I'd like to see Fats get a new box done like the recent Jerry Lee and Chuck Berry sets. I don't think it'll happen though. Something has happened at BF and even though they may release a new item every once in a while I feel like they are done. I hope I'm wrong but many things seem to be out of print and there is nothing new beyond a couple huge sets that I'm not really interested in.
At this point, I'm still buying multiples of available Bear Family box sets and 1CDs solely for the purpose of gifts and preservation. Also, I always check for product changes (new colors/artwork) and make sure each title is complete and an actual replicated silver CD. However, I'm learning to be grateful for what BF have given us in the past and to not have many expectations for new artist-focused box sets or comps in the future. I still believe in miracles, but it's certainly going to take one to bring us back to where BF were even in 2007. In many aspects of life, change isn't a bad thing. For BF, change is far less desirable.
I don't have the Lefty box so I do hope it is reissued. Another one I'd like to see released is the single disc Thunder Road soundtrack. Seems like it was cancelled due to a picture in the booklet that they didn't have the rights to publish. Tear it out and release it.
And it's everything you can expect from BF, I love this set, I picked it up about half retail price second hand. He is known for his early Honky Tonk stuff, but I really love his 'Saginaw Michican' period into to final 70's recordings the most. Highly recommend this set, if an updated version doesn't appear.
The "Bear Family style" box sets The Florida Box The Texas Box The Michigan Box like this have been HEAVILY DISCOUNTED on Amazon USA recently Check current prices.
Yup. I remember that talk. Held me off of buying the current set. Would love sets from T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley. Sad to hear that the gears at Bear seems to have ground to a halt...
Might want to keep an eye on eBay as well if you're in the market for these. I got a new copy of the Texas Box there recently from rarewaves for about $15 less than the current Amazon price (and didn't have to pay sales tax as I would've with Amazon). If memory serves, these were selling for $200 +/- prior to being discounted.
These OOP boxes are aggregating. I was either too young or didn't have the money to buy these when they were first issued 20 years ago or more. Since a generation has passed since their release I would hope there would be enough demand from newer buyers to support an additional run of these titles. This assumes that Bear is financially able to afford an additional run.
The used market will grow as collectors downsize, and that is starting to be more frequent. Prices will eventually go down, I believe, except on a few. The used market for physical sales will compete against new pressings, so new pressings will be reduced.
What has happened at Bear Family is that Richard Weize, the founder and creative mastermind, retired and left the company a few years ago. Richard was single-handedly responsible for BF's creative output. To cut a long story short, his accounting partner used to give him an annual budget for new projects. They would make money with Johnny Cash, but they were fully aware that they would probably never manage to break even with the Uncle Dave Macon CD plus DVD box. Minimum run for these boxes was 1000 copies. Not much for Johnny Cash, but more than a challenge for Uncle Dave. Richard would never hesitate to do it anyway. That (and the incredible sound quality) is what makes Bear Family so amazing. With Richard gone, things have changed quite a bit over there.
Yep! and not for the better. The next 10 or 20 years of BF may be a downwards spiral without Richard at the helm. It's disappointing, but so glad we still have those boxes just the same. A shame BF has turned into more of a distributor.....
Pretty much everybody made the same statement regarding vinyl in the early 1990s. I don't say you're wrong, but in the field of collectibles, anyone who could safely predict where the market is going in 20 years from now could become a rich man. In the end, hoping for prices and/or demand to go up or down is always a gamble. In the early 1990s, lots and lots of people heavily invested in modern day comic books. For a few years, dealer prices went higher and higher. Eventually, when people were trying to sell, they were getting cents on the dollar.
Well the price of nearly all vinyl did collapse for over 20 years from 1990 to 2010, seriously collapse. And most used vinyl (even in good condition) is still nearly worthless (only select titles go for real money, over $5). We are seeing the same for CDs today. Used music dealers going to estate sales/garage sales or shop owners seeing used CD collections walk in the door have much less interest, either rejecting the lot altogether or offering rock bottom prices. They don't want them because they can't sell them for much at all. I think it is safe to predict a major drop in Bear Family CD boxset production over the next 10+ years (the drop has already been going on for over 5 years). A comparison to Bear Family is the Mosaic label, but Mosaics sets are truly limited. Out of print prices for many Mosaic Cd boxes has definitely been dropping. OOP Sets where used copies were once easily fetching over $50 per CD are now not hard to obtain at about $15 per CD and are common at $20 per CD.
I don't know about that. As in any other field of collectibles, about 95% of the existing material is junk. Always has been, always will be. In Berlin, ten years ago, you would find Fleetwood Mac - Rumors in every trash bin, you couldn't give the darn thing away. These days, even in average condition, this album actually sells for around €10 ($12). Not to speak of the high-end titles: According to the Discogs stats, they sold a British Led Zeppelin in June for $1792. Even five years ago, this price would've been entirely out of my imagination.
I would not say that the vast majority of things on record is "junk". Much of it is obscure, or not of much interest to a wide public, but it can be very good music. Just take classical vinyl. Mint, superb records of great artists will not sell even at $1 at garage sales. Drop the price to 10 cents and they still don't sell. I see it every week. It's not junk.
I partially agree. It's true, there's a lot of good music out there that does not get any recognition. Then again, back in my vinyl days, I listened to a lot of stuff from the $1 bins. I'm sorry to say, but most of it was pretty awful indeed. Classical music is different. With very few exceptions, classical music simply sounds a lot better from a digital medium. No wonder a lot of classical is being released on BR-A these days, the format clearly holds the most advantages for this genre. Especially in the silent parts, the actual silence of a CD can be so much nicer than the semi-silence of a vinyl disc. I don't know about other genres, but for classical I have a feeling BR-A is here to stay for quite another while.
Really, that is just what you picked out of the $1 bins yourself at that time. But, since the very beginning of the history of the phonograph record there have always been countless excellent (not awful) records at bargain prices, which covered the full range of music. If you had picked some of that good stuff then, you would not consider calling it awful today.
Back in the 80s, there were two different types of $1 bins: In the cut-out bins in the large record stores you could find amazing stuff. I bought lots of stuff, including early Einstürzende Neubauten and other experimental stuff for a few cents. I was actually thinking of the smaller second hand record shop bins. The owners of the shops I was frequenting at the time were all on top of their game, they really knew their inventory. So if they moved something to the $1 bin, they did that for a good reason. No 'hidden treasures' there. These guys hardly ever made a mistake. If something showed up they didn't know, they would actually listen to it to find out about it. Hell, there were no internet forums, no mobile phones, no nothing, so we all had a lot of time on our hands back then.