Minimal Wave Records

Hello to all minimal synth fans.

Recently a gentleman from Austria named Fred Joanowitsch decided to sell his honor for a mere $75. How? By winning three items from me on eBay and then not paying for them. While it gives me no great pleasure to shame him by putting his name in public this way, it is clear that many people just take the system for granted.

As anyone who sells on eBay can tell you, it takes an enormous amount of work not just to do the listings, but to accumulate the items, clean and grade them, and make them available to the public. For your trouble (in the US, anyways) eBay keeps 9 percent of your final selling price. People who bid on items and don’t pay for them are doing all collectors a great disservice, as many sellers are just packing up and finding different avenues to peddle their wares, which partly explains why there aren’t as many nice items being listed as there used to be.

And if you’ve been in the game long enough, you’ll know full well what a democratic system the auction site is. Back in the 90’s if you wanted any top notch minimal synth item, you had to be in with a certain elite group of collectors, have plenty of great items to trade, and keep your fingers crossed that you didn’t get ripped off when a deal was being struck. eBay made it possible for anyone to acquire such coveted items, which is a good thing. People who abuse the system are only helping to set the clock back, and make good items harder for everyone to have access to.

Anyway, I’ll get down from my soapbox now. I’m sure I speak for all sellers and honest collectors here when I ask that people honor their bids and be honest in their dealings (eBay and otherwise.) Thanks for hearing me out.

Best - James

dear James,

i am with you and i would like to add that as also with my mailorder/label, i experienced more than ever “deadbeat buyers” in 2009, that is people sending you an order and then you never hear of them again after having sent the invoice. that is annoying and wasting our precious time and it takes time - you need to check your stock, you pack it up to get the final weight and you prepare the invoice, it is not done in a minute ... at least have the guts to send a cancellation so that people know ...

Marc,

Thanks for your reply. I know where you are coming from as well. My small re-issue label (Psychedelic Pig) is also owed money from a fairly large distributor for product already shipped. Two orders worth in fact. They’ve always paid in the past, and I’ve always given them LOTS of time to pay, so I send orders sometimes without having even received payment for a previous one.

Now, with their reliability in question, it is holding up progress on a potential new release that I’ve spent a long time and effort just trying to get to become a possible reality. If a major dist. isn’t reliably paying anymore, it puts the entire project in question, especially since there were other questions about the release as well.

I should mention that I do appreciate the efforts people like you and Veronica are making to get new releases out there and make available the music that is either rare and unattainable, or was previously unreleased. I will admit that personally I’m happiest to just run across old obscurities in shops for $4 or whatever, but I’m in the minority, and it is important that people who have the interest nowadays have a chance to acquire these tasty sounds for themselves.

Onward and upward!

James