I love the MPS series, I have quite a few. I’m not sure what’s available at Target, but my favorites include the Baden Powell titles (Tristeza on Guitar and Images on Guitar), as well as Rokoko Jazz. I’m not 100% convinced all of their releases are AAA, but they sound great, are well pressed, and very good musically. Highly recommended
Preorders are included! got the upcoming the band cahoots super deluxe, plastic ono super deluxe and dead fox LP box for under $270! (5 percent off w red card… your wives all have one).
Can also recommend Day in Copenhagen. Joe Henderson’s Mirror Mirror is another MPS title that I purchased from Target a couple months back during a sale; tried two copies and both had a lot of the micro scratches/abrasions all over the disc. It was quieter than I expected but still a bit noisy - YMMV on that title but for $13 it is significantly cheaper than the VMP version. Day in Copenhagen was super clean and flat.
I've seen comments like this occasionally throughout this thread, and I can't help but feel bothered by it. I'm REALLY not someone who is overly "judg-y", and I'm definitely all for getting over on big corporations. But I can't help but wonder if the fact that people are apparently doing this (at least somewhat regularly) has something to do with the fact that Target rarely includes music on these sales any more. While it would be great to get these super-expensive items for an incredibly cheap price, this comes down to deliberate manipulation, and not a whole lot different than actual stealing (sorry). And if you think that Target / WalMart / Amazon, etc. are SO large that they don't notice when money is lost like this, I really think that's a mistaken notion. And yeah, they could change the computer algorithm so that it doesn't calculate like that, but it's probably just easier (read: cheaper) for them to just eliminate music from the sales altogether. Someone mentioned this as being a "loss leader", but I mean, it's a loss leader when you buy these the way the sale is designed. If you do what people are describing above, I would imagine you're getting it at their cost, or thereabouts. I'm not a retailer, but the company is making little to no profit on this I would imagine. I definitely don't have what I consider to be a high moral compass (probably the opposite, actually), and I'm TRULY not passing judgment on any of the people whose comments I quoted. But trying to do this just strikes me as dishonest. And encouraging others to do it is definitely wrong.
Agreed. The whole thing seems wrong to me To each their own. I was able to find great deals elsewhere on uDiscover and other sites at 30 percent off which is a better deal in my opinion anyway.
Good opportunity to get a good price on a couple of newer releases & a fill a couple other holes in my collection. I was a little dissapointed that several CDs that I had put in my cart over the past few months in preparation for this sale were now "sold out" & apparently not being reordered. Oh well...
Good news! Those new additions to Target's Pre-order list from yesterday are now part of the 3-for-2 sale. Jump on it! (Coltrane(2), Waterboys, etc...) ... and more new releases have been added today that are not yet part of the sale (Bloc Party 2022, Natalie Cole Unforgettable 30th Anniversary). Link Vinyl : Music Pre-Order : Target
- Proceeds to pass judgement, compare it to stealing, says its dishonest and wrong to encourage others. lol Anyway, this is just how the discount is calculated now. If you bought three items, then returned two of them, they would end up applying the discount in the same manner. If anything, it saves Target the time and shipping cost in refunding items someone was going to return the entire time. These companies know what they are doing, sin isn't a factor here.
Thanks to all for the posts about the MPS titles. I too remain skeptical of which are AAA. MPS actually had a reissue series called "AAA" noting all-analog, so you'd hope that'd be a safe bet. But there are other titles from the same time period without this sticker. Since for the most part MPS originals are about the same price as the reissues (just much harder to find), the safer bet for AAA is the original. They're listed on Target as label: The Orchard, and German distributor Edel played a role, but I remain confused by the series. I see Baden Powell 'Images on Guitar' and 'Rokoko Jazz' in the sale: Also, the seven George Duke titles (most aren't my thing...I tried a few on Qobuz). They're available in dividually and as a box of 7. Three Oscar Peterson titles, plus the box (Exclusively for My Friends). Joe Henderson - Mirror Mirror Don Ellis - Soaring Monty Alexander Dave Pike Set Lee Konitz Live in Berlin Mark Murphy Any folks have thoughts on these titles? And unrelated, many of the Real Gone Black Jazz titles on vinyl. Though my understanding (not confirmed) is these are digital or needle drops. I have just one title and no point for comparison. Also, I see more Bethlehem jazz titles have been added to preorders: Dexter Gordon, Mingus, Art Pepper, though I read these are not AAA if they use same master as VMP. Can anyone confirm?
Hahahaha... yeah guys, you're practically helping Target out by doing this. How could we be so naive? We should have all been doing this all along, instead of trying to find 3 items to buy. My actual quote was that I was not passing judgment on the people whose posts I quoted. And I wasn't. And you're definitely right -- if you buy 3 items (with intent to purchase all three) and end up returning 2 of them, and they calculate the discount like this, well, yeah, that's on them. But if you buy 3 items with the deliberate intention of returning 2 of them (and not intending to ever buy them in the first place) to get the discount on the third, OR if you never buy the 3 in the first place (cancel 2 before checkout), then yeah, it's manipulating things. Whether you look at that as wrong or not is up to you. We each have our own moral compass, and I never intended to push mine on to you. You can justify it however you want, but it IS stealing. It IS dishonest. It IS wrong to encourage others to do it...IN MY OPINION. Yours might be different (and apparently, in your case, it IS different). All I was saying is if you're wondering why these sales are not including music any more, well, this is probably a contributing factor. Like you said yourself... these companies know what they're doing, and they won't do something where they don't make a profit.
Another jazz vinyl title in the sale that surely must be digitally sourced given the year, but musically ought to be strong, and I'm not seeing it streaming: Anyone heard this, or have a comment on relative sound of the vinyl vs. CD?
While I agree with you (if a sale is clearly an error I personally won’t take advantage of it, and I won’t game a system to further a discount that clearly isn’t intended), I’m just amazed that Target hasn’t fixed this when they’ve had months to years to do so.
I mean you’re entitled to your opinion - but, why’d Target include music again after not including it a few rounds?
I don't know... if an item is listed at an incredibly low price (usually Amazon or WalMart does this) due to a clerical error, I'm not above taking advantage of that. When they honor it, I've gotten some great stuff for a steal (the Stones in mono vinyl box for $165 on Amazon when it was new, for example). To me, that's a company error, and they can choose to honor the price, or acknowledge their error and cancel the order. (I've had both happen at various times.) "Gaming the system" as described above, however, is a little different. That's not something happening due to a flaw in the company's system, that's something an individual is choosing to do to manipulate the price. Some people see it as wrong, some people don't.
Thanks. I don't work for Target, or in the retail industry at all for that matter. So I have no idea why they decided to include music again. I'm glad it was back -- I missed it when it wasn't included, as it's a good way to get physical media at a great price. And I took advantage of the sale and got several items, so I'm very happy about it coming back. Maybe because it's a Black Friday sale and they put it back in as a one-time thing. OR maybe they saw that not as many people purchased when music was not included, and they decided to bring music back into the sale. Time will tell I guess. Perhaps someone with more insight into the retail industry (or Target) could answer that question better than me. And it seems that maybe my original post touched a nerve, and I really do apologize for that. It wasn't my intention to make people uncomfortable, I was just expressing an opinion. I think it just bothered me seeing posts implying that there was nothing wrong with getting over like this, and encouraging others to do so, when I felt that it wasn't right. Once again whether someone sees this as taking advantage of a flawed system, or deliberate manipulation, is up to the individual.
Trying to squeeze blood from a rock and trying to get an even better deal out of already unreasonably good deal has its pitfalls, certainly. But Target, like all major corporations, is a volume company not a margins company. They set up their point of sale system like this for a reason, and I’m sure they are aware of how some people use it. In related news, the Target CEO saw his pay increase for the whatever year in a row, making 20 million last year.
I have several of the Oscar titles and they are absolutely astonishing. So good I really want to buy the whole box. The Henderson and Pike titles are also fantastic. Don Ellis’ Soaring is excellent ‘70s big band stuff with a more modern, fusion flavor. Think TV theme music. The Murphy title didn’t do much for me. Pretty standard vocal jazz. The others I have not heard. Others I have from the MPS reissue series and highly recommend are Volker Kreigel’s Spectrum and one of the greatest sounding piano trio LPs I’ve ever heard; John Taylor’s Decipher: John Taylor Trio – Decipher (2017, 180g Gatefold, Vinyl)
lol and here comes that second sentence. It's not stealing, come off it. If you want to ride the moral high horse then do you. But all of this while repeatedly saying you aren't pushing your beliefs on everyone is running it's course.
Thanks for setting me straight, and for editing my quoted posts to suit your responses. I was wrong for expressing my opinion apparently, and I've been reprimanded righteously. So...apparently it's not stealing, folks. From this person's post, it looks like this has been declared as a fact. It's all good. Buy, return, cancel orders however you need to in order to get what you want as cheap as possible. Take advantage and get over however you can, there is no right or wrong in this matter. If you can get it for BELOW cost so the seller loses money, even better. The retailers are aware of it, they're OK with it, and in fact they deserve it for having the nerve to turn a profit. Go ahead and manipulate away!!
I have to say i'm 100% with you & thought this all along , I buy from these , i get my 3 items & i'm Happy .... In the end Target may do these less OR never again & they will be the one's crying they don't do it anymore . I'll enjoy the sales , but wouldn't be surprised if the Future is no music . at the least it's Dishonest & not following the rules .
nordstrom has a very liberal return policy and its part of their customer service that keeps its customers very happy. Do some abuse it sure.....is the company still profiting definitely...... as for target if they feels its being abused they have simple remedy which is to fix the flaw in their online ordering. It is even questionable whether they are unaware of the flaw and it does not matter to them as it cost them pennies on the dollar for a multibusiness dollar company. Perhaps they think those people will buy more stuff during sale or in long run anyhow. In any event if you think they are ignorant of this issue despite it likely happening every 3 for 2 they do (trick works for non-music too) and you think its a sin than by all means dont do it.... I order at target and amazon because of their liberal return policy otherwise I would mostly shop at smaller establishments. The problem with many of the smaller ones is that they refuse to take a return or if they do they actually suffer financially so its a tough situation. If target and amazon had the same difficult return policy I would unlikely use them as much.....so again the question is not so easily answered what is right and wrong..... dont even get me started on that target and amazon are anti-union....... capitalism is the best system imho but the morality of much of commerce and these big megabusinesses is problematic
uDiscover and Sound Of Vinyl are doing 40% off sales with free shipping that includes preorders on things like the Acoustic Sounds series. A couple weeks ago I used a 40% off coupon to knock $100 off the Nirvana box set and THEN they gave me $45 in bonus points that i used to get two more records for free. That is a bigger savings than the Target sale and on preorders- so yeah if the LABEL itself is willing to sell this stuff through their clearinghouse sites like uDiscover at a 40% off MSRP while eating shipping and giving out gift card points, then rest assured they know what they are doing and are good with the profit margin. This other guy is acting like he knows what cost margin is for these companies, and projecting like crazy getting into all sorts of moral issues (including equating with actual theft). Target is FINE. If they wanted to shut down the discount trick, they'd start cancelling orders. But they don't.
The Only Problem i see , is they won't do it anymore & it was quite the long stretch since the last one ............... we continuously see people ordering say $200 boxed sets & then canceling right after ............ everyone has to do what is right for them BUT eventually the hand gets bit . The bummer is so far when people do pre-orders & they end up getting cancelled on them , it's a good thing , i'd hate it if they stop doing it
People, people, people, fret not. I've spent enough on this sale to compensate for any tomfoolery. Sleep well tonight, all of ye.