Johnny Mathis & Columbia/Legacy prepare MASSIVE box set, new album for Fall 2017!

I reordered the set from Import CDs and it just shipped.
$328.92 shipped. Not the best price, but I'm glad it's coming.

 

Good enough! They should not have canceled all their early orders.

 

I agree. I have to sign for the delivery, so I'm picking it up at the UPS store near me. Just easier than waiting all day for the UPS truck.

 

I was hoping the box would be loose enough inside for me to make custom covers and insert the 4CD Singles set, but it seems too tight.

 

So I see that Amazon UK is not that much cheaper than what you can get this set for in the U.S. now.

 

Remember that you don’t pay 20% VAT if shipped to USA. I just bought it from Amazon UK last weekend for USD $260 shipped, and that’s MUCH less than the lowest prices here.

 

I guess I should have looked into that option further.

 

Amazon still cant package worth a damn. My Mathis set came with no inner packaging and the boxset split all to hell. Nothing. And this was after I had sent an email pleading for them to please properly package the item. "Zaid" assured me that it would be packaged well. It wasnt.

Ridiculous that they cant take an extra minute to throw some wrinkled paper in a box at the very least.

Sent them an email asking for my money back. Second time this has happened. Wont be purchasing box sets from Amazon ever again.

 

That's why I didn't order from them. Mine is coming from ImportCD & I've had decent luck with their packaging in the past.

 

That does limit your options. It is hard to find dealers who package properly anywhere.

 

Id settle for any kind of inner packaging from Amazon with this set. I got zero.

The 3 major music distributors that folks talk about here are Music Direct, Elusive Disc and Acoustic Sounds. All three have very good to stellar protective packaging. Amazon is notorious for horrible packaging. Honestly Ive just been lucky and had a couple of dings on corners of box sets from them. And that shouldnt have been the case either.

It may take a bit more patience and money to find future sets, but it can be done from individuals or small businesses.

Its just puzzling and wacky that Amazon doesnt take the time to properly package things. Its nuts to me because they do so many other things fast and correct. I guess their profit margin is so great they just couldnt care less.

They just lost a couple of grand a year from this former customer though.

 

Fine companies, all of them. The only problem is that the merchandise that they offer is minuscule compared to the wide world of what is available both in print and out of print elsewhere.

 

Yep, thats why I mentioned Ill be buying from a scattering of smaller dealers.

 

I mostly seek used items, which are nearly always far cheaper than buying from Amazon itself, regardless of how you find them. But the major ways to find such dealers force you to go through Amazon, EBay or Discogs in most cases.

 

True also. At least though one can be somewhat assured an individual will be packaging the item in something besides a box that allows the product to rattle about for miles and miles.

Enjoying the set in spite of the damage! Man, what a voice this fella had. Not sure many could touch his way with a romantic song.

 

I really wish the book resembled a Bear Family style book. Maybe 250 LP sized pages on high quality paper, and hard covered. The CDs could still have been the mini-LP style, though Japanese style mini-LPs would have been much nicer (slightly larger and using high grade inner sleeves for the CDs).

 

How's the sound of the set?

 

It sounds great to me, but I have not taken time to A/B it with other early vinyl or CD editions, which may better reveal pro's or con's. Basically, if you want these recordings on CD, you get this.

 

Well, I should have it by Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week.

 

I think youll enjoy it!

 

Just popping in to ask a general question but has the movie version of "Walking Tall" ever been released on any format besides the movie?

 

I just picked my set up from the UPS store from Import CD. Perfect condition. It came in the box Sony packed them in; fit perfectly with thick bubble wrap protecting it. Not a bend or a mark on it.
I might not have gotten the lowest price, but I got the highest quality box and delivery.

 

In fairness to Amazon, I received mine in December at release and it was packaged great. It was in a box inside a larger box with bubble wrap in it. Now, that said, ordering single CD's from Amazon is painful. They put them in bubble envelopes and the cases always arrive broken.

 

Ditto. Ordered Jan. 14; delivered today, Jan. 25. (Probably should have arrived sooner, but got lost by UPS along the way: “Possible delay in delivery due to arrival at incorrect carrier facility.”) Okay, I can live with 11-day transit from the UK to US. But along the way, it must have been really tossed around…

Inside a too-large box, with at least 1½ inches of empty space on all six sides. One sheet of skimpy bunched kraft paper on one side. Free to bounce around inside the outer box. No padding. No bubble wrap. Outer box looks like a truck rolled over it. Every seam of outer box is split open. One corner of the inner shrink-wrapped box set is severely dented. Two other seams are visibly split under the shrink wrap. I'm not even going to break the wrap or open it up to check for interior damage. It’s going back. (And I hope that’s not going to be a hassle.)

The shame of it is, this was so preventable. This is no way to ship a limited edition box set for international transit. Amazon UK sucks. Johnny Mathis wasted at least one of his numbered signature cards.

 

So it wasn't worth the wait or the money saved? Order from Import CD.