http://www.gamemusic.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/GMOStore

Tried pulling up their website to see if they were still having bargain bin sales, and...it seems like their entire site's gone!

Anyone else notice this, or have prior knowledge of it?

I mean, I could tell that, after some time, they were probably going to go completely out-of-business, I just never expected it to be so abrupt...

Sure, their prices were ridiculous after awhile, especially when it came to shipping (since I ship stuff myself quite often), but they were one of the first retailers I frequented (second, to be more precise, after Animenation), so you might be able to understand the nostalgic feelings I once had about them.

After awhile though, I migrated over to Cocoebiz/VGM World, and CD Japan, since both AN (Animenation) and GMO really stopped stocking new releases after awhile.

Noticed prices at both AN and GMO climbing after the dollar began falling versus the Yen, and really can't help but think that just the lousy economy eventually did them in...

The store has been unavailable for several weeks.  I'm glad that my order for the Final Fantasy XII limited edition soundtrack in May was fulfilled.

If you visit the top level of the site now, you'll be redirected to the site humordb.com, which seems to be a joke Wiki.  The featured joke is about the 2006 Winter Olympics, which is discouraging.

i think high speed internet did most of the damage long before the economy started tanking.

VGM is mainstream enough now that anyone can find it online. do you think 12 year olds are going to pay $30-$40 for an album?
We here at STC are probably the .005% that got enjoyment from looking thru a cd booklet while listening (while we think to ourselves, 'holy crap it's hard to believe this came out 15+ years ago) or seeing our collection on a bookshelf.

I'll bet at least half the regs here (myself included) have their osts physically arranged on a shelf by catalog number and/or series.

Alphabetically, thank you very much.

(more or less...)

Same here man.  I know the FFVII OST was my first VGM purchase and I'm pretty sure I got it at GameMusic.com, followed by FFVI, Chrono Cross, and FFT.  I actually emailed them a couple months ago about trying to get ahold of my complete order history but they never got back to me.  Would have been nice to have records of what I got there.  I can probably dig up the receipts if I'm daring enough to open my huge receipt envelope I have stashed away, haha.

I'm glad I got an order in while they still had that crazy clearance sale going on.  I wonder what they're planning on doing with everything that didn't sell..

But yeah, I'm sad to see them go.

I think the last time I ordered from them was when they got in the extra stock of Dracula X...

Granted, I haven't been ordered new from ANYWHERE in a while because of the horrid yen exchange rate (I've been too lazy to post a 'looking for' post in a while too...)

Sad to see them go.

Game Music Online was literally my introduction to VGM. I bought my first two soundtracks from them: Final Fantasy VII and R-Type Delta. They were my primary VGM outlet until I discovered eBay (and bootlegs >.<). From there I eventually graduated to CD Japan and a variety of other shops.

Like many here, GMO was the place I got my first VGM albums. These were FFV and FFVI (both bootlegs and I didn't know). As they say, third time is the charm, so when I picked up FFIII (Famicom one obviously) it turned out to be legit and I got up to speed with legit releases and bootlegs. That was back in '98. How time has gone by...

For what it's worth, I still have one album in my collection that I bought there in '99 I believe. Akumajo Dracula Best 2.

That one is going nowhere. The overwhelming majority of you know its awesome factor by now anyways.

Sad to see it gone, but it was nice while it lasted. I stopped shopping there when I started using Cocoebiz/VGMWorld instead.

Of course, a long time ago GMO mainly dealt in bootlegs too.

I too bought my first album from GMO; Final Fantasy VII. It was shortly after I had finished the game itself, and I can't remember if I actually saw an ad for it or just happened to stumble on the site, but I recall thinking, "Holy crap, you can buy the SOUNDTRACK to this?!" That started a new obsession for me, and a UPS delivery at least every other week to my place for a good long while.

I also remember back then wishing that more people could experience this awesome stuff coming through my stereo speakers (I bought a lot of lemons, sure, but those were still the glory days), and I played it loud in my car with the windows down just to "preach" it at stop lights. Now that game music has become much more popular and widespread, I almost feel a reversal. Entire soundtracks are available for culling through on YouTube, and people have no concept of the pride of looking over your own hard-earned, affectionately-arranged collection. Or maybe I'm just bitter over sinking so much money into it. =P

I've heard stories about that. I guess it was just a little before my time. Either that or I got really lucky.

Well, the price differences always made it preeeetty obvious.

Well, there was that time that GMO sold me the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack for $42.99.  That was awesome.

I emailed Nick Yang, the site owner and heres what he said on 6/29:

Hi, yes we are working on updating the site.  It is taking longer than we expected.

On Jun 29, 2010, at 9:35 PM, AARON wrote:

I am tring to access gamemusic.com and wondered why I can't. It says page can not be displayed. Has been like that for many days. Are you updating the site? Please let me know according to whois.com, your web site isnt set to expire until October. Thanks.

I have emailed him again to see what exactly happend and why.

um...hm...

I was kind of looking forward to this site gracefully bowing out. If they're going to try and make some kind of comeback, they had better be prepared to offer better S&H and lower prices on new items. I wish them luck.

If there going to come back with a new site, does that mean all the deleted/obsolete items will be gone? Hahaha...

Here is the response I got from him you guys:

Yes, the economy and the strong Japanese Yen made it very difficult to continue selling imported game music.

We will be selling whatever is left in our inventory on eBay. There won't be many items now because we are still in the process of shutting down the business.\

This sucks bad but w/the whole ecconomy and the yen it didnt look good I guess.