[78-L] Olde-timmers

[David Lennick]

I bought a few hundred discs during the final week of Rare Records in Glendale, 
CA and had to arrange for them to be shipped to Toronto. At that time I was 
regularly producing reissues for Intersound so I called them and they agreed to 
pick up the tab (and charge it against my next royalties). A couple of discs 
were unfortunately placed on top of one pile and were broken in transit, and 
the jerk doing the packing thought that all the 16-inch empty sleeves I'd 
bought (25 cents apiece) were packing material, but by and large the stuff got 
to me safely.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> When I returned from Moscow I had to pay $100 for an extra bag, but I
> figured it only added 25 cents or so to each of the several hundred LPs,
> CDs, and 78s I was returning with -- most of which had cost only a few
> kopecks or roubles.  But one day in Budapest, Leah and I went apes**t at
> my favorite record store and bought at least 150 LPs for only a few
> forints each.  We had hoped that the store -- an old established music
> store with over a century of history -- could arrange shipping.  But
> instead we had to figure out how to get them halfway across Budapest. 
> We hoped Peter Fulop might be in his shop or that his workers might be
> able to help, but surprisingly nobody there that morning spoke English. 
> So we had to fabricate two crude boxes and mail them back.  Only cost
> $40 for both boxes, and they arrived in Kentucky safe and quickly.  But
> the same stuff would have cost hundreds of dollars to ship from Germany
> which seems to have the most expensive postage in the world.  But I
> don't really have the energy or stamina for such excursions any more. 
> We're hoping the dollar will get stronger again.  I probably will sooner
> than it will.
> 
> Since I know a lot of you deal with Peter at Mikrokosmos in Canada, let
> me mention that almost ever record in his Budapest shop was North
> American or British!  He sends all his European records back to Canada
> to sell to us, and send all his American finds to Hungary!  And I bet
> that most of them got to their destinations in his luggage!
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> 
> From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
> 
> Ken Matheson wrote:
> 
>> I don’t know how “Olde-timers” evolved from stupid entertainers politics, 
>> to Baker, to airline carryon of 78s, but it is for the better. The last 
>> time I went to Japan, in 08 a person could carry on 2 items. A computer and 
>> one other item. 30 or a few more 78s could be carried on this way. If you 
>> could get by with 20 or so 78s in a computer case. That would make 50. If 
>> you had 5 pounds of clothing, you could get 100 or so in your luggage. For 
>> an extra 50 dollars you could bring an extra 50 pounds. A friend brought 
>> back some wooden bowl blanks on a domestic flight. He paid in advance over 
>> the internet, and it cost him only 25 dollars for the extra 50 pounds. I 
>> don’t know if international flights will allow you to get the online 
>> discount, or a person can bring multiple 50 pound packages extra. But That’s 
>> still 250 records more or less. A person should research this to see just 
>> what it will cost and how to go about it first. There may be even better
>> ways. Steven Barr has a good idea.
> 
> 
> Well, I'd say "good idea" might be a little bit of an
> overstatement...but 
> it is an idea. That said, I'll continue to buy records from overseas and
> 
> let them get to me on their own, without any thought of flying over to 
> wherever to fetch them. No one seems to have taken into account the
> other 
> expenses of traveling, not to mention the time involved. If cost is the 
> issue(as it seems, as always to be, with Mr. Barr) there is no way that 
> anyone is going to "save" much money by flying around and picking up
> small 
> collections of 78s in far-flung places.
> 
> Taylor
>