OK so in my last post of 2022 I mentioned that I was waiting for a CD I had ordered through discogs from a seller in Japan. Well the CD arrived on 03 Jan 2023. I placed the order on 25 Nov 2022 and the seller marked the CD as being shipped on 27 Nov 2022. In my previous post I mentioned that I got it for a good price it was $20 for the CD and $10 shipping and tax. A total of only $30. Often when I saw the CD listed the price of the CD itself was at least $30 and shipping was often at least $30.
So to end the curiosity the CD in question was "Here We Go Again" (2004) by the band SR-71. I mainly got it for track number four "1985" a song that was covered by the band Bowling For Soup the same year 2004 and they turned the song into a big hit. The original version is a bit cruder in sound and overall quality in my opinion. Also the cover adjusts and smooths out some of the lyrics. A few weeks back I discovered another cover of "1985" by a group called First To Eleven which is pretty good. The first few seconds to the first minute I didn't like it but it grew on me.
SR-71 Here We Go Again (2004)
Image from discogs.com
Anyway part of the story with this disc is when it did arrive 5 weeks and some odd days after the initial order I noticed the package came from Utah. The mailing label was printed 25 Dec 2022 HUH? The company I ordered it from is in Japan. Apparently the company has a shipping center in Utah so they can send orders to the US (with AG after the company name). I don't really mind it because apparently the Japanese pressing of this CD is the only one thus the "rarity" of the release. Yes my copy has the OBI strip with it. That was one of the reasons I got this particular copy, some of the other copies don't have the OBI strip. A few years ago I didn't even know what an OBI strip was. It is the strip of paper on the side with all the Japanese writing that all Japanese album pressings have. They also include a booklet that has all Japanese writing. For some CD releases it is more that they include a booklet written in English. It is not a necessity for Japanese pressings for me but it makes them more fun.
On a different note: I had an odd Ebay experience. For one of my purchases in which the seller didn't give a tracking number, about a week after it was marked as shipped I get a message from the seller that the item was returned with address "no such number". That is very odd since Ebay has my proper address as well as Paypal (which I paid for it through). So I replay "that is odd" and send my mailing address in all caps so that any "i" s or "L" s or other similar letters can be identified and I spelled out Maryland so that the state abbreviation of "MD" is not mistaken for an "MO" (Missouri). 3 or 4 days later I got another message that the package was returned again and the seller asked if I had another address. I restate my bewilderment and say "unfortunately that is my only address". I don't want to go through the problems one could get by sending to my work address which is in SE DC on a letter street which could be misdirected to SW or NW or NE DC. So I said I guess you will have to refund me since it is "undeliverable". Poor seller must be handwriting everything and has bad penmanship? I would love to see a picture of the bad address to see how it was messed up. Latest is the seller is attempting to send for the charmed third time. I hope it gets here. And it arrived. The item for those curious was a back issue of a Sports Illustrated Suimsuit issue to replace a water damaged copy I had. The package had one of the previous labels that had been marked with the "NSN" No Such Number with return to sender sticker under the good mailing label. Turns out that they had replaced a 3 in my street address with an 8 everything else was right except my name on the original label was "Kris" and my last name of course was misspelled with the more common "son" ending. Another interesting thing, the seller according to the listing is in Illinois, the original label was sent from Michigan and the final label was from Texas. So the seller either has a couple of locations or they sent from a drop shipper.
Tues 24 January got a message that I sold an Ebay item. 2 promo buttons for the movie "Passion of The Christ" for $2.99 plus $4 shipping. Looks like one of those I'll loose a buck or two transactions. Just glad they sold to someone who wants them. My Ebay store is now down to 70 items. I am working on some draft listings of a few books.
