mkb@cmu-ri-rover.ARPA (Mike Blackwell) (04/04/85)
Well, here's the scoop on the big CD mail order I placed two months ago. As you might recall, I ordered around 110 discs from SuperSound, in Illinois. They promised to beat any other US distibutor's catalog price by $1 per disc. About three weeks after I mailed them the order, I received about 45 of the discs, and about a month after that another 40 discs. There are 24 discs remaining on the order, but many of those are strange imports that I haven't seen any where else, so I'm not too worried. Two months sounds like a long time, but I don't think that it is too bad, for a couple of reasons. For one, the guy who runs SuperSound is very friendly, willing to talk about CDs in general, and willing to tell when when he expects to receive and ship CDs (in contrast to other mail order places I've dealt with, who usually refuse to even guess when they might get discs in). Also, if it'll take him a little while to dig up the information, he'll take your number, and really call you back. I was also surprised at the number of import discs they were able to come up with, many that I have not seen elsewhere. In short, I've been very pleased with their service. (But I do suggest that you call them in the late morning (like 11), so you talk to the owner: one employee (with some accent) is sort of an air head...). Oh, shipping is $3.00 flat for the first shipment, backorders free. I have since placed another, smaller, order with SuperSound, and gotten the same good service. Initial shipping was also faster: they are building up their in house stock (initially, they ordered discs as they got orders, thus the long delays, but now they order multiples of popular discs, so they can ship those faster). So, my recommendations: (1) If you are lucky enough to live in a city where you can buy CDs for less than $15 each, and have a good selection, more power to you, but for the rest of us... (2) If you want discs fast for reasonable prices, try Compact Disc Centre, and (3) If you don't mind waiting a little, want access to import discs, and want to save $1 over anybody elses prices, go for SuperSound. I'm happy with them. Tell them I recommended them... they know me by now (Mike at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh). Information: SuperSound, P.O. Box 7082, Forest Park, IL, (312) 366-1300 Happy CD hunting... -m- (mkb@cmu-ri-rover.arpa)