blog.jasonconny.com

As I mentioned previously, a friend and I are working on a project that involves collecting a number of specific records. He’d already compiled most of the required album covers by the time I got involved. There are approximately 20-25 left to obtain and, after an unsuccessful attempt at trying to locate them in some local record stores, I opted to get them from eBay.

Shopping for records on eBay is a bit of a mixed blessing. Yes, you can find just about anything you’re looking for, but the major drawback is that you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. I’ve been burned a couple of times by inaccurate descriptions and gradings. Now I don’t buy records from sellers who don’t use  Goldmine’s rating system and don’t primarily sell records.

Even with those caveats in place, I still managed to get  a couple of the records which failed to live up to my expectations based on the seller’s description. Here’s the breakdown:

• various artists: Woodstock (music from the original soundtrack and more) - I probably haven’t heard this since high school and was surprised how good most of it sounded, especially the CSN(Y) cuts. And the stage announcements are pretty hilarious .
• The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? - Another album I haven’t listened to in years. Again I was surprised on how much better it is than I remembered. The cover has some ballpoint pen detailing that was added by a previous owner. At first I was a little pissed (especially since the description made no mention of it), but I think it will add some extra personality to the final project.
• Pink Floyd: Meddle - This, along with Wish You Were Here, is one of the biggest gaps in my collection for Floyd albums. Not anymore.
• Donovan: Hurdy Gurdy Man - Probably the most blatantly mis-graded record of the lot as there are extremely audible skips during the title track which is especially disappointing since it’s the best cut on the record.
• Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II - While there’s nothing wrong with this per se, it’s just a shitty later pressing that’s slightly thicker than a flexidisc. The cover is in fine shape, which is, I suppose, what matters most for this project. I’ll still probably keep an eye out for a better sounding copy just because.

This is a screenshot from the bug tracking database at work and represents the first time I’ve been asked to “please do the needful” by one of the Indian developers. Luckily I’d been earlier made aware of this curious phrase by some other co-workers and knew what was expected of me. For those that have no idea what I’m talking about, check the Wikipedia entry.

My upstairs neighbors moved out and left their apartment wide open which allows access to the roof. This is the view of downtown.