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Hi Andrew:

Thanks for the nice words. I always try to pack things carefully because I share your outrage at 
people who don't. I had a similar eBay experience -- I won an auction for a 7" record promoting 
CBS's 1980's reissue of Billie Holiday, this record containing an interview with John Hammond. It 
was packed so tightly into an inappropriate "envelope" that it cracked all the way from one edge to 
the center. I did manage to make it sit tight enough as to play, but with a loud tick every 
revolution. The seller of course didn't have another copy, but he did refund all of my money, so I 
didn't give him negative feedback. I hope he learned his lesson about mailing records -- they need 
to be packed correctly because all shipping services are brutal on packages. I won't even start on 
how mad I get with poorly packed shellac records, I've stopped buying from eBay because it's such a 
hit or miss proposition. No one packs like Kurt Nauck except Kurt.

Ironically, you can thank the USPS for that record! The back story -- one of the guys at the post 
office where my company has the PO Box noticed I was always getting LP-sized packages, so he asked 
me if I wanted a couple of boxes of records from his late mother's basement, mostly stuff he and his 
sister had collected when they were teens in the 70's (he said she had dated a DJ, so that perked my 
ears up). I said, sure, because whatever I didn't want I knew one of my coworkers would want (she's 
a budding scratch-dub-sample-dj). It turned out there were a few really cool records in the pile, 
for which I'm grateful. I took that Werwolf record because it looked interesting. It wasn't my taste 
but I figured the ARSC List might reveal a fan who would enjoy the music, and sure enough it did.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Fine service


> Thanks to Tom Fine at Beverage Digest, and this cool e-mail list, I now have
> a pristine backup copy of my favorite LP, Werwolf, by The Fourth Way (Live
> at Montreaux Jazz Festival, 1970    (Harvest Records:666)).  It arrived
> intact because he took the time to use not only a Bags Unlimited LP box, but
> also because he used the important cardboard inserts, plus, he threw in an
> additionally reinforcing dummy record album, with disc inside, of something
> I can't wait to try out, since it looks intriguing, was recorded at Sigma
> Sound, and is a lucky strikes extra...
>
> $5 plus shipping is what eBay was supposed to be.  But it takes integrity to
> follow through with service one can only call "Fine."
>
>
> This is definitely a flip-side to the service I recently got from one eBay
> vendor.   He sent my copy of Barry White's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on 45,
> but, because there were no reinforcing inserts to the box, let alone a dummy
> disc, for heft, it was snapped in two, right down the middle.  I was so hot
> that I gave Neutral Feedback.  He squawked that I could always have my money
> back if I'd retract the Neutral.  But he didn't say he felt sorry for my bad
> experience, let alone for sort of breaking a piece of Soul History by
> letting the post office have their way with no protection for the disc.  He
> also refused to give me good feedback, even though I'd paid in full.  I
> finally did retract the Neutral (for karma's sake) and gave him Positive,
> but the revised comment read: Four sides for the price of two! (;   (you do
> the math)
>
>
> Thanks,
>     Andrew
>