When you purchase VGM, do you usually do it in bulk, e.g., wait for a number of releases to accumulate before ordering, or do you purchase one album at-a-time as desire dictates?

Especially with respects to GameMusic.com, Cocoebiz/VGM World, CD Japan, or Play-Asia, do you find that each subsequent album added to your order adds more shipping cost, or do you find that shipping cost becomes a lower percentage of the total cost of your order, the more items you purchase?

In other words, I'm asking, is it a smart idea to buy in bulk, or doesn't it matter how much you buy at a time, because shipping costs will always be the same?

Depends where you order from.  From CD Japan, you are going to get nailed on shipping & handling pretty much whichever way you go.  I think there's a sweet spot in the middle somewhere if you order a few, but not too many, but I gave up trying to figure it out and now I just order everything from VGM World where you definitely save money if you bundle.  Lately, I've been trying to do one order per quarter or four shipments per year.

Bundle...As long as the store you're buying from has everything you want, you save moola by skipping more initial shipping charges and only deal with the incremental increase. Kind of a bummer when coco has half the CD's I want and Play Asia has the other half...

Also consider that Otaku.com ups their shipping via their paypal store by $5 with every soundtrack ordered (it starts at $10) A bit of a crap deal if you're buying 5 single albums ($30...ouch!), but VERY nice if you're buying multiple disc albums. A 4-CD set and a 2-Cd set only ran me $15 EMS shipping and I was considering another 4-CD one prior and it would have been $20. So definitely consider them for small orders (1-3 albums), especially if you're buying multiple CD sets. Prices are really good too...Very little markup normally over the yen price (if anything, they're down).

Exactly the same here.

-Joshua

Same for me as well.  I do roughly 4-5 "big" orders per year lately.  I used to be more insane back in like 2001-2003, doing maybe one every month or so.  I usually order from Amazon.co.jp which is 15 bucks for the initial shipping charge then roughly $2.60 for handling per item.  So the more you order there, the better.  I usually plan orders with a friend or two to save even more.

Then of course you have the tiny orders from VGM World or some little unknown shop because they're the only place that carries what you're looking for.  And of course, YJA from time to time with all those awesome fees attached.

To sum up.. my VGM purchasing habits are pretty much me saying to VGM: "Here's my bank account, GET DRAINING!"

-Mike

My bank account was drained one year when I bought only a couple hard-to-find (not typically expensive or sought after) albums from Yahoo Japan Auctions. Shipping and middleman fees sting... I've paid my doubles and triples over time for some of my favorite older, used albums (F-Zero; $45, Rockman X; $60, Star Fox; $70) and find it to be heavy on my budget to buy new releases for usually $35 and $40 (included tax and ship).

It's a tad ridiculous to pay such a price for a Japan-only album but considering what the Japanese themselves have to pay if it were available in stores there, the hard fact is that CDs (and most entertainment media) in Japan are just expensive - and I'm not even sure individual stores have discounted prices when they hit the shelves (like most US stores).

When you think about it, a typical movie soundtrack price is typically $20 in stores here in the States. Of course, shipping is a non-factor and you typically have a better chance of finding it on Amazon or what have you used.

I would probably build up a hearty collection of game musics if they cost the price of (let's say) a typical DVD here in the U.S. But man, buying these CDs is just taxing!

now with the ability to preview almost any cd with a full download in a matter of minutes, i will only buy a cd if i deem it an absolute must have..  Whereas 7-10 years ago i was purchasing several OSTs every month, that number is now several per year.

I preorder them for their release dates.  I usually bunch some together if they're released on the same day (+/- 1 or 2 days), but I want to get them as soon as I can, I don't want to have to wait til the end of the month or longer for things.  If I need to order something older that came out I can just bundle it in with a newer one.  It costs a lot more in shipping but whatever.

You kind of really notice a difference when you can get 10 CD's from CdUniverse in the $100 range VS 4-5 VGM albums in the $200 range (and that's needing to take the number of discs into account the number of discs on an album...I think 3 2-disc sets and 2 single disc albums maxes out what I'm willing to pay for shipping, while 3-4 disc sets...Um, yeah).

On that note...Do note the price of DVD's and games in Japan...It makes the price of CD's almost look sane. A lot of anime DVD's with 4-5 episodes here for $20-$25 vs 2-3 episodes for $50-$60 there isn't a fair comparison.

I think that's what a lot of people do...and should do, quite frankly. This year alone, there were about 5 albums I probably would have bought on the first day I hadn't sampled them and found out how laughably bad they were (or at least extremely disappointing/unfulfilling). I would have felt really stupid had I laid out money for Orochi Musou, Sonic and the Seven Rings, Ys Origin Super Arrange or King of Fighters MI Regulation...

Order at least 3~4 albums at a time.

Usually 15-20 at a time, but I don't order from the big retailers.

You *must* use Yahoo J A. If I lived in Japan, I'd be a deeply troubled, bankrupt man...

Well the thing with me is I pretty much don't even buy official releases anymore sans maybe a handful of albums a year, so most of my VGM purchases come in the form of doujins from the latest festival, so I end up just trying to grab everything of interest.

Good haul this year, eh? MUCH more intriguing than the official releases this year, IMO.

Definitely, my favs so far this year, including C71 are:

Journey Through the Brilliant Days (Chrono Trigger) - takrockers!!
Over the Sky (FFXII) - Magical Trick Society
Legend III - Mana - Lukar/Dow
Lost Childlen (Lost Children) - Various
Megalomania (Rockman 1-3) - Dangerous Mezashi Cat
Nidhoggr (Various Square)- JPS

But I'm really excited about some C72 stuff I haven't received yet like:

A new album from Serenade (finally!) - Looks like original stuff
Crowzfest (Crow's Claw plus other guitarists)
Phoenix Project Chrono Album - Phoenix Project is definitely my favorite camp right now, conistently amazing stuff
A new album from S.O.J - Looks like original stuff
Woodsoft Sega Album
XL Project Cave Album

"Journey Through the Brilliant Days (Chrono Trigger) - takrockers!!"

The best of the CT doujins thus far, IMO.

"Legend III - Mana - Lukar/Dow"

It's Lukar...It's awesome of course.

"Lost Childlen (Lost Children) - Various"

Letdown, especially vs originals.

"Megalomania (Rockman 1-3) - Dangerous Mezashi Cat"

The arranged album every Megaman fan needs to have.

"Crowzfest (Crow's Claw plus other guitarists)"

You'll like...Original stuff, but a generally excellent shredfest (though disappointing entries from CC and Jesus is Dead...SSH w/Godspeed is a match made in heaven though and SoJ, Serenade and Demetori clean up nicely after them).

"Phoenix Project Chrono Album - Phoenix Project is definitely my favorite camp right now, conistently amazing stuff"

Interesting mix...I dig the rockers and acoustic, but I can leave the techno. Quality.

"A new album from S.O.J - Looks like original stuff"

Also good (haven't listened real closely yet, but SoJ reuses his "Phoenix Sword" track from Crowzfest)

"Woodsoft Sega Album"

News to me...Please give  report once you get it.

I believe the Rock Buster albums were also put out this year as well, plus UUDDLRLRBA and "Get Equiped With Kid Overdrive" (awesome American releases...The former covers a bunch of NES games and Get Equiped is all Megaman with live guitars and stuff) and OCR has a massive FFVII project they're unveiling soon. And Hellion's "Legacy" album is droolworthy just for the Brandish Ending 2 arrangement and "power metal" Phantom Train.

I can understand this, a couple of the technoish tracks in the middle are pretty lame and out of place, but the begin and end made up for it for me with all its Lost Child with live guitars goodness.  I especially enjoy "Black End", "Dead Alas", and "Survive".

They also released a Namco arrange album at M3, but I wasn't all that impressed with it besides "Ultima" from Dragon Saber, which is sick.

I've got "Legacy" on the way too, so that's good to know.  I've got Kid Overdrive's CD lying around here somehwere, but I never heard of "UUDDLRLRBA", got a link to their website?

Those are goodies...

Sorry, the site seems to be down, but I originally followed the link from this page. I assume it'll come back up eventually: http://www.pressthebuttons.com/2006/11/secret_kode.html

Their name is "The Kode".