[78-L] GEMM dead

[Thomas Stern]

Recent attempts to reach GEMM website failed - found this at DISCOGS.COM:

  "For those of you who don't know this site has been in financial trouble
for some time, today the website and database have disappeared. 
If you are one of the many sellers owed money by GEMM do not expect to see
it, Site owner Roger Raffee had emailed several people stating that he
intends to file for bankruptcy and close GEMM down 
It is a sad moment, GEMM was the first music marketplace, dating back to
1995, a true pioneer site, under better management it might well have become
an internet giant and for a while it did very well peaking around 2000 with
a turnover in the millions. 
Roger fell out with co-founder and developer Jim Hall, Jim was ousted and no
one managed the site's creaking infrastructure, GEMM was simply overtaken by
sites like musicstack and Discogs, sales declined rapidly. 
GEMM took the full payment from buyers, removed its commission and then
remitted to sellers, for over 2 years the delay in paying the sellers has
been growing and earlier this year the site ceased taking money, referring
buyers to pay the seller directly by Paypal, payments of arrears pretty much
stopped. " 

 

  Best wishes, Thomas.