Slightly random, but my friend and I were telling her 11 year old son about the old record and CD clubs and how it was pretty much the "illegal downloading" back in the day, which got me thinking of my own stories and wanting to hear some of yours.

Personally, I remember getting CDs from Columbia House and them sending the bill and the "album of the month" and other crap. I think someone called me on the phone and I pretty much told them they shouldn't enter into non-binding contracts with teenagers. That was the end of that chapter!

I also remember my cousin and I joining all sorts of record clubs and then pulling the whole "I'm 14 and you aren't getting anything out of me" shtick when the bill came due. Hell, a junkmail thing for some book club showed up once (it had book titles with those tear off and send in stamps) so we got 10 random books and I'm pretty sure we just threw them in the street.

Lord, only boring people get bored!

I racked up from Columbia House back in the day.

avoided those rackets...

They had nothing i wanted and they wanted my money.

And there was illegeal downloading methods around and file sharing long before the likes of napster showed up.

This may come as a surprise, but I was a bit of a nerd. I was in the Sci-Fi book club. And I stayed in it for three or four years. Basically, till I got a driver's license and could pursue girls. Then I never read another book.

Um, I feel pretty stupid right now. I do remember Columbia House and those ads, but I actually paid for them. And I was a teenager too. It never even occurred to me that signing up and simply not paying was an option.

Honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, I have no freakin idea how I paid them. I remember doing the 10 cassettes for a quarter thing or whatever, and then doing the pick a CD of the month for however long, and opting out as soon as I could. But I have no clue how I paid it. I definitely didn't have a checking account or a credit card. I'm guessing I just gave the money to mom or something.

But yeah, I guess I was the 15 year old that actually dropped some coin on it.

(02-19-2016, 01:47 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: avoided those rackets...

They had nothing i wanted and they wanted my money.

And there was illegeal downloading methods around and file sharing long before the likes of napster showed up.

We did this pre-internet, plus we never paid.  I never did this stuff once I was over 18, because I had a feeling you might have to pay your bills at that point. Well, some of us do. ZING!

Maybe I shoulda been a deadbeat, because I have a pretty good "Well, I'm not paying so bye" shtick practiced. I remember when I was in gradschool someone hacked my ebay account and ordered multiple cars and other $10k things and one of the buyers called me and was like

"You bought a huge TV from me. Pay up!"

and I was all like

"Yeahhhh funny thing, someone hacked my account."

and he was like

"Oh no, you just don't want to pay because I see you bought 2 other TVs that are better than this one!"

and I was all like

"Well, I have $84 in my checking account, so best of luck with that."

(02-20-2016, 03:09 AM)Nately120 Wrote: We did this pre-internet, plus we never paid.  I never did this stuff once I was over 18, because I had a feeling you might have to pay your bills at that point.  Well, some of us do.  ZING!

Maybe I shoulda been a deadbeat, because I have a pretty good "Well, I'm not paying so bye" shtick practiced.  I remember when I was in gradschool someone hacked my ebay account and ordered multiple cars and other $10k things and one of the buyers called me and was like

"You bought a huge TV from me.  Pay up!"

and I was all like

"Yeahhhh funny thing, someone hacked my account."

and he was like

"Oh no, you just don't want to pay because I see you bought 2 other TVs that are better than this one!"

and I was all like

"Well, I have $84 in my checking account, so best of luck with that."

Yeah, pre internet.....plus you could get some of the more obscure classic stuff on there , and sometimes you just want the entire album with good sound for a collection.  For me , when Napster rolled out , it was the perfect thing for one hit wonders , and songs by good groups that may have been on otherwise shitty albums.  It was also good for impossible to find demos , etc.  I found the original Skynyrd demo...."Junkie". Very cool song , and I had never seen it anywhere prior. Lots of old blues tunes too.

(02-20-2016, 12:49 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Um, I feel pretty stupid right now.  I do remember Columbia House and those ads, but I actually paid for them.  And I was a teenager too.  It never even occurred to me that signing up and simply not paying was an option.

Honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, I have no freakin idea how I paid them.  I remember doing the 10 cassettes for a quarter thing or whatever, and then doing the pick a CD of the month for however long, and opting out as soon as I could.  But I have no clue how I paid it.  I definitely didn't have a checking account or a credit card.  I'm guessing I just gave the money to mom or something.

But yeah, I guess I was the 15 year old that actually dropped some coin on it.

Meh.....they really weren't that bad of a deal if you played your cards right.  You had the option of buying one CD full price....not just the album of the month.  As long as you were buying classic stuff , you came out pretty good.

After living in the dorms , and using my middle name , I moved to an apartment and actually paid a few times too.  If not for them , my collection may have never gotten to the 1k plus albums it is today.  It actually really helped me convert my old collection from cassette to disc without having to search and saved me some coin.

Noobs.....

*not recording songs off of the radio to cassette*
(old school pirate)

(02-20-2016, 08:42 AM)Rotobeast Wrote: Noobs.....

*not recording songs off of the radio to cassette*
(old school pirate)

On to an 8-track?

Yeah, I remember taping songs off the radio....man it was tough to start and stop it on cue!

The cd clubs worked well for me, although I only accumulated about 100 cd's. There were 2-3 services, and I would always do the promo and buy my obligatory 1 cd for half a dozen freebies, cancel and repeat.

If I remember correctly, even the "free" ones usually included @ $2.30 in shipping and handling, which I'm sure covered manufacturing costs and a small profit. But all-in-all it worked out to like $4 a cd, which was like 1/3 to 1/4 the price at the store.

Ah, the good old days when, nestled in the back of the TV Guide next to the ad asking you to draw the parrot with the eye patch, was that glorious Columbia House Record Club ad. My sister and I would caucus on the living room floor over that ad when we got the new Guide on Friday. We each got half the selections. You'd tear apart the lables, add a little spittle, and presto: instant record library. Then after arguing over record vs 8-track for the format, one of us would run and get a penny to tape to the card. Yeah, you had to send them a penny to seal the deal. Those people at Columbia House were no fools. Then we'd take it to our our mom, who was triyng to keep us fed and housed on a waitress' pay, and beg to send in the card, to no avail.

PS: Once I drew that damn pirate bird and sent it in. Two weeks later we got a call from a rep at the art school saying I had a special talent and he'd like to talk to us about their school. My mom, having seen my artistic talent, laughed at him and hung up the phone. Good call on her part. To this day I still can't draw worth a damn.

(02-20-2016, 08:07 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Yeah, I remember taping songs off the radio....man it was tough to start and stop it on cue!

The cd clubs worked well for me, although I only accumulated about 100 cd's.  There were 2-3 services, and I would always do the promo and buy my obligatory 1 cd for half a dozen freebies, cancel and repeat.

If I remember correctly, even the "free" ones usually included @ $2.30 in shipping and handling, which I'm sure covered manufacturing costs and a small profit.  But all-in-all it worked out to like $4 a cd, which was like 1/3 to 1/4 the price at the store.

Yeah, I did the BMG and Columbia thing, too.
I usually bought some for gifts, at Christmas.

(02-20-2016, 09:48 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: Ah, the good old days when, nestled in the back of the TV Guide next to the ad asking you to draw the parrot with the eye patch, was that glorious Columbia House Record Club ad. My sister and I would caucus on the living room floor over that ad when we got the new Guide on Friday. We each got half the selections. You'd tear apart the lables, add a little spittle, and presto: instant record library. Then after arguing over record vs 8-track for the format, one of us would run and get a penny to tape to the card. Yeah, you had to send them a penny to seal the deal. Those people at Columbia House were no fools. Then we'd take it to our our mom, who was triyng to keep us fed and housed on a waitress' pay, and beg to send in the card, to no avail.

PS: Once I drew that damn pirate bird and sent it in. Two weeks later we got a call from a rep at the art school saying I had a special talent and he'd like to talk to us about their school. My mom, having seen my artistic talent, laughed at him and hung up the phone. Good call on her part. To this day I still can't draw worth a damn.

Good Stuff !
I used to draw.
I wasn't real good, but I was ok.
(yes....comic book art)

(02-20-2016, 11:06 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: Good Stuff !
I used to draw.
I wasn't real good, but I was ok.
(yes....comic book art)

Hey, that's not bad. Beats anything I could put on paper.

Yeah, my sister and I were in our 20s and at Christmas one year we started talking about our childhood dreams of being rich enough to have joined the record club. We decided to buy one another a CD (this was the late '80s) for each Christmas thereafter so we'd both have impressive libraries, lol. It's a tradition that continues to the day, though we decided that starting next year, it's going to be vinyl instead of CDs. If we didn't do this I'd probably never listen to new music.

(02-20-2016, 08:07 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Yeah, I remember taping songs off the radio....man it was tough to start and stop it on cue!

That reminds me of the ways I used to knows songs by heart that included:

--> radio promos over the song's intros...I distinctly remember a radio contest to win a free cheese pizza over the intro to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" I taped off the radio

--> the exact point in a song where the record would skip, and not knowing what was supposed to be there since that was your only copy

etc.

(02-20-2016, 08:42 AM)Rotobeast Wrote: Noobs.....

*not recording songs off of the radio to cassette*
(old school pirate)

Well, yeah, I did that too.....even had my own "sports show" I recorded in between songs.


.....but we're talkin' mid 90s here on the record club for me....