At least plastic jewel boxes can be made like brand new again when a cover might become broken or worn. Digipacks cannot. I suppose a new edition of the Dean Martin series would easily cost well over $500. That is worth it for a potentially more interesting cover photo?
I never bought the Dean Martin box sets (I've only borrowed them from an older family member), so: Yes! And I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper to reproduce than producing a brand new, never-before-released box set of Merle Haggard's late-career recordings. Do I think there's a market for an all-encompassing Dean Martin Bear Family box set of this size in this day and age? No! I'll probably just end up buying the four Dino box sets the way they are.
Are you referring to the one with Merle sitting on a bench with a lunch box? I think this is the 1968-1976 studio recordings? I'm in the camp that despises the digipack. As stated many times, once these break, they are useless, whereas a jewel case can cheaply be replaced and looks like new.
In the CD industry overall (not necessarily Bear Family) cardboard digipacks are much cheaper to produce than the plastic jewel box with inserts. Why do you think the industry has used them in such high percentages? It is not because they cost more.
The Lefty box reissue was also a special case in that it was out of print and highly sought after, with used copies selling for up to double the original price.
As they still had the license, it could have been repressed, but I expect that Richard always wanted Lefty to have a deluxe hard cover book once that format became a standard. So they added some material and made a new set. I may be one of the few who has both editions. I went through a page-by-page comparison of both books. Though overall, the expanded book is great, the printing quality, especially of many of the color photos, is better in the earlier book. Skin tones and contrasts are more natural. This is probably the fault of the printer. I don't know if it had to do with scanning sources.
I was lucky when I scored the original 'Lefty' set in a local record store. They deal in new and second hand discs all the time, but they never have Bear Family product in all the years I've been perusing through the store. One day I walked in, and behind the counter on the wall was "Life's Like Poetry' which was priced US$110.00!!! It was a bargain! I looked at it and checked it out and it was in Mint condition but I didn't pick it up. I didn't have the money nor did I have it to be buying a box set at the time. Excruciating it was to put it back on the shelf knowing I knew I had to have it. I stewed on it for 24 hours before I was back to buy! Probably went without Steak and Gravy and lived on bread and water for a while. Over the years I've gotten use to living lean thanks to music.
Yes, that's the one! Terrible cover, whereas I actually love the cover of the third box set. As for the digipack discussion, it's been done to death on other threads. As I've stated before, I've never had this problem with my digipacks, I don't use them as freesbees; mine are in great shape, but then, so are my jewel cases; I just much prefer the look of a digipack to a jewel case. Still, that was just a very minor point. I mentioned other aspects of the Dino box sets that I would like for Bear Family to improve on. I was merely thinking out loud knowing very well that it's never going to happen .
You know what they say, if you say something long enough, it'll eventually happen. Look what happened with the Bear Family Patsy Cline and Johnny Paycheck sets!...... Ok, two bad examples, my mistake....
This is the third time you bring up the digipack/jewel case discussion, and we're never going to agree, so let's just agree to disagree. I don't care which type of packaging is cheaper to produce, I care about which one LOOKS the cheapest (and plastic always looks cheap to me; absolutely hate plastic). Then again, don't worry about it. My imaginary, implausible Dino box set won't get in the way of the important, much more likely future box sets on your own personal Bear Family wish list.
Back when it was just issued, I bought a used copy of the Lefty CD box through the mail (I think it may have been from an estate. I guess the owner got the box and then died and went to heaven). The dealer said to himself, "Why do I need to find a shipping box? This has a box already!" So he just taped up the seams of the Lefty box and slapped a shipping label over Lefty's face and put some postage on the corner! I did get a refund, which I applied to a new copy!
I've noticed from looking on eBay, that there were 2 different books in the "Life's Like Poetry" set. One was the white one with a black and white picture on the front, which is the one that I have. And then there was this one, which I think is quite sharp looking. I didn't know they reprinted it and revised it before it went out of print. Were there any other changes to these books besides the cover?
I do find that frustrating when Bear Family does not let people know about revisions in repressings. They had done that with a number of books. My copy is the older "white" cover
What happened with those sets? EDIT: Ah, got ya! They never got the Bear Family box set treatment at all.
They both had an identical book. Did they change one of the books? That bothered me because with BF, the price code includes extra payment for the book.
I'm also in the camp of not owning any of the Dean box sets, much to my disgust. I'd be all for all-encompassing Deano set! Like they did it with Johnny Horton/Jerry Lee Lewis sets so I'd be glad about it if it were Dean. In saying that, when the time comes (and when I win the lottery), I will no doubt source out the sets prior because that is what is available right now. Love Dean.
If I win lots of money, and buy Bear Family Records, the first project will be 'Patsy Cline'. I'll even produce it at a financial loss for Patsy's sake and her fans worldwide. No money will be too much to see her done justice. Of course, I would need some assistance from everybody in this thread and their knowledge of the material so the books are kept up to BF standard!
I wouldn't call the Jerry Lee Lewis set all-encompassing. It encompasses his Sun Records period. You would have to add the LOCUST YEARS set to get the first half of the Smash/Mercury years, and then add the ROCKIN' SESSION box to get the latter part of the Mercury years. Thu huge Sun set is actually a pretty small part of his career(maybe a 7 year period).
