CD Now

They're a big concern and in my experience everything worked fine. Delivery depends on what you pay for. The problem with ordering from the States into the UK is that you're likely to incur import duties on packages over a value something like 18GBP (I think). If you order multiple CDs, they'll get packaged together and hit by this tax, or if you order individually, you get hit by higher delivery costs.

If you take this into account, the prices aren't always better than elsewhere in the UK.

These costs even seem to apply if the discs are coming from the warehouse in Europe (which is presumably 'bonded' or whatever).

CD Now is a bit pricey by US standards, and their shipping and handling charges are excessive. If something is backordered, as is often the case, the additional mailing drives the price up further.
If you're ordering from the States, go to www.bestbookbuys.com and look for the best prices under "Music". CD Now is rarely in the running. Under "Books", Amazon is never in the running. I'm surprised that this site hasn't put Amazon out of business.

Despite what I said above, CD Now is quick and reliable, at least in the US, and their catalog is pretty impressive. If you're not in a hurry to get something, save it on a CD Now Wish List, and wait for a wish list sale. These happen 2-3 times a year, and they discount the stuff that you've previously saved on a wish list by 30%. Definitely a great deal.

Thanks John

Good tip about the Wish List sale. Only started looking at CDNow recently but there's already around 30 titles in my Wish List.
Will try your other recco tho'.


Cheers
Mike

I use CD NOW quite a bit. They list and can supply more obscure titles than A&B of Canada; but I find their delivery to be quicker.

I put a posting on about avoiding import duties and VAT recently. The limit on goods (postage doesn't count) is £18.

That's around $25 US or $41 Canadian.

I'm happy to pay the same as UK prices overall because I reckon that US/Canadian manufactured discs ALWAYS sound better.

I order regularly from CDNow and also from www.insound.com. I rarely pay their "list" price because I always search out a coupon first. Usually Google will turn up a coupon, for example, I did a Google search on "insound coupon" two weeks ago and came up with "hipster02" which was good for 15% off my whole order (this one might still work, although these coupons are, of course, invalid after a certain date).

Lately I've found more Insound coupons than I have CDNow coupons, fwiw.

Both companies have very good catalouges of indie-label stuff and I've never had any delivery problems (unlike with a certain other music dealer that starts with "T").

I like to support these two outlets when possible (even though I'm admittedly and slightly hypocritically cutting into their margins by advertising their coupons). Both seem especially concerned to support the independent labels that keep rock music alive.

quote:

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I order regularly from CDNow and also from http://www.insound.com. I rarely pay their "list" price because I always search out a coupon first. Usually Google will turn up a coupon, for example, I did a Google search on "insound coupon" two weeks ago and came up with "hipster02" which was good for 15% off my whole order (this one might still work, although these coupons are, of course, invalid after a certain date).

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I've never had a problem with CDNow; as some have pointed out, they are not the cheapest, but they do have good stock. The exact same can be said for Amazon.

When searching for coupons, you need to search using "couponz" - the "z" is a letter that hackers etc., often use for semi-illegal coupon sites, as well as software hacks (e.g., "warez").

Erik