Go LaLa For Used-CD Venture

so you where the one that got that… there is some discussion in the feedback section about that very cd and it's possible rareness.

don't know about the rest of you but i'm in a serious holding pattern right now in LaLa land… large market and/or back catalog stuff is easy to trade and get… but the stuff off the beaten path is a bit of a hard sell and good luck getting anything new, even if it is pitchfork or whatever approved..

Yeah, I was incredibly surprised. Some items on my want list are obvious pipe dreams, and I definitely assumed this was one.

We shall see if it's an authentic copy of not, but the guy sending it told me inserts are included. Very cool.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
so you where the one that got that… there is some discussion in the feedback section about that very cd and it's possible rareness.

don't know about the rest of you but i'm in a serious holding pattern right now in LaLa land… large market and/or back catalog stuff is easy to trade and get… but the stuff off the beaten path is a bit of a hard sell and good luck getting anything new, even if it is pitchfork or whatever approved..

Well ya might have just covered a couple months of lala trading by getting that dee dee cd…

http://product.half.ebay.com/Standing-In-The-Spotlight_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ3108630

i wonder what the vinyl of thats worth, seeing as mine's in "mint" condition :p

You can finally send messages to anyone you're trading with, regardless of whether or not their username is public. A big improvement. I've laid off LaLa for a few weeks but just shipped out a few so I should have some stuff coming my way soon.

It might help, but there will still exist deadbeats who accept a CD and never log in again. I suspect the Nick Drake sent out will suffer the faith of being in transit 21 days even with the occasionally blurb to undisclosed.

Yeah i never did get my dead meadow disc…they guy said he sent it but I never got it. My local post office does suck though.

My biggest fear though is once they go public the amount of users who are total pain in the asses will multiple… I follow the feedback board way to much and it never ceases to amaze what the petty things that get people wound up. The latest being "I don't mark on CDs why should I accept them", or "I got a CD with bonus tracks on it and I want the original".

The whole why would anyone want the artwork crowd is really annoying. They are so insist that their method of throwing out booklets, etc and stuffing their CDs in binders is the only it should be done. They also tend to have really lousy taste in music, and hopefully I'll never get any of their shite because those CDs aren't probably in the best shape either.

I think there is developing at the core a really great group of flexible traders who aren't buying nu-metal, top 40, DMB shite and wanting to trade with like minded folks. There was mention of a friends with benefits option which would enable one on one trading for instance. Which will probably be much needed when more of the unwashed masses arrive in July…

Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:
Yeah i never did get my dead meadow disc…they guy said he sent it but I never got it. My local post office does suck though.

i got a cd three weeks after it was sent, it arrived the same day as the replacement sent a week earlier.

the one bad trade i've gotten was when some sent me the sampler version of the cd requested. it only had six of the tracks from the actual release, thats a case of what where they thinking…

and on the flip side, i had someone send me a kind snail letter telling me there was a delay in sending out a cd because they hadn't gotten the starter kit yet. which is fine, but blurbing on the website would have been easier :)

The only incident I've had is The Weirdo's cd that was supposedly shipped to me on the 14th still hasn't arrived.
Thus my Karma is red, even though all album's I sent were received w/in 10 day (that includes the time it took me to get my starter kit).
So far I like the service, but I think taking your music to a used store for credit and walking out with something new is slightly better.

Originally posted by renton007:
The only incident I've had is The Weirdo's cd that was supposedly shipped to me on the 14th still hasn't arrived.
Thus my Karma is red, even though all album's I sent were received w/in 10 day (that includes the time it took me to get my starter kit).
So far I like the service, but I think taking your music to a used store for credit and walking out with something new is slightly better.

the red light should mean you need to send more out before you can get more in… i believe at first you need to have at least one outgoing before you can get any… over time the balance can shift the other way, but not more than one or two on the getting side.

point taken about trading in used for new, but some of the stuff i'm parting with wouldn't get much in trade anyways, which is why i've been holding on to them and glad lala exists
:D

Thanks for the clairification.I thought the Karma would be based on how quickly you ship, the condition of your cd and the inclusion of art work.
I guess I'll be in the red for awhile as I have most of my collection marked as "Keep It". I feel slightly penalized for lack of activity though.

i understand the fustration, although lala does have to put some safeguards into prevent abuse, i.e. people getting cds without actually sending them out

ultimately lala wasn't setup to be a used cd store but a swapping service, and that maybe the biggest hurdle they need to overcome as more and more sign on. i haven't yet reached the point of boomeranging cds yet and found a bunch of really cheap cds to trade at the monkey mall sam goody store closing sale which were snapped up.

Here's an interesting tidbit…. if your out going deficient is high than you get a higher priority on whats on your want list. with that said, i could ship any number of mainstream "indie" titles instantly but it appears that getting a like minded replacement isn't so instantaneous. i.e. one would think getting the new Robert Pollard or Ted Leo would be easy given the demand for Bloc Party or Death Cab for Cutie. i suppose i could send out one of those coveted CDs and see how fast I could get Jenny Watson back as an experiment.

I still like the informal trading idea.

Out of 74 "Received" trades I had 10 unfulfilled. What's about the other LaLa'ers? Do you have the similar numbers or are mine high?

In 200 received CDs, I think I've only had 2 not ever arrive and maybe one or two more that were unplayable. And I generally get all of the artwork too, which is a nice touch.

out of 249 CDs gotten i've had problems with four non-arrivals, 1 broken in transit and 1 truly unplayable disc. I had one arrive after the 21 day limit and gotten three blatant promos… since going artwork only July i've had no problems with the conditions of my trades and get the tray card sent most of the time.

it would appear that people who have the artwork to send keep better care of their CDs vs those that stuff them in binders. it's also a trend that the more popular the CD is the more likely it's going to arrived banged up, mistreated by those with cd visors in their cars, etc…

Wait, are sending promos considered bad form? I have a bunch of CDs, both bought and given to me, that were promos. As long as they are the real deal why can't i send them?

Those are the rules:

Lala does not allow the trade of Promotional CDs, and requests that members do not ship them. If you receive a Promotional Disc, please mark the trade as "Wrong CD" and we will re-add the disc to your Want List.

For more information about 'Promotional CDs' please read our Trading Policies.

Posted by redsock:

Wait, are sending promos considered bad form? I have a bunch of CDs, both bought and given to me, that were promos. As long as they are the real deal why can't i send them?

<i>Lala does not allow the trade of Promotional CDs, and requests that members do not ship them. If you receive a Promotional Disc, please mark the trade as "Wrong CD" and we will re-add the disc to your Want List.</i>

What about the real deal, that was sent as a promo, with the barcode crossed out? Same disc, same art etc… but actually was a promo. That is stupid.