Can anyone fill me on buying a used item from Otaku? Do you actually get the item in the picture with a used item? Would I have to worry about condition and completeness if that's not the case?

I would ASSUME so, quality has never been an issue with them and they get some cool stuff. However, their shipping charges PER ITEM are a huge issue and is largely why I don't buy more from them. The charges keep stacking with each item you put in your cart and end up becoming outrageous if you're buying like 4-5 items.

Yeah... when I first started out collecting VGM I ordered from otaku a lot... but the shipping really added up and, while some people would absolutely love it, I just didn't need my items THAT quickly. The cost kind of outweighed that unnecessary convenience to me. However, considering the two items I'm after it wouldn't be too big of deal this time around...

I haven't used otaku since 2004 when I had a bad experience ordering from them.   I don't have the full details anymore since I only have one side of the email conversation (them responding to me), but I ordered an album new and waited, was sent an invalid tracking number for something that never shipped, and then was told they only had a mint copy left which I had to take because there was no other stock left and wasn't even offered anything for their mistakes.  Also, despite listing tons of albums on vgmdb that say negotiable or best offer on ebay I haven't gotten them to budge off the often inflated listing price.

The few times I've used otaku.com (and Alex), I've never had an issue, both on the website and on ebay.  I don't use them often because they do tend to be overpriced for fairly accessible items, but I have in the past for some harder to get items.  In the past 8 years I've ordered 4 times from him without major issue:

Napple Tail CDS + Honou no Alpen Rosen OST (Ebay)
Gradius Box set (Store)
Soukyugurentai reprint (Store)
Atelier Escha & Logy OST (Store)

The only one that can even considered an issue would be the Atelier OST, which he answered via email was a release date mix-up (public on sale vs. special or something, I forget).  I did get it, albeit a few months later than I thought I would.

Yes. Oh hell yes. I think they need to take a gun to every listing on vgmdb that says "negotiable", Otaku's bulk loads being the #1 offender. Talk about needless clutter! Is almost like they tried using the marketplace, decided to spam it and then abandoned it.

I have said numerous times, marking your prices as "negotiable" on vgmdb is a very easy way to keep things IN your possession, as opposed to selling them. To me, listing prices is all part of the game. You might score a deal, you might make a few extra bucks. If something doesn't sell, you lower the price or delist. Last thing I want to do is haggle with a seller, I want to send them an email, get a confirmation/paypal address, send paypal payment and rock out 3-5 days later.

Actually, I wanted to talk about this as well but I didn't want to start a separate thread for it. I was looking around for some albums and some (e.g. A LOT) of prices are VERY inflated anymore. I'm sorry... I do want the standalone BOFIII soundtrack since I collect BOF stuff but $130 for a one disc album with a fragment of the score on it? Um... sure, considering I paid a little more than that for (almost) ALL the BOF music a few years ago.

I'm sorry but some of the prices I've seen are just so ridiculous and most collectors that would sell things for a decent price seem to be holding firm on what they own these days. I know this isn't a cheap hobby but I just don't get these sellers. The demand for some of the albums I'm looking for just don't justify these prices. Right now it just appears to be a lousy time to try and obtain things... kind of stinks that patience has (seemingly) become an even bigger part of the game.

Yeah, prices like that just look out of whack and I remember back when that soundtrack was in print and easily bought. I'm always shocked on occasion when I see goofy prices on things I remember going for for $20-$25 back in the day. I was glancing for a copy of Alphabet Planet the other day and saw the price had ballooned on yahoo japan. No thanks, I'll stick with the mp3's. The album's good, it's not worth 3-4 times what it retailed for. I know, I know, VGM is a niche hobby and only a small fraction of people care about these things, so high fluctuations are bound to happen, but I think some sellers (Japanese and western) should keep their expectations in check if they ever hope to sell what they list. Then again...it only takes one buyer...

I use Otaku sometimes for stuff I don't want to pay YJA prices for, if he's got it.  I just don't like the snail mail it seems to take to get to me.  I'm too used to using EMS for everything.

"Princess Isabella Syndrome"

champ_des_pins suffers that syndrome too. Back when I was first starting to collect he started auctions at a penny, but all it is now is relisted blocks of buy it now auctions. They aren't all overpriced, but the good items usually are. Ultimate Ecology BIN at $200 is completely insane.

I was going to mention champ as well. Things started out well with him. I did get some great deals in the beginning like Mega Man X7 and Mega Man Legends sealed... but I think those days are over.

When it comes to sites that sell VGM, does anyone kind of get annoyed that they include out of print/out of stock items in their search results? I mean if you don't have an item don't get my hopes up man...

Memories of Game Music Online...

And yeah, champ can go in a hole and die. He's not doing anyone any kind of decent service with his prices. People are well off downloading stuff rather paying those types of inflated prices. What's sad is someone that has ready access to Yahoo Japan and Amazon Japan could probably make a killing buying soundtracks and adding a SMALL premium to them for overseas buyers on a regular basis. Kind of like a retail middleman service.

And while I've heard stuff about Isabella, as I understand, she sells from her own collection and I've bought from her with no issues. Again, there are some inflated prices in there, but I have soundtracks I've listed for inflated prices in the past where I wasn't dead set on selling them too. A retailer like Otaku or champ (yes, I count him as a retailer), I feel is more likely to squeeze people that don't know the market values.

This is kind of off topic topic, but it has to do with downloading. Is it just me but I've gotten to the point where I'm done with physical releases when it comes to non-VGM music. Does anyone else feel this way?

About every two years I accumulate so many CDs and then just sell them off for next to nothing. There's one band were I plan on buying physical discs because I have almost everything prior (and of course VGM) but everything else I'm just itune-ing from now own.

I know I was a very vocal supporter of physical or bust for years but when your tastes change and fade it just starts to make more sense.

Surprisingly, I can't find a lot of mainstream releases in FLAC, so I buy the discs as cheap as possible either on ebay or gohastings.com (usually around $2-$3 per CD...even cheaper if they have a sale) and just rip them, then they sit on the shelf like happy little decorations. Amazon is a good source, but they charge $4 PER CD for shipping if bought from the marketplace, so buying in quantity is a last resort from them. Secondspin never has anything I want and you don't know which print you're getting half the time. Metal CD's are generally a bit more (and metal-wise, I haven't really branched out of the same 30-40 bands or so...I think I'm going to be swearing by Iron Maiden when I'm old and deaf), but Amy Grant, Roxette, Eddie Money, Huey Lewis, Celine Dion, Billy Joel, Heart...worth its' weight in gold to me and can be had dirt cheap.

Over the past couple years, I've probably bought around 400 CD's like this. Not every one's a winner (I've been on a track rating marathon), but not every one has to be when they're that cheap. Figure if I can get 2-3 good tracks per CD, it's a good deal.

Speaking of them I still have an e-mail all about that...

> Regarding: Other Questions & Comments
> Order Number: no order number provided
>
> -------------------- message ------------------
>
> It's nice to see you have updated the look for the website, but one
> thing puzzles me.  After finally updating everything, why weren't
> listings for obsolete cds removed?  I have the habit of browsing most
> of the selections to see what is available that I perhaps never
> noticed or forgot about, but it's irksome to click on a multitude of
> out of print and unavailable items.
>
> Thanks for reading.

We decided to keep the obsolete items because if we remove them we will
be constantly getting requests for them.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Regards,

GameMusic.com

That was from Sep 15, 2004... boy that is such great logic

Play-asia was worse though, since they just took all the albums from Chudah's Corner and put them up even though they never had them in stock to begin with

They do accurately mark their out-of-stock items though right?  Would like to know if that wasn't the case, it's been a while since I've ordered from them myself.

They are marked out of stock, it is just ludicrous that you would list albums that never were and never will be in your website's stock; and unlike Amazon, there isn't a marketplace where the albums would be listed secondhand.

Oh, and regarding GMO despite that baffling choice, it was the BEST site starting out as a VGM collector...

Oh, absolutely. I bought most of my "firsts" from there. I remember spending $200-$300 a pop to fill out my collection - lots of old FF albums, Valkyrie Profile... damn, that brings back memories. RIP.

It was a bit sketch how they didn't come out about many of their CDs being pirated for the longest time, but at least they weren't charging $50 for them like Die Hard and some other companies back then were.  Still, it's hard to say if I would have gotten into VGM without them.  Back at the beginning they, The Place, UCI Anime Store and a couple others were the only places to go for VGM.

now every time monsanto is on the news, i always think of game music online

I didn't start until after a number of people on this site, so I think at that point all the bootlegs were gone from GMO.  I'm not positive if it was the site but I think right around then The Place were unloading surplus FFVIII LE's before closing up shop, but I was too slow about checking so I never got the LE.  I'm not sure about firsts, but I'm very much in the same boat as Zane about it filling up my collection.

I remember The Place's liquidation sale, I loaded up on a lot of soundtracks for that one. For the longest time, they had a list of like 1000 albums that they could special order, but they had basically no stock onhand, so ordering from them always took forever (they didn't tell you what was onhand) and it was a miracle if the stuff ever showed up. My first order of CD's came from there (FFVII, Rockman 2 Power Fighters and Marvel vs Street Fighter). Took 3 months to show up, but it came.

I admit, I bought my share of bootlegs back in the day, due mostly to finance issues (and downloading in 1999 was too primitive...my computer HD was 40GB, my parent's was 10!, nowadays I can leach that much in one good session!). We had a couple stores that sold them in town and places like Gamecave had a decent selection. I did get Dracula Battle 1 (bootleg) from GMO, but they sold out of the DB2 and that one actually became almost as hard to find as the original! My first GMO order was Dracula Best 2, Suikoden, Street Fighter Alpha 2 Remixxes and the DB1.

There was also Animenation, but I hated them because (again) they never had anything in stock. When Tokyopop sold CD's, they were awesome. They had regular sales and sometimes got some rare stuff (I got Rockman Battle and Chase, Waku Puyo Dungeon, the 3 Zuntata L'ab Normal CD's and King of Fighters 97 from them, all longtime favorites).

A lot of my buys were from the marketplace here. It used to be much more active than it is nowadays. Same for ebay, it seems like there was more VGM listed on there, way back when. And let's face it...no one wanted to pay $30 for a CD (does anyone still?).

Like hell they weren't!  GameMusic.com sold me a bootleg FFVI soundtrack for $42.99 back in 1998.  I still have the bootleg and receipt to prove it.