Hot Stampers (Better Records) - One more question...

Nail hit on head.

 

Many have. I am one of them. And I'm a happy (abet infrequent) customer.

 

Instead of posting ridiculous uninformed asinine accusations, buy a freakin’ record. If you don’t like it, post how much it sucked and return it and get your money back. Otherwise, accept what actual customers have reported and shut up.

 

A $30 record is not worth 199 because someone says it sounds good...it’s just odd that people fall for this....

 

I don’t agree with any of this, and will say whatever I feel to be the truth....if you don’t like it then ignore it....

 

That’s not the point he is calling hotstampers to records that are known to be mediocre at best...that’s probably why he isn’t giving deadwax info

 

If a seller is obscuring matrix information that is suspect, pure and simple, and it harms resale value. What a waste of time and money.

 

It would be less expensive to purchase the same record from different pressing plants, do your own listening, keep the best sounding ones and sell the ones that you don't think sound as good. That would be more fun than shelling out a few hundred dollars for this or that record.

 

Better Records: Sonny Red - Images



Sonny Red With Blue Mitchell And Grant Green - Images: LP, Album, RE For Sale | Discogs


You decide

 

How are they “clearly” known to be mediocre?

 

Let’s say you have an OJC that sound great....that’s awesome but it’s still a $30 dollar record...

because I’ve been collecting jazz records for over 10 years, all of them are well documented and have a set market value, most of which is based on rarity...

 

How old are Tom’s ears anyways?

 

Better Records have no resale value that equal the purchase price (or rarely do). Port does not claim they do. It's also not the point of the service.

 

Rather ridiculous but to each their own.

 

Who cares "what is known"? As long as it sounds amazing.

Even Steve Hoffman commented above that he's heard the thin waxed "Super Saver" series sound better than many original pressings.

And isn't this the joy of playing records? The messy variables? I say dogma equals awful art...

 

Nothing wrong with a great sounding record....but selling one without any info and then charging ultra premium prices isn’t right...

someone is going to buy that OJC from him for 199 when they can get the same record for 15

 

Feels pretty right to me. I love my copy of BR's Armed Forces. Well worth it!

 

To you perhaps?

Respectfully, At least let us know what kind of system you have? Room acoustics and signal chains are everything, yes?

 

It’s all in my personal details like everyone else...you can see for yourself

 

Apologies! I was looking at wrong tab

 

It's not about stubbornness. If a potential customer feels it's not a service, it's not a service. That's how it works. They advertise, we decide. We're not wrong or close-minded if we don't purchase his product just because of a money back guarantee. Do you wish to force every potential customer to try his product? Or any company's products because of the claims they make?

 

Am I missing something? Tom Port describes the one he is selling as "This vintage Jazzland pressing", not an OJC.

 

I'm not sure if you're joking, but the last thing I want to do is start selling rejects on Discogs. That alone is a time vs. money equation that I am not interested in addressing. I generally already have at least a few to several copies I've burned through before resorting to Better Records. The overflow copies I have now become gifts for friends or resold to various local record stores.

For me, life and listening time is too precious to spend on shipping and handling. I love collecting records and I don't want to end up creating drudgery for my favorite hobby. YMMV.

 

I couldn't disagree more and here's a real-life example: I had been chasing a great pressing of Innervisions for years, spending an average of $30 a copy. I amassed 10 copies and they were varying degrees of mediocrity (oh the tyranny of overgraded vinyl).

I went to his site, saw a listing for sale and thought, "what do I have to lose?" When it arrived I played it and it was analog bliss -- how did I know this? Because I already had 10 freaking copies to compare it with!

You may argue that the next $30 spent on my 11th or 12th copy might have been "the one." Sure, it's possible. And yet it may have also saved me another $300 chasing a white whale.

If that's your jam, buying scores of copies, be my guest. But don't tell me a $30 record isn't worth ten times as much to someone who can now devote his resources to a new whale.

 

I'd be interested in how many records were involved in the "shoot out"; it's not a very common album, were they only the original Jazzland or did he include the various re-issues? If you are making a claim about a album's sound using 3 or 4 copies vs. using 15 or 20 copies; that sample size matters.