Fifty / Sixty

[Rev]

Originally Posted by heyamigo

he said



i personally think it's crazy to pay that much for these CDs, but it's his money.

If you want them bad enough (more than the other fans trying to get them) you find a way.

Nice work Cooney. By the way, when you get them will you play them, or just keep them in your collection?

[fsquared]

Yeah, they were like over $50 each + shipping from France. Pretty steep, but if you're a completist, then you do what you have to...!

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by heyamigo

i personally think it's crazy to pay that much for these CDs, but it's his money.

Haha, I never claimed to be sane :-) My goal is to have the first complete set of 5 in North America. I won't have any way to prove it, obviously, but I like the concept.

Originally Posted by Rev

If you want them bad enough (more than the other fans trying to get them) you find a way.

Nice work Cooney. By the way, when you get them will you play them, or just keep them in your collection?

I already own the song a couple times over, having bought it already from FNAC and Starzik. These aren't getting touched :-) I'll probably unfurl one of the mini-banners and have it open on the shelf, but I won't open any of these that arrive unopened.

Originally Posted by fsquared

Yeah, they were like over $50 each + shipping from France. Pretty steep, but if you're a completist, then you do what you have to...!

One of the pink ones sold for over $200 two days ago. That color seems to draw more bids than the others, at this point. Also, remember the ebay price you're seeing on all the ones currently up is in Euros, not dollars - multiply by 1.4 :-)

[CFHollister]

I'm glad I know you Cooney. Among other reasons, of course, but I get to see all of these wonderful Alizée items on occasion without having to pay for them myself

[theit77]

Cooney,
I found the promo discs for sale on ebay.fr and the description below the sale information is in the same style/format as the text etc on alizee-officiel. Does this mean that the discs are being sold by 'team Alizée' itself?

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by theit77

Cooney,
I found the promo discs for sale on ebay.fr and the description below the sale information is in the same style/format as the text etc on alizee-officiel. Does this mean that the discs are being sold by 'team Alizée' itself?

No, not at all. A style is very easy to emulate.

I'm guessing you're talking about the sales from frenchpops, with the colored slashes and such? That's actually exactly what's on the banner - the colors and such are simply mimicking the product.

If you're talking about one of the others that you think looks similar, toss a link this way, but I don't think we're going to find Team Alizée being involved in these sales.

[theit77]

Originally Posted by Cooney

No, not at all. A style is very easy to emulate.

I'm guessing you're talking about the sales from frenchpops, with the colored slashes and such? That's actually exactly what's on the banner - the colors and such are simply mimicking the product.

If you're talking about one of the others that you think looks similar, toss a link this way, but I don't think we're going to find Team Alizée being involved in these sales.

ok, that makes sense, but then who is producing/selling these discs?

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by theit77

ok, that makes sense, but then who is producing/selling these discs?

They are officially produced. The people who are selling them are those who have been fortunate enough to acquire them, but who don't want them for themselves - most of the ones of EBay right now are disc resellers who specialize in getting and selling these sorts of things.

I don't think it's widely known at this time where they are/were distributed. Being promos, they're likely given away to people in the industry, and possibly to average Joes at special events and such. ::shrug::

[Roman]

Originally Posted by CFHollister

I'm glad I know you Cooney. Among other reasons, of course, but I get to see all of these wonderful Alizée items on occasion without having to pay for them myself

Damn it Hollister! That's enough to make it tempting to move to Washington. Ok, until I actually start thinking about it, but still, I know I can not do what Cooney has done. I want him to get all the old stuff so that I won't have to, then maybe I'll get up there again some day. As for the new stuff, damn I just can't handle those kind of prices. I'll try to get one, but not all five. It is very difficult, though. I am tempted to be a completist. You feel like if you don't get everything, then why are you getting some obscure piece anyway. It's a weird psychological justification issue. And, once you get all that stuff, you feel content like a dragon guarding a horde, right Cooney?

Originally Posted by Cooney

They are officially produced. The people who are selling them are those who have been fortunate enough to acquire them, but who don't want them for themselves - most of the ones of EBay right now are disc resellers who specialize in getting and selling these sorts of things.

I don't think it's widely known at this time where they are/were distributed. Being promos, they're likely given away to people in the industry, and possibly to average Joes at special events and such. ::shrug::

That reminds me of the video I keep watching where after Alizée's performance, the host tosses a couple signed Gourmandises and L'Alizée CDs into the crowd.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if RCA produces these "promo" CDs with the knowlege that they will be purchased at a high price for their supposed rarity and secret backdoor mystique, and gets a part of the action. Maybe I'm just a sceptic. (not that it will prevent me from falling for it)

[Cooney]

Originally Posted by Roman

Damn it Hollister! That's enough to make it tempting to move to Washington. Ok, until I actually start thinking about it, but still, I know I can not do what Cooney has done. I want him to get all the old stuff so that I won't have to, then maybe I'll get up there again some day. As for the new stuff, damn I just can't handle those kind of prices. I'll try to get one, but not all five. It is very difficult, though. I am tempted to be a completist. You feel like if you don't get everything, then why are you getting some obscure piece anyway. It's a weird psychological justification issue. And, once you get all that stuff, you feel content like a dragon guarding a horde, right Cooney?

Hahaha, a dragon? I like that. I'm the CooneyDragon, here to protect Alizée :-P

It's true though, the completionist bug is strong in me, and I'm definitely eager to find all the obscure little things and add them to my collection. I know I have huge lengths to go, and money is the main thing slowing me down. I'd guess I'm at maybe 50%, on my current stash. If I had another $3000 or so, I could bring the collection to maybe around 90% pretty rapidly, but that final 10% is just plain hard to find (I had to resist dropping $1500 in one fell swoop recently to pick up some missing components I had a bead on, but they were so overpriced and I'm so under-funded, I just couldn't justify doing it :-(). I haven't yet gone and made a checklist to check off of all the supports I know of, but that's mostly because I discover more each week, and the list would rapidly get out of date.

Don't worry about the current high price on the promos. I have absolutely no doubt that the price will drop a long ways in the not too distant future. I willingly paid more than double what I think they'll level out at, just because I want them NOW, and like any dragon, I like bragging rights :-)

That reminds me of the video I keep watching where after Alizée's performance, the host tosses a couple signed Gourmandises and L'Alizée CDs into the crowd.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if RCA produces these "promo" CDs with the knowlege that they will be purchased at a high price for their supposed rarity and secret backdoor mystique, and gets a part of the action. Maybe I'm just a sceptic. (not that it will prevent me from falling for it)

While I don't think RCA gets a "piece of the action" from the speculation and fan-sales of these items on the net, they are most certainly created as part of whipping up a fervor. It is very much a publicity and fanbase appeasing thing to create loads of versions, variants, and releases, because it creates a stir. It also in turn creates sales of the non-promo items, because of completionists and collectors like me, who want one or more of everything.

For example - Amazon is telling us there is a 1 disc, a 2 disc, and a vinyl version of Psychédélices. If this is accurate, one must ask why? In this day and age, a vinyl is mostly just for show, and with the 1 and 2 disc versions being mere dollars apart in list price, they aren't selling it as huge additional content. They're selling those all because people will buy them! We love Alizée, and we'll buy both versions (or all three), just because they exist. It's brilliant marketing. Ask me why I have 6 different versions of the L'Alizé single? Because they're there! I could get another 6 without repetition, too, and intend to when it is financially convenient. Some are miniscule variations, such as the color of a 5mm wide Polydor logo, and nothing else, but I'll still buy both :-P Making 5 versions of a promo, even if they don't make a dime off them directly, helps feed the monster that will drop beaucoup bucks on the commercial versions later.