to Amazon and started filling my cart: Saxon for just over $18 and I added the new Great White and Kill Devil Hill albums for $10 each. Both great White and Kill Devil Hill were priced at $17 regular price at the record store so I saved $7 each buying them with Saxon…..unfortunately, the record store stocked the Saxon limited edition a few days later at a $15 sale price but I spent an extra $3 to save an extra $14!

Total = $151.80 ($159 rounded off)

Total (year) = $1171

Average Price (per item) = $8.87

Total CDs (year) = 127

Total DVDs (year) = 4

Total Blu-Rays (year) = 1

Jul 2 2012

CD Scavenger Hunt (April update)

Still catching up on posting my purchases…..here’s what I bought in April…..

Newbury Comics

Accept – Stalingrad (2012) – $10
Municipal Waste – Fatal Feast (Waste In Space) (2012) – $10
Jeff Scott Soto – Damage Control (Deluxe CD/DVD) (2012) – $20
Fastway – Eat Dog Eat (2012) – $15
Roulette – Lifeline (2011) – $4 used
Primal Rock Rebellion – Awaken Broken (2012) – $10
Into Eternity – Incurable Tragedy (2008) – $4 used

I made a few trips around the Rhode Island area to various Newbury Comics locations because I wasn’t banging on the door of the closest store on consecutive Tuesdays for new releases! My first trip to the North Attleboro, MA store netted me the new Accept, Municipal Waste and Jeff Scott Soto albums all at sale prices. The Jeff Scott Soto album is the limited edition with bonus tracks and bonus DVD so it’s still a pricey $20 but, when it’s an artist I enjoy, I will always pay the extra money. The second trip on the second Tuesday of April was where the problems started this month! I went to my usual Attleboro location for two new releases, Fastway and Adrian Smith’s new side project Primal Rock Rebellion, but I got there about an hour late and the two copies of Primal Rock Rebellion were sold! Not to be shut out, I had the store call the Warwick location to hold a copy for me. After I bought the new Fastway on sale, and added a dirt cheap used copy of Roulette’s LIFELINE (2001), I went the 25 minutes to Warwick, RI for the Primal Rock Rebellion album and added a cheap used copy of Into Eternity’s INCURABLE TRAGEDY (2008) to make the drive worth it.

Ronnie James Dio – The Elf Albums (1994) – $12 used
Shark Island – Gathering Of The Faithful (2006) – $1 used (was $10)
Skeletonwitch – Forever Abomination (2011) – $10 used
Rush – Caress Of Steel (1975) – $1 used (was $9)
Skeletonwitch – Breathing The Fire (2009) – $8 used
Rush – Power Windows (1985) – $1 used (was $8)
Rush – s/t (1974) – $8 used
Elegy – Forbidden Fruit (2000) – $1 used (was $7)
Rush – Grace Under Pressure (1984) – $7 used
Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes – Loaded For Bear (The Best of) (1999) – $1 used (was $5)
From The Inside – Visions (2008) – $6 used
DeAllen – Twisted Inside (2000) – $1 used (was $6)
Arabia – 1001 Nights (2001) – $6 used
Black Robot – s/t (2009) – $1 used (was $4)
24K – Bulletproof (2001) – $4 used
Faith Circus – s/t (2006) – $1 used

The third trip of the month came just a few days later because there was a used CD sale, “Buy 1 get 1 for $1″, so I made sure I was outside the door of the Attleboro location early so I could grab some of those used albums I’ve been watching for a while. I use these sales to fill up some band collections quick and I had two bands in mind: Rush and Skeletonwitch. The problem on this sale was that the used CDs were a little thin compared to how many they usually have so there wasn’t a ton of Metal to chose from but I did get the Skeletonwitch records I was looking for and I was able to add four more Rush albums to fill those holes up but I also grabbed a couple of gems that I had been eye-balling with the Elf collection and the Shark Island reunion record. If you look at the prices, I listed the actual used prices for the $1 CDs and, after Rush – s/t & Rush – Grace Under Pressure, all the used CDs came from a special bargain bin the store’s had for years. What I like most about this type of sale is that the store takes the highest price CDs and pairs them all together for maximum savings instead of pairing the highest price with the lowest price, etc.

Dario Mollo & Tony Martin – The Third Cage (2012) – $18
The Sign – The Second Coming (2004) – $6 used

April was kind of a thin month for new releases so I started to search for for the new Mollo/Martin album because I never saw it in Attleboro or Warwick. I found it at the Providence Newbury Comics at the mall which is a dead zone for Metal and Hard Rock because it caters more to the Pop and Rap demographic of the area. I was a little surprised to actually find the CD at this location on a rare trip into the Providence Place Mall so I also bought The Sign’s second album at a nice used price while I was there.

Ebay (includes shipping)

King Kobra – s/t (2011) – $13
Black ‘N Blue – Hell Yeah! (2011) – $9

Just a little Ebay action this time around…..I found both the latest King Kobra and Black ‘N Blue albums for decent prices. I already had both as downloads from the label but I need the CDs for the collection. Both CDs were mint condition but the Black ‘N Blue CD was a pressing from Argentina. Nothing against pressings from other territories but I prefer the U.S., European or Japanese pressings because I’m worried about bootlegs. HELL YEAH! is from Argentina but the booklet shows that it was licensed from Frontiers Records for release so I felt a bit better about it. I wish the seller had noted the pressing in the auction but what can you do?

Amazon

Scorpions – Lovedrive (1979) – $7

My wife was buying a book so we needed something to else to get the free shipping on Amazon so I threw in a copy of LOVEDRIVE with the original cover. I already have LOVE DRIVE with the “scorpion” cover so it’s not like I was missing anything., it was a quick impulse buy.

Sentinel Steel

Sergeant – s/t (1984) – $15

Last but not least, I ordered this Sergeant reissue from Sentinel Steel mailorder because I noticed the price start to rise on Ebay. This limited edition reissue was released through Stormspell Records a few years ago but it’s sold out. The CD arrived and I found the booklet inside was damaged…..not good at all. I’m not going to return the CD because it’s too much hassle but I will keep my eys open for a copy on Ebay and sell the damaged one cheap at some point.

Total = $210

Total (year) = $868

Average Price (per item) = $8.35

Total CDs (year) = 99

Total DVDs (year) = 4

Total Blu-Rays (year) = 1

Oct 30 2009

Press Release: Scorpions – Amazonia: Live In The Jungle DVD (2009) artwork & release dates announced

Scorpions - Amazonia DVD (2009)

From Bravewords.com:

In August 2007, Germany’s most successful music export worldwide, THE SCORPIONS, already ventured deep into the Brazilian jungle for a sold out show – in front of 40,000 enthusiastic fans the band played a concert in Manaus, the metropolis on the Amazon river. A cooperation with Greenpeace was already existent at this point and when the band returned to South America the next year, they happily intensified it. Kaus Meine, lead singer of the Scorpions, recollects, “Due to the unbelievable success we returned to Manaus in 2008, but we also played Rio, Sao Paulo and Recife again. During the show in Belem we accepted Greenpeace’s invitation to participate in a three-hour flight across the rainforest in order to get a picture of the proceeding destruction (an area twice the size of Germany has been destroyed by fire so far). We wholeheartedly supported Greenpeace with large banners saying “Stop the deforestation” during these shows and part of the proceeds from this DVD will consequently be given to this organisation that is commited in so many parts of the world.”

For many years, Greenpeace has been fighting against the rapid deforestation of the amazon rainforest and for the preservation of the habitat of numerous animal and plant species and also of more than 180 native peoples counting more than 200,000 people altogether. Scientists assume that the rainforest will be gone by 2050 – given a constant “deforestation speed”. The consequences would be disastrous: People would lose their homes, animals and plants would become extinct and the impact on the world climate would be bomb-like. The Scorpions have now also commited themselves to protecting this unique ecosystem. The rock icons’ DVD Amazonia – Live In The Jungle does not only include the complete show played in Recife on 7 September 2008 and a Special Feature – Supported By Greenpeace consisting of five live videos from their legendary concert in Manaus in 2007, but also a Greenpeace documentation of the Scorpions’ legendary flight across the Amazon rainforest. Royalties of DVDs sold in Brazil and Mexico predominately go to Greenpeace Brazil’s projects to protect the ancient forest.

Musically, the DVD is a highlight as well. Meine says, “During the 2008 tour we had the pleasure to perform with Brazilian guest musicians. It was a wonderful experience and demonstrated very well how music builds bridges and brings people from different cultures together.” In a closing statement, the musician addresses his South American fans and says, “We want to thank our Brazilian fans for the support and the incredible enthusiasm. To quote James: ‘3 words: You kick ass.’ Brazil rocks!!!” And so do the Scorpions.

The DVD Amazonia – Live In The Jungle will be released on November 20th in Europe. The North America release date will be later this year.